hat
Li te sanble tankou yon rigoler lè Peter Legran a rebati lavil sa a sou yon marekaj, ak sijè l 'umeur Anperè a. Lè li te deklare li kapital la nouvo yo, yo te pi piti s'amuse. Men, gen istwa montre ke te pi devan-panse a, Westward-kap tsar enspire. Piti piti, St Petersburg te evolye nan yon rmou marekaj nan yon vil modèn Ewopeyen an, 'fenèt la nan Lwès' Larisi la. Kontrèman ak brik wouj Moskou a ak dom zonyon, rezo St Petersburg la nan kanal ak achitekti Baroque ak neoklasik bay lavil la yon gou Ewopeyen an, pa gen dout paske li te konstwi pa achitèk Italyen. Menm rezidan yo nan St Petersburg imajine tèt yo 'Ewopeyen' ak yon jan kanmenm yon ti kras pi plis sofistike pase konpatriyot plis easterly yo.
eng
It seemed like a lark when Peter the Great built this city on a swamp, and his subjects humoured the Emperor. When he declared it the new capital, they were less amused. But history has shown that the forward-thinking, Westward-looking tsar was inspired. Gradually, St Petersburg evolved from a swampy backwater into a modern European city, Russia’s ‘window to the West’. Unlike Moscow’s red bricks and onion domes, St Petersburg’s network of canals and baroque and neoclassical architecture give the city a European flavour, no doubt because it was built by Italian architects. Even the residents of St Petersburg fancy themselves ‘European’ and somehow slightly more sophisticated than their more easterly compatriots.