St. Petersburg - A Last Look

Thursday, 27 September 2018

Our final afternoon in St. Petersburg (and in Russia).

We started our afternoon tour at the Church on the Spilled Blood, also known as the Resurrection Church of Our Savior.. It was built as a monument on the site of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. It is arguably the most vibrantly decorated church we saw in Russia. Even the exterior is filled with mosaics and colorful tiles. The church has been fully restored, but has not been re-consecrated as a functioning church.

A closer look at one of the sides of the church.

Because Alexander's death occurred on the side of the canal, the church projects into the canal. This was taken from where the church foundation juts into the canal.

The interior is richly decorated and completely restored.

Looking up at the central dome.

The church lacks the traditional multi-tier iconostasis, but this version seems even more impressive.

Above the altar.

A column panel embellished with carvings from many different stones.

Just around the corner from the Church on Spilled Blood was this small, but beautiful, dome. According to Google Maps, it's a handicraft museum, but info is sketchy and incomplete. Regardless, I thought it was beautiful.

We had booked an afternoon cruise along the Neva River and canals of St. Petersburg. This is the Anichkov Bridge where Nevsky Prospect crosses the Fontanka River. The Horse Tamers is a set of four sculptures at the ends of the bridge.

From the bus on our return I was able to get a picture of one of the sculptures.

Winds had cause the waters of the Gulf of Finland to backup into the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg, so the water was particularly high. The clearance under the bridge was tight.

It was a tight squeeze under the Anichkov Bridge.

The beautiful Panteleymonovsky Bridge.

This was where we had to turn around because there wasn't enough clearance to go under the bridge. This kept us from getting into the Neva River and what was supposed to be the main objective of our tour.

The Lomonosov Bridge

We boarded our tour bus near the Alexandrinskiy Theater, which has a sculpture of Apollo and his chariot above the portico. Russians do love their horse sculptures!

This was a somewhat disappointing end to our time in St. Petersburg and in Russia, but overall we had a great tour, and would have loved to have been able to spend more time in a number of places we visited.

St. Petersburg - Peterhof

Thursday, 27 September 2018

Peterhof is Peter the Great's grand imperial palace built to celebrate Russia's victory over Sweden in 1709. Construction took place from 1714 to 1723, but later tsars, most notably Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, made extensive additions and remodeling. Like much of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Peterhof was laid to waste by the Germans in World War II. It has been a monumental task (literally) to restore the heritage of St. Petersburg back to its pre-war glory.

Yet another brass band welcomed us to Peterhof.

Peterhof had the most extensive "Don'ts" sign yet. The title reads: "Prohibited in the grounds of the upper garden". I added a similar sign from Kizhi as well, which includes such interesting prohibitions as no drones and no bikinis or speedos.

The Palace

The exterior of the palace.

Peterhof exterior.

Every palace needs a Main Staircase ...

... and a Ballroom ...

... and a Throne Room.

Chesme Hall has three walls of large oil paintings of Russian naval victories between 1769 and 1773. Historians have questioned the accuracy of the details in some of the paintings.

The room in the center of the palace has a view of the lower gardens down the Marine Canal to the Gulf of Finland (left) and of the upper gardens and the Neptune Fountain (right).

The Oak Study is one of the few rooms that remain in the original style.

The Grand Cascade

The Grand Cascade is a huge set of gilded bronze statues and fountains that descend from the palace to the Gulf of Finland along the Marine Canal. It is best visible from the lower gardens, but these were closed today due to windy conditions. The fountains are turned on every day at 11 AM while bombastic patriotic music plays over loud speakers.

Part of the lower gardens before the fountains are turned on.

Turning the valve that starts the water flowing to the fountains. The whole cascade of fountains is gravity-fed.

The Hercules Fountain in the center of the cascade is the first to spout water.

A few moments later, water jets on the side of the fountain start up.

Fountains off to the sides are now flowing.

Fountains on the other side. You can see how the wind is pushing the spray to the side.

The Upper Gardens

We had time to take a short visit to the upper gardens before we had to board the bus to go back to the ship.

Peterhof Palace from the upper gardens. The Oak Fountain is in the foreground.

The Neptune (Poseidon) Fountain.

A manicured aisle of trees along the fountains.

A trellis arcade along the garden's edge.

A palace dome rising above trees in the garden.

St. Petersburg - The Other Half (or the 99%)

Tuesday, 25 September - Thursday, 27 September, 2018

I'm taking a break here from palaces - not everything in St. Petersburg is worthy of the tsars. Here is a selection of "everyday" St. Petersburg sights.

A panoramic view of the Neva River from our ship, docked at the passenger pier on the southeast outskirts of St. Petersburg.

This new bridge, the Bolshoy Obukhovsky Bridge, on the ring road around St. Petersburg, is the only bridge in St. Petersburg high enough to allow ships to pass underneath without requiring a drawbridge. All the other bridges in St. Petersburg are drawbridges that open about 1 AM to allow ship traffic through the city. The Metro also shuts down about this time, effectively eliminating any other passage across the Neva until 5 or 6 AM, when the Metro opens and the bridges are closed to allow the traffic to flow again.

We continued to see many barges carrying logs along the river.

It was hard to get a photo, but we saw a number of these garage complexes. Originally built for apartment block dwellers to have a space for their cars, many (most?) have been converted into independent workshops/businesses.

I'm not sure what he was doing, but clearly this worker dangling on a building near the Hermitage was prepared to handle significant repairs.

The newer apartment blocks are much more attractive than the old Soviet-style concrete boxes.

Another apartment block on the Neva River.

Even boxy apartment complexes can have interesting variations.

This fancifully painted building was near the passenger pier.

St. Petersburg - Catherine Palace in Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo)

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

We took a morning excursion to the outskirts of St. Petersburg to see the Catherine Palace in the community of Pushkin. The day started sunny, but windy, and was cold and threatening rain by the time we left. A number of tsars and tsarinas left their mark on this estate with its grand summer palace and enchanting gardens.

Small brass bands busk for tips outside many tourist sites in Russia, apparently thinking that foreign tourists would like to hear music from home. (I don't! I'd rather hear Russian tunes in Russia!)

The exterior of Catherine's Palace.

The five domes over the palace church.

The state rooms are outrageous gilded baroque. This is the Great Hall.

It's a "summer palace", but all of the rooms had means of heating them. Most of the fireplaces/stoves were covered in blue and white Delft-style ceramic tiles. (Cavaliers' Dining Room)

Many of the ceilings have elaborate paintings on them. The monogram is "E I", or "Ekaterina I", Catherine the First, who built the original palace here.

The palace is set in Catherine Park with a small lake, several pavilions, and formal gardens.

Among the buildings in Catherine Park is this small "hermitage" where the tsars could have more intimate dinners and entertaining. It is surrounded by a moat that apparently has never had water in it. 

One of the formal walkways in Catherine Park.