It seems to be a very common thing to have a winter house
and a summer house here in St. Petersburgh.
After getting up and getting ready we headed out on our
excursion to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. We traveled through the city center on
the way there. The whole area is decorated with World Cup propaganda! It’s the
coolest thing. St. Petersburg has a mixture of old and new buildings but you wouldn’t
be able to differentiate between them unless you were around when the new
buildings popped up. They try very hard to keep the town consistent. We also passed
by the KGB building. The locals refer to the building as the “Big House.” Our
guide pointed out a bunch of palaces, museums, and churches as we passed them. The
majority of the residents are orthodox but they still attend church as a tradition
and baptize their children just in case. There is an insane amount of palaces
here! I could swear that the only people that lived here were royalty. A lot of
them were repurposed into government buildings or museums. It seems like
everyone had a palace at one point in time.
We made a stop at the Church on Spilled Blood but didn’t
spend much time there. This church is built where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated.
During the revolution the church was destroyed and closed until it was
converted into a museum in 1970. The revenue generated from the museum was used
to restore the church which still isn’t fully reconstructed yet.
The Peter and Paul Cathedral is one of Russia’s orthodox
cathedrals and resides along the Neva River inside of the Peter and Paul
Fortress. It also has the worlds largest bell tower. St. Petersburg’s skyline is
relatively flat so the extremely tall spire can be seen from most places in the
city. Our guide was very passionate about the iconostasis at this cathedral.
She has been to many cathedrals and this one has been her favorite since her
first visit as a child. The iconostasis here holds a unique history and represents
a very strong culture. The Peter and Paul Cathedral is best known for being the
final resting place of the Romanov’s.
After lunch we headed out to Catherine Palace. This place is
absolutely incredible! The throne room, dining rooms and garden are very impressive
but the most impressive room is The Amber Room, the 8th wonder of
the world. The current Amber Room is a reconstruction. The original room was looted
shipped to Germany during WWII but it disappeared and currently, nobody knows
where it is. It took 24 years, 6 tons of amber and the work of 40 skilled craftsman
to recreate the priceless piece of art. The amount of detail expressed is insane!
Each wall panel is an amber mosaic. No matter how well you know the room there’s
always something new to discover. We were told that pictures weren’t allowed but
I tried to sneak a shot on the way out. I got caught by a docent and I wasn’t
able to get a good shot. What a waste of effort! Photos can be found on Google
anyways…
We didn’t have anything else scheduled for the rest of the
day so we ate when we got back and lounged around for a while.
What a day! Tomorrow is our last day in St. Petersburg before we move on to our next city.
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