A new destination after a hot summer in Russia : St Petersburg !
The famous "Venice of North", called by Russians Peter, has also known a heat record last summer with 37,1°C on August 7th.
Nearly unharmed by the 1930-50s period of Stalinist reconstruction, downtown St. Petersburg
is crowded with splendid palaces, impressive historical monuments, tree-lined avenues and beautiful bridges. Nearly 300 years old, St. Petersburg is a city full of historical and cultural places.
"City sumptuous city poor
A servile mind at the sight harmonious
The arch of his pale skies,
Boredom, cold, and granite[...] " Alexandre Pouchkine, 1828
A bit of history ?
St Petersburg is a relatively young city, which was only founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great. After the victory on Swedish army, he wanted to build a new town which should be a showcase for foreigners and opened to Europe. It was the capital of Russia until 1914. It was renamed as Petrograd in 1914, then Leningrad in 1924, and again St Petersburg in 1991.
During the reign of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, St. Petersburg developed into a fine European capital to rival those of any in the West.
The Imperial splendor of St. Petersburg is best reflected in its royal residences like Peterhof Palace or the Smolny Cathedral in baroque style.
Elizabeth commissioned the lovely Smolny Convent and the Winter Palace, though she died before both buildings were completed. Ironically, during Elizabeth's reign the area near the palace, which was later named Palace Square, was used as a grazing land for the royal cows.
Unlike some of her predecessors, Elizabeth preferred to appoint Russians and not foreigners to the highest positions in the country and being a patron of the arts and sciences, she established the Russian Academy of Arts. Elizabeth was a very lively and social personality and organised regular balls, receptions, and firework displays. And she spoke fluently French language !
Then, Peter III's wife (Peter was the son of Elisabeth), Catherine II, promoted the cultural life of St Petersburg. Catherine II was passionated of west european culture and she invited to St Petersburg many artists like writers, painters, sculptors, ...
The Yekaterininsky Palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin town) was turned by Catherine II into a magnificent royal residence with a vast garden. We didn’t have enough time to visit it : it will be for next time !
St Petersburg is a fascinating destination and historically one of the important European cities that we should visit.
3 days to visit it ?
When arriving from Moscow by night train there is the solution to take the metro which looks like Moscow's one (but without announce of stations ...) or to go out on the «Nevsky Prospect » avenue which is 4 km long.
We noticed the good confort of rail couchette car with teppish on the floor, all bedding provided and the coffee / tea corner at the entrance of the wagon where a lady is selling hot drinks for a reasonable price whenever we want during the trip. At the arrival, a lot of people on the platform !
Nevsky Prospect is very lively during the day but quiet when the train arrived at 7am. Not easy to find an opened coffee shop to get breakfast if we want to avoid McDonald's !
Wonderful, there are even city maps and an indication (in Russian) where you are. We discovered the first channels: it seems there are 342 bridges (over 400 in Venice to compare).
On Nevsky Prospekt avenue there is the cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, which was built in the early 19th century and was thought to be a copy of St. Peter's Basilica. Inside it, the volumes are impressive and you can see the banners of Napoleon's army taken by Russian troops during the overthrow of Berezina.
Come on now at the end of Nevsky Prospect to see the Palace Square and Alexander Column. It is the heart of St. Petersburg and the main square of the city with the beautiful Winter Palace in baroque style.
Now let’s enter the Hermitage Museum in the Winter Palace. It takes half a day to visit it : a few pictures below give an idea of the richness of these collections.
Returning to the Palace Square, the coach awaits us ... No, we will not visit with this option but will do a boat trip in the canals and the Neva.
A walk in the evening to end this first day ... oh, surprise, trams are off ! Normal was a big power outage in the city, what had not happened for over 5 years ... 2 hours later, everything was running !
Let's go to the Admiralty : it is here that were built some of the first ships of the Baltic Fleet of Russia. The building was renovated in the early 19th century to be a wonderful example of the Russian Empire style, with white columns, stucco and arrow bright, visible from afar.
While going towards the Neva lies the Bronze Horseman. This impressive equestrian monument was commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great in honor of Peter the Great, the founder of the city. The statue has been the subject of a poem by Pushkin : it represents a brave Roman hero.
The second day was devoted to the visit of the estate of Peterhof. By taking the metro then a bus it is quite easy to access.
A luxurious imperial palace was built in 1710 on the shore of the Gulf of Finland by Peter the Great. Known as "The Russian Versailles", the palace has some well restored interior and a beautiful park full of statues, pavilions and fountains.
We understand why when asked where was Peterhof, the Russians in the bus were talking about the park fountains !
Inside the Palace photos are banned but it can be found on the Internet ...
The third day was devoted to the Fortress of Peter and Paul and surrounding areas.
The fortress was built to protect the city from the threat of Swedish attacks and it is now the emblem of the city and the resting place of most of the Russian Tsars.
But before entering, we had a look at some sand sculptures on the beach next the fortress.
We must be careful not to be close to guns at 12 o’clock as this is surprising: we almost got thrown in the sand !
You can see the tombs of the tsars in the church and visit the prison (no longer used).
We will now see the hut of Peter the Great.
It was the first wooden house built in St. Petersburg and the home of Peter the Great between 1703 and 1708. What is curious is that it lies within a stone house ... to better conserve it.
Let’s continue in the district to board the cruiser Aurora. This vestige Russian boat was built in the late 19th century and served in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. From this cruiser has been given the signal of the October Revolution in 1917.
We'll finish our tour of St. Petersburg by the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, which was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. It has a profusion of colorful bulbs and a remarkable interior in mosaic. St. Petersburg had to answer the St. Basil Cathedral in Moscow !
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