With the conquest of Estonia and Livonia from the Swedes, a possible threat to Peter�s new capital had
been removed, and a window on to Europe had been thrust open. In barely twenty years, he had added the Baltic coast as far as Riga to his empire. The changes the Tsar had wrought in so short a time were staggering - but people did not forget the price that had had to be paid in human terms. The saying went around that the foundations of the new capital city were laid in bones. It has been estimated that it cost about a hundred thousand workers' lives to build the Peter & Paul fortress alone, through shortage of food and clothing, wretched living quarters, punishing labor conditions and disease. The authorities may not have wanted to be reminded of this fact, but numerous Russian poets and writers have made sure that it is not forgotten.

Soon 75,000 people had settled in St. Petersburg and by imperial command two-thirds of all goods for export from Russia had to be shipped through the city. Such an explosion of overseas trade in an empire stretching from the Baltic to the Caspian and White Seas meant improving the Russian waterways. Foreign merchants from the old Hanseatic ports in the Baltic and beyond were delighted. In the summer season of 1722, 116 foreign vessels touched at Petersburg. Two years later, the number rose to 240. Works of art were now being purchased on the Tsar's orders in Italy, and foreign designers were being invited to take the lead in beautifying the capital - the most prominent of them being Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli. A school of drawing, engraving and painting was opened.

Peter the Great died in 1725. His death introduced an unsettled period in which the new capital was the scene of several rapid changes of monarch. Peter's second wife, Catherine - foster-daughter of the Lutheran Pastor Ernst Gluck of Marienburg (Aluksne, Latvia) - succeeded him with the support of the imperial guard. She died in 1727 and her twelve-year-old son Alexis became Tsar as Peter II. He restored Moscow as the capital, but died after only three years.

Meanwhile the city was experiencing a short decline. For a short period (in the late 1720s) the royal court was moved back to Moscow. Many of nobility members and merchants, forced by Peter the Great to move to St. Petersburg, now chose to leave the city.

Next one to reign was Peter I's niece Anne, wife of the Duke of Courland, and she reigned for ten years. During this time, the buildings started by the founder of Petersburg were completed, in particular the churches of St. Panteleimon (commemorating the victory over the Swedes at Hangoe) and of St Samson (likewise that at Poltava). By 1740, the city had a population of almost a hundred thousand. Elizabeth, the illegitimate daughter of Peter I and Catherine, took the throne with the support of the Guards in 1741. Now the builders got busy again in Petersburg, where her favorite architect, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (son of Carlo Bartolomeo), designed the stunningly situated Winter Palace on the Neva embankment.

The city was fully revived when Peter's daughter Elizabeth became Empress in 1741. Elizabethan St. Petersburg became a lively European capital and its population reached 150 thousand.

Elizabeth, Daughter of Peter the Great

During the reign of Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, St. Petersburg finally became a true European capital. At the beginning of this period fine buildings stood right next to ugly huts.
After 20 years of Elizabeth's reign, St. Petersburg and its suburbs could rival the most beautiful European cities. The Imperial splendor of St. Petersburg was best reflected in the suburban royal residences. Peter the Great's estate Peterhof was remodeled by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the architect of the Winter Palace and the Smolny Cathedral. The Grand Palace and the Grand Cascade of Peterhof were decorated with extreme luxury. That was typical for Elizabeth's time, since her court was big and overly expensive for the country's purse. The Ekaterininsky (Catherine's) Palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), which once used to belong to Peter the Great's wife Catherine, was now turned into a magnificent royal residence with a vast and elaborate Baroque garden.

Elizabeth has commissioned the lovely Smolny Convent and the Winter Palace, though she died before both buildings were completed. Ironically, during Elizabeth's reign the area near the palace, which later became the Palace Square, was used as a grazing land for the royal cows. Elizabeth tried to follow many of her father's policies. Unlike some of her predecessors, she preferred to appoint Russians and not foreigners to the highest positions in the country. Being a patron of national arts and sciences, she established the Russian Academy of Arts. It has to be mentioned that Elizabeth was a very lively woman: she preferred to skip work when possible and enjoy balls, receptions, masquerades, firework displays, and other things which were a lot of fun.

Elizabeth's nephew Peter III did not rule for too long. Shortly after assuming power he was overthrown by his wife, a German princess, who soon became the famous Catherine the Great. Under her rule St. Petersburg turned into a "Grand City".