Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг (help·info), tr.: Sankt-Peterburg, IPA: ) is a city and a federal subject located in Northwestern Federal District of Russia on the delta of the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is informally known as Piter (Питер) and was formerly known as Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924) and Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991)
Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703 as a "window to Europe", it served as the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 when the government moved to Moscow after the Russian Revolution of 1917. With about 4.8 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and over 6 million people in the city with its vicinity, Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest and one of largest cities in Europe, a major European cultural center, and the second most important Russian port on the Baltic Sea (after Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast). The city has a total area of 1439 square km.
Among cities of the world having populations of over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural center for 200 years, the city is impressive even today, and is sometimes referred to in Russia as "the Northern Capital" (северная столица, severnaya stolitsa). It is the administrative center of Leningrad Oblast (itself a separate region) and of the Northwestern Federal District.
The Constitutional Court of Russia is scheduled to move from Kitai-gorod in Moscow to the Senate and Synod buildings on the Decembrists Square by 2008, returning to Saint Petersburg a part of the role of a national capital, acting as a second judicial capital while Moscow retains its status as administrative, legislative and the first judicial capital of Russia (since both the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation won't move from the Russian capital) .