Introduction

Abstract

There has been an enduring fascination with St Petersburg in the course of the three centuries since its foundation in 1703 and, at first glance, it is not difficult to understand why this should be the case. It is a relatively recent city, founded only at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and yet it rapidly grew to become the famed capital city of one of Europe’s Great Powers. Several aspects of this process help to explain the continuing allure of St Petersburg. It has often been described as Russia’s ‘window’ into Europe, a phrase first coined by Francesco Algarotti who visited St Petersburg in the 1730s and one that neatly encapsulates the situation of the city, geographically and culturally.¹ The mythology associated with the creation and development of St Petersburg has also attracted considerable interest over the intervening centuries.² One popular example is the myth of the city’s foundation, which presents Peter creating his new city in a wilderness and has featured in numerous literary treatments of St Petersburg. This image conveniently overlooks two considerations: that Peter may not have been present on this momentous occasion in May 1703 and that the proposed site contained a Swedish fortress, known as ‘Nienschants’, as well as a number of small settlements, principally the town of Nien.³ Instead, this topos has its origins in the work of successive eighteenth-century writers, beginning during the reign of Peter himself, that celebrated the achievement of the city’s founder and it subsequently gained widespread currency through its inclusion in Aleksandr S. Pushkin’s famous Bronze Horseman.⁴