6-10-14

6-10-14 - St. Petersburg, Russia

(We have been going constantly from the time we awoke until now (9:45 pm), as we booked a private tour with our friends for St. Petersburg.  We toured 6 separate sights and I have written 28 pages of notes.  So I may not be able to get all of it typed up until after we get home.  There was just so much history, so much beauty, that it was a little overwhelming. Our guide certainly doesn’t let any grass grow under our feet.  It is zoom zoom here, and zoom zoom there.  By the time we got back to the ship we were exhausted.  But it was an absolutely wonderful tour.  Tomorrow is day two of St. Petersburg, with our same guide.)

We met our tour guide, Maria, just outside the boat terminal.  She is a very energetic 28 year old Russian woman, who obtained her degree in Education six years ago.  She loves her job and is extremely well versed in all of the history and culture of her country.  The company she works for (SPB Tours) has offices in other counties, as well. She told us we had a very busy day ahead, with 6 different stops:  A subway tour, the Hermitage, the church of Our Savior of Spilt Blood, lunch in the city center, St. Peter and Paul fortress and the Usopov Palace.

Since the seven of us booked a private tour, we were riding in a van (which is actually owned by the driver).  As we drove along, Marie pointed out various sites and explained part of  Russia’s history.  We passed a monument to Peter the Great, who was the founder of the city of St. Petersburg.  It is currently the second largest city in Russia (5 million people), with the largest being, Moscow (11 million).  The foundation for the city was laid on May 27, 1703.  Peter became king at the age of 18 and created the Russian Army in order to protect the newly occupied lands.  The city was previously named Petrograd, but after the death of Lenin, in 1924 was named Linengrad.  When the Soviet Union collapses in 1991, the citizens renamed it St. Petersburg.

One of the primary rivers in St. Petersburg is the Neve.  It has 65 meters of canals and 42 separate islands. It used to flood every year until a dike was built in 1990.  The Annunciation bridge was the first permanent bridge in the city, built in 1853.  Originally, Peter the Great did not want bridges in the city.  He had a very strong nautical background and believed all of the citizens should learn to sail. 

Peter the Great was very interested in everything European.   As a result, the city of St. Petersburg is the first European City in Russia.  European artists were hired and brought to St. Petersburg to build the city.  It was not until the end of the 18^th century that Russians had developed the skills necessary to continue the European design and construction.

Most people in St. Petersburg work 8-5.  They prefer European vehicles, not trusting their own Russian cars.  Marie described Russian drivers as “adventurous”, and recommended we be very careful when walking on the city streets.  She noted that their underground train system was built quite late, in the 1950s.  The first station was not opened until 1955.  There are now 5 lines with 70 stations.  There underground is the deepest in the world, 68 meters in depth (about 258 feet).  It was necessary to dig very deep because their soil is very marshy. 

We got out of the van and proceeded into the subway station.  Maria gave each of us a token to enter the underground.  We were all amazed by how very clean it was.  There was not one single piece of paper or trash anywhere.  The walls are made of marble and the floors are granite tiles.  There are black columns with bronze paint on the top and bottom decorating the interior walls. There were beautiful mosaics on the walls.  One depicted the original naval ship yard.  Another showed a naval goddess with the flag of St. Andrew.  Such mythical figures were used in Russian artwork, because the people were originally illiterate and they could understand such creatures.  We only rode to the next station, then back. It is a very fast train. 

Maria and subway

Our next stop was the Hermitage, one of the primary reasons that Roger and I chose to do the Baltic cruise.  It is the largest museum in Russia and ranks as impressive as the Louve in Paris, France.  There are over 3 million exhibits owned by the museum.  If a person were to spend ½ a minute at each exhibit it would take 8 years to see them all.  So needless to say, we were only able to see a very small portion of the exquisite artwork that is part of the museum.  It was originally founded by Catherine the Great in 1764.

ENTRANCE to HERMITAGE

The main commonality in this and the interior of the palaces we will be seeing in St. Petersburg is the 24 carat gold leaf paint adorning the buildings.  It is so beautiful!  The Hermitage entrance hallway contains white Carrara marble stairs.  The first room we entered had large full wall sized tapestries.  Then we entered the Pavilion hall.  It was quite a shock.  There were 28 crystal chandeliers adorning the ceiling.  To one side of the room, there was a huge clock decorated with a peacock.  It was designed in the 18^th century.  On the hour, the peacock spreads its wings, turns around, a bell rings and the eye winks.  There is also a decorative rooster that cries.  The room also contains tables whose tops are decorated with tiny pieces of glass, treated with oxides of different metal, creating various different colors.  The pieces formed an ancient Roman scene.

The section of the Hermitage which is called the Old Hermitage, contains primarily Italian art and was previously the home of the Royal Family.  The floors are decorated with different intricate patterns of inlaid wood.  The art collection holds works from the 1300s through the 1800s.  One room had a unique form of sculpture using the Majorca technique, which is created from baked clay from the island of Majorca, prior to being painted.  There was a beautiful marble fireplace in one of the room, which had porcelain inserts.  Each art work is identified with the name of the artist, the name of the work, the year it was acquired and the source where the art work was obtained. 

Next we entered the section of the Hermitage called the Winter Palace.  It has 117 staircases, 1945 windows and 1500 rooms.  The section contains 15 paintings by Leonardo De Vinci.  One of the most famous of these is the Madonna and Child.  It is a portrait of the Blessed Mother holding baby Jesus.  The child is playing with a cross, which is believed to show the prediction of the future tragedy of the Crucifixion.  In a second portrait of the Madonna, there is a tiny golden finch pressed to the chest of the Child Jesus.

The next room contained columns made of Jasper applied to stone.  Each column has 37 separate facets.  Next we proceeded into the Hermitage Theater, where amateur plays were performed for the Royal Family.  Next to the theater, an enclosed cross walk was built to connect the old museum with the new Hermitage.

After having visited the Vatican museum, Catherine the Great sent artists back to make exact copies of one of Raphael’s huge paintings.  It is comprised of 13 separate sections the contain 54 scenes beginning with the creation of the world and progressing to the new testament.  The hallway leading into the next part of the Hermitage contained a large mirror.  Maria said that there was a superstition that men who looked into the mirror would have great wealth and women who gazed into the glass would have great beauty.  So naturally all of out group wanted a turn in front of the mirror.

The Hermitage was first opened in 1853.  However, there were originally only 100 tickets available.  They were reserved for those persons of nobility.  It was only in 1917 that the palace was turned into a museum for all the people.  The Skylight Gallery was the next room we entered.  It contained large tables with tops made of blue lapis lazulite, one of the most precious of all stones.  There were also tall lamp stands made of one single solid piece of pink phodonite.  Other tops and large vases were made of the deep green malachite stone and dark grey porphyry, mined here in Russia.

The Hermitage contains 26 paintings by Rembrandt.  He was a very popular painter even during his lifetime.  One of his paintings called Danae predicts the story of the killing of Percius, the grandson of Ithaca.  When Maria said it was a very valuable painting, we asked her what its value was.  She said it was “priceless”.  Then she led us into a room that contained the work which is considered the most valuable in the entire Hermitage collection.  It is also a painting by Rembrandt, names Prodigal Son.  It was painted after Rembrandt lost his only son, Titus.  One of the hands of the father appears feminine and the other masculine.  It is believed that this represents the importance of both motherly traits and the strength and austerity of fathers.  Rembrandt was noted for his special talent of seeking out the face and hands of the person in each portrait. 

We now came to a room called Alexander II’s Hall in honor of the Emperor who defeated Napoleon.  It contains military paraphernalia.  The following section of the museum is named the Exhibition Hall and its contents is changed on a regular basis.  This is the only room in the Hermitage where photographs are not permitted.  The current exhibit displays some of the dresses previously worn by the Empress.  One was a silver gown with a huge circular train.  Another was pink velvet trimmed with huge silver embroidered leaves and flowers.  This elaborate hall is decorated with 11 kilograms (24pounds) of gold.   

Proceeding into the 1812 Hall, we discovered 330 portraits of all of the generals who took part in war against Napoleon.  The artist who painted all of the portraits was named Dawe.  It took him ten years to finish all of them, which works out to an average of 10 days a piece.  That seems quite a feat to all of us.  The gallery also has some empty frames.  These represent the generals who were killed in the battle, and, therefore, not available for portraits.  Each of these frames lists the name of the general, thus showing respect for the ultimate contribution which they gave to their country.

The Throne Room is the largest room in the Heritage Museum.  It is also called St. George’s Hall, as he is the patron saint of soldiers.  He took the symbol of a double headed eagle from the Byzantine Empire, as the Coat of Arms of Russia.  The last room which we saw contained a huge vase made of 19 tons of jasper.  It was a decorative piece, not intended to hold flowers.  

The third stop in our tour was the Church of Our Savior of Spilt Blood, built on the spot where Emperor Alexander the II was assassinated on March 1, 1881  He ruled from 1853-1881 and introduced many reforms during his reign.  He was a timeless supporter of our President Abraham Lincoln, admiring him for his emancipation of slaves in America.  However, not everyone agreed with his policies.  A terrorist group organized 8 different assassination attempts on his life.  They were finally successful when Alexander was fatally wounded in a bombing, while walking along one of the canals, on March 1, 1881.

The church has two outside doors painted of gold and two painted with green, blue and silver.  Inside, there are exquisite mosaics covering every square inch of wall space.  Marie said there are 7,000 square meters of mosaics(75,347 square feet).  It took a French architect 26 years to complete, finishing in 1882, (the year after Alexander the II’s death).   The floors of the church are made of five millimeter thick inlaid marble tiles.  One shocking revelation Marie told us was the fact that this beautiful building was used to store potatoes during WWI and was a morgue during WWII.  

After leaving the church, we were driven to a local restaurant for a traditional Russian meal.  One item always on the menu is hot soup.  Then there is a main dish, followed by dessert.  After eating, we drove past the Marble Palace.  It contains marble in 32 different colors.  The courtyard has a tall rod iron fence which is painted black, with gold trim.  It reminded me of the gates at England’s Buckingham Palace, in London.  The house was bought for the Royal Family, but now belongs to the Russian Museum.

Then we passed what Maria says is the most popular monument in St. Petersburg.  It is a statue of Peter the Great on horseback.  Peter was the first sovereign to create an “admiralty” (our word would most likely be “navy”.  He launched a total of 262 ships in his short lifetime.  One of the most famous stories about his life was when he was sailing to the Sea of Finland when he saw two fishermen whose boat was floundering.  He immediately change course and saved them from drowning.  This incident was partially responsible for his early death at age 52.  The weather was quite cold and he already had a urinary disease.  This caused his condition to be exacerbated.  It is said that he died saving his people.

The next stop was St. Isaac’s Cathedral.  In its own way, it was just as beautiful as the previous one, but filled with beautiful marble columns.  There are 112 of them.  It took 128 workers 45 minutes to erect one column.  There is a huge bronze door which was a copy of the Bapistry in Florence, Italy.  It requires two people to open the door.  The church is quite large, seating 8,000 people.  There are no benches or chairs because people were required to stand through the entire service. 

The cupola is comprised of three separate domes.  It is the largest in the world.  It took 100 kilogram (220 pounds) of gold to cover the cupola.  It was completed in 1848 and has never been regilded.   There were three previous St. Isaac churches.  The current one was commissioned by Alexander I.  He held a contest to find the best design.  It took 40 years to construct the present building.  Alexander died 15 days after the church was dedicated.  I was very impressed by the vibrant colors of red, blue and yellow.   The church is 101.5 meters (331 feet) tall and the dome is 3.5 meters (11 feet).  There are several religious icons in the front of the church.  One is the figure of Jesus as a man, the second is Mary with the infant, Jesus.  On either side of these icons there are separate icons of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Alexander, St. Nicholas and St. Catherine.

                                     

The last stop of the day was the Yusupov Palace.(NO PICTURES ALLOWED)  It belonged to a family of nobility.  The Yusupovs were one of the five richest families in Russia.  The family actually had five palaces in St. Petersburg.  When you enter the palace, you see a huge staircase.  It looked like the one at Tara, in the movie, Gone With the Wind.  The ceiling is adorned with a massive chandelier.  It weights 600 kilograms (1,322 pounds) and has 108 lamps.  In the State Hall there is a tapestry given by Napoleon to one of the Yusupov family members.  There is also a painting on the wall that is made to look like a tapestry. 

The bedroom contains lace draped curtains and the fireplace is made of onyx, decorated with gold leaf.  The rotunda room has blue colored columns, as this was a color of nobility.  There was also a drawing room decorated with blue silk and the ceiling is  painted with little cherubs.  The Red parlor was one of the most beautiful.  The color red means beautiful in Russian. The walls were covered with red silk, as was the upholstery on the chairs.

The green room has birch furniture.  Everything is covered with a light green color.  The ballroom has a white grand piano at one end.  The ceiling is painted with dancing nymphs and has a crystal chandelier hanging from the top.  It has 37 crystals.  There are 2 huge wall sized mirrors.  The largest room in the Yusupov Palace is a white columned hall.  Maria told us that the chandelier was made of Paper Mache, and then painted with gold leaf.   

 In the exhibition room, Maria told our group that one of the descendants of the family converted to Christianity.  In a dream, he was told by Mohammed, that a curse would be placed on their family.  None of the Yusupov children would live beyond the age of 26.   This appears to have become a reality, as there were many deaths in that family, from various causes.

The Roman Hall, named for a painting of Roman soldiers, has a clock at the end of the room, with a gold guild arch.  The Palace Theater is a copy of a classical Italian Theater, with an orchestra pit and red velvet cushions on the chairs.  The museum hallway contains photographs of artwork.  The small crystal room has a floor made of 16 different kinds of wood. The oak dining room has oak columns and an oak table made in Venice.  The legs have carved figures of lions, the symbol of St. Mark.    

                 

It was in this palace that a famous person, named Rasputin, was assassinated.  He was raised as a peasant, but became close to the royal family because he was reputed to have mystical powers.  The empress had a son who had hemophilia.  She believed that Rasputin could cure him.  However, many people did not like him.  He had a suite of rooms in the palace which he called his bachelors flat.  Five conspirators, some of whom were members of the royal family and military officers, planed to kill Rasputin in his flat.  One of the persons, named Felix, told Rasputin that he would introduce him to his wife, Irene, who was from the royal family.  They pretended to have a party and tried to poison him with cocaine mixed in his wine. 

But for some reason, this did not work.  So Felix went upstairs and got a gun and shot Rasputin.  When he leaned over the body, Rasputin opened his eyes and began to choke him.  Felix got away and ran into the garden.  Then one of the other conspirators shot Rasputin a second time.  This was a fatal shot.  The body was taken to the river, in hopes the current would take it out to sea,  But the body was found the next day.  Felix and his family went into exile soon thereafter, to avoid punishment.  In 1917, when the Bolsheviks found where Rasputin’s body was buried, they burned it.  This was part of the bloody conflict that resulted from a Russian uprising.  It began as a peaceful petition by the people, but ended on Bloody Sunday, 1-7-1905.  In 1017, the royal family abdicated the throne and the Bolsheviks took over the city.

The last stop on our tour today was The St. Peter and Paul fortress and Cathedral.  It was built during the time of Peter the Great to protect the newly occupied lands.  Though is belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, it is designed like a Catholic Cathedral.  The walls are painted to imitate marble.  It is decorated with crystal glass chandeliers.  All of the icons are made of wood covered with gold leaf.  It took 5 years to make them and they were brought to St. Petersburg in pieces.

Women were not allowed in the altar area, so at Baptisms, only the father entered the Bapistry.  The Cathedral contains 32 tombs of previous Emperor/Empresses.   Maria led our group to the tomb of Peter the Great, which is made of Carrara marble.  His two wives are also buried in the Cathedral.  His second wife, Catherine the Great, had a daughter, Elizabeth, who ruled for 29 years.  The tomb of Nicholas the II, the last Emperor, is in a separate chapel.

It was in 1917, under the cover of night, that Nicholas and his family were awakened and taken out of the city.  The main guard told him that his army was trying to rescue them.  He said “we can’t have that” and he proceeded to shoot the Emperor, his wife and four daughters.  The bodies were cut into pieces and the remains were hidden.  In 1998, when DNA testing was available, archeologist found the remains.  It was confirmed that they were the Royal family.  Though there were rumors that the daughter named Anastasia escaped capture, her remains were later discovered and confirmed with DNA analysis.

The tomb of Alexander the II is a green color.  He was killed by terrorist and his wife proclaimed him a martyr.  His crypt weighs 5 tons.   Next we saw the tomb of Maria, the wife of Alexander the III.  She was originally a Danish Princess and died in 1928.  She was originally buried in Denmark.  But in 2005, Danish Queen Margaret allowed her remains to be brought back to Russia, because she was so loved by the Russian people.  One reason for their affection was that, when she became the Empress, she made a point to learn the Russian language, so she could communicate with the citizens of Russia.

Though it was a very long busy day, it was truly rewarding to have seen so many beautiful places.  We were all grateful that we booked the private tour.  It was well worth it.