The conclusions of the study are as follows. The ambitious idea of building a new capital – a great city to praise him – became an integral part of the concept of the monarchs rule at the very beginning of the XVIII century. On the eve of the foundation stone of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great was already thinking of giving it a metropolitan status in the future. Reliable and numerous sources unequivocally indicate that the monarch himself laid the foundation stone of the future capital on May 16, 1703. The author of the article shows that the foundation stone of the fortress at the mouth of the Neva River on Trinity Day by the Knights of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, a representative composition of the generals with the prescribed church rite, represented a large-scale celebration. The responses to the authors point of view that St. Petersburg was officially declared the capital on May 8 (19), 1714 are analyzed.
P. A. Krotov (Wed,) studied this question.