The foundation myth of St. Petersburg in the city guidebooks: Creating heritage through mind and emotions

• Published in: Creating Through Mind and Emotions pp. 271 - 276
• Main Author: Seits, Irina
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: CRC Press 2022
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Baltic and East European studies; Östersjö- och Östeuropaforskning; Modern Communication Means; City guidebooks; Young Man; Empress Catherine II; Dolce Vita; Vice Versa; Free Economic Society; Bronze Horseman; Dense; Vilanova Artigas; Russian Literary Tradition; Vaccine Hesitancy; Sentimental Journey; Cape Verdean; Petersburg History; Fyodor Dostoevsky; City's Existence; Heritagization; Offering Package Tours; Fontanka River; Heritage; City's Foundation; Nevsky Prospect; Emotions and mind; Neva River; St. Petersburgy
• ISBN: 9780367279936; 9780367495381; 0367279932; 0367495384; 0429299079; 9780429299070
• DOI: 10.1201/9780429299070-35

The essay addresses the aspects of heritagization of St. Petersburg history, analyzing the myth of the city's foundation from the perspective of the role of emotions and mind in the production of its urban space. I turn to the guidebooks published in St. Petersburg in the eighteenth- to early twentieth centuries to explore the paths that the heritagization took in order to construct the narrative and the image of the former Russian capital This chapter addresses the aspects of heritagization of St. Petersburg history, analyzing the myth of the city's foundation from the perspective of the role of emotions and mind in the production of its urban space. It reviews the guidebooks published in St. Petersburg in the eighteenth- to early twentieth centuries to explore the paths that the heritagization took in order to construct the narrative and the image of the former Russian capital. The dialectic between the rational and the irrational in the creation of St. Petersburg underlines the whole history of the city's existence from its very beginning. The authority of a guidebook to lead the reader before, during, and after her visit to an urban space is enormous as the guidebook directs readers' minds and emotions towards a particular perception of the space, setting a historical perspective and adjusting an ideological optics on historical monuments.