1. The Hermitage collection is about 3 million exhibits, located in 365 halls of six buildings. To see the entire collection, looking at each exhibit only 1 minute, you will have to spend almost 7 years of your life and go about 25 kilometers.
2. Subway is the deepest in the world in Saint-Petersburg. Its tunnels lie at a depth of 70-80 meters. The longest escalator is installed at the station "Lenin Square" (729 steps, more than 150 meters).
3. St. Petersburg changed its name several times. The first name of the city was St. Petersburg. In 1914 it was called "Petrograd", and in 1924 the city was renamed "Leningrad" (after Lenin's death). And only in 1991 the original name was returned – St Petersburg.
4. Dostoevsky widely used the real topography of St. Petersburg in describing the places of his novel "Crime and Punishment". That yard, where Raskolnikov hides stolen things, he found walking through the city, when he turned into the yard .
5. St. Petersburg is the greenest of Russia’s major cities. The statistics are impressive: There are more than 200 parks and gardens and more than 2,000 hectares of greenery in total – or more than 56 square meters for each of the city’s 5 million inhabitants.
6. There are 15 cities with the name Petersburg in the USA. The largest is St. Petersburg in Florida.
7. The first fireworks were arranged in St.Petersburg by order of Peter the Great to inform about the victories of the Russian state.
8. 546 shields depicting the coat of arm of St. Petersburg can be seen on both sides of the railing of the Foundry Bridge. The railing project was created by K. Rachau.
9. Throughout its history St Petersburg has survived 288 floods, 65 of them were very serious. The catastrophic ones were in 1777 (321 cm over the dinar level). In 1824 -410 cm and in 1924-380 cm. The floods always caused a lot of damage to the city.
10. The main dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral is covered with 100 kg of pure gold. During the siege of the Second World War, the inhabitants hid it under a layer of grey paint.
11. St. Petersburg is often called the Venice of the North or the second Amsterdam: all three cities are situated on low islands separated by canals. There are more than 500 bridges in St. Petersburg, 21 bridges are draw-bridges.
12. Leningrad - is a hero city (the former name of St. Petersburg). During the Second World War, the city was surrounded by Nazi troops for nearly 900 days without access to food and completely cut off from the rest of Russia. But the citizens did not allow the enemy to enter. In this period of famine, disease and bombing about 1.5 million people died in Leningrad.
13. St. Petersburg is the world capital of trams. The length of tram ways in the city is more than 600 km. This fact is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
14. White Nights is a symbol of St. Petersburg, that is explained by the high-latitude position of the city. White Nights begin on May 25, when the sun doesn't go under the horizon too deep for the sky to get dark, and the evening twilight almost coincides with the morning. The total length of the White Nights is about 50 days, ending on July 16-17. The maximum duration of the day is on June 21-22 (18 hours 53 minutes).
15. On St. Isaac's square you can see another unique monument – a monument to Nicholas I, designed by the Monferrand (the same who designed the Alexander column), and made by P. Klodt, the same one who made the Horses, tamed by man on Anichkov bridge. This is a unique equestrian statue on two points of support - the only one in the world. The monument is 6 meters tall. Nicholas I sits on the horse and looks at St. Isaac's Cathedral. The fact that the rider (Nicholas I) turned away from the Mariinsky Palace was the reason for his daughter Maria to abandon this residence, despite the fact that it was her wedding gift.