Just as the Greek goddess Athena sprang fully formed from King of the God's Zeus head, so St. Petersburg was very much the brainchild of its founder, Czar Peter the Great. He looked west for his inspiration, jettisoning the labyrinthine streets of Moscow and other Russian towns for the grand, straight boulevards of western European capitals; and filling the city with palaces as opulent and ornate as Versailles.

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