St. Petersburg is 300 years old, and was the capitol of Russia for 200 years. When Czar Peter I gained power, he felt that Russia was too Asian and not modern enough. He wanted coastal land in the Baltic (a "Window to the West") to be competitive with Europe, so he fought the Great Northern War and won the land from Sweden. At the time, the land was all marsh, and he recruited thousands of peasants to clear forests and drain swamps with their bare hands. It is called a marsh paved with bones. Interestingly, the city is NOT named after its founder Peter the Great, but after St. Peer from the Bible.
Peter wanted to build the Venice of the North. It is a city built on water, with 19 islands and 65 canals. There are 350 bridges. Peter I was heavily influenced by Europe, and the buildings have a distinctive baroque flavour. There is no new architecture allowed in St. Petersburg. The buildings are extravagant and imposing, and a simple apartment building resembles a palace by our standards. In fact, there are 200 palaces in St. Petersburg. All the buildings are attached, and you can differentiate between them by paint colour and design.
Peter I was unhappy with his first wife, an arranged marriage, so he sent her to a nunnery and married Catherine I, a commoner. This is not the Catherine known as Catherine the Great. They had 12 children, but only 2 daughters survived past childhood. Peter didn't like his son Alexai by his first wife, so he had him imprisoned and he died in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Peter's daughter Elizabeth took power, and she exhausted the state treasury in gowns. It is said she had 15,000 gowns and never wore the same one twice. Each gown had its own jewelry attached. Elizabeth also extended the Catherine Palace in honour of her mother. Also, the Winter Palace was begun, which is now the Hermitage Museum. The Winter Palace was later finished by Catherine the Great.
Catherine the Great was married to Peter III, the grandson of Peter the Great. Their 10 year marriage was unhappy and he was not respected by his armed forces, who encouraged Catherine in an assassination plot against him. She then ruled for 34 years until her death in 1796.
The last Czar, Nicholas II, although well loved, was assassinated in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. This began a short transition into communism, which lasted until 1991.
The name of the city has been changed several times. When Russia went to war with Germany in 1914, the name St. Petersburg was deemed too German and the city became Petrograd. After Lenin's death in 1924, it became Leningrad. It was changed back to St. Petersburg with the fall of communism in 1991.
St. Petersburg has only 30-40 sunny days per year, and we got one of them for our day-long tour today. Our guide said it rains almost every day in St. Petersburg, and last week it pored and was only 10C all week. According to our guide, St. Petersburg has 2 seasons: 9 months of expectation and 3 months of disappointment.
We met our bus at 6:30 am, yawn, after going through Russian immigration on the dock. We started with a photo stop at a monument of Nicholas I atop a horse with only 2 points of support, unlike most horse statues which add the tail as a third point of support.
We were at Peterhof Palace as soon as it opened. Our guide zipped us through, we hardly had time to appreciate the beautiful rooms guilded with 24 carot gold. Peter I built Peterhof because he wished to outdo Versailles in France. We watched the Grand Cascade, with golden statues and a fountain show set to music. There are no pumps in any of the 65 fountains situated on its 300 acres overlooking the Gulf of Finland.
We were glad to see the Peterhof first thing in the morning. Our guide told us 10,000 people were expected through today, and 16,000 expected to visit the Hermitage Museum. The reason is that there are 6 cruise ships in port, but tomorrow should be better because 2 are leaving tonight.
Next we were taken on a canal cruise of the Moyki River to the Neva River. The bridges were too low to stand under. There was a nice view of the Hermitage.
Next was a traditional Russian lunch, complete with caviar, borscht, and holy-smokes vodka. And Russian singers and dancers put on a show while we ate.
Our guide is very Russian, Anton calls her "aggressive" and Frankie calls her Gestapo Lady. But her English is good and she has good knowledge, even if she rushes us to keep us on time. Some of the group feel she is rude, but we wonder if that is just culture? In any case, she was NO help with the gluten-free issue even after she was asked.
After lunch we went to the ornate St. Isaacs Cathedral. It is 325 ft tall (the 3rd tallest cathedral in the world) and it took 40 years to build in 1858. The dome contains 200 lbs of pure gold, has never been regilded. Inside were mosaics, not paintings, better preserved in Russian humidity. It is a Russian Orthodox Church, as well as a museum and concert hall. During the war, its golden dome was a reference point for nazi pilots, so a canvas painted grey was placed on top.
Next we visited the Church of Spilled Blood, built in honour of Czar Alexander II who was killed by terrorists. It was built in 1907. They left the original cobblestoned section of road where his carriage was attacked, and you can see it inside the church.
We had to go through immigration again to get back to the ship, where we had a whole hour to shower and change before going through immigration yet again for our evening excursion to Catherine's Palace. We experienced an hour and a half of traditional St. Petersburg traffic jam and made it to the palace at 8 pm. The palace was closed for the evening except to us Princess people. This palace was simply magnificent! Do NOT miss this if ever in St. Petersburg!
We walked through the carriage house where we saw Catherine the Great's carriage among others, and the remnants of the carriage carrying Alexander II when he was assassinated. Then we were greeted by a marching band and soldiers as we toured through the palace. Like Peterhof, we had to wear paper booties over our shoes to protect the floors. The rooms were much larger than Peterhof, and much more ornate. One room was made all of amber. The gold is regularly regilded. We ended in a gymnasium sized concert hall, where we were treated to a concert by a string quartet. Catherine the Great (or someone dressed as her) entered to great pomp and pageantry, and we watched some lords and ladies dancing. Catherine then invited us to dine with her, but first the marching band played for us again and we watched more waltzes. By the time dinner began (in the servant's quarters, no sign of Catherine!), it was about 9:45 pm, but it was still as light out as if it was 4 pm. More Russian folk singing and dancing, Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Back through immigration around midnight, and we need to meet again at 7 am tomorrow. Zonked.
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