St. Petersburg: From A Photo

Disclaimer: 

I do not intend to speak on behalf of Azamara Club Cruises.  As an employee of Azamara Club Cruises, I hereby state that all views and expressions of opinion I hold are solely my own, and do not reflect or represent the views, values, beliefs, opinions, or company policies of ether Azamara Club Cruises or Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Additionally I neither own nor claim any legal rights to the links provided in this post.

Ready?  Here it is.

Well, ok; at first glance this shot of St. Petersburg isn't much to look at.  It was taken from the top deck of the ship, overlooking the Neva River.  Most ships must dock quite far from the city centre.  Our ship is small enough to sail right up the river and is able to dock along the downtown riverside.  This gives its passengers a walker’s distance to some of the most renowned historical landmarks in St. Petersburg.  

                              Five of those landmarks are shown in this photo:

            But of course, it doesn’t do to just see these things from a distance, especially when you may be viewing this photo from something as small as your smartphone.  I have a shot taken at maximum zoom for each place.   

This is a city that has seen so much since its birth.  From a swampland to a sprawling aristocratic, military, and political center, St. Petersburg has seen it all and then some.  The city was founded in 1703, so it is relatively young compared with other European cities.  But still it is a city that has gone through intense changes and rich history.  It was the capital of Russia from the reign of Peter The Great until 1917.  Its name was changed to Petrograd at the start of WWI, and when the country was known as the U.S.S.R. the city was known as Leningrad.  The oppressed masses seethed here, and finally they exploded in revolution and overtook the city in 1917.  Power struggles ensued and finally the Bolsheviks took hold of Russia.  In WWII, the Nazis starved this city to its knees, but it held fast, and was never taken.  All throughout the Soviet era, the city—again, at that time called Leningrad—was a kind of liberal hotspot in the U.S.S.R., and was kept under Moscow's suspicious eye.  By the 1970’s Leningrad boasted an underground community of artists, reformists, and other people that the government would have considered “radical.”

The ship had been to St. Petersburg quite a bit as of June 2015.  It docked there three times, and each time it stayed in port for at least two days and a night.  This gave us more than ample time to discover the many fascinating things hidden within.

For this blog, I’m going to discuss what you see in the photo above.  Each of these five places, from left to right.

           

 Now, first up, on the very left, is the oldest structure in the city: 

the Peter and Paul Fortress.

           

           

Peter The Great founded St. Petersburg in 1703.  Peter And Paul Fortress was erected within a year of the city’s founding.  Thus it is the oldest structure in St. Petersburg. 

Peter The Great was involved in The Great Northern War (1700-1721) at the time.  Very boldly, he selected the recently conquered territory at the mouth of the Neva River to be the site of St. Petersburg. This territory had once belonged to Sweden.  Oddly enough, the fortress never had to be used to defend the city. 

However, instead of becoming a defense for the city, the fortress became one of the most feared and infamous prisons of the Russian Empire.  Even in the recent years following its erection, Peter and Paul Fortress became notorious.  Many who went in never came back out.  If they did, it was through this door:

       


When prisoners were taken out of the prison from this door, it meant they were being taken to their execution.  Over the decades, Peter and Paul Fortress held many political prisoners, including Fyodor Dostoevsky and Lenin’s brother, Alexander Ulianov.  And, according to certain accounts, Peter The Great’s rebellious son, Alexei, was one of the first prisoners.  Apparently he was tortured to death within its walls.

The first building to be erected within the fortress was the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, shown in the pictures above.  After the television tower, the church is the highest point in the city.  Peter The Great wished for the church to be influenced in the style of the Western European Protestant churches: the spire and the bell tower are clear examples of this.  And the inside?  Well, it’s breathtaking:

          

There is much to take in here.  The last three pictures are of the iconostasis; one of the largest I’ve seen, certainly.  It is much taller in person, hence the reason I had to take three shots to get it all.
To me, the most amazing thing about this place is that almost the whole royal family is buried here, including Peter The Great himself. 

Other rulers buried here include Alexander I, II, and III, Catherine I and Catherine The Great, Nicholas I and II, Elizabeth, Paul, Peter III, and Anne. 

Only after I had forced myself (it was hard to do) to turn away from Peter The Great's grave—being next to these great figures in world history created an incredible magnetism—did I realize there were many more coffins.

Even more moving, and sad, was to see the remains of Nicholas II, the last Tsar, and his family.  

They rest in the Chapel of St. Catherine.  Their end was tragic and brutal.  In 1917, when the Revolution was peaking, Nicholas II and his family were taken to a location in the center of Russia, and all were killed at once by a firing squad.  The youngest and only boy in the family, Alexei, was not spared.  Rumors have it that Anastasia, the youngest daughter, somehow survived the shooting and played dead, then escaped and went into hiding.  But this is not the case.

This whole church became surreal.  I felt lost, a black speck amongst an enormity of white, an ant skittering on top of a mountain of decades and tumult and triumph and failure. 

Peter and Paul Fortress became one of the most powerful landmarks for me after our guide told us a story about her school years.  She was probably in her late sixties-early seventies.  When she was 11 or 12 years old, the school had brought in a lecturer who was considered a hero.  He thought himself a hero, too.  Indeed, he was actually one of the murderers of Nicholas II and his family!  This man had been there that night, helping to kill them all….  As of today, Russia has since revoked any notion of “heroism” for these murders and has labeled them as crimes. 

It’s strange to think that a place, which holds the remains of the royal family, also held political prisoners—the “enemies”—of the royal family.  Those prisoners had been waiting to die.  The royal family lies there, dead.  Interesting, all that tumultuous history in one place….

            So, time to move right in our photo…

            to one of the most awe-inspiring landmarks
 in St. Petersburg:
The Hermitage Museum.

That's me!  Courtesy of a buddy of mine from the ship.

The Hermitage Museum is one of the largest and most acclaimed museums in the world.  Its collection boasts over three million works of art….  I’m not kidding.  If one were to see each work of art in the collection for one minute, it would take eleven years….  That being said, everything to be seen in the museum accounts for a roughly 5-10% of the entirety of the collection.  The rest is kept in the Storage Facility in the north of the city.

Within Palace Square, outside the Hermitage

From within the inner coutryard.

The Hermitage Museum is actually comprised of five buildings.  Seen above are a few shots of The Winter Palace, only one building of the five.  The Winter Palace, originally built for Empress Elizabeth, became the main residence of the Romanov Tsars from the 1760’s.  Catherine The Great resided here after Elizabeth’s sudden death.   

The Winter Palace has 1,057 rooms…and all are lavishly, elaborately, and wonderfully decorated in decadence.  Utter decadence.  Sometimes I found myself looking more at the rooms than the artwork.  Many of these rooms house artwork, and the other four buildings of the Hermitage Museum hold artwork, too.  That’s how massive the art collection is; everything from ancient Egypt to the early 20^th Century….

Well…I think it’s time for a tour of what I saw.

NOTE:  

There are many pictures coming up.  At the expense of making this blog very, very long, I desire more to show the scope of what I saw in the Hermitage to the fullest extent.  So, bear in mind that what I saw was a mere fraction of the entirety of the museum.

The main entrance hall of the Hermitage.

The old waiting room, for those dignitaries and other VIP's whom would visit the Winter Palace.

And, in the waiting hall hangs a 6-ton chandelier.  

One of many rooms housing many paintings.  This room is adjacent to the throne room.

...and this is the throne room.  

Read and then view the hall in the next few photos.

This is a wondrous piece of decorative machinery called the Peacock Clock.  It moves and spreads its wings with changes in time.

Behind me was an exhibition hall full of fantastic original paintings by Rembrandt and his students.

One painting of Rembrandt's: "The Return Of The Prodigal Son"

A small room with the 60th or 70th chandelier that I'd seen so far.

A main hallway of the Winter Palace...look at all those rooms we'd passed....

The ceiling of one of my favorite rooms, which holds two paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci.

One of my favorite rooms, which holds two paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci.

A sculpture within the same room.

Fine dishes, glasses, and containers in one of the hallways.  Many of the hallways contained cases, each displaying anywhere from seven-fifteen or sixteen pieces of smaller arts and crafts.

All shots of this gorgeous room were blurry...but this was the closest "clear" shot I could achieve.

Another main hallway.

A large exhibition hall.

"Crouching Boy," by Michelangelo.

A hallway full of sculptures.

An incredible room of (if I remember correctly) Spanish paintings.

An armory of medieval suits and weapons

An additional room of Spanish painters and their paintings (again, if I remember correctly).

A room of sculptures...

And its partner room, down the stairs.

Ancient Roman artwork

I really wanted to spend time here, but we had to walk through the Ancient Egyptian room.... 

And that concludes all that I saw, more or less, of the Hermitage.

When one sees buildings like The Winter Palace, one immediately thinks of a Western European influence.  Indeed, the architecture is a stunning example of the Baroque era.  Not only that; today it stands as a testament not only to the outrageous wealth of the Russian Tsars, but also to world history and culture through the centuries.  Catherine The Great was obsessed with collecting art; yet if it weren't for that excessive spending, the world would not have had access to one of the largest collections of art ever assembled and preserved.


I'll finish this section with a great moment in time for me: Buddhist monks, walking through Palace Square, past a roller-blading course.
When worlds collide, man!
It was pretty funny, in a great, multi-cultural way.

More information about the Hermitage can be found here: Saint-Petersburg.com is generally a great site with trusted and accurate information.  There are other pages provided for detailed information about different parts of the museum and its history.

Now, back to our main photo, moving right from the Hermitage.  We'll skip the gold spire for now, because I could not get a good, clear shot of it!

I also want to skip the spire to make this point: Peter The Great had large, grand visions for the city that was to be his capital.  He had set forth many changes in Russia, and these changes were mainly influenced by Western Europe.  Even to this day some Russians don’t completely agree with the fact that Peter The Great abandoned traditional Russian culture and architecture for more traditionally European influences. 

However, this next landmark was built in the traditional Russian style.  Along with the Hermitage, it is among the most iconic places in the city. 

This is the Church of Spilled Blood.  It is officially called the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, but the name is flexible due to translations: for instance, it is also referred to as the Church of the Savior On Spilled Blood, Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood, or Church of the Savior On Blood.  For our purposes we’ll call it the Church of Spilled Blood.

Beneath this church lies the spot upon which Alexander II, a Tsar of Russia, was assassinated.  Alexander III, his son, wished for his father to be remembered and revered, so he ordered the construction of this church.  Alexander II instituted many reforms for Russia.  Of great significance was his freeing of the serfs, or working-class peasants, in 1861.  Before then, these people were practically slaves to their masters.  The lives of the serfs arguably did not change much after their freedom was granted; they were still considered, and treated like, lowly people in the society.  Alexander II also instigated major military, urban, and judicial reforms.  Essentially, he set many major precedents for Russia and Russian life.  Thus it was that his son saw it fit for a great monument to be built around the place on which his father’s life was taken. 

The construction was a huge feat, mostly funded by the royal family and supplemented by many private donors.
It isn’t only the outside that captures us with its many mosaics and brilliant onion domes.  Once I walked inside, I was blown away.   

Mosaics.  Everywhere.  All that is seen is mosaic.  The pillars, the ceiling, and of course, the portraits.  It is no wonder that the Church of Spilled Blood took twenty-six years to complete…. 

Some of the most celebrated Russian artists of the day were brought in to craft what you see.  All together, inside and out, the church sports roughly 7,500 square meters of mosaics…arguably more than any other church in the world. 

And this, shown above, is where Alexander II was assassinated.  Right underneath this canopy.  Mind you, the church is a huge tourist attraction, so I got lucky getting these shots through all the heads in the crowd. 

Once again, Russian royal history had its glorious grip on me.  I never thought I would see such use of mosaics over the entirety of such a large interior.  It’s truly staggering.  There’s the overall beauty to take in, but to know the detail of it makes that beauty almost ridiculous!  There must be a million or more tiles covering the interior!  7,500 square meters…but numbers don’t matter at a place like this.  It’s the sheer bombardment of our perceptions; the way the place fills our perceptions up to the brink in an instant.  And we stay full, overflowing with it.  The world is not full of things that can do this to us so effectively.  Several of those things, however, can be found in St. Petersburg: The Hermitage, Catherine Palace, The Church of Spilled Blood, and St. Isaac’s Cathedral, to name a few….

We didn’t spend too much time outside to view the exterior, but I did get a nice final shot:

I believe the guide wanted to move us along.  This site is a favorite for pickpockets and thieves, so one needs to be extra cautious when waiting in line or taking pictures.  Nevertheless, like the Hermitage it is a must-see. 

This site gives a great description and more info about the Church Of Spilled Blood, as well as access to many other sources and information regarding St. Petersburg and Russia in general.

This next link gives more information as to how and why Alexander II was assassinated, and the history of his rule.  The main site generally has great information, and I found its accuracy of info to be favorable.

Now, let’s go back to our main shot:

Maybe you didn’t notice this spire--on the very left--the first time you saw the picture!  But I will mention it briefly since it is rather imposing on the skyline.  Apologies for the rough subject angle, but throughout my photos I could not find one (taken from the ship) that focused on the spire as a primary subject. 

This is The Admiralty.    

        

The Admiralty with The Bronze Horseman in front.  The Bronze Horseman is a statue of Peter The Great.  

            A gigantic building that spans several city blocks, the Admiralty, like Peter and Paul Fortress across the river, is one of the oldest structures in the city.  What you see today is not the original.  At first, it was a fortified shipyard.  Ship-building in this area began in 1704-1706.  Peter The Great himself was an expert on ship-building, ship-design, and carpentry, and he often worked alongside those in the shipyard.  Russia had only one seaport in the 18^th Century, and Peter The Great was adamant about building a mighty navy.  It was by his decree that the Admiralty came into being, and from 1704-1844 the Admiralty saw about 262 warships come out of its docks. 

            In 1719 the stone building was added, along with its iconic Admiralty Spire.  The rest of the 400m façade that we see today was built over the course of seventeen years.  1823 was the year that saw the completion of this extraordinary piece of architecture.  Famed Russian architect Adrian Zakharov headed the project.  He redesigned the structure in the classic Russian-Empire style while still retaining some Neo-classical elements. 

            After 1844, the Admiralty became the central point of several naval institutions.  From 1925 to the present day, the Admiralty houses the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval College.

            Though I’ve never been inside the premises, I have certainly admired the Admiralty during my day-stays in St. Petersburg:

A statue of Nicholas I; notice the helicopter over the spire, too!

From the Neva River on a canal boat.

The facade seen through the trees of the adjacent Alexandrovsky Garden.

These last few photos were taken on a cloudy summer day from the garden just outside the main entrance of the spire.  It’s called Alexandrovsky Garden; if you’ve got time, it’s a wonderful place to walk through.  The Admiralty’s façade, all 400m of it, faces this garden.  It really is a beautiful place.

At the time, I had no idea that the Admiralty was so huge.  It wasn’t until I researched it that I realized what I was seeing was one single structure!  Of the several times I had walked the blocks that the Admiralty dominates, I had always noticed “separate” buildings, or at least separate businesses and institutions.  But from an aerial view, it all makes sense!  The scope and size of this building are amazing. 

The golden spire, the Admiralty Spire, has been a significant icon of the city since the 18^th Century.  Take a closer look at the photo though; notice how there are three long roads stretching from the spire’s focal point.  These are actually three of the main avenues of St. Petersburg: Nevsky Prospekt, Gorokhovaia Street, and Vosnesensky Prospekt.  For us tourists, this spire is the best landmark to remember.  These three avenues are the hub for discovering the city and most of its landmarks.  You can travel any of these avenues quite a ways and still be able to spot the spire!  The streets may be confusing, but if for some reason you have no access to a map, look for the spire.  You will be fine. 

Ok, then; moving to the very right of our photo.

We have reached the final—or most-right-in-the-photo—landmark!  The one that you had probably noticed at first, because it is the most prominently shown:

This enormity of glory and awe, towering into the sky, is St. Isaac’s Cathedral.  Its majesty and massive impression are not only hard to miss, but hard to forget.

The pure-golden dome (yes, real gold) can be seen from all around the downtown area of St. Petersburg.   It is the fourth largest domed cathedral in the world, after St. Peter’s in Rome, St. Paul’s in London, and Santa Maria del Flore in Florence (called “Il Duomo” unofficially).

At one time, though, St. Isaac’s had been the largest church in Russia.  The history of the church is interesting, for it has gone through several transformations since 1710.  In that year Peter The Great had ordered a wooden church to be built in honor of St. Issac of Dalmita.  Peter found it fitting to name the church after St. Isaac, because St. Isaac’s feast day falls on Peter The Great’s birthday, according to the Orthodox calendar. 

After this church was swept away by an overflowing Neva river, another church was erected.  But this stone church soon collapsed due to shoddy foundations.  In 1768 Catherine The Great ordered another church to be erected in honor of Peter.  This church was never completed, and so finally in 1809, Alexander I held a nation-wide competition for a brand new design for a church of St. Isaac.  A French architect, Auguste Ricard du Montferrand, was given the honor, and his design was monumental in scope.

It took forty years to complete the cathedral.  Not only was it to be comprised of granite and marble, but there were also grand, extravagant plans for the interior.  First, Montferrand--using the same technique as the Venetians did for their buildings--had 10,000 piles of wood driven into the marshy ground.  This provided stability for the cathedral’s foundation.  Entire forests were chopped down for this endeavor.  Upon those pilings a layer of stone was set.  The site was now prepared for the next thirty years, wherein roughly 300,000 tons of granite and marble were assembled into the exterior of the church.  Notable are the red granite Cornithian columns set up around the exterior:

Each weighs 115 tons, reaches 60 ft high, and is 7 ft wide. 

The incredible dome is covered in 100kg—about 220 Ibs.—of pure, gilded gold.   

And, the great porticos over the entrances are masterfully done:

            In 1842 the exterior was completed, but it took sixteen more years to complete the interior.  Though I don't know from first-hand experience, the impact upon the senses must be near-unbelievable....

This site gives a look at the interior.  It also goes into great detail about the cathedral's history.  

It's a very good read.

And this site gives more of a summary upon the cathedral's history.

It certainly is so grandiose, so magnificent, so emotionally stirring, so…MUCH….  Actually, speaking of “much:” the cost of the cathedral, as can be deduced, was astronomical.  It ended up being many times—roughly six to ten times—more costly than the Winter Palace!  Many kinds of marble, precious and semi-precious stones were used for the interior’s decoration.  The most revered artists and sculptors of the day collaborated in the effort to produce the most magnificent layouts, paintings, sculptures, and mosaics.  

I had not known--before seeing the interior photos of St. Isaac’s Cathedral--that Russian royalty had gone to such lengths to represent itself so ostentatiously….  That being said, I truly, truly wished I had made more of an effort to go inside the cathedral.  Moreso than The Church of Spilled Blood. Groundbreaking artistry can be seen nearly everywhere within this cathedral, a place that can accommodate almost 14,000 standing patrons, has brilliant acoustics for performances, and reminds us of the astounding ingenuity and the glorious power of human capability. 

That being said, “human capability” can be seen in either a wonderful or a harsh light, depending on what we’re speaking of here.  The serf class mainly undertook the cathedral’s erection—and the erection of most of the city’s old palaces, landmarks, cathedrals, and monuments.  Though Alexander II abolished the serf class and gave them their freedom in 1861, the newly freed serfs still had to pay “redemptive fees” to their former masters and landlords.  Serf lives did not change very much. 

For those serfs who worked on St. Isaac’s, life was often deadly.  Hundreds died from falls, or from being crushed.  Fumes from the gilding of the domes killed others.  All those lives for an undertaking that some regarded as just an obscene representation of Russian wealth. 

For those who would like to learn more:

This site has a good description of peasant-serf life in old Russia, and boasts many links to scholarly journals and the like.

But, it's this Lonely Planet piece that really goes all-out; it gives a sometimes-facetious but novel-like account of St. Petersburg’s history.  It’s definitely long, but absolutely worth the read.  Within 

you can find much and more about what I’ve already mentioned.

On one hand, we see these nearly-unbelievable palaces and monuments and cathedrals and think, “ohhhh myyyyy….”  On the other hand, there’s the more insidious reality behind how these stupendous places came to be.  The peasant class in Russia was exploited for centuries under a strict hierarchical social system with no room for movement.  And as the power and wealth of the Russian royalty grew in St. Petersburg, so grew dissent within the lower classes.  They greatly outnumbered the nobility and the royalty.  Of course, as we know, the masses eventually could not take it anymore….

I think St. Petersburg’s history plays out much like an epic novel: how a swamp was gradually turned into Russia’s new capital; how an older Russian culture was gradually replaced with a new one, dominantly within the upper-class, that was soaked in European flair; how betrothals, betrayals, and sudden deaths lead to rulers such as Catherine the Great and Nicholas II; how the city mobilized itself so well to fight the German siege in WWII; and how, during the Cold War, liberal, forward-thinking groups of “radicals” stirred in St. Petersburg's underground scenes and communities.  Things were a bit chaotic as the country struggled to redefine itself after the fall of the U.S.S.R in 1991.  But clearly, St. Petersburg has bounced back, and for many years now it has been radiating with its influential, dynamic, and awesome history.