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City Guide - St Petersburg - Key Attractions | ||
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Key Attractions Hermitazh (Hermitage) The Hermitage is one of the greatest art collections of the world, housed in a vast architectural tour de force. At its heart is one of the world's most luxurious royal palaces, the ornate Baroque Winter Palace, designed by the Italian Architect Bartolomei Rastrolli and perfectly situated looking out over the River Neva at the soaring gold spire of the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul. The setting and the exterior of the building are stunning but, once inside, the vast carved and gilded white marble Jordan Staircase leads to fabulous columned state rooms with gilded ceilings, crystal chandeliers and intricately patterned mosaic and parquet floors. Added to these riches is an art collection started by Catherine the Great in 1764 with 255 paintings, now grown to around three million exhibits. It includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, French Impressionists (Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Pissarro), as well as Van Gogh, Matisse, Gaugin and Rodin. It would take around ten years to tour the Hermitage, spending just one minute at each exhibit, so the 90-minute guided tour of the highlights with commentary in English gives a good overview for a first visit. Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya 34 Tel: (812) 311 3465 or 219 8625. Fax: (812) 311 9009. Transport: Metro Nevsky prospekt/Gostiny dvor; bus 7,10, 47 or T128; trolleybus 1, 7 or 10. Opening hours: Tues-Sat 1030-1800, Sun 1030-1700. Ticket offices close one hour before closing time. Admission: US$10 (concessions available). Isaakievsky sobor (St Isaac's Cathedral) St Isaac's Cathedral was built in 1818-58 by French-born architect Auguste Montferrand. Commissioned by Tsar Alexander I to build a spectacular imperial cathedral, he executed a masterpiece of engineering on the marshy ground. One hundred and eighty years later, the gilded dome of St Isaac's still dominates the skyline of St Petersburg, but the price was high. Thousands of serfs died in the building, numerous sculptors decorated the façades and pediments, tons of granite columns supported it and Alexander and his successor were dead before it was completed. The interiors are dazzling with malachite and lapis lazuli columns, mosaic icons, painted ceilings and, in the sanctuary, a large stained-glass 'Resurrected Christ'. The climb to the colonnade of the dome is rewarded by panoramic views over the city. During the Communist years, the church became a museum of atheism. It is still a museum but church services are held here on special occasions. Isaakievskaya ploschad 1 Tel: (812) 315 9732. Transport: Metro Nevsky prospekt/Gostiny dvor; bus T8, 48 or 222; tram 1, 5, 11 or 31; trolley bus 5 or 22. Opening hours: Thurs-Tues 1100-1900, last admission 1800 (Cathedral); Thurs-Tues 1100-1800, last admission 1700 (Colonnade). Admission: US$17.50 (Cathedral); US$7 (Colonnade); concessions available. Petropavlovskaya krepost (Peter & Paul Fortress) Peter the Great laid out the plans for the Peter & Paul Fortress on Zayachy Island in 1703 to defend the area from the Swedes. Entered through imposing gates and containing most of the island within its massive defensive walls, the fortress housed part of the city's garrison and notoriously served as a high-security political jail. Among the first inmates of the Trubetskoy Bastion was Peter's own son, Alexei, who was tortured and died here. The bleak cells, which held many famous residents, including Dostoyevsky, Gorky and Trotsky, are now a museum, as is the Commandant's House where prisoners were tried. Next to the Commandant's House lies the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul, its distinctive high slender spire a landmark throughout the city. The elegant simple spire belies the richly coloured Baroque interior, carved in marble, inlaid with gold and sparkling with crystal, which provides an opulent resting place for Peter the Great and his successors. Petropavlovskaya krepost Tel: (812) 238 4550. Transport: Metro Gorkoskaya. Opening hours: Thurs-Mon 1100-1700, Tues 1100-1600. Closed last Tues of month. Admission: Free (fort); varying charges to the various buildings. Muzeh-domik Petra I (Cabin of Peter the Great) The first house built in the newly founded St Petersburg in 1703 was the humble wooden Cabin of Peter the Great from which Peter supervised the construction of his grand imperial city. Now encased in a protective brick enclosure and furnished with period furniture, its spartan simplicity is a strange contrast to the grand cathedrals and palaces that surround it. Peter lived here between 1703 and 1708 and some of his belongings remain, including his boat, his compass and his icon of the Redeemer. The functional minimalism of the possessions emphasises the frugal life he led in this tiny three-roomed house. Petrovskaia Naberezhnaia 6 Tel: (812) 232 4576. Transport: Metro Gorkovskaya. Opening hours: Wed-Mon 1100-2100. Closed last Mon of month. Admission: US$1.50 (concessions available). Khram Spas-na-Krovi (Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood) Modelled on the sixteenth-century traditional Russian style of St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Church on Spilled Blood was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated on 1 March 1881, and named because of it. The richly ornamented exterior of colourful enamelled domes, gilded mosaic panels, ceramic tiles, columned windows with intricately carved arches is like a confection of bright sugar candy in a sweet shop window. The interior of the church gleams with marble and the semi-precious stones in the extensive mosaics. Since 1970, a long programme of restoration has been in progress to reverse the neglect of the years after the Revolution of 1917. Naberezhnaya Kanala Griboyedova 2 Tel: (812) 314 4053. Transport: Metro Nevsky prospekt/Gostiny dvor. Opening hours: Daily 1100-1800. Admission: US$16 (concessions available). |