Glistening gilded onion-domes, an unabashed bright color palate and whimsical Baroque architecture, combine with an intricate canal system to make St Petersburg a city like no other; and its historic center UNESCO World Heritage Site worthy. Tsar Peter the Great founded the city in 1703 as Sanct-Peterburg. He was the first Russian monarch to travel outside of Russia. He subsequently devised a plan to lure European trade to a new Russian port further south than Arkhangelsk in the White Sea, which would inconveniently freeze over in the winter months. His vision was to build a city Europeans could relate to architecturally and by requiring that his court to adopted European dress, win them over culturally as well. Inspired by Amsterdam’s canals, he hired Domenico Trezzini to design the layout of the city and, along with Jean Baptiste Le Blond, its Petrine Baroque buildings wich incorporated Byzantine onion shaped domes. This marrying of West with East gives the city its unique fairytale-like character. Other Russian nobility contributed to its expansion. Both Elizabeth and Catherine the Great added tremendously to of the city as an architectural and cultural wonder.
This vision came at tremendous cost. The city is situated on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Although it has an amazingly large and protected harbor, the area was essentially a swampy estuary dotted with a few small islands. Creating the city required a landfill project that make New York and Boston seem like child’s play. Tens of thousands of conscribed peasants and Swedish prisoners of war died during its initial creation. In total, it is estimated that two-hundred-thousand died over the twenty years it took to build St Petersburg.
In his short life, Peter the Great (1682-1725) successfully established the city and moved Russia’s capital from Moscow to Sanct-Peterburg. In 1732, Empress Anna established it as the seat of the Romanov Dynasty, where it remained until the Dynasty’s end in 1917. Over the years it was renamed Saint Petersburg, Petrograd and Leningrad. With few short exceptions, Russia’s capital remained here until Lenin moved the capital to Moscow in 1918. Today it is the northern most metropolis in the world, considered Russia’s cultural capital and is the country’s second largest city with over five-million people.
The Winter Palace we know today was built between 1754 and 1762. It was begun by Empress Anna and expanded by Elizabeth to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia. It has 1,500 rooms, 1,768 doors, 1,945 windows and 117 staircases and has 176 sculpted figures along its roofline. Situated along the Neva River, the iconic State Hermitage Museum occupies only six of the Winter Palace’s multitude of buildings. Its probably best known neoclassical inspired Tiffany green and white facade with gold trim, just gives a hint of what is inside. The Hermitage’s design intent was to create relative simplicity to the opulent Winter Palace, which it connected to via covered walkways and heated courtyards that held rare birds. It’s purpose was to house an international collection of art and objects.
After the fall of the last Tzar, Nicholas II, in 1917 the Hermitage was expanded to include other parts of the Winter Palace, which include The Russian-red throne room and Malachite Room, among others that still inspire visions of Tzarist Russia. Many of the rooms’ surfaces are highly embellished. Wood floors are inlaid with rare woods from around the world. Arched hallways are covered in paintings and mosaics. Soaring ceilings with gilded statuary can be found everywhere outside of the art object laden galleries. It’s literally dizzying.
The Hermitage collection is worlds 2nd largest, most comprehensive and finest. The collection was begun by the purchase of 255 pieces from a Berlin art dealer made by Catherine the Great in 1764. Put together over two and a half centuries, it’s 3 million pieces reflect the development of the world from the Stone Age through the 20th century. The paintings include many of the best known Renaissance and pre-Renaissance artists. Renoir's Prodigal Son is simply magical. Leonardo Da Vinci Madonna and Child is iconic. But it was the strong graphics of the 16th century Maiolica glazed earthenware engagement plates that caught my eye. Moorish potters from Maiolica, or Majorca, are reputed to have created these in Sicily. They capture the image of a potential bride or announce an engagement. NOTE - the fantastic impressionist and post-impressionist collection, which I remember so well from a 1991 visit, has been moved to another part of the Winter Palace and is now in a the general staff building. We didn’t make it this trip, but it’s absolutely worth it so please do!
The empty gilded frames pictured abode are NOT pieces currently out on loan. This is from a series of digitally manipulated photographs, The Hermitage 1941-2014, by the artist Yasumasa Morsimura that can be found throughout the Winter Palace. The series was inspired by a little known episode in the life of the Hermitage. During the Great Patriotic War, aka WWII, (1941-1945) the Hermitage staff cut hundreds of canvases from their frames, layering them between straw and hiding them away before the Nazi troops cut the city off from the rest of the country. For decades afterwards, Hermitage staff would give tours describing in great detail the previous content of the empty frames. This remarkable event acts as a backdrop to a highly recommended novel, Coffee and Vodka, by Finish author Helena Halme, about immigration, war and its long term affect on families.
Church of Our Savior in Spilled Blood is so named because it was constructed on the spot where Tsar Alexander II, a reformer best known for the emancipation of Russian serfs, was mortally injured by political nihilists in 1881. This Russian Orthodox Church was funded by the Imperial family and constructed between 1883 and 1907. The church’s exterior is festooned with five gold and brightly colored sculpted onion-dome cuplolas. The interior is a riot of gold and enamel mosaics, which are so intricate that they are indistinguishable from paintings unless one looks very closely. In recent years, the church has reopened for limited services, although as our guide shared, that after the State’s extended suppression, many Russians are learning the various aspects of Greek Orthodox services and faith for the first time.
The St Peter and Paul cathedral and fortress is the city’s first and oldest landmark. By pure coincidence, the cathedral’s names are those of the first two assassinated Russian emperors - lots of that in Imperial Russian times! The cathedral acts as the burial vault of all but two Russian emperors. Even the country’s last tsar, Nicholas II remains were finally entombed here in 1998, after his remains disappeared upon his 1918 assassination. The dombed cathedral’s interior is encrusted in gold with malachite green finishes.The bell tower is the world’s tallest for a Greek Orthodox Church. On the exterior is a cast bronze plaque memorializing residents who painted the bell tower grey, successfully disguising it from WWII bombing raids. The building, it’s interior and many stories, is awe inspiring.
New Holland island was created in 1719. (You remember the peasant and prisoner workforce?) It was named after the city that so inspired Peter the Great. It’s island location protected timber from city fires and integrated canals and locks made it perfect for shipbuilding. In the 1820’s it became a military point and naval prison, fondly called the Bottle House. After being closed for decades, it reopened to the public in 2016 and is dedicated to the persuit of fun! The prison is in the shape of an oval with a large interior courtyard. The three floors maintain the original prison rooms and are a combination of coffe houses, restaurants, bars, well curated shops (we loved the retro and contemporary book store), yoga and dance studios. Outside is a playground and grassy areas for various outdoor activities, movies, concerts and even free (clearly this is not a capitalist economy) chairs for relaxing. The island’s local arts school and art making space has recently been invaded by magenta snails, one giving a ride to Evie. In the winter, part of the outside is flooded creating an ice rink for skating, so there’s no reason to miss out on St Petersburg’s answer to Moscow’s Gorky Park.
Piter, as the city is know by locals, has many enticing things to do and see; from Nevsky Prospects street’s shopping to the world’s deepest most elaborate subways. The waterways throughout the city make it particularly enticing. But come prepared. Temperature swings and brief precipitation is the norm. A $1,000 visa is the cost to wander at will. However private guides are a far less expensive workaround. And, frankly, if we had been with and then left the cruise group and simply taken a taxi back to the boat, no one would have been the wiser. Russia is now wide open to travelers and “State followers” are not what they used to be. If you do make the trip, travel to both St. Petersburg and Moscow, about 300miles south by train. The two cities could not be more different and clearly reflect the principal differences in the country’s ethos and government from the time of Peter the Great, through the Romanovs, to Lenin, Stalin, Krushev, Gorbachev and the present.
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