Saint-Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great. It was a capital of Russia from 1712 till 1728 and from 1732 till 1918.  There is a raw of outstanding architectural ensembles of 18-19 centuries: Peter and Paul Fortress, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Smolny, the Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island in St.Petersburg) with the Commodity Exchange building, Palace Square and the Winter Palace, Alexandrian Column and the Main Headquarters Arch, Decembrists Square (former – Senate Square) with the monument to Peter the First (“Copper Horseman”), opened in 1782) and St. Isaac’s Cathedral; Nevsky Avenue Ensemble – Kazan Cathedral, Architect Rossi’s Street and Ostrovsky Square and St. Petersburg Academic Drama Theater and Russian National Library, Arts Square with the building of Russian Museum, Mars Field, Summer Garden and Engineering Castle.

Among the monuments of Classicism and Empire styles there are: Academy of Arts (1764-1788), Admiralty (1806-1823, arch. A.Zakharov), The State Mining Institute (1806-1811, arch. A.Voronikhin), Narva Gates (1827-1834, arch. V.Stasov), bridges. Piskarevsky Architectural Memorial Complex was created in 1960. There are Palace and park ensembles of 18-19 centuries in the suburbs of Saint-Petersburg – Petrodvorets (Peterhof), Pushkin (Zarskoye Selo), Pavlovsk and Gatchina.
Saint-Petersburg was being named Petrograd (in the years 1914-1924) and Leningrad (in the years 1924-1991).