Scenes from a St. Petersburg stroll

St. Petersburg was built, starting in 1703, by Czar Peter the Great, who moved the Russian capital from Moscow in order to create a "Window to the West," where he believed Russia's destiny awaited.

Peter invited traders, merchants and others from throughout Europe and St. Petersburg quickly became a cosmopolitan city -- far different from Moscow, which to this day has remained decidedly Russian. With the wave of European visitors and emigrants, St. Petersburg became an international city of culture and the arts. From writers such as Dostoevsky and Pushkin to dancers such as Nuryev and Baryshnikov, St. Petersburg has produced Russia's greatest artists.

In 1917, the Czarist monarchy was overthrown by the Bolsheviks of Lenin, ushering in more than 70 years of communist repression. Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow and St. Petersburg, renamed Leningrad, languished until the collapse of communism in 1991. Since then St. Petersburg has been reborn as Russia's most vibrant city.

These photos are from a stroll down and around Nevya Prospekt, St. Petersburg's grand boulevard.

From top: a statue commemorating Peter the Great, founder of St. Petersburg in 1703; the Hermitage, including the Czar's Winter Palace -- now site of one of the world's greatest art museums; the General Staff headquarters, adjacent to the Hermitage and the seat of the Czarist government from 1703-1917; the interior of the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, erected in the 1880s by Czar Alexander III on the spot where his father, Alexander II, was assassinated in 1881 -- the entire interior of the cathedral is done in mosaic tile; the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, modeled after famed St. Basil's in Moscow; the ballet and opera houses where Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov, Nuryev and Baryshnikov, among many others, gave the world some of its greatest music and dance; the Grand Hotel Europa, St. Petersburg's most magnificent and one of Europe's grandest hotels; Disney and Batman have arrived, too; so has Colonel Sanders, which is always packed.

Photos taken by Jerry Van Marter, Feb. 10, 2008