Saint Petersburg, Russia
With an early wake-up call from Tom O’Brien, several of us watched the docking of the Endeavour at the English Embankment, right in the center of Peter the Great’s imperial city. We departed by bus for a quick tour of the town center and an early entrance (by special permission) into the Hermitage, the great museum of art founded in Catherine the Great’s Winter Palace on the Neva. Grand staircases, corridors filled with sculpture and painting, gilded rooms filled with Rembrandts, Titians, not to mention several paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael. The Old Masters were followed by treasures from the Impressionists, but we were able only to sample the immense collection of a museum rivaled only by the Louvre, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan in New York.
Lunch was served back on the ship, after which we left for visits to the grandiose Saint Isaac’s Cathedral. Built in neo-classical style in the nineteenth century (a bit late!), this huge, dark building impresses by its size and ponderousness. A hundred granite columns hold up the immense dome that can be seen from all over center city. This was once the central church of the Russian Orthodox faith in Russia, though in style it is a far cry from the native Russian style.
The second important stop of the afternoon was the Peter-Paul Fortress, which served imperial Russia both as a defense against the external and internal enemies of the empire. Not only a military fort on the Neva, Peter-Paul was also the principal prison for political opponents of tsarism. Today it is most note-worthy as the final resting place of all the Russian tsars and tsarinas from Peter the Great (1689-1725) to Nicholas II (1894-1917). The last tsar was executed by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg, in the Urals, in July 1918, along with his family. Buried hastily in unmarked graves, the remains of the imperial family were discovered only recently, and the tsar was buried with great ceremony in the church in the fortress. Nicholas II was canonized as a saint by the Orthodox Church.
In the evening most of the guests enjoyed a special performance of the ballet Giselle in the intimate Hermitage Theater, built by and for Catherine the Great. A full day in the imperial capital!
