Began 16 (27 ), 1703 , when Tsar Peter I on reclaimed land from the Swedes , called Ingermanland , laid the fortress of St. Peter Burh , and ultimately it's got a name and city . The name was chosen by Peter I in honor of the Apostle Peter . Initial Sankt-Piter-Burch was an imitation of the pronunciation of Dutch Sint-Petersburg, as for Peter Holland and especially Amsterdam have been synonymous with the best. In the 1720s the name of St. Peter Burh changed to St. Petersburg (close to the German Sankt Petersburg).In 1712 the capital of the Russian Empire was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, although no orders to move the capital was not just in 1712, the royal court , and behind him and official institutions , little by little, moved to St. Petersburg. Formally , the capital of Russia for nine years was in Sweden. City officially remained the capital until 1918 , only at the time of the reign of Peter II's capital was temporarily returned to Moscow. To this day, Saint Petersburg is often informally referred to as the northern capital.