Three ceremonial squares of St. Petersburg, the birth of the Empire and the whims of the Neva

Senate Square: we will start the walk at the Bronze Horseman. Here, Peter the Great defeats the snake, and at the same time, the raging Neva. We will talk about the floods that washed away houses and how the Russian tsar literally «cut a window to Europe» despite the swamp and the whims of the weather. This is the square where the legendary city was born. We will walk slowly to St. Isaac's Cathedral and find out why the architect was in no hurry to finish the construction, but continued it for 40 years, why Emperor Nicholas I was nicknamed the «foreman» of the cathedral, and how he turned the temple into a monument to the entire Romanov dynasty. You will see a equestrian monument standing on two points of support, learn which beloved women of the emperor surround the monument. Under the canopy of Alexander Garden, we will head to the main square of the city. The garden keeps interesting artifacts of garden art, urban lighting, and public transport of St. Petersburg in the 19th century. It is also filled with lines from A.S. Pushkin's novel «Eugene Onegin». Walking through the garden, we will see the Admiralty and hear the stories and legends associated with it. And finally, we are at Palace Square. We will find out how the ensemble of the square came into being, what meanings it still carries. This square has seen triumphs and festivals, the terrible fire of the Winter Palace — the main residence of the Russian emperors, we will admire the genius of the Great K.I. Rossi. We will definitely speculate about the secrets of the installation of the Alexander Column, maybe we will guess the author's composition, thanks to which the column has been standing for almost 200 years without a single support. Here we will conclude our excursion with a beautiful view and a sense of belonging to history.