From St Petersburg With Love

The pinnacle of our Baltic Cruise, St Petersburg is a fantastic place to visit for a few days! The opulence and grandeur on display at the Catherine Palace and Peterhof Palace are remarkable and our experience of the ballet will be something I will remember forever! Yet St. Petersburg wasn’t finished with us. Our second day began at the immensely impressive Hermitage Museum. The largest art museum in the world, we were told several times that in order see every piece on display for at least ten seconds it would take us more than ten years! Needless to say we didn’t have that kind of time so we focused on the highlights.

Interestingly enough, even though I was surrounded by the largest collection of art and culture in the world I quickly discovered that a majority of the photos I was taking were focused on the buildings themselves. The Hermitage spans five baroque buildings in what is the cultural heart of St Petersburg, one of buildings was was the Winter Palace of the Tsars’ until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Having walked through both the Catherine and Peterhof Palace’s the day before I rather expected the halls of the Hermitage housed in the Winter Palace to be equally ornate. What I wasn’t prepared for was that same level of detailing to extend throughout the museum. It is nigh impossible to tell when you are exiting one building and entering another as the parquet flooring, crown molding and decorative ceilings are consistently excellent throughout.

In between the photographing the floors and ceilings I did manage to squeeze in a few pictures of the art work as well. These are a few of my favorites:

Our tour of the Hermitage ended outside in the Palace Square where Russians have commemorated their victory over Napoleon with a 156 foot monument named the Alexander Column. If you’ve been to St Peter’s Square in Vatican city, think back to the feelings you had standing in that immense space and you’ll understand what it feels like standing next to the Alexander Column in Palace Square.

At this point of our visit to St Petersburg I wasn’t sure what more could surprise me but I was willing to remain hopeful that our last guided tour of the day would not disappoint. So we loaded up onto yet another bus and made our way to the river boat cruise which would take us through the myriad canals and waterways that make up St Petersburg. This was an aspect of the city I was not prepared for as I had envisioned St Petersburg to be much like Rome, Paris, London or any number of other great cities built on a majestic river. In my mind part of the city would be on one side of the river and part of the city would be on the other side of the river. While this concept is technically accurate, it fails to take into consideration the vast series of smaller rivers and streams that form the delta for the Neva River that St. Petersberg is built atop. St. Petersburg, much like another famous Italian city, Venice, is connected by thousands of bridges and hundreds of canals which from a scenic perspective definitely adds to the character and ambiance, but from a transportation point of view make traversing the city exceedingly difficult.

However, taking a canals and waterways tour of St. Petersburg is definitely worth it if you ever get the chance. Along many of the waterways, buildings are only separated from the water by a one way street or small walkway imparting a feeling of cruising through a man-made canyon between five and eight stories high. Our captain eventually worked his way back towards the river where we got some great views of the Peter & Paul Fortress and the golden spire of the Peter & Paul Cathedral which towers over the ramparts of the centuries old fortress and marks the burial site of many Russian Tzar’s including the Romanov’s. It was from this spot that the groundwork for the city was first put down on the orders of Peter the Great who hoped to build an empire that would rival that of any of the great European empires of the day. St Petersburg served as the capital of Russia for more than 200 years until the Bolshevik Revolution led to a new form of socialist government that was established in Moscow.

As rivers go I found the Neva to be surprisingly large by just about any standard. These next few photos are taken from our boat which is roughly halfway between the embankments on either side of the river and as you can see there’s quite a bit of water between me and the banks of the river. Another impressive sight from the river was that of the Hermitage Museum which we didn’t quite make it past before we started down another canal on the way back to our starting point. This canal took us past yet another beautifully appointed building that we were told served as a warehouse for storing soap at one point in its history! Now it’s another of the many museums that can be found throughout the city. Near the end of our canals and waterways cruise we were afforded a brief yet seductive view of our next destination. The Church of the Spilled Blood.

Before boarding our bus we were got a great view of St Isaac’s Cathedral and its iconic dome consisting of 200 lbs of gold. In another of the many fascinating stories from the second world war the dome was covered by sheets of lead in hopes of hiding it from the Germans should they succeed in taking the city. Fortunately the city never fell to the Germans despite almost 900 days under siege and thus this protective measure was never in danger of being tested. 

The Church of the Spilled Blood and its “onion-domed” cathedral was built on the site where Tzar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. Constructed entirely out of the royal family’s wealth to commemorate Alexander II its opulence rivals that of any palace found in the city. The exterior is a combination of brick and stone construction topped by the vibrantly colored domes and embellished with gold and mosaics. The interior walls and ceilings are festooned entirely with intricate mosaics of Christ, various Saints, Angels and other religious motifs. The floor is of marble in geometric patterns throughout with the lone exception being the actual cobble stoned section of street where Alexander II was shot and killed.

As we made our way back to the ship one final time from St Petersburg I took a moment to reflect on everything we had done and seen. On the one hand the palaces, museums and cathedrals are all as impressive as any place I’ve ever visited. The level of intellectual and artistic skill required to accomplish all that we experience is truly incredible. Yet, on the other hand, none of this can be taken in a vacuum as each of these sites exists within the backdrop of what is still very much a city on the rebound. Poverty is still readily apparent in many places throughout the city and the gulf between those who have and those who do not is every bit as visible there as it is in most other large cities across the world. Many of the buildings be they shops, apartment complexes , industrial centers or entertainment venues are constructed in a manner that pays little heed to visual aesthetics much less contemporary ideas on health and safety. More than a few buildings featured uneven façade’s where stones meant to be decorative fascia were visibly out of level but not in an artistic way. It’s as if the builder was in a rush to get the job completed and simply through up whatever sized stone he had closest to hand.

There are also many signs of their communist past scattered throughout the city on the occasional building or monument. I don’t point this out as a means to suggest that they are still a people living in the past or that their sixty plus year “experiment” with socialism should be cast aside and forgotten post haste. Rather, it seems to provide a regular reminder of just how deeply into despair their nation, and this city in particular, were driven by the socialist cause and just how far they still have to come in order get beyond the corruption that was spawned out of it. Our tour guides regularly mentioned how much the city has changed in the preceding 20 years since the fall of Communist Russia and while they readily recognize and openly discuss many of the problems they still have, it’s always with a mind towards what they are striving to build in this historic city. St Petersburg will likely remain one of my favorite destinations thanks in part to the magnificent palaces, museums and cathedrals found throughout the city, but also because it is a city actively striving to lift itself beyond its past and into the 21^st century while still managing to paying homage to its illustrious if checkered history.