Until the beginning of the 18th century, Saint Petersburg did not exist. The former capital of Russia, the city of museums, was only founded in May 1703. The city at that time was quite different from today, many buildings no longer stand today, and several were later added to the city and suburb area, but regardless, it’s entertaining to investigate the story of the city from the start.
There are several ways to study the history of St. Petersburg, you can visit the historical museum, read about them in history books, watch documentary about them, etc. though when you visit the city itself, there’s another fun way to learn about the story of St. Petersburg and that’s the museum of Petrovskaya Akvatoria.
Unlike the Grand Maket Rossiya, where you explore different regions of the Russian Federation on the scale of 1:87, the Petrovskaya Akvatoria is all about St. Petersburg and its suburb areas. It also on the different time zone, while the Grand Maket Rossiya is in the modern era, the Petrovskaya Akvatoria has been created to display the life of St. Petersburg in the 18th century.
The Petrovskaya Akvatoria locates at the beginning of the Malaya street, and a few meters away from Nevsky Prospect. The 500 m2 model covers St. Petersburg and its suburb area, including Peterstadt, Oranienbaum, Kronstadt, Peter and Paul Fortress, New Holland, Vasilievsky island, and the well-known Peterhof. The fascinating part about this model is that it displays St. Petersburg in the 18th century, which means several structures still exist in the model, that no longer exist in the current time. On this model, Rostral Columns have not been yet installed on the Vasilyevsky Island, the old fortress is still standing in Oranienbaum, Masquerade ball hold in Peterhof, and you can find Menshikov Palace instead of the St. Petersburg University.
Though you can learn a lot about the story of St. Petersburg and see how everything has worked to create one of the top cities of Russia, the foremost intention of creating this model was to honor the story of the Russian Navy, and how it developed throughout history. One of the best treats of this model is the real water area that intimates the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland, where the miniature model of ships and boats of the Petrine era sail and float on them.
While at the first sight it may have appeared that the model is built to display the life of St, Petersburg in the middle of the 18th century, but you might get surprised when you learned that all the architectural ensembles and landscape are only the decoration to tell the story of Maritime history of St. Petersburg in a better and more exciting way. However, intentionally or not, the model has succeeded to retell the stories of the city from the Peter I's era until the reign of Catherine II.
This interactive museum is interesting for both children and adults because several features and options make it significant. The first thing that catches eyes is the moving objects, such as horses, carriages, ships, and figures of people; This engineers on the project have used several hundred LEDs, lighting, sound, and visual effects to simulate the change of day and night, weather’s condition, and even the temperature. Besides the different scenarios that are turned on according to the timetable of historical events, there are several push buttons around the model that allow the visitors to interfere with some of the stories.
We at the Star Travel Group would recommend this museum and the Grand Maket Rossiya to our travelers who admire the miniature models and are curious about Russian history and different regions of the Russian Federation. We also recommend our travelers to read our blog to get a better idea about how to travel to Russia, since we gathered lots of information about the top Russian attractions, the best shopping centers in Russia, the top restaurants and Russian meals in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and other useful things. You can find multiple articles about those tips and advice, such as “Visit St. Petersburg” on our website.
