We, the five million inhabitants of the City and Republic of Leningrad, welcome visitors to our city, the largest in Russia and one of the largest in Europe. Since the Revolution of 1917, the former imperial capital has been a centre of liberal thought and cosmopolitan sympathies. Now the capital of the Federated Russian Republics, Leningrad is truly the heart of the Russian national soul.
A good place to begin your explorations is along Nevsky Prospekt, since Leningrad's foundation the main artery of the metropolis. Since the 1960's a meticulous program of restoration has transformed Nevsky Prospeckt, and the adjoining Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Stroganov and Belozersky-Belozersky palaces, and the Palace Square, into veritable jewels. In 1981, the Nevsky Prospekt District was declared a World Heritage Site. Of particular note are the bridges across the Neva river at the Admiralty, built in Modernist style in the early 1970's and winners of numerous architectural awards.
The Hermitage is a highlight of any visit to Leningrad. Overlooking the Peter and Paul Fortress, the grounds of the Hermitage are beautifully-kept reminders of the Tsarist regime in Russia. The Winter and Summer Palaces are home to one of the largest collections of art in the world -- the Summer Palace is particularly well-known for its encyclopedic collection of modern 20th century Soviet art, and the Winter Palace for its collection of the art of the Romanovs.
Kronstadt island, in the Gulf of Finland, is a somber place, dedicated to the tremendous Russian casualties in the First, Second, and especially Third World Wars, as well as the Soviet Civil War. Visitors are reminded to behave in an appropriately solemn fashion.
Leningrad is, of course, not solely populated by Russians. On the outlying fringes of the Republic, towards the independent states of Karelia and Estonia, are historically significant Finnish populations. Indeed, of the 3.3 three million inhabitants of Leningrad city, fully four hundred thousand are non-Russian -- Finns, Germans, Swedes, North Caucasians, Turks. Our city's district information bureaus will be happy to provide the visitor with information of the minorities who share Leningrad with its natives.
Just as it was the beginning of the century, so it is now that Leningrad is the heart of Russia. Come and enjoy it with us!
© 1999 Leningrad Republican Tourism Bureau
The town of Lunenburg is an architectural delight. Houses, businesses, churches and public buildings from the late 1700's and particularly early 1800's are still being used today. Our German heritage has been maintained and promoted and the history of the fishing industry has been captured in the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. Despite the devastation that Lunenburg and Nova Scotia suffered as a result of the Third World War, with almost 80% of the Nova Scotian population dying from fallout, Lunenburg has found new life as a centre of transatlantic trade and culture. In 1992, the Government of Canada designated the Old Town of Lunenburg as a National Historic District, and in 1995, the World Heritage Committee added the Old Town of unenburg to their World Heritage List.
Established in 1753, Lunenburg was named in honour of the Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg who had become King of England in 1727. The settlement was overseen by British military forces under Colonel Charles Lawrence, but the settlers themselves were known as "Foreign Protestants", who had been recruited from southern and central Germany, Switzerland and the Montbeliard region of France.
The town of Lunenburg was sited on a neck of land between the front and back harbours and was laid out in a rectangular grid pattern on the steep hillsides, facing south. The area within this planned grid came to be known as the "Old Town" and its unique flavour and architectural character is still derived strongly from the narrow streets and compact lots of the original plan. The modern Town of Lunenburg is a compact collection of forty thousand people, equally divided between Nova Scotian natives and Europeans, mostly Germanophones (from Germany and Brandenburg), who came to make their homes in Lunenburg County. The Old Town -- immaculately maintained in its original Hanseatic style -- is the centre of a lively bilingual/bicultural environment that has proven enormously attractive to locals and foreigners alike.
Outside the town of Lunenburg itself lies a charming collection of farming and fishing villages. One of these, Peggy's Cove, is renowned for its breathtaking scenery and the Centre for Nova Scotian Culture, a collection of archives and research centres into pre-Third World War Nova Scotian cultures.
Come to Lunenburg and enjoy centuries of tradition!
©1998 Municipality of Lunenburg - Stadtbezirk von Lunenburg
The small island of Prince Edward Island, nestled in the warm blue Gulf of St. Lawrence, is a paradise for its quarter-million residents and a half-million visitors annually alike. For its natives, Prince Edward Island is a small, tight-knit community, home to generations of their ancestors, one of the smallest countries in the world, and their beloved homeland. For visitors, Prince Edward Island is a beautiful island blessed by hundreds of kilometres of sunny beaches and dunes of white and red sand, pleasant small cities, and thousands of square kilometres of well-kept forest.
The city of Charlottetown -- capital of the Dominion of Prince Edward Island, and home to almost eighty thousand people -- is the obvious place to begin your journey. Province House, the national legislature and a protected National Historic Site, is known in neighbouring Canada as the site where the framework for Canadian Confederation was laid in 1864. Ironically, Prince Edward Island opted to remain an independent country, graduating to status as a self-governing Dominion in 1881 and becoming one of the most prosperous states in the world by the 1980's. Other attractions in Charlottetown include the coastal boardwalk, the shops around Grafton and Queen streets, and the National Centre of the Performing Arts adjacent to Province House.
Almost a tenth of Prince Edward Island's land area is protected by the national government. The North Shore National Park, stretching along the northern coast of Prince Edward Island from Cabot Beach in the west to the aeolian Greenwich sand dunes in the east, is by far the best example of these protected lands. Visitors can visit a wonderfully preserved fishing village like St. Peters or North Rustico in the morning, enjoy the pleasant beaches of Cavendish and Stanhope in the afternoon, and enjoy dinner theatre in New Glasgow or Charlottetown -- just a forty-minute drive from Cavendish -- in the evening.
While not as cosmopolitan as the large cities of Europe or South America, Prince Edward Island does have a surprising amount of cultural diversity. Celtic culture still goes strong in Kings County, and Francophone Acadiens thrive in the western half of Prince Edward Island, while generations of Lebanese immigrants have made their homes in the Lebanese Quarter/Quartier libanaise in central Charlottetown. All of these communities proudly maintain their ajncient traditions, and are willing to share them with you, particularly during the month of August, National Multiculturalism Month.
Come play on our Island!
©1999 Prince Edward Island Tourism