Blazons of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Towns

The first arms of city Saint-Petersburg has appeared in 1712 on red banners of Saint-Petersburg regiments. According to picture and description, given in the book by Viskovatov "The historical description of uniform and arms of Russian army" (SPb, 1841), it represented "gold flaring heart, under gold crown and silver prince's mantle and under them two palmaceous branches". At the end of the twentieth years of XVIIIth century the new arms of Saint-Petersburg - "a scepter and two crossed anchors" - was made. Frantsisk Santi is considered as its creator. Scepters specified that the city is a capital of Russian empire, and anchors characterized it as a sea and river port. In 1780 the arms was completely saved, the form of a shield has varied only. In 1878 the coat of arms of a Saint-Petersburg province with the same symbolics, but with a standard frame of a shield, characteristic for province city was authorized: "In a dark red shield a gold imperial scepter on silver, indirectly crosswise fixed of an anchor and cat (anchor with three teeth). The shield is crowned with imperial crown and is surrounded by gold oak pages, joint by Andrey belt".

The arms of city Kronstadt - beacon and copper on an island - for the first time has appeared in 1730. The beacon was placed on an island even before construction of a fortress, and copper - a speaking part of the arms of city located on an island Kotlin (from the Russian word "kotel" - copper).

It is accepted to consider that the city Luga had two arms: one - of Pskov province, other - of Kostroma province. Actually city Luga posesses only first arms, the second coat of arms belongs to city Lukh of Kostroma province (nowadays - Ivanovo Oblast). The inaccuracy has arisen because of a misprint in full code of laws of Russian empire. There, in the decree about establishment Kostroma province (September 5, 1778), on the basis of which the arms of district cities were made, was told, that "city Lukh with district" would belong to Kostroma province, and during copying in the descriptions of the arms of Kostroma province (March 29, 1779) instead of "Lukh" was written "Luga". The error has taken place, probably, because of similarity of the names of cities. If take a look on a map of Russia, it will become clear, that the city Luga could not proceed from Pskov province to Kostroma province, because three other provinces (Novgorod, Tver and Yaroslavl) are situated between them.