When founded in 1703, it was the first Russian city modeled after western European cities. Identify it by its name in 1703.

Established in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great (Review), this port city was a radical departure from traditional Russian urban design. Built on territory recently captured from Sweden during the Great Northern War, it was conceived as Russia's "window to the West." Peter the Great envisioned a modern capital that would rival the great cities of Europe, and he hired Italian and French architects to create a planned city of neoclassical grandeur, complete with canals and a logical street grid. This Western-style design stood in stark contrast to the winding streets and onion-domed architecture of older Russian cities like Moscow, symbolizing the Tsar's sweeping reforms to modernize his empire.

The city's name has shifted with the tides of Russian history. Originally named with a Dutch/Germanic style, it was changed to the more Slavic-sounding Petrograd in 1914 at the outset of World War I, reflecting anti-German sentiment. Following the death of the Soviet Union's founder, Vladimir (Review) Lenin, it was renamed Leningrad in his honor in 1924. After the collapse of the USSR, the city's residents voted in 1991 to restore its original, historic name.