Waterways of the Tsars: St Petersburg: Nevsky Avenue (10/17/2019)

Thursday, October 17, 2019 (continued)
After the General Staff Building section of the Hermitage Museum, we walked along Невский проспект/Nevsky Avenue, the main drag of St Petersburg. We had been driven up and down the avenue in September 2018, but this time we were walking.

Cтоловая/Russian fast food

защита ленинградского мемориала/Memorial to the
Defense of Leningrad at #14 Nevsky Avenue;
the blue sign from World War II reads: “Citizens!
During artillery bombardment, this
side of the street is more dangerous!”

St Petersburg experienced a horrific siege when the Nazis surrounded the city, lasting from September 8, 1941 until January 27, 1944. That is 872 days, over multiple years! Some supplies were brought in across Lake Ladoga, but mass starvation took many of the 1,500,000 lives lost. Another 1,400,000 persons were evacuated. Russian troops eventually expelled the Nazi forces to lift the siege.

The Literary Café at #18 was once the Wolf & Beranger
Confectionary, where it is said Alexander Pushkin
ate his last meal before his fatal duel

Literary Café

City blocks/enclaves with apartment buildings surrounding a church
were encouraged by Catherine the Great for foreigners living in the city;
here at Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street was for Germans

The Germans' church was the Lutheran Church of
Sts Peter & Paul (1833-1837, by Alexander Brullov),
which the Soviets used for an indoor swimming pool

A working telephone booth

Казанский собор/Kazan Cathedral (1799-1812, Andrei Voronikhin on order of Pavel I)
with the exterior portico modeled on St Peter's Cathedral in Rome

Yes, yet another church named for the famed icon of our Lady of Kazan. The original icon was said to have come from Constantinople in the 13C. It was lost when the Tatars took over the city (c 1438). In 1552, Ivan the Terrible  took back the city. After a fire in 1579 destroyed the city, the Virgin supposedly appeared to a young girl, revealing the location of the icon. She told the archbishop, but was not taken seriously. With her mother, the girl found the icon in a tunnel under a house where it was hidden to save it from the Tatars. A monastery was erected on the site to house the icon. Replicas of the icon were sent to major cities such as Moscow and Yaroslavl.

The columns of the portico

No photos of the inside of the cathedral, where a long line of worshippers waited for their turn to kiss the icon.

In the L transept of Kazan Cathedral was the tomb of Field Marshal
Mikhail Kutuzov who led Russian troops during Napoleonic wars;
his statue (1837, by Boris Orlovsky) stands in front of the cathedral

Russian Headquarters of the American Singer Company (1904, by
Pavel Suzor in Art Nouveau style) with an eagle on the corner roof line

The Singer Headquarters has a globe atop a corner tower

Филармония малый зал/Philharmonic Small Hall
(1802, by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli) at #30

Базилика Святой Екатерины Александрийской/Basilica of
St Catherine of Alexandria (1783, by Antonio Rinaldi)

Гостиный двор/Gostiny dvor shopping center (1757-1785, by
Rastrelli, then Vallin de la Mothe who did façade) with two-story arcades

Seemingly unending arches

Площадь Островского/Ostrovsky Square with the
Александринский театр/Alexandrinsky Theater (1828-1832,
by Carlo Rossi in Empire style)

Monument (1873, by Mikhail Mikeshin) for
Catherine the Great surrounded by public figures
of her time, including one of her favorites,
Grigory Potemkin (2nd from L)

Елисеевский магазин/Yeliseyevsky Food Hall at #56
(1902-1903, by Gavriil Baranovsky in Art Nouveau style),
once purveyor of fine food for the aristocracy,
Gastronom No. 1 under the Soviets, and now
a gourmet delicatessen and restaurant (KSS)

Yeliseyevsky Food Hall store window (KSS)

Yeliseyevsky meringue and candy shoes

Yeliseyevsky live piano music (KSS)

Yeliseyevsky Café

Yeliseyevsky Charcouterie

Yeliseyevsky Confectionary

Yeliseyevsky Marzipan

Yeliseyevsky Patisserie

Yeliseyevsky Fromagerie

Yeliseyevsky Art Nouveau lamps

Yeliseyevsky House beer

Toast and chicken liver paté

Shchi/cabbage soup in brown bread bowl with sour cream

Yeliseyev Brothers watch over all

After a long but small meal, we did not have time for the Russian [Art] Museum.

Cтарбакс/Starbucks (KSS)

театр аврора/Aurora Theater (1913), the oldest continuously
operating movie theater in St Petersburg

Movie poster for джокер/Joker

One of four укротители лошадей/Horse Tamers (1851 castings, by
Peter Clodt von Jurgensburg) on the Anichkov Bridge;
perhaps this is Horse with Walking Youth, one of the first two made

Horse Tamer; perhaps Youth Taking Horse by the Bridle

Horse Tamer; or is this Youth Taking Horse by the Bridle?

Horse Tamer; even this could be Youth Taking Horse by the Bridle!

Heading back on Nevsky Avenue to the Metro station.

Directional crosswalks

Пассаж/Passage or Arcade building at #48
(1900 reconstructed in Art Nouveau style)

Inside the glass-roofed arcade (1846)

Армянская Апостольская Церковь Св. Екатерины/Armenian
Apostolic Church of St Catherine (1771-1776, by Yuri Felten,
in Russian Classicism style)

During World War II the church was the headquarters
of anti-aircraft defense; restored in 2000

Escalator down to the Gostiny dvor Metro Station, 56m/184' deep

We took the Green Line #3 to Lomonosovskaya.

St Petersburg Metro is unique for a) using tokens to go through
entry turnstiles, and b) having the first platform screen doors
for passenger safety and climate control

With the platform screen doors, passengers cannot access the tracks

Escalators up from the 65m/213' deep Lomonosovskaya station

In front of the Metro station, we caught a mini-bus (K119) and took it to the end of the line. Then walked across the street to the dock of Viking Truvor.

St Peter and Paul Fortress (KSS)

Palace Bridge and the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island (KSS)

After dinner, we headed out on motor coaches to the Hermitage Theater for a performance of the ballet. Swan Lake.

Hermitage Theater (1783-1787, by Giacomo Quarenghi, as the
court theater) was closed by the Bolsheviks, and not reopened until 1991

This was not the Bolshoi Ballet, but we won't complain because it was an included shore excursion!
Next: Panoramic St Petersburg.