About St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, famous for its legendary “white nights” and nicknamed the “Venice of the North” for its beautiful canals, the majestic river of the Neva, and its unique architectural monuments and museums, is the second largest city in Russia. It offers a unique blend of history, art, and culture.

The former capital of the Imperial Russia, St. Petersburg boasts world-famous ballet, exquisite architecture, an impressive array of classical and Baroque palaces, countless theaters, parks, and luxurious suburbs. It is a city rich with history and art, the city of Peter the Great, Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky. Cultural events abound in the summer—from traditional white nights festivals to art exhibitions and music concerts.

Students in the program will immerse themselves in the Russian language while absorbing Russian history, literature, and culture and will take both an intensive Russian language course and a course on the cultural history of the city.

The program includes instructional tours in and around St. Petersburg, such as guided excursions to the unique architectural ensemble of Tsarskoe Selo (Royal Village), located 25 km south of St. Petersburg, famed for its elegant palaces and pavilions, landscape parks and ponds, as well as to the splendid official royal summer residence of Peterhof, often called "Capital of Fountains,” which features majestic palaces, wonderful parks, 176 fountains of various forms and styles, numerous gilded statues of ancient gods and heroes, and remarkable collections of sculpture.

St. Petersburg is also an ideal base for trips to Moscow and Novgorod (200 km away from St. Petersburg, included in the program), one of the oldest Russian cities founded in the 9th century, the city of the churches and old monasteries, with numerous monuments survived from the premongolian period (11-13th century).The art scholars justly compare Novgorod to Florence by the wealth of the preserved mural paintings on the walls of its churches. The Church of Our Saviour Transfiguration in Ilyna street (14th century) is the only one where the frescoes of Theophanes the Greek.