Bronze Horseman

Lonely Planet review

The most famous statue of Peter the Great was immortalised as the Bronze Horseman in the poem by Pushkin. With his mount rearing above the snake of treason, Peter's enormous statue stands at the river end of pl Dekabristov. The statue was sculpted over 12 years for Catherine the Great by Frenchman Etienne Falconet. Its inscription reads 'To Peter I from Catherine II - 1782'.

Many have read significance into Catherine's linking of her own name with that of the city's founder: she had no legitimate claim to the throne and this statue is sometimes seen as her attempt to formalise the link (philosophical, if not hereditary) between the two monarchs.

The significance of the inscription in both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets would not have been lost on the city's population, which was still in the process of Westernisation during Catherine's reign.

Falconet's original study for the magnificent sculpture can be seen in the Russian Museum. Despite completing his lifework here, Falconet departed Russia a bitter, angry man. Years of arguing with the head of the Academy of Fine Arts over the finer details of the sculpture had taken its toll, and he didn't even bother staying for the unveiling.

The statue has become a much-debated philosophical symbol of the city and the main trademark of the new spirit of St Petersburg.

Newlyweds' most beloved site in St Petersburg is here. Here, brides and grooms, friends and family come to memorialise their wedding day in photographs. More often than not, an amateur band is on hand, playing requests from the wedding parties to earn a few roubles. Everyone is invited to partake of the bubbly, to toast the glad day and the couple's joyful future together.

Festivities commence when the groom arrives to claim his bride. He is forced to pass a series of tests - physical feats and brain-teasers - before he can see his beloved. Once he proves his devotion, the happy couple proceeds to the department of registry for a simple ceremony, usually attended only by immediate family and close friends. Then the wedding party takes a tour of the city, laying flowers at war memorials to remember the dead, and drinking champagne at other landmarks to celebrate the living.