In 2003 St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, known as "the museum of architecture" celebrated its 300th year birthday. The city proudly showcased its renovated and spotless heritage buildings to the world. It was also the year that a friend and I visited this magnificent city in the month of August.
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The subway into the city centre makes a stop on Nevsky Prospekt at the Gostinyy Dvor department store - the largest in St Petersburg, which today still looks as stark as it did during the communism era! The pulse of the city is Nevsky Prospekt and life 'happens' on this boulevard. One can walk to most tourist venues from this boulevard and it is also where the legendary Grand Hotel Europe is situated.
Nevsky Prospekt boulevard is where one can find the Yeliseev Deli (a well-known turn of the century landmark where it is reputed that Leo Tolstoys' "Anna Karanina" went shopping). This food store is an absolute delight. In there you will see crystal chandeliers, marble counter tops and beautiful stained glass windows - completely over the top, but worthwhile visiting.
Nevsky Prospekt also has an outlet for Lomonosov Porcelain (the former Russian imperial manufactory). Inspired by the luxurious dining sets of Catherine the Great, this exquisite style has been the exclusive design of Lomonosov Porcelain for over half a century.
The St Peter and Paul Fortress is a shrine to the Romanov dynasty. In 1712 Peter declared St Petersburg the new capital of Russia, and set out to establish the city as a Western showcase. All the Russian tsars from the time of Peter the Great are buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Peter the Great's son, Tsar Alexey is also buried here. Alexev, whom Peter imprisoned on the island, became the prison's first casualty when he died there. In 1998 the assassinated Nicholas II, his wife Alexandria and three of their children were finally given a proper burial place in the Cathedral (the remains of two of their children have never been found)
Armed with a good map we walked along the Moika Canal - passing Pushkins' residence and emerging at the Saviour on the Blood Church - which was erected on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb. This church has the largest mosaic collections in the world created mostly by Russian masters from St Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts (the church has only been open to the public since 1997). We also visited St Isaacs Cathedral (the fourth largest domed cathedral in the world).
I don't believe anyone can prepare one for a visit to the Hermitage at the Winter Palace. It is the mother of all art museums! It has the largest collection of art and antiquities in the world! Peter the Great founded the Hermitage art collection, first hanging them in his country palace at Peterhof and then later displaying them at an earlier version of the Winter Palace. His daughter Empress Elizabeth had the newer Winter Palace built and continued her fathers wish of westernising St Petersburg. However, it was Catherine the Great, the German-born wife of Peter II, who put her westernised stamp all over the place, making French the official language of the court and establishing the foundations of the Hermitage's extraordinary artwork holdings.
By the time of her death in 1796 the city of St Petersburg was heralded as one of the grandest capitals in Europe. In 1917 the Bosheviks consolidated the museums holdings by confiscating all of Russia's privately owned art collections. It is believed that Stalin went as far as selling off a suite of Rembrandts and some Faberge eggs to an American for foreign currency!
There is always something unique or unusual that happens to me on my travels abroad. While my friend and I stood chatting outside the Hermitage waiting to purchase our entrance tickets, a group of musicians who were performing, suddenly started to play Nkosi Sikilel' iAfrika - obviously we were not the first South African voices they had heard before!
For more information on Easy Pace Russia contact Insight Vacations on (011)280 8400
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