St.-Petersburg.doc

St. Petersburg (圣-彼得堡)
St. Petersburg was founded on May 16, 1703 when a six-bastion (six walls) fortress (要塞，堡垒) –Peter and Paul Fortress—was laid on Sayachy Island, located (坐落) in the broadest part of the Neva estuary (河口), with a church named Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in the middle. In 1710 the capital of Russia was transferred (迁移) to St. Petersburg from Moscow.
The city was built with 18th and 19th century European pomp (壮观，华丽) and orderliness by mainly European architects and accumulated (累积) all of the grandeur (壮观) of the Russian Imperial Court. The result is a city that remains one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. To honor his patron saint (守护神)—Saint Peter, Tzar Peter the Great named his new capital St. Petersburg and the city has been the capital of Russia for nearly 200 years.
St. Petersburg is located at the mouth of the Neva River, and eastward across the islands of its delta (三角洲) is the Gulf of Finland reaching the coast of Finland, and onward is the Baltic Sea. Sometimes it is referred to as “the City of 101 islands and 300 bridges”. The present city is a large industrial, transport, scientific and cultural center of Russia with a territory of 620 square kilometers (235 square miles) and a population of 5 million.
Even today St. Petersburg is considered the “Northern Capital” and is proclaimed (宣布，　证明) the “Cultural Capital of Russia”. This magnificent cultural city is the second biggest city in Russia, after Moscow.
Frederick William I
Frederick William I, king of Prussia, was born on August 14, 1688 in Berlin, Germany and died on May 31, 1740 in Potsdam, Germany. In 1706, he married Sophia Dorothea, daughter of George I, king of Great Britain.
The Amber Room
In 1701, the King of Prussia Frederick the 1st decided to have a curiosity: a room with walls covered with amber. The work was started soon, and in 1713, the project was almost finished when, after the death of Frederick the 1st her heir—the King Frederick William the 1st ordered to cease immediately the work. The finished parts were packed and brought to The Armoury in Berlin.
In 1717 the King Frederick William the 1st gave the whole prepared parts of the Amber Room to the Russian Emperor Peter the 1st as a diplomatic gift. In 1743, the Russian Empress Elisabeth the 1st let an Italian designer place the amber cover in one of the rooms of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. The Amber Room was first open in 1746 in the Winter Palace, where it was housed till 1755; that year was moved to the summer residence of the Russian Emperors at Tsarskoe Syolo.
During the construction of Amber Room at Tsarskoe Syolo, five master amber craftsmen from Konigsberg in Prussia were employed at the place; Some of their furnishing masterpieces are presently in the collection of the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Syolo, being the only known parts of the Amber Room which survived the World War II.
The Amber Room was finished in the 70s of the 18th century and in that shape it existed almost 200 years. In 1942 Germans took the Amber Room from Tsarskoe Syolo and mounted it in the castle of Konigsberg. However,t he danger of the British bombing in the summer of 1944 forced Germans to disassemble the Amber Room and to pack it in boxes; as late as in April 1945 it was still in the Konigsberg castle, but further vicissitudes of the Amber Room remain unknown. Most probably the boxes with the Amber Room were burned down during the fire of the Konigsberg castle in April 1945.
Reportedly, since late seventies of the 20th century the reconstruction of the Amber Room has been carried on.
Peter the Great（彼得大帝）
Peter(1672-1725) was a grandson of Tzar Michael Romanov. In1682, at the age of 10, Peter was proclaimed (宣布) Tzar(沙皇), but due to a power struggle between different political forces he had to rule together with his brother Ivan under the patronage(扶助) of this sister Sofia. In 1689, after the failure of a coup d’’etat (政变), Sofia was overthrown and exiled(流放) to a convent. When Ivan died in 1696, Peter remained monarch(君主) and engineered a series of reforms that were to put Russia among the major European powers. Peter opened Russia to the West, he invited the best European engineers, shipbuilders, architects, craftsmen and merchants to come to Russia. Hundreds of Russians were sent to Europe to get the best education and learn different arts and crafts.
One of Peter’s main goals was to regain access to the Baltic Sea and Baltic trade. In 1700 he started the Northern War with Sweden, which lasted for 21 years. In the course of the war, St. Petersburg was founded (1703). At the end of the war Russia was victorious and conquered(占领) the vast lands on the Baltic coast. Russia gained access to European trade and St. Petersburg became her major sea port.
In 1712 Peter the Great moved the Russia capital to St. Petersburg and continued paying special attention to the swift construction of the city. When the Northern War ended in 1721 Russia was declared an Empire and Peter the Great proclaimed himself its Emperor. Meanwhile, Peter continued his political and economic reforms. The “tzar-reformer” was first to organize a Russia regular army and build the Russia navy. Peter the Great was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the people still bring flowers to his tomb.