Petrozavodsk is a city in Russia, the capital of the Republic of Karelia. Situated on the shores of Lake Onega, it is a popular tourist destination. The city is served by Petrozavodsk Airport.
Petrozavodsk was founded on September 12, 1703, by Peter the Great, who built a shipyard and a fortress here. The shipyard was intended to build a fleet of barges to transport timber from Karelia to St. Petersburg. The fortress was never completed, but the shipyard was in operation from 1703 to 1723.
In 1721, Peter the Great granted the area around Petrozavodsk to his friend, Count Mikhail Speransky. The city developed rapidly as a major center of the Russian timber industry.
The first church in Petrozavodsk was built in 1784. The city's most notable landmark, the neoclassical Savior-on