Waterways of the Tsars: St Petersburg from the Water (10/19/2019)

Saturday, October 19, 2019 (continued)
After lunch, we went on the optional shore excursion "St Petersburg from the Water," as this was our chance to go inside the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, officially the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. We traveled by motor coach to our first stop.

Церковь Спаса на Крови/Church of the Savior on
Spilled Blood (1883-1907, by Alfred Parland, in the style
of traditional Russian Orthodox churches, on order
of Alexandria III, dedicated to his father Alexander II)

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was erected on the site where Alexander II was attacked in 1881 by Russian nihilists. A thrown bomb exploded as Alexander's carriage passed along the embankment of the Griboedov Canal. Alexander hopped out of the carriage to remonstrate with the culprit, when a second bomb was thrown, mortally wounding Alexander and the second culprit himself. Alexander was taken to the Winter Palace where he died.

All the walls and ceilings inside the Church of
the Savior on Spilled Blood are covered with mosaics;
note the top ceiling mosaic is of the Resurrection,
as that is the official name of the church

The mosaic of Christ the Pantocrator in the central dome

The church was ransacked and seriously damaged after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The church was closed in the 1930s. During World War II, it was used to store food (i.e., potatoes) and later as a morgue. In 1970, St Isaac's Cathedral (as a museum) assumed management of the church, and began extensive restoration. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood opened again in 1997.

The iconostasis is made of carved stone

The Royal or Holy Doors (2005-2012
to replace the original lost during Soviet times)

Column mosaics of saints

Column mosaics of Sts Matthew and Andrew (KSS)

Detail to show the pieces of mosaic (KSS)

Wall mosaics of the Nativity of Christ

Marble flooring

Decorative mosaic borders of flowers

A canopy covers the alleged spot where Alexander II
spilled his blood on the cobblestones, and
leaned against a section of iron railing

Detail showing the cobblestones behind the golden gate,
and the railing in the back

A nearby model of the canopied memorial for the
visually impaired

The bell tower is centered over the canopy-covered
cobblestones and the base of the tower is covered
with tiles depicting the coats of arms of all the cities
and provinces that sent donations for building the church

S large kokoshniki/gable mosaic of Judgment Day

Inscriptions on granite plaques outline the life and reforms of Alexander II

Alexander II was the tsar to give serfs their freedom in 1861, citing that no human should own another. He also introduced educational, judiciary, military, and economic reforms. Alexander II was the one to sell Alaska to the United States.

N kokoshniki/gable mosaic of the Resurrection

The canal was partially filled in so that the
church could be built around the significant railing
and cobblestones of the embankment

We returned to the motor coach for a ride to the canal boat tour landing.

We passed a demonstration of 3-4 people under
the not so watchful eyes of the police; there is the
Russian national flag, the orange and black stripes
of the Order of St George, and the Soviet flag

Apparently Putin revived the colors of the Order of St George, which had been abolished after the Bolshevik Revolution because it represented the highest battlefield honor in imperial/tsarist Russia. Orange and black have been made to symbolize victory over the Nazis during World War II, or at least nationalism and memory of the war. World War II veterans would not have been awarded the Order of St George, but now they wear the colors. Somehow the St George Ribbon began as a symbol of remembering the war, but under Putin it has become a symbol of the state, and then a symbol of loyalty to the state. A Putin PR campaign? Here in the United States, the "state" did not have to come up with new colors. They just have changed the meaning of the old the red, white, and blue flag!

A couple canal tour boats await the Viking passengers on the Fontanka River

Perhaps half the canals of St Petersburg have been filled in, but enough remain in central St Petersburg to give the city the nickname of the "Venice of the North."

Дворец Белосельских-Белозерских/Palace of Beloselsky-Belozersky
(1747, multiple renovations) was a residence of nobility, then during
World War I it was used as the British Red Cross hospital; later and
still today it is a venue for concerts and special events

Another tour boat in front of the Shuvalov Palace
that houses the Fabergé Museum

The gates (1838, by Geronimo Corsini) to Шереметевский дворец/
Sheremetev Palace (1740s, by Savva Chevakinsky and Fyodor Argunov);
the Sheremetev family held concerts and theater performances here,
and now the palace houses the State Museum of Theatre and Musical Art

Two boys (wearing red jackets) ran from bridge to bridge
to wave at us as the tour boat passed

Санкт-Петербургский цирк/St Petersburg Circus (1747,
by Vasily Kenel) was the first brick-built circus in Russia;
since 1928 it also has the first circus museum in the world

Миха́йловский за́мок/St Michael's Castle (1797-1801, by
Vincenzo Brenna and Vasili Bazhenov) was the residence of Paul I
(son of Catherine the Great) who was so paranoid he had a moat
dug around the palace; the bridge to the L in the photo once
crossed this moat that is now filled in (KSS)

Funny thing is, several weeks after moving into this palace, Paul I was apparently killed by his own guards.

Approaching Panteleimon Bridge (1823)
where we turned into the Moika River (KSS)

There are those two boys again (KSS)

Sadovaya Street Bridge; you can see how the low clearance,
and we really did have to watch our heads (KSS)

Pavilion and pier (by Carlo Rossi) in Mikhailovsky Garden, which is
the location of the Mikhailovsky Palace, home of the Russian Museum

Don't stand up! (KSS)

Passing by Teatral'nyy Bridge and seeing the bell tower
of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Cruising along the Moika River

Waving youngster with his grandfather (KSS)

Graffiti on the wall surrounding the former main imperial stables (KSS)

Last Palace, former palace of Prince Abamelek-Lazarev, was
the last palace built before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917

The former mayor of St Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, lived in this building;
he was the first democratically-elected mayor in 1991 and was co-author
of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (1993)

Putin asked Sobchak to travel to Kaliningrad to support his election campaign. Strangely, Sobchak and his two bodyguards all died of simultaneous heart attacks.

Part of the General Staff Building that houses the Hermitage
Museum's collection of Modern Masters

Here we turned into the Winter Canal

Connection between the Large Hermitage on the L to
Peter I's Winter Palace (with the Hermitage Theater) on the R

The boys in red on the Hermitage Bridge

Now we were on the wide Neva River, passing the Peter and Paul Fortress,
with the iconic needle spire of the Cathedral of Sts Peter & Paul;
note the river entrance to the fortress

Kent and Tamiko on the canal tour boat (Photo by JoJo - thanks!)

Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace (1857-1862, by Andrei Stackenschneider
in Revivalist style, including a medley of Renaissance,
Baroque, and Louis XVI styles) (KSS)

Marble Palace (1768-1785, by Antonio Rinaldi in Neo-classical style)
was built for Count Grigory Orlov, one of Catherine the Great's "favorites"

Dome of Храм-часовня Святой Троицы/Holy Trinity Chapel
on the site of Peter's Church of the Holy Trinity where he became tsar;
and the dome and minarets of the Санкт-Петербургская соборная мечеть/
St Petersburg Mosque (1910-1921, by Nikolai Vasilyev)

Gate (1784, by Georg Velters) to the Summer Garden
of Peter the Great's Summer Palace

We turned into the Fontanka River under the Palace Embankment Bridge
(1766-1769), which has debt pits where once debtors were
imprisoned until their relatives could pay their debts; supposedly
you could not stand in the cells, were exposed to cold winds,
and rising water levels; Catherine the Great abolished their use

Peter the Great's Summer Palace (1710-1714,
by Domenico Trezzini); it is a very modest palace! (KSS)

Fall foliage in the Summer Garden (KSS)

Passing St Michael's Castle again; the story is that the color
matches the glove of a lady friend of Paul I

The boys in red are back (at the end of the tour they were looking for tips)!

There are 342 bridges within the St Petersburg city limits and we passed under 13 different bridges, two of them twice.
We boarded the motor coach to return to the Viking Truvor.

We passed the Московский вокзал/Moscow Railway Station
(1844-1851, by Konstantin Thon), the terminal for the train to Moscow;
interestingly, the line ends in Moscow at the Ленинградский вокзал/
Leningrad Railway Station, a twin in the same design as this station (KSS)

Across the square from the train station, letters on the building
proclaim Город-герой Ленинград/Hero City Leningrad,
a tribute to those who survived the Nazi siege of World War II

After dinner on the Viking Truvor, there was evening entertainment with an opera soprano and tenor from the Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg. The audience joined in for "Kalinka Malinka."

Sunday, October 20, 2019
We departed at 2:45 for the airport and flights home via Frankfurt, DE. We used Uber to get home by 17:00 from the Philadelphia airport. Another great trip has been accomplished.