Arriving in St PetersburgJul 25, 2011
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| July 25, Monday, St Petersburg We next visited Smolny Cathedral and Convent, built in the baroque style in the mid-18th C by Rastrelli, an Italian architect who also designed Winter Palace, Catherine's Palace, and the Grand Palace at the Peterhof. We then went to Peter and Paul Fortress, the original citadel of St Petersburg built at the beginning of the 18th C. Peter and Paul Cathedral is the church where all of the Tsars from Peter I to Alexander III are interred , and more recently, Nicholas II and his family who were killed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. The Cathedral spire reaches just over 400 ft and features an angel holding a cross. This has become one of the most important symbols of St Petersburg and can be seen from afar. In the afternoon we went by bus to the outskirts of town to Peterhof on the Gulf of Finland. This series of gardens, fountains, and palaces was commissioned by Peter the Great and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has been called the Russian Versaille, and, like that palace, is extravagantly grand. The gardens are also large and very pleasant and dotted with fountains, none of which make use of pumps. The water comes from springs, and is stored in reservoirs above the elevation of the fountains which produces the pressure for the fountains. The water than drains through a series of small canals to the Gulf of Finland. The Grand Palace sits high above the Grand Cascade and Samson Fountain, which, itself, celebrates the victory of Russia over Sweden in the Great Northern War at the beginning of the 18th C. It features Samson tearing open the jaws of a Lion out of which shoots a 60ft vertical stream of water. Apparently, the Lion is on the coat of arms of Sweden which makes the fountain doubly symbolic since the victory over Sweden occurred on St Samson's Day. Most of the fountains in the Grand Cascade are gilt with gold. As with many of the treasures of tsarist Russia, this place was looted and largely destroyed by the Germans in WWII, though has since been restored. |
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