Peter & Paul Fortress

2009 07 11 – Day 15 – St Petersburg


St Petersburg gets its name from Peter the Great who, while learning to sail in a small English vessel, decided that if Russia wanted to be great then it needed a navy. So he went about conquering the area that would become St Petersburg, where the mighty river Neva rushes out into the Baltic, from the Swedes who were hanging about at the time. Once conquered, next on the to-do list was to secure the territory and the Peter & Paul Fortress was the major piece of that puzzle.

Every good fortress needs a cathedral and this golden tower is the imaginatively titled Peter & Paul cathedral... its spire also makes it the tallest building in town.

The extravagent interior of the cathedral.