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St. Petersburg, Russia
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Sadly, travel here is no longer possible, but when we
were fortunate enough to see this magnificent city, we
were able to pre-book an organized tour from Canada with SPB tours
who provided an excellent overview of the highlights of St. Petersburg and
the Peterhof, founded by Czar Peter the Great in the
1700s. |
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St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia with a
population of 5 million, is located on the Neva River at the
head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea.
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St. Petersburg is interlaced with approximately 100 tributaries
and canals, with 800 bridges crossing over them. |
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Our sightseeing tour included a boat trip through the canals'
granite embankments and under scenic bridges, past many
remarkable administrative, commercial and arts buildings. |
Peter and Paul Fortress, the original citadel built by Peter the
Great, has served as a fort, a garrison and a jail for
political prisoners. Its walls overlook popular sandy beaches.
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St. Peter and Paul Cathedral,
situated within the Fortress, was built between 1712 and
1733 as the main cathedral of the new capital of the
Russian Empire. |
The ornately decorated cathedral has been the burial place of
almost all of the Russian emperors and empresses.
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St. Isaac's Cathedral
is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the world. Its dome
dominates the skyline. |
The interior
features columns, pilasters and iconostases made of marble and
semi-precious stones.
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The
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood on the bank of the
Griboedov Canal, was designed with a richly decorated facade and
onion domes resembling Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral. |
The church is no longer a place of worship but is a museum with
its walls and ceiling completely covered with intricate mosaics
of Biblical scenes.
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The State
Hermitage Museum occupies a complex of six buildings along the Palace Embankment of the Neva River. The buildings
are divided into specific collections such as
Egyptian antiquities, prehistoric art, Dutch and Flemish art,
and Impressionism. (A. Savin, Wikimedia Commons)
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Catherine the
Great acquired the original Hermitage art collection to add to
the relics and displays of wealth that embellished rooms and
chambers of the Winter Palace. |
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The ornate ceilings of the Hermitage display astonishing detail. |
An early
unfinished sculpture by Michelangelo is part of the collection.
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Among the
collection is this sculpture of a dog which looks remarkably
like Vladimir Putin.
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Rooms like the Italian Skylight Room display a fraction of the
estimated three million pieces in the Hermitage collection. |
The last two tsarinas of Russia created private gardens for the
passage between the Palace Embankment and the vast Palace
Square.
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