May 31 – Saint Petersburg, Russia. Today the ship has a tour of Saint Petersburg by bus but there's a option to go into down by subway, metro here, and walk the tour. Diana and I have opted for the metro method. First a short bus ride to the Metro stop. Our guide, Tatiana, got us off on the right track, on the way to the Metro stop she gave us each a candy bar. I don't think I've ever seen a prettier wrapper. It's glacier blue and grey with a polar bear at the center. The bar itself was like a wider version of a Twix. They seem to have good chocolate here in Russia.
The metro here is unique in one way. Because the water table here is so high, the area used to be a marsh before Peter started building; the subways are almost all underwater. Most stations have double doors, the doors on the train car and doors on the station platform. The platform doors appear to be watertight. Tatiana told us that some stations had to be closed due to flooding but the trains still ran they just couldn't stop there.
The system here is organized more like subways in other parts of the world, that is to say not like Moscow. When you look at the map at the trackside it only shows the train that runs there and the stops it will make, with a highlight on the stop you're at and arrows to show you which way the train is going on that track. A great bonus is that the sign shows the stops in Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, a big help. Much more user friendly than the Moscow 'show everything' method. It's just TMI.
We boarded the metro and only had to go five stops. I say only with a little sarcasm. Because the stations are so expensive to build, they're underwater too, they don't have them every two or three blocks like NYC. Each station is a bit of a ride from the last one.
We popped above ground very close to the Russian Museum we visited yesterday. In fact we are headed to the Square of the Arts to get another look at Pushkin to see if his mood had improved. Not likely. From there we went back to the fancy food store and this time I bought two cookies, white chocolate chip with orange, and dark chocolate chips with dates. Both excellent,
From there we walked to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The name derives from the fact that the church was constructed on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in March of 1855. It's very much like St. Basil's in Moscow, brightly colored with lots of onion domes. It's very different from other churches in the area as most are Baroque or Neoclassical. The Spilled Blood is definitely 17th century Russian like St. Basil's or the churches of the Golden Ring.
It was built almost entirely with money from the royal family and private donors. The church is decorated with mosaics inside and out done by the most prominent contemporary Russian artists. Oddly enough the architect was not Russian. Alfred Parland was born to English parents and was a baptized Anglican. He was born in Saint Petersburg, but received his architectural education in Stuttgart Germany. He also designed the fence surrounding the property and it's one of the most pleasant fences I've ever seen. It has a floral motif done in wrought iron with stems and leaves in a very pleasing design where each panel is the mirror of the one next to it. Between the panels are round beige brick columns with ornate white tops.
The church has over 80,000 square feet of mosaics, more than any church in the world. There's a church under construction that may eventually have more. They are truly amazing. Usually you can spot mosaics right off the bat but it took me a while to realize that I was not looking at paintings or murals but tiny pieces of tile. The ceiling, dome, columns, walls and even the icons are mosaic. Unlike murals which fade and lose their color, these mosaics remain vibrant and distinct. At first I thought the church had been restored inside. Nope, that's just the way mosaics look.
Once again I'm pretty hopeless on the Russian Orthodox saints but I did recognize the four evangelists on the quarter panels of the dome around Christ the Redeemer. Pretty easy because once again the artist has shown each one with his symbol. Some of the story mosaics were tough but I did see Jesus with the woman at the well, healing the lame man at the gate, being judged by the high priest Joseph Caiaphas and the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, Jacob's dream of angels ascending and descending the stairway from heaven and in the dome of one transept, the transfiguration. The pillars are covered with saints and I guess if I studied them I might get 10%.
At the back of the church is a canopy made from semi-precious stone, rhodonite, jasper and serpentine. It's heavily carved and accessed through a small golden gate. It covers the spot where the Tsar was attacked by a bomber, injured and died a few hours later at the Winter Palace.
This church is one of the top sights in Saint Petersburg and justifiably so.
I was time to lace up our hiking shoes and hit the road again. We walked across several canals, one had the Locks of Love on the railing, I guess they're all over the world. We passed the French and Dutch consulates. I always get a kick out of seeing their flags close together. Same color stripes but running in perpendicular directions. We wound up at the Hermitage between the New Hermitage and the Hermitage Theater. We walked along the rear façade of the New Hermitage there were bronzes in niches along the wall. Even in Cyrillic I could read Marc Anthony. At the rear of the Small Hermitage there's a large porch the roof of which is supported by 12 foot tall, very muscular men.
This brought us to the Palace Square with the Alexander Column in the center. Across the square is an impressive 1,000 yard long bow-shaped General Staff Building. The military, finance and foreign office was here in the 1800s. The building is in two wings divided in the center by a large arch. Atop the arch is Winged Victory driving a 6 horse chariot, the symbol of Russia's victory over Napoleon and France in the war of 1812.
We walked to the front of the Hermitage to the Palace Embankment and the Neva River. Across the river we could see the Rostral Columns, former lighthouses, and two important museums. The white and green building with the cupola on top is the Kunstkamera was the first museum in Russia. Established by Peter the Great and completed in 1727. Next to it toward the Rostral Columns is the Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, one of the ten largest natural history museums in the world.
As we walked down the embankment we also saw the Menshikov Palace on the opposite bank of the Neva. Alexander Menshikov was the Governor General of Saint Petersburg and built this palace as his residence in 1710. It's a massive Baroque building, much larger than the Winter Palace.
We continued down the embankment until we came to the Bronze Horseman. This large equestrian statue of Peter the Great was commissioned by Catherine the Great. Peter is sitting on his rearing horse atop a huge granite boulder. This boulder, called the Thunder Stone, is said to be the larges single rock every moved my humans. It weighed over 1,500 tons when moved and 1,250 tons after being finished. It's 45 feet tall base to base to tip and the bronze is 20 feet of that. It's an impressive monument. Catherine had it inscribed with "Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782" in both Latin and Russian. It may be a monument to Peter but Catherine still came first.
We continued across the Alexander Garden to Saint Isaac's Cathedral. It's dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, the patron saint of Peter the Great, who had been born on Saint Isaac's feast day. It's an architect's delight. It's basically a neoclassical structure but uses the Greek-Cross floor plan with a large central dome and four smaller subsidiary domes at the cardinal points. The central dome sets very high on an unusual drum. To be honest it looks a little out of proportion to me but it certainly makes it unique. At 333 feet, the dome itself is also very tall adding to the disproportionate appearance. Don't get me wrong, it's disproportionate but still absolutely striking. Adding to the effect is the fact that this very tall dome is completely plated in pure gold. The dome was gilded by a technique similar to spray painting. The solution used included mercury and the sixty workers died from inhaling the mercury vapors.
The inside is no less spectacular. One unique thing about this visit, the Royal (or Beautiful) Doors were open allowing you to see the altar and its regalia. Behind the altar is a tall stained glass window of Christ wearing a red robe. In front of him is the altar on which you can see the tabernacle that will hold the reserved sacrament used for giving communion to the sick when needed. In front was a small stemmed glass holding wine. I'm not sure about what that was as the wine is usually completely consumed during or just after the service. Another research project for when I get home.
The cathedral's doors are oak with bronze reliefs showing scenes from the Bible and church history. Again, some I knew, some I didn't. One near the bottom was the crucifixion of Peter, easily identified because he refused to be hung in the normal manner as he felt unworthy of dying in the same way as Jesus. Consequently he was crucified upside down.
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