ST PETERSBERG, RUSSIA

There are eight hundred and twelve thousand people living in Saint Petersburg and five million living in Moscow. St Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great.  He found the land and decided to build a city to rival any in the world. He wanted canals like Amsterdam, so he had them built. He traveled the world and brought back ideas and all kinds of things from other lands.

We visited the Hermitage Museum which Czarina Catherine the Great created in 1764. Her original purchase of 225 canvasses by Dutch and Flemish masters provided the nucleus of today’s collection, which consists of almost three million exhibits and represents many cultures. The museum boasts 353 rooms, filled with masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Giorgione, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and others.

Located within the Winter Palace on the banks of the Neva River, the Hermitage Museum is a work of art in itself.  As we marveled at the wonderful paintings and tapestries that adorn the walls, we also marveled at the spectacular staircases, marble structures, malachite columns and highly decorated floors and ceilings, in this former residence of the mighty Russian Czars.

We visited the magnificent Catherine’s Palace in a brief drive to the countryside in a town of Pushkin. It is named after Catherine the Great and restored over the past 40 years to its original splendor. It was almost destroyed during World War II. Inside the palace, we marveled at the magnificent Grand Hall (or Throne Room) – a gilded wonder with a spectacular painted ceiling and mirrored walls that are breathtakingly beautiful.  We also saw Alexander I’s State Study with its splendid marble fireplace.

At the main staircase we looked up at the palace ceilings decorated with paintings by Italian artists of the 17^th and 18^th centuries.  Decorative plates and vases of Japanese and Chinese porcelain are placed throughout.  The Picture Gallery contains more than 130 paintings by Dutch, Flemish, French and Italian masters of the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Above all, we saw the outrageously beautiful Amber Room, a brilliant and painstaking re-creation built in semi-precious stone by Russian craftsmen, after the original amber panels were stolen by Nazis during World War II. They have never been found and what happened to them remains one of the great mysteries of the 20^th Century.

We visited the Church on the Chilled Blood which was built in 1907 on the spot where the Russian Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.  Part of the area, about 23, 000 square feet, is covered by mosaics, believed to be the largest indoor mosaic in the world. The best painters, masters of mosaic stone carving, ceramic and enamel of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, took part in the decoration of the church.

The two days we were in Russia it was sunny and about 50 degrees. The Russian people were surprised with the warm weather and they were glad Spring was finally here. I was surprised to see there were almost no bicycles on the streets. The guide said the people had only recently received cars and their driver’s licenses and it was too dangerous to ride a bicycle on the streets.