1. Read the text.
St. Petersburg
The beautiful city of St. Petersburg is built on water, which gives a magical and romantic atmosphere. Poets and writers often call it ‘the Northern Venice”, “the Pearl of the Baltics”. The city was born and grew up on 42 islands. Now they are linked by 363 bridges. It stretches along the Neva River.
It was the Tsar’s fancy to build a city on a swampy land at the mouth of the Neva river. Peter 1 believed that the new city would provide a port for trade through the Baltic sea giving Russia a “window on Europe”.
In May, 1703 tsar Peter 1 founded a fortress on a small island called Zayachy. The fortress was named after Saint Peter and it gave its name to the future northern capital of Russia.