St Petersburg city tour

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Saturday, 9/29

 Most city tours by bus give the traveler the “lay of the land” and we see the highlighted buildings, some quite memorable and others, pretty and interesting, but not particularly memorable.  We take lots of pictures and when we get home and go through them, some will strike a chord of remembrance, and most will not.  It is easier when I look at my notes, altho’ I must admit I do not write down every fact, but just the ones that I personally find interesting.  I do not know where the most important general of such and such a war lived, although we were told.

Our bus for the day was extraordinarily fancy.

The city (which now has about 5 million inhabitants) was founded by Peter the Great as a fortress to protect Russia from attacks by Sweden.  Our guide told us that it is larger in land mass than some European countries. 

It has had several names, first St Petersburg (for Peter’s patron saint), then Petrograd, then Leningrad and it was changed back to St Petersburg in 1991.

It seems to have been built upon a swamp, we saw several rivers and canals were also dug, but were later filled in to make streets. 

Empress Elizabeth’s convent which was built for her to enter as a nun- but she died before its completion—is a lovely complex with blue and yellow and white walls and decorations.

Convent

As we drove around the city, I noticed a great deal more graffiti than I saw in Moscow.  Maybe I just didn’t notice it before, or the “art work” is more colorful here, or whatever.

We saw St Isaacs Cathedral with its gold dome. 

Gold dome of St Isaac's

 It was shelled by the Germans in WW II and the damage is still visible today.   The word Prospect  (which is like our word avenue) means long wide street taken from the architects prospective drawing.

We were told that St P is an industrial city but it also has a great number of museums and 30 Universities.     

Many of the city’s cathedrals, chapels and churches were “re-purposed“ during the “Soviet time” as morgues, warehouses, skating rinks, and offices because Lenin felt that “Religion was the opiate of the masses” and wanted to eliminate all worship experiences.  At least he was smart enough not to destroy the buildings, so that later they could be brought back to their original purpose and brilliance.  We have probably seen and toured more churches on this trip than on any of the other trips we have experienced.

As we walked around, we saw "actors" dressed up as Peter the Great and the tsarina.  Their purpose for being there was to take pictures with tourists for from 100-300 rubles.

The Church of the Spilled Blood is a huge place where we stopped to take pictures.  It commemorates the place where Nicholas I was martyred.  He was killed when a bomb exploded wounding him fatally.    The church was closed for a time because of the October Revolution (Bolshevik Rev.)  It was used as a morgue during WW II.  Over one million people perished in St Petersburg during the Great Siege (980 days) when the Germans tried to capture the city.  Hitler had even made plans for a victory celebration at the Astoria hotel in Saint Petersburg ( then Leningrad) and had invitations printed.  The party never happened.  St. Petersburg was not taken by the Germans.  

Our cruise ship is docked by a large number of gray concrete (ugly) apartment buildings between 15 and 20 stories tall.  We were told by a guide in Moscow that apartments in Russian cities are very very expensive.  Her estimate was $40,000 per square meter of space, meaning one apartment  in Moscow would cost millions.  In Soviet times, all apartments were owned by the state and were doled out as favors.  The higher a person was in the “party” the better, larger apartments he was given.  Those who were merely workers with no clout had to share apartments with extended family and had shared kitchen and bathroom facilities with others on the same floor.  Since “Soviet times” are gone, people are expected to pay for things, which is difficult for modern Russians to adjust to.  And apartments aren’t usually rented, but bought. 

After the city tour, N and I went out looking for an internet café.-- we found one, but our elderly lap top didn't like the connection.  I was able to get the WiFi to work on my phone, tho.