While planning your trip to St. Petersburg you may consider Wikipedia a reliable source of tourist information. Well, mostly it is. But in many cases, the Wiki is not very accurate as life goes on with most information sources and guides lagging behind. We put some inaccuracies together so that you were not misled.
Critic Of Wikipedia
We are far from being critical of Wikipedia as its articles on St. Petersburg are mostly correct and informative. Though, the encyclopedia lacks a lot of information which is understandable since the writers must rely on sources mostly in Russian. There is much more in the city relating to culture, history, and entertainment than Wikipedia can offer.
But this lack of information or incomplete articles will hardly affect your stay here. However, regarding errors and inaccuracies, you may run into some trouble. That’s not Wiki’s fault as it uses media’s sources as a base for its articles. Any source is made by a human being, whose nature, as we know, allows for mistakes to happen. Many facts in the encyclopedia were true at the time of writing, but don’t reflect the reality anymore.
We point only to errors or misses in factual information without arguing about evaluations and other disputable and abstract stuff.
Where Wiki Is Wrong About St. Petersburg
The Palace Bridge
Quote: «Every night during the navigation period from April to November, 22 bridges across the Neva and main canals are drawn to let ships pass in and out of the Baltic Sea…»
Reality: the bridges are really being drawn, but not every day. Relying on this information, you may be disappointed to meet a bridge that keeps its wings in an ordinary mode. First of all, the drawbridges of St. Petersburg are not a tourist attraction, but a purely technical procedure to let cargo ships through on their ways to or from the Gulf of Finland.
The navigation period starts officially on April 10, but the first procedure may happen a few days later as there are no ships to serve or due to weather conditions. On some days, for example, on The Victory Day (May 9) and The Scarlet Sails Festival (held annually in late June), the bridges are not drawn. The same happens sometimes in autumn when there are no requests from ships.
A meteor
Quote: «Meteor hydrofoils link the city centre to the coastal towns of Kronstadt, Lomonosov, Petergof, Sestroretsk and Zelenogorsk from May through October.»
Reality: Meteors run to Peterhof and on charter routes, we mean within a tour, to Kronstadt and Schlisselburg (Oreshek). They don’t go to other locations.
The Morskoy Vokzal
Quote: «International cruise liners have been served at the passenger port at Morskoy Vokzal on the south-west of Vasilyevsky Island. In 2008 the first two berths opened at the New Passenger Port on the west of the island. The new port is part of the city’s «Marine Facade» development project and is due to have seven berths in operation by 2010.»
Reality: International cruises were never served at the Morskoy Vokzal terminal. It was built in the early 80s for this purpose, but the sea canal leading to the terminal has no enough capacity to let cruise ships through. It’s been used for ferry transportation. Now it serves Princess Anastasia of MOBY SPL ferry company. Cruise ships had been mooring at the Sea Trade Port of St. Petersburg till the construction of the Marine Facade was completed. Now ships are served at two berths in the very city center and at the Marine Facade.
The Hermitage
Quote: «A population of cats lives on the museum grounds and serves as an attraction.» (about cats of the Hermitage).
Reality: there is no direct mistake here, but a misunderstanding may occur. The Hermitage cats are not an «attraction» in their ordinary life. You will hardly see them when visiting the Hermitage as they are not allowed into halls. They live in the cellar where they are doing their job which all cats around the world are doing catching mice and rats.
You can visit them only on a special The Hermitage Cats’ Day, a festival held every year in May. On this occasion, they are really turning into some kind of attraction, but beyond this, they are just cats that are fighting on their invisible front.
Pulkovo International Airport
Quote: «Saint Petersburg is served by Pulkovo International Airport, and also by three smaller commercial and cargo airports in the suburbs.»
Reality: there are small airports in and around St. Petersburg, but none of them is now operating. The only airport to fly in and fly out of St. Petersburg is Pulkovo.
Ferry Princess Anastasia. Photo credit MOBY SPL
Quote: «The shipping company St Peter Line operates two ferries that sail from Helsinki to St Petersburg and from Stockholm to St Petersburg.»
Reality: the company is now called MOBY SPL after the St. PeterLine has been merged with Italy’s MOBY some years ago. It operates a single ferry Princess Anastasia which travels to Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, and on occasional cruise routes to Riga and Norway.
Allegro train
Quote: «The Helsinki railway, built in 1870 and 443 kilometers (275 mi) long, has trains running five times a day, in a journey lasting about three and a half hours with the Allegro train.»
Reality: there have been only four departures of Allegro a day in both directions from morning to evening since long time.
The Vosstaniya Square
Quote: «The station is served by the Mayakovskaya and Vosstaniya Square stations of the Saint Petersburg Metro, with both stations linked to the station building by an underground corridor».
Reality: the Vosstaniya Square station is really adjacent to the Moskovsky vokzal railway station, but Mayakovskaya is not, at least directly. You must first go from Mayakovskaya to Vosstaniya Square station and only then proceed to the railway station.
Excursion boat trips
Quote: «… and is home to several riverine services that convey passengers around the city efficiently and in relative comfort.»
Reality: the quote above suggests there are regular passenger river services around St. Petersburg. They had been, but were closed a couple of years after launch. Note, we mean regular services. Excursion boat trips in St. Petersburg exist.
The highway M11
Quote: «The controversial M11, also known as the Moscow — Saint Petersburg Motorway, would connect Saint Petersburg and Moscow by a freeway and is expected to be complete before the Russia FIFA World Cup 2018. Construction began in 2010 and the first sections of the freeway were finished in 2014 and 2015.»
Reality: the first news is that it’s been completed and in operation since late 2019. The second news may be even more important: it’s a toll road, not free.
The Bolshoi Port Saint Petersburg
Quote: «Saint Petersburg has three large cargo seaports: Bolshoi Port Saint Petersburg, Kronstadt, and Lomonosov.»
Reality: There is only one large cargo seaport: The Bolshoi Port (Great Port) St. Petersburg. Terminals in Lomonosov and Kronstadt are parts of it. And they are not that large.
