LEVELS: USEF Training Level through FEI Grand Prix; USDF & FEI Freestyle; including 2017 Col. Bengt Ljungquist Memorial. Championship classes; CBLM Qualifying, Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Championships Qualifying.
The Winter Palace. The Winter Palace, the first grand imperial residence in St Petersburg Russia, is home to the Hermitage, the biggest museum in the world. Once the official residence of the Russian tsars, today it is one of the most famous and visited attractions in the city.
After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founds the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital. The reign of Peter, who became sole czar in 1696, was characterized by a series of sweeping military, political, economic, and cultural reforms based on Western European models. Peter the Great, as he became known, led his country into major conflicts with Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Sweden. Russian victories in these wars greatly expanded Peterâs empire, and the defeat of Sweden won Russia direct access to the Baltic Sea, a lifelong obsession of the Russian leader. With the founding of St. Petersburg, Russia was now a major European powerâpolitically, culturally, and geographically. In 1721, Peter abandoned the traditional Russian title of czar in favor of the European-influenced title of emperor. Four years later, he died and was succeeded by his wife, Catherine.