The ‘Venice of the North‘, with its numer­ous canals and more than 400 bridges, is the result of a vast urban project begun in 1703 under Peter the Great. Lat­er known as Leningrad (in the for­mer USSR), the city is close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Octo­ber Rev­o­lu­tion. Its archi­tec­tur­al her­itage rec­on­ciles the very dif­fer­ent Baroque and pure neo­clas­si­cal styles, as can be seen in the Admi­ral­ty, the Win­ter Palace, the Mar­ble Palace and the Her­mitage.