Russia has been a far‑off mysterious place to me since I was a child. It's a fascination that was passed down to me by my mother, along with my Russian name. In my mind, towering colourful Byzantine spires rose out of dark, murky Communist streets, the freezing air was broken by breath warmed with vodka and hulking figures stomped along the icy streets, eyes on the ground.
Well, perhaps the height of summer and the aftermath of the White Nights wasn't the best time to visit for these images, but St Petersburg is nevertheless overwhelmingly incredible. Known as the city of a thousand palaces, the streets of St Petersburg's historical centre are lined with palace after palace after palace. Originally built to house the nobility (Russia had no middle class, only the very rich and the very poor) these palaces now house offices and apartments. Not all of them were lived in for long. The Tsar's daughter Elizabeth wanted increasingly more opulent decorations and more rooms in the palace her father was building for her; consequently it wasn't finished until after her death. The last palace built here was completed just before the Tsar's rule ended, so the owners lived in it for only a few weeks. Yet another palace was lived in for only 40 days before its occupant Paul the First (there was no Paul II but he liked the sound of it) was murdered. Left untouched by the Soviets, these buildings still stand and are excellently maintained. Some were interestingly repurposed during Soviet times; with Communism being the only accepted "religion", one important cathedral became the Museum of Atheism, another was used to store vegetables. A third was saved from destruction by the second world war; the men who would have destroyed it were all called to war instead.
By the end of a day spent wandering the city, you can walk past a 14 story building with grand painted facades and barely even notice it.
The Church of the Spilled Blood is the only building in St Petersburg that was built in the Byzantine style (the iconic Russian buildings you've seen photos of are Byzantine style ‑ influenced by Turkish architecture). It was built where Prince Alexander II was assasinated and it is truly spectacular, winking at you through the gaps in the buildings as you sail along the river or wander down Nevsky Prospekt, the main street.
The history in this city is incredible. Its name has changed three times, from St Petersburg, to Petrograd, to Leningrad, and now once again to St Petersburg. Photos of the world's third largest church, St Isaac's, show locals harvesting cabbages from the church grounds during WWII. Assassinations and wars and uprisings and Bloody Sunday, the taking of land from Sweden, a princess reknowned for her lovers, civil war, starvation, Tsars... All of it combines to create a shroud of mystery that can't be pierced by the summer's heat or light.
Nor have the Tsars lost any of their mystery, in fact the more I hear about them the more interested I am. From the false mystery surrounding the "missing" remains of Anastasia (discovered a couple of decades back, identified and reburied) to the real one surrounding the remains of her younger siblings ( burnt with acid so their bones would never be found; the rain started after that and the rest of the family had to be buried in a mass grave instead), the family has retained its mystique. The Soviets killed the last of the Romanovs to take the heart out of the monarchist uprising, but in doing so they ensured their enemies would be forever remembered. The city is so indelibly marked by the characters of its history that it feels haunted, you keep expecting the unusual figure of the city's founder, Peter the Great, to appear at the next corner and demand that you have another shot of vodka. Incidentally, he was the world's first recognised alcoholic and had around 19 diseases when he died at 53.
The biggest surprise of St Petersburg however, is its prison. The rooms were about three times the size of my boarding school cubicle, heated with wood stoves, funished with beds and the walls patterned with wallpaper! The Communist prison in Romania's northern city of Sighetu Marmatiei contained a punishment cell in which prisoners were chained in the middle of the floor, barefoot and naked in total darkness, with their feet tied to a grill under freezing water. St Petersburg's punishment cell was dark and cold, or dark and hot depending on the season. By comparison it is almost a holiday home.
Rising out of the swamp, this truly remarkable city is an experience that measures up to whatever imaginings you might have. People walk the streets drinking vodka, palaces line the footpaths, canals run through the city in the image of Amsterdam. Peter's favourite European city. There are no strange contrasts here; it is all Russia and everything you expect.
Well, perhaps the height of summer and the aftermath of the White Nights wasn't the best time to visit for these images, but St Petersburg is nevertheless overwhelmingly incredible. Known as the city of a thousand palaces, the streets of St Petersburg's historical centre are lined with palace after palace after palace. Originally built to house the nobility (Russia had no middle class, only the very rich and the very poor) these palaces now house offices and apartments. Not all of them were lived in for long. The Tsar's daughter Elizabeth wanted increasingly more opulent decorations and more rooms in the palace her father was building for her; consequently it wasn't finished until after her death. The last palace built here was completed just before the Tsar's rule ended, so the owners lived in it for only a few weeks. Yet another palace was lived in for only 40 days before its occupant Paul the First (there was no Paul II but he liked the sound of it) was murdered. Left untouched by the Soviets, these buildings still stand and are excellently maintained. Some were interestingly repurposed during Soviet times; with Communism being the only accepted "religion", one important cathedral became the Museum of Atheism, another was used to store vegetables. A third was saved from destruction by the second world war; the men who would have destroyed it were all called to war instead.
By the end of a day spent wandering the city, you can walk past a 14 story building with grand painted facades and barely even notice it.
The Church of the Spilled Blood is the only building in St Petersburg that was built in the Byzantine style (the iconic Russian buildings you've seen photos of are Byzantine style ‑ influenced by Turkish architecture). It was built where Prince Alexander II was assasinated and it is truly spectacular, winking at you through the gaps in the buildings as you sail along the river or wander down Nevsky Prospekt, the main street.
The history in this city is incredible. Its name has changed three times, from St Petersburg, to Petrograd, to Leningrad, and now once again to St Petersburg. Photos of the world's third largest church, St Isaac's, show locals harvesting cabbages from the church grounds during WWII. Assassinations and wars and uprisings and Bloody Sunday, the taking of land from Sweden, a princess reknowned for her lovers, civil war, starvation, Tsars... All of it combines to create a shroud of mystery that can't be pierced by the summer's heat or light.
Nor have the Tsars lost any of their mystery, in fact the more I hear about them the more interested I am. From the false mystery surrounding the "missing" remains of Anastasia (discovered a couple of decades back, identified and reburied) to the real one surrounding the remains of her younger siblings ( burnt with acid so their bones would never be found; the rain started after that and the rest of the family had to be buried in a mass grave instead), the family has retained its mystique. The Soviets killed the last of the Romanovs to take the heart out of the monarchist uprising, but in doing so they ensured their enemies would be forever remembered. The city is so indelibly marked by the characters of its history that it feels haunted, you keep expecting the unusual figure of the city's founder, Peter the Great, to appear at the next corner and demand that you have another shot of vodka. Incidentally, he was the world's first recognised alcoholic and had around 19 diseases when he died at 53.
The biggest surprise of St Petersburg however, is its prison. The rooms were about three times the size of my boarding school cubicle, heated with wood stoves, funished with beds and the walls patterned with wallpaper! The Communist prison in Romania's northern city of Sighetu Marmatiei contained a punishment cell in which prisoners were chained in the middle of the floor, barefoot and naked in total darkness, with their feet tied to a grill under freezing water. St Petersburg's punishment cell was dark and cold, or dark and hot depending on the season. By comparison it is almost a holiday home.
Rising out of the swamp, this truly remarkable city is an experience that measures up to whatever imaginings you might have. People walk the streets drinking vodka, palaces line the footpaths, canals run through the city in the image of Amsterdam. Peter's favourite European city. There are no strange contrasts here; it is all Russia and everything you expect.
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