2. Peter and Paul Fortress

The birth of St Petersburg is considered the day on which the Peter and Paul Fortress - built to ward off expected attacks from the Swedish navy - was founded on a small island in the Neva Delta. A walkway along the riverside, where old-style cannon impotently await an enemy, affords today's more welcome visitors a panoramic view. The highlight, however, is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, with its tall thin spire, atop which sits a weathervane comprising a golden angel holding a cross. Inside the ornately decorated church are sarcophagi containing the remains of most of the Romanov rulers.

3. The Bronze Horseman (below)

Would the founding ruler ever be forgotten? Not if Catherine the Great had her way. And so that she, too, would be seen as an integral part of Russian history, she commissioned French sculptor Etienne Falconet in 1782 to create a monument to Peter the Great. Known colloquially as the Bronze Horseman, it represents the former tsar as a Roman hero astride a rearing steed. A 19th-century legend has it that the city will never fall to an enemy while the statue stands in the Decembrists Square. Considering that St Petersburg withstood a 900-day siege by the Nazis in the second world war, maybe there's something to the legend.

4. St Nicholas Naval Cathedral (below right)

In a city of spectacular churches, the St Nicholas Naval Cathedral is something different, with plaques honouring lost seamen and naval heroes, including those who died when nuclear submarine Komsomolets sank in 1989. The cathedral has a series of beautiful golden baroque spires and domes, and the walls inside are adorned with scenes from Russian naval history. An impressive belltower stands apart from the main cathedral. This was one of the few places of worship not closed during Soviet times.

5. Russian folk show

6. The Hermitage

Admiring the green and white baroque-styled Winter Palace, it's easy to see why the historic centre of St Petersburg is World Heritage listed. Once the residence of the tsars and backdrop to the 1905 and 1917 revolutions, the palace now houses part of the Hermitage Museum, which has a collection of almost 3 million items. Throne rooms and hallways exhibit an aristocratic grandeur and the art collection rivals that of the Louvre in Paris. Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rubens and Monet, haunting pieces by Van Gogh and sculptures by Rodin are included in this amazing collection.

7. Palace Square

In the film Doctor Zhivago, workers and their families were massacred in what is now known as Palace Square, where today tourists take horse-and-carriage rides while children fly past on in-line skates. The square is flanked on one side by the Winter Palace and aesthetically balanced on the other by the neoclassical General Staff Building, with its triumphal arch (below centre), atop which stands a bronze sculpture of Victory in her six-horse chariot. The centre-piece of the square is the Alexander Column, a 47-metre-high granite monolith erected in 1833 by veterans of the 1812 war against Napoleon, during the reign of Alexander I. At its top stands an angel of peace.

8. Nevsky Prospekt

Said to be the most famous street in Russia, Nevsky Prospekt was planned by French architect Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond, while he was working for Peter the Great, and named after a 13th-century military hero. It runs from the Admiralty in the north to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and is the busy heart of St Petersburg, offering shopping and nightlife. Along its length are five metro stations and four bridges, the most famous being the Anichkov Bridge across the Fontanka River, with its statues of four horse tamers. Another highlight along the street is the baroque Stroganov Palace, where apparently the famous beef dish was created.

9. St Isaac's Cathedral

Visible far out into the Gulf of Finland, the massive gold dome of St Isaac's Cathedral dominates the skyline. And yes, the dome is clad in pure gold - 100kg of it. The cathedral was designed and built by French architect Auguste de Montferrand to be the main church of the Russian Empire. Its construction took 40 years until its completion in 1858. Nowadays it serves mostly as a museum, with church services only on select days. Visitors are struck by the sheer size of the 80 red granite columns and those who take the 300 steps up to the colonnade that runs around the dome are rewarded with stunning views over the city.

10. Peterhof

From a pier opposite the Winter Palace, a hydrofoil takes visitors across the gulf to Peterhof, a World Heritage-listed ensemble of palaces and parks. It was here Peter the Great envisaged an estate to rival Versailles. Begun by the tsar in 1710, it was extended by subsequent rulers and, despite massive damage done by the Nazis in the second world war, it has been restored to its former glory. The central features are: the Grand Palace, which looks out to the Baltic Sea; and the Grand Cascade, comprising 64 fountains, including a 20-metre-high jet of water that surges from within a sculpture of Samson tearing open the jaws of a lion. This site is another reminder of how St Petersburg is very much a European city.