Kazan Cathedral

St. Isaac’s Cathedral – St. Petersburg

St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg is one of the world’s largest domed cathedrals, holding 14,000 people. This massive church and its golden dome can be seen from many locations in St. Petersburg.St. Isaac’s was commissioned in 1818 by Tsar Alexander I to celebrate the victory over Napoleon, and the French architect Auguste de Montferrand was the designer. St. Isaac’s took 40 years to build, and Montferrand died the year it opened. It sits on a marshy bank of the Neva River, and thousands of huge wooden pilings were sunk into the mud to support the church. The exterior of St. Isaac’s is of Renaissance and Baroque design, and the interior is spectacular because of the mosaics and many precious stones and minerals used. The golden dome is covered with 220 pounds of gold. During the Soviet era, the Orthodox Church was closed to worshipers and became a museum of atheism. Fortunately, many of the wonderful 19th century works of art were retained and decorate today’s St. Isaac’s.

Catherine Palace

The Catherine Palace is a remarkable example of Russian baroque architecture. The existing palace was built between 1744 and 1756. The leading role in design of the palace belongs to Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who by 1756 created an architectural masterpiece, which the delighted Empress Elizabeth named after her mother, Catherine I. In the later part of the 18th century the palace was modified by  Catherine II, ”the Great”. Like the honored guests of the Russian tsars, the nowadays visitors can also admire the full splendor of the palace interiors. Many restored rooms are open for public and contain objects of applied art, fine furniture, Russian and European paintings, unique collections of porcelain, amber, weaponry, artistic bronze and sculpture. By far the most famous of these rooms is the  ”Amber Room”. First given by Fredrick the Great to Peter I, the amber panels were stored for many years. Finally they were assembled in this room and the room was considered to be extraordinary. During World War II the room was plundered. The amber was thought to have first been stolen by the Nazs during the Siege of Leningrad.  What eventually happened to the precious works of art has been the subject of many books and wide speculation. After the war the Soviet began to restore the Amber Room as well as the entire palace from memories and pictures. The restoration of the Amber Room lasted 50 years.  Now the Catherine Palace and the magnificent Amber Room are among the must see sights in St. Petersburg and, indeed, the world! The Catherine Palace is located in the village of Pushkin, a few miles from the center of St. Petersburg. This picture is of Casey, the daughter of our American director. She is shown on the Catherine Palace grounds with one of the lesser buildings in the background.

Great Hall – The Winter Palace & Hermitage Museum

The Winter Palace is undoubtedly the most famous building of imperial St. Petersburg, not only as the residence of the Tsars and the backdrop for the 1905 and 1917 Revolutions, but also as the home of the Hermitage, the world’s largest museum of art. The present structure, completed in 1762 and designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, was commissioned by the Empress Elizabeth. Its opulent baroque facade, stretching two hundred meters, is a veritable cornucopia of pilasters, bays, and statuary.The palace served as the winter residence for every ruler of Russia since Peter III, who installed himself there along with his mistress, the Countess Vorontsova. After his wife Catherine the Great seized the throne, she redecorated and appropriated her husband’s old quarters. While her son Nicholas I lived in a modest apartment there, his wife Alexandra commissioned the famously luxurious Malachite Room, later to be used as the meeting place for Kerensky’s Provisional Government. Nicholas II had his quarters immediately above this room until 1904, when he moved from the increasingly discontented capital to Tsarskoe Selo. In July of 1917, the Provisional Government took up residence here, thus setting the stage for the October Revolution. After consolidating its power, the Bolshevik government transferred its capital to Moscow, and since that time the Winter Palace has been associated primarily with its role as the Hermitage Museum

Peterhof (Petrodvorets)

It was Peter the Great’s desire to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, his new city.   Although ravaged by German troops during the second World War, thanks to the work of military engineers and more than 1,000 volunteers, the estate’s major structures were restored by 1947. Peterhof is the greatest of all of St. Petersburg’s suburban estates.  The best time to visit is during the summer (June through October) when all the varied buildings are open to visitors and the beautiful fountains are operating. Peterhof  - which means Peter’s Court – is one St. Petersburg’s most popular and famous visitor attractions.

The Hermitage Museum of Art

The Hermitage Museum is Russia’s best gallery of world art, one of the most prominent art museums in the world and definitely the main tourist attraction of St. Petersburg. The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a collection of 255 paintings from the German city of Berlin. Today, the Hermitage boasts over 2.7 million exhibits and displays a diverse range of art and artifacts from all over the world and from throughout history (from Ancient Egypt to the early 20th century Europe). The Hermitage’s collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, a unique collection of Rembrandts and Rubens, many French Impressionist works by Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet and Pissarro, numerous canvasses by Van Gogh, Matisse, Gaugin and several sculptures by Rodin. The collection is both enormous and diverse and is an essential stop for all those interested in art and history. The main building of the Hermitage Museum is the Winter Palace, which was once the main residence of the Russian Tsars. Magnificently located on the bank of the Neva River, this green-and-white three-storey palace is a marvel of Baroque architecture and boasts 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows and 1,057 elegantly and lavishly decorated halls and rooms, many of which are open to the public. The Baroque Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 and its first resident was none other than the celebrated Catherine the Great. Many of the palace’s impressive interiors were remodeled after the huge fire that partly destroyed the building in 1837. Some of the best Russian and most famous foreign architects worked exhaustively to ensure that this Imperial residence was one of the finest and most luxurious palaces in the world. The Hermitage’s collections are displayed in adjoining buildings along the Neva embankment, together form an enormous museum complex: the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage and lastly the New Hermitage. The Hermitage Theater, the private theater of the Tsars, is a beautifully decorated amphitheater and still hosts regular lectures, concerts, opera and ballet performances. The experts say that if you were to spend a minute looking at each exhibit on display in the Hermitage, you would need 11 years before you’d seen them all. We suggest you opt for one of our tour guides. Open: Tuesday to Saturday 10:30am to 6pm Sundays and national holidays 10:30am to 5pm The Hermitage is closed on Mondays� Ticket offices close one hour before the museum closes

Alexander Palace

The Alexander Palace was the last royal home to the last Czar, Nicholas & family, including Grand Duchess Anastasia. the Alexander Palace is steeped in history.  Located just 15 miles from St. Petersburg Russia, the Alexander Palace is on the Tsarskoe Selo (Czar’s village)  estate. Tsarkoe Selo estate takes in some 1 482.6 acres of land, chiefly donated by Peter I to the Russian court way back in 1701. The original palace on the grounds of Tsarkoe Selo was only a 16 room summer palace. Peter I had it constructed for his wife Catherine Alekseyevna. His daughter, Elizabeth, later had the palace enlarged and improvements were made. Years later Catherine the Great also added her input to the Alexander Palace. She spent much time on perfecting this project. This new palace was built for Catherine’s grandchild, Alexander I. The Alexander Palace was given to Alexander and his bride in 1793 as a wedding gift. He too contributed to the design of the remarkable Russian palace. The Alexander Palace’s chief architect was Giacomo Quarenghi. The palace was designed to be a home and was thus simple, but elegant. In the end the design left out ornamental structures and expensive interior additions. It certainly cost much less than the opulent Romanov summer palaces. Even ornamental statues planned for the roof were removed to further simplify the design. The final product included both Roman and Paladin styles with a touch of Neo-Classicism. The facade that greets visitors is marked by a double row of columns which link two pavilions, making up the entire Alexander Palace structure. Perpendicular wings creating the courtyard of the entranceway give the palace an urban feel. In the 1830s the Alexander Palace was adorned with two bronze statues. Located in the central colonnade they provide images of young men who are playing Russian games.   In 1905, Tsar Nicholas II and his family came to reside at the Alexander Palace. He remained here until August 1917, the date when he was taken with his family by the Bosheviks. They were later shot in 1918.   A visit today to the Alexander Palace will enable you to see many of the clothes and other personal items belonging to the children of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandria. In 1997 the Recollections of Alexander Palace exhibit was set-up in the left wing.  The Alexander Palace holds a unique place in the history of the Russian monarchy. Source:  Russia.com For more information on how this palace was viewed by its last inhabitants click here!

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