This is an impressive building which is reminiscent of St Peter's in Rome and it sounded to me like our guide referred to it as the church of atheism, now isn't that an interesting oxymoron?
I'll get back to this tomorrow, it was not on the agenda for today.
St Petersburg was the capital of Russia for about 200 years. Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 who was, amongst many other things, an innovator, seemingly tireless and focused on the Europeanisation of Russia. At roughly the same time Australia was just beginning our history of white settlement. The Tsar had the the foundation stones laid for the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg, just 80ish years before Sydney was founded by the hardships and hard graft of settlers & convicts who were way out of their depth in a very strange land. Founded not that far apart in in time but so vastly different in their development provide for me a clear statement about what money and unlimited power can achieve.
In Sydney military colonial government had a tough remit but Peter the Great also had a tough row to hoe, but he did have the advantage of the ultimate power and the funds to declare a city would be built on marsh land, in extreme weather and geographical conditions. Wikipedia tells me that the 'high mortality rate required a constant supply of workers. Peter ordered a yearly conscription of 40,000 serfs, one conscript for every nine to 16 households. Conscripts had to provide their own tools and food for the journey of hundreds of kilometres, on foot, in gangs, often escorted by military guards and shackled to prevent desertion". Not quite the same circumstances under which Sydney was founded and developed, although the convicts might understand the hard graft.
Fortresses are usually on hills, defensive positions and all that, but Peter and Paul Fortress was designed to fight off the Swedish so the fortress was built on the last upstream island of the Neva delta.
The approach, across this wooden bridge, is not what you'd call imposing.
I reckon the Swedes could have taken it ;)
The Neva River
The island it's built on is called Zayachy (hare) Island because Tsar Peter saw a hare when he was scouting positions for the work to begin. There are lots of hare statues here.
Fortress gates
We didn't spend a lot of time here but we did see the Peter and Paul cathedral which is sort of like the Russian equivalent to Westminster Abbey in as much it houses the tombs of the royal family. Almost all the Russian emperors and empresses, from Peter the Great to Nicholass II.
One one side of the square (this building below) is just far enough away from the church on the opposite side of the square to allow one to walk back far enough to get a photo of the cathedral.
I think that's very considerate of those 18th century architects.
Built between 1712 and 1733 the cathedral's bell tower was the world's tallest Orthodox bell tower.
I've run out of superlatives to describe Russian churches.
The tour in the morning was a driving tour so we could see the major sights. the Fortress was the only one we actually went into.
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St. Isaac's Cathedral
The was originally the city's main church and is the fourth biggest single-domed cathedral in the world (facts for Becca: St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence are the first three) & is now a museum, will try to get back to it after the tour to see inside.
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Smolny Convent Cathedral is part of a convent which was originally built to house Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter. She wasn't allowed to reign for a while, when that changed she backed out of the nun-thing and was the Empress of Russia from 1741-1762. According to our guide she is known as Elizabeth-spender, because she lavished huge sums on extraordinary building and altruistic projects which bankrupted the treasury, leaving just 3 rubble there when she died. For some reason she couldn't marry so she took lovers and had a pretty un-nun-like approach to men.
Russian history = real life soap opera.
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Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
This church is built on the exact site of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II. Russian history is also the story of intrigue and murder. This poor guy had six attempts on his life before the two that mortally wounded him here. Yes two. The first attempt by bomb shook him up a little but when he got out of his carriage to assess damage and, some say to see to a wounded boy, another bomb was more successful. He didn't die here, was taken back to the Winter Palace but died of his wounds. This church was built by his son. In order to enshrine the exact spot the canal had to be narrowed to allow room for the building. We did go inside today, but we did go back at night as you can see below.
You can just see how the church juts out into the canal.
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