Here are photos of us in Tsarkoe Selo (Tsar's village) outside of St-Petersburg and in St-Petersburg on the University embankment with the sphinx, across from the Winter Palace. We wish we had spent more time in that wonderful city. The vision of Peter the Great, a city he built and went to war with Sweden for 20 years to ensure that the city port would have a free access to the Baltic sea, he won eventually. What is interesting in the story of this city is the number of Italian and French architects, engineers and designers and landscape gardeners who worked for Peter and then Tsarina Catherine I, Tsarina Elizabeth and Catherine II the Great. Tsar Peter wanted to ensure that the city would be a Western European looking city. It was not easy to populate the city, the noble families did not want to come and live there, only force, threats and the absolute requirement that if you wanted to show loyalty to the Tsar you had to move and built your family palace in St-Petersburg. It took years to convince and coerce people to come. Today you have a city of Palaces and great imperial government buildings, all more magnificent then the other. As much as Moscow is old Russia of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, St-Petersburg is the Russia of the Renaissance, of the Romanov dynasty, of the new Russia opening itself to the world. The legacy of Peter the Great lives on to this day in St-Petersburg despite 70 years of Communist dictatorship utter neglect, in fact there is a renaissance since 2000 when the city embarked on a program of renovations and embellishment.
On the Neva river at the University embankment with the Sphinx, a must see if you wish to return to the city.
In the gardens of the Catherine I Palace at Tsarkoe Selo, in the background is the pavilion that once housed the Office of Catherine II the Great.
In front of the Alexander Palace built by Catherine the Great for her grandson Tsar Alexander I at Tsarkoe Selo, the last home of Tsar Nicholas II and his family before their tragic exile and death.
On the Neva river at the University embankment with the Sphinx, a must see if you wish to return to the city.
In the gardens of the Catherine I Palace at Tsarkoe Selo, in the background is the pavilion that once housed the Office of Catherine II the Great.
Did the Sphinx impart her secrets to you? Great photos!
ReplyDeleteWell the Sphinx did promise us that we would return to St-Petersdburg. This is what they do to anyone visiting them and petting them.
DeleteSo glad you had a wonderful time in glorious 'Piter'. Sadly the dear family we knew there, who lived in a Dostoyevskyan apartment block off the Griboyedov Canal, have all moved away, so I don't know when I shall return. No doubt it is much changed and all spruced up.
ReplyDeleteIf we return I would want to go in January or February to see the Hermitage but this time without the crowds. It is a grand museum and Palace but there is something terribly sad about the place at the same time, maybe because of our knowledge of its history. Still a magnificent city.
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