10 Origins Of Famous City Names

2. Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia and is most famous for its rich culture and the impressive architecture of buildings such as the Winter Palace. The city is situated on the mouth of the river Neva and stands on the site of a 17th Century Swedish fort that was known as Nyenschantz. The name Nyenschantz is a combination of the Swedish name for the river Neva and the swedish word skans, which means bastion. A town soon sprung up around the fort and this town became known as Nyen. The town's strategic position at the mouth of the river led to it being coveted and captured in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great who was eager to establish a Russian trading port there. After capturing Nyen, Peter the Great founded his own city on the site naming it Saint Petersburg in honour of Saint Peter.

The city has undergone many name changes since its foundation. The first of these name changes occurred during world war one when the city was renamed Petrograd in order to disassociate the city with german sounding words such as burg. Petrograd would go on to serve as the centre stage for the Russian Revolution which saw the fall of imperial rule and the rise of soviets and the communist party. After the rise of the USSR, the city had its name changed again in 1924 to Leningrad after Vladimir Lenin, the first Premier of the Soviet Union. The latest change of the city€™s name occurred in 1991 when the name was changed back to Saint Petersburg following the dissolution of the USSR.