St. Petersburg
St Petersburg was created by a man with a dream, and three hundred years later it still has a dream-like charm about it. Peter the Great founded the city in 1703, as a “Window to the West.” It was the symbol of his push to modernize his backward country, the antithesis of all of the old ways found in Moscow.

Peter’s dream lived on after him, a new capital city which was always expanding and always being made more beautiful, for no matter how effective they might have been as rulers of the Russian Empire, the Romanovs ‘were’ St Petersburg. Look at any palace, cathedral, or architectural ensemble, and it belongs to one particular Tsar or Tsarina: The Catherine Palace of Elizabeth I, the Hermitage of Catherine the Great, the Mikhailovsky Palace of Paul I, the St Isaac’s Cathedral of Nicholas I ….  Leningrad, St. Petersbur, Peter – these are the names of St Petersburg.

Location: Eastern Europe, east coast of the Baltic Sea (Gulf of Finland)
Latitude: 59.57 'north latitude
Longitude: 30.19 'east longitude
Time Zone: GMT +3, East 8
Founded: 16 (27) May, 1703
Population: 4 750 000
Coat of Arms: crossing sea anchors with scepter on a red background

Sestroretsk
Sestroretsk was founded by Peter the Great, in 1714. He was charmed by the beauty of Northern coastline of the Gulf of Finland and ordered a construction of a residence here to complement Peterhoff. The palace was built in 1724, but one year later the emperor passed away, and 60 years later the construction was disassembled. The only piece of attraction remaining fro the times of Peter the Great is the magnificent oak grove.

In the XIX century Sestroretsk was first of all known for its weapons factory. But in 1896, Peter Avenarius decided to establish a resort here. Within two years a clinic, a vacation hotel, the largest roofed pool in Russia, and a concert hall for 1700 seats with electric lighting. A railroad was constructed to connect this fantastic place to the capital.

In 1907, Sestroretsk Resort was awarded the grand prix at the world healthcare exhibition in SPA, Belgium. And a fashion of going to Northern Dachas swept St. Petersburg.

A hundred years ago Sestroretsk was the centre of social life. Korney Chukovsky, Alexander Blok, Leonid Sobinov, Maksim Gorky, attorney Anatoly Kony, and Michael Fokin were renting dachas here. Later, in 1920, Michael Zoschenko was staying here. Fiodor Shalapin performed at the concert hall. After the Revolution, the resort survived through a period of complete decline and gradual improvement. In 1920s it was an orphanage, in 1940 – a hospital, and after the Warld War II Sestroretsk became a national health centre of the Soviet Union. The building constructed in 1970s satisfied all world standards of resort treatments. The only thing that it lacked was sophisticated aristocratic spirit that implies privacy, individual entertainment programs, and naturally comfort in the very sense of the word.