The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments is easily my favorite of all World Heritage Sites I've seen in Russia. This 300-year-old city was wrested from swamps to become a capital, much like a city started later that century half a world away and much closer to home for me. Saint Petersburg is a feast for travelers, replete with history, culture, and architecture.

Saint Petersburg was a dream made manifest by Peter the Great, who envisioned a great European city built upon the Neva River delta looking westward. This city is a joy to explore on foot, from the broad avenue of Nevsky Prospekt to the grand square in front of the Winter Palace, home to the renowned Hermitage Museum; from Vasilievsky Island to the Peter and Paul Fortress; from St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Bronze Horseman statue, commemorating famed poet Alexander Pushkin's ode to the city founder, to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, built atop the site where assassins finally succeeded in killing Tsar Alexander II, a tsar who sought change too fast for some, but too slow for others. Change and revolution are common themes to Saint Petersburg. Palace Square may hold a column celebrating Russia's defeat of the French during Napoleon's unsuccessful 19th century invasion, but it was the site of significant scenes of internal revolt, such as Bloody Sunday in 1905, when demonstrators were fired upon by Tsar Nicholas II's guards, and the October Revolution in 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power, overthrowing the monarchy and moving the capital to Moscow.

I spent a month in college in Saint Petersburg in the back half of the 1990's, and visited the city again in the early 2000's, and the city has left in indelible mark in my memories. I highly recommend visiting during summer, when the nights are long and visitors can stay up late strolling the Neva and watching the drawbridges over the river open and close. The city is rightly called the "Venice of the North", and it is well worth exploring the numerous canals on foot and by boat. A stroll down Nevsky Prospekt shows off exciting architecture like the Admiralty, Kazan Cathedral, and Dom Knigi (The House of Books), while side streets lead to the exquisite Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (with its nearby Russian craft market) or to the Bank Bridge with its griffins. No visit to Saint Petersburg is complete without a stop at The Hermitage, but I also recommend spending time at the Russian Museum, to see works by Russian artists.

This World Heritage Site is all-encompassing enough to include many palaces outside the city. Not to be missed are Peterhof, also known as Petrodvorets, with its grand and gilded cascade of fountains that serves as centerpiece to Peter the Great's homage to Versailles, or Tsarskoye Selo, also known as Pushkin, where Catherine the Great commissioned a grand palace with a famed Amber Room looted by the Germans during World War II. A quieter palace outside the city is Pavlovsk, built by Catherine's son Paul I. Both Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk offer extensive park grounds to wander through. The palaces also highlight another significant point in the history of Saint Petersburg, as German troops occupied each locale during their seige of the city during the Second World War.

There is far more that can be said about Saint Petersburg, but it really deserves a visit to fully appreciate it.

Logistics: Saint Petersburg is a great city to explore on foot, although there is an excellent metro and trolleybus system; I'd also recommend taking a boat trip through the canals. The palaces outside Saint Petersburg make fantastic day trips, and are all accessible by trains from the city.