Places of Interest - Russia

"St. Petersburg"

introduction

Saint Petersburg is after Moscow the most important city and also the former capital of Russia. It is an important industrial, scientific and cultural center and was founded and built from a swamp by Peter the Great. The city is a copy of the historic center of Amsterdam and is now the fourth city in Europe. Saint Petersburg, Petrograd or Leningrad with its architecture from the 18th and 19th century, its canals, its long straight streets, gardens, parks and palaces is a tourist attraction in itself. It is also the most European city of Russia and attracts many progressive Russians with an open view of the West.

The city houses some 120 museums, including the Hermitage and the Russian Museum, and more than 50 theaters, including the Mariinskitheater. Other tourist attractions are the Peter and Paul Cathedral where almost all Tsars found their final resting place and the beautiful gardens and buildings of the former summer palace of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.

highlights

Historical center:

The biggest attraction of Saint Petersburg must surely be the Hermitage museum which consists of numerous buildings and is one of the largest art and culture museums in the world. In front of the Winter Palace is the large impressive palace square with the immense high pillar of Alexander, which is here in honor of the victory over the armies of Napoleon in 1812. The square was also the place where the Tsarist soldiers shot on unarmed protesters in 1905 but is also the square where free pop concerts are given once a year. Opposite the Winter Palace is the General Staff building with, among other things, a very large arch.

The Admiralty was built in the early 19th century by order of Tsar Alexander I. It is on the site of the first shipyard in St. Petersburg. Because of the constant threat from Sweden, the tsar forced it to protect it and turn it into a fortress. In 1840 the shipyard had moved to a new location further downstream. During WW2 the building was severely damaged by artillery bombardments and air strikes. The Admiralty is the former headquarters of the Russian Imperial Navy and of the Soviet Navy until 1925. It is not open to the public. Another church that is prominent in the skyline and is nearby, is the St. Isaac's Cathedral, which now serves as a museum for mosaics. The church is the largest of St. Petersburg.

The main thoroughfare in the center of St. Petersburg is the Nevsky Prospekt, which starts at the Admiralty and ends 4 kilometers further at the Alexander Nevski monastery. This road is cut through several rivers in the Neva delta, namely (from the Admiralty) the Mojka, the Griboedov Canal and the Fontanka. If you walk here you get a good idea of how the city has been built with its numerous channels copied from the Netherlands. You can also take a look at the Kazan Cathedral which is located on the boulevard.

Other parts of the city

Prominent in the skyline of Saint Petersburg is the steeple of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which now houses the graves of all Tsars of Russia except for two. This cathedral, located within the walls of the Peter and Paul fortress on the Hare Island in the river Neva, has been a museum since 1924, but after the revolution services are again held. The fortress, like the Admiralty, was built as a defense fortress and houses countless bastions and gates. Ironically, it has never seen real action. In the prison, among others, prominent members were held, such as Trotsky and Lenin's eldest brother. Opposite the canal is the artillery museum and further in the busy and wide Kamennoostrovsky Prospect you can visit the former house (now museum) of the executioner of Stalin "Kirov". Finally you can also take a look at the old "Aurora" submarine which is now set up as a museum. This boat was used in the Russian-Japanese war in the beginning of the 20th century and was sunk on purpose during WWII because of its great historical value for Russia. It would have been from this boat that the first shots of the Russian Revolution would be released in 1917.

Other sights of St. Petersburg include the Mariinsky theater, which was known as the Kirov theater in the time of the Soviet Union. It is the most famous theater in the city and is located southwest of the historic center. On the east side of the center is, next to the former "Mars" field, the nicest and most intimate park of St. Petersburg - the summer gardens. Within walking distance is the blockade museum that tells the story about the heroic defense of the siege during WWII. From the cathedral at the end of the Griboedov Canal the Cathedral of the Resurrection "Our Redeemer on the Blood" can be seen. This cathedral, built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded in an attack, has never functioned as an official church. The most important religious complex in St. Petersburg is the Alexander Nevsky monastery with the Tichvin cemetery. The monastery, founded in 1710 by Peter the Great, is one of the four lavra's of the Russian Orthodox Church. Many important musicians and writers, including Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky, were buried at the Tichvin cemetery.

Other attractions:

The Russian Museum and the Russian Museum of Political History.

Peterhof

The palace and garden complex "Peterhof" is also sometimes called the Russian Versailles. This summer palace, very popular with both national and international tourists, was built on behalf of Peter the Great on a 16 meter high cliff. It consists of the large palace, an upper and lower garden and a number of smaller palaces such as the marl- and monplaisir palace. The gardens are richly decorated with fountains, which only work on water pressure due to the height differences.

After Peter founded the town Peterhof his eye fell immediately on the favorable location on the Gulf of Finland for a palace with as example his French counterpart. The tsar himself was very involved in the construction and helped with the design. In 1723 the complex was taken into use as an imperial residence, although the construction was not completed yet. Construction was stopped in 1725 when Peter the Great died. It was not until Tsarina Elisabeth I, the daughter of Peter, ascended the throne, that construction was continued. Until the year 1917, there was plenty of extra construction on the palaces and gardens by the Russian tsars. For example, Tsar Nicholas I added the Alexandria estate to the territory and built a small palace for his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. The last tsar, Nicholas II, lived with his family in a private palace in Peterhof. After the Revolution, in 1918 the complex became a museum. During WW2 many art treasures were taken elsewhere in the country and even buried in the gardens. For about 3.5 years, Peterhof was occupied by the German troops that destroyed many thousands of centuries-old trees. Not only the gardens were damaged, the palaces were badly damaged and some were even completely destroyed because they were blown up just before the Germans withdrawal. Restoration work began after the reconquest. In front of the Grand Palace are the Grand Cascade, which is the most important of the complex and was designed by Peter the Great, and the Fountain of Samson.

Pushkin / Tsarskoe Selo:

The town of Pushkin was founded in 1710 by Peter the Great on a hill in a swamp. When the tsar established his summer residence there, the literal name was soon transformed into Tsarskoye Selo (tsar village). In 1937 the name changed again; now to the great Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin, he had studie here and his hundredth anniversary was commemorated. The residence Tsarskoye Selo was connected in 1837 by a 26 km railway with St. Petersburg which was Russian 'first public railway. Sights are the Pushkin Museum, the Alexander Palace and especially the former summer residence of the Russian Tsars, the baroque Catherine Palace.

During WW2 all buildings were intentionally destroyed by German soldiers when they withdrew after the failed Siege of Leningrad. Before it came to this, however, most of the valuable contents had been brought to safety by Russian archivists, except for the so-called Amber room. This was completely carried away by the Nazis and has since disappeared. After this war the palace was gradually rebuilt. The palace is known for its large ballroom, with a beautiful painted ceiling and numerous distinctive decorated smaller rooms, including the reconstructed Amber Room. Striking are also the large stoves with Delft blue tiles. The palace was designed by the Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli in a lavish rococo style, which Catherine de Grote did not like. For her personal occupation she had a modest building built in Greek style. The smaller Alexander Palace is located in the park.

Other attractions:

Lomonosov (Oranienbaum), Strelna, Pavlovsk and Gatchina.

geschiedenis

The beginning:

Before the city was founded there was already a lot of fighting around the delta marsh grounds. In the beginning of the Great Northern War in 1700, Peter the Great would conquer the Swedish settlement here on the Neva River to officially establish the city of St. Petersburg three years later. He also did this to replace the old by Ivan the Terrible depopulated Hanseatic city of Novgorod as a 'window on the West'. In 1712 it became the capital of Russia. The city is not named after its founder, but after the apostle Peter, the patron saint of the city. Originally, the name "Sankt-Piter-Boerch" was an imitation of the Dutch "Sint-Pietersburg". However, this was quickly changed to it’s German name “Sankt Peterburg”, the name that the city carried during its period as the capital of the Russian Empire and again after the fall of communism. During the construction, mainly forced laborers were employed. It is unclear how many deaths were affected, but possibly 100,000 of them died during the 18-year construction of the city. The city gained a Western appearance with, for example, about forty canals by Dutch model. The city lay in a sparsely populated area, Ingermanland, that was not inhabited before by Russians, but by Ingrians, Finnish-related people. Many immigrants settled there, both Russians and Western Europeans. The city soon surpassed Arkhangelsk as the main port city of Russia. By the end of Tsar Peter's government (1725), the city already had about 50,000 inhabitants. The city would remain the government center of Russia until 1918.

18th Century till the Russian Revolution

From the middle of the 18th century until the Russian Revolution, the so-called Rusluie maintained contacts between Vriezenveen (Overijssel) and St. Petersburg. Initially, the Dutch traveled back and forth, later they found permanent accommodation in St. Petersburg on the Nevsky Prospekt, where a real Dutch district including the Reformed Church arose. Main merchandise was textiles, but wine and tobacco were also traded. By the end of the 18th century, the population of the city had grown to about 200,000, even less than Moscow, which at that time had almost 300,000 inhabitants. In the time of Catherine II of Russia (1762-1796) a lively cultural life began to develop in the city. In the city that had been baptized as a dissident city in the year 1816, the Dutch prince (Willem II) would marry Princess Anna Paulowna in the Winter Palace. In March 1881 Tsar Alexander II became the victim of a bomb attack by a member of the revolutionary movement Narodnaja Volja (Folks will). At the spot where he was mortally wounded, his son Tsar Alexander III had the Orthodox-Russian Cathedral of the Resurrection "Our Redeemer on the Blood" built, which contrasts somewhat with the general appearance of the West-facing city. In 1905 the city was once again the scene of a failed revolution, when on “Blood Sunday” the palace guard opened fire on a number of demonstrators who wanted to offer a petition for more democracy to Tsar Nicholas II. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Saint Petersburg was renamed Petrograd, as Sankt-Peterburg sounded too German (and Russia was at war with Germany). In the course of the war there was an increasing lack of food and other products, especially in the cities, and the dissatisfaction among the workers and soldiers increased. In 1917 followed the February Revolution and the October Revolution, which respectively marked the end of the tsars and the beginning of the Soviet era.

Twentieth Century:

The Bolsheviks, who had come to power, wanted to make peace with the Centrals (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire) after their takeover of power. After the proclaimed ceasefire of 15 December 1917 between the Centrals on the one hand and Russia on the other, peace negotiations took a long time. Leon Trotsky, negotiator on behalf of the Russian government, did not want to give in to the German requirements of area distance. After February 9, 1918, the German army was ordered to continue the advance in Russia. The vast majority of Ukraine was occupied in one day. Germany also sent a maritime fleet to St. Petersburg, followed by landtroops from southern Finland. Russia capitulated and on 3 March 1918 and the peace of Brest-Litovsk was signed. The Bolsheviks decided to make Moscow the new capital following these events. In 1924 Petrograd was given the name Leningrad, as a tribute to Lenin who died in that year. In WW2, the city had to endure a 29-month siege by the Nazis, which demanded great sacrifices from the civilian population. During the winter months there was occasionally some supplies brought in over the nearby frozen Lake Ladoga, but otherwise there was terrible hunger in the city, which even led to cannibalism. The exact number of deaths (especially civilians) during the siege is not known. Only on the Piskarovskoje cemetery were more than 600,000 dead buried. It is estimated that more than a million people have been killed during the siege. For the heroic defense, Leningrad received the honorary title Hero City of the Soviet Union.

The mystery of the Amber room:

The original amber room was created from exclusive amber panels received by Peter the Great by King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia in 1716. Later "Rastrelli" combined the panels with gilded woodwork, mirrors, agate and Jasper mosaic to create one of Catherina’s the Great’s to decorate. In 1941, the panels were shown for the last time tot he public before being pillaged in WWII during the German occupation. In 2004, the Russian president Putin, together with the German chancellor "Gerhardt Schroder", opened the new amber room with a value of 18 million USD mainly subsidized by the German community. That year the doubts also started about the original panels. Some claim that the original amber room is still hidden somewhere by mistake. In 2008, the small German village "Deutschneudorf" near the Czech border was startled by the fact that a mysterious artificial cave was found. Visit www.amberroom.org for an update.

After the fall of the Soviet Union it seemed as if the city was run by the Russian mafia instead of the government. On September 6, 1993, Leningrad received, after a referendum, his old name back from before 1914: St. Petersburg. The surrounding oblast continued to be called Leningrad. Five years later, in 1998, the remains of the last tsar's family with head "Nicolas II" would be transferred to the SS Peter & Paul cathedral. Coincidentally or not, the new tsar, Vladimir Putin "comes from Saint Petersburg.

tips & advice (2001 en 2016)

Poelkovo is the main airport of Saint Petersburg located 17 km south of the city. International flights arrive at terminal 2 while in terminal 1 national flights and flights go to the old CIS countries. A third terminal is under construction. There are several bus lines and marsjroetka's (mini-busses) that take care of the connection to the city center or the nearest metro station Moskovskaya.

There are four or five main train stations in St. Petersburg. The Baltiejski vokzal used to be the connection with Tallinn, but now serves only for the connection with the suburbs in the city. Every day, several buses arrive to and from Tallinn and Kohtla Jarva in Estonia. From the Finljandski vokzal the trains will leave to the north, tof or example Vyborg and Helsinki. The Ladozhski vok will serve trains to the north and east, while the Moskovsky vok will serve trains to the east and south of the country. Trains to Moscow depart from these last two stations. Finally, there is the Vitebski vokzal for connections with the south. The main bus station of the city is "Avtovokzal" number 2 (no 1 does not exist).

The St. Petersburg metro has 5 lines, which are continuously expanded, connecting all (main) train stations. The trolleybus and tramway network is very extended but especially the tram is poorly maintained and the last 20 years many lines disappearad. Marsjetka's - private bus lines – taking over more and more municipal transport company.

Saint Petersburg - Peterhof (2001): Peterhof is located about 29 kilometers west of the center of Saint Petersburg. From May to September, every 25 minutes a hydrofoil leaves from behind the Hermitage to the Peterhof. Price return: 700 R, 30 minutes. You can also take a marshrutka or the local train.

Saint Petersburg - Moscow (2001): there are about 12 to 14 trains a day to the capital, some of them are nighttrains. You can even sleep in a dormitory cabin to save money. I have chosen the cheapest option with train "Krasnya Strela" which leaves at 23:55 and arrives 8 hours later. Price is 2060R.

Saint Petersburg - Pushkin / Tsarskoe Selo (2016): the easiest way is to take the "elektric" (train) from the Vitebske train station which leaves a few times per hour. Price is 45R for a single ticket and it takes about 35 minutes.

Saint Petersburg - Petrazovodsk (2016): there are a number of trains per day (and at night) - time is variable - some take 8 hours, others 5. Prices also varies because of that. We took the train at 09:50 - arrival 16:44. Departure from train station "Ladozhskaya". Price: 2016 Rubles.

Name: "Hermitage" (2016)

Address: Dsortsovaya pl 2

Price: 600 R

Time: 10:30 - 17: 00 / 18:00 (closed on Mondays)

Website: www.hermitagemuseum.org

Content:

The museum's total collection includes a collection from Antiquity (including Egypt), the Middle Ages and later art and culture, both from the west and the east. Also archaeological art from Asia and Russian culture from the 8th century to the 19th century are well represented. It comprises more than 3 million objects, collected in just over 2.5 centuries. It is said that only 5% of this can be shown to the public. The headquarters of the Hermitage is located in the former Winter Palace, the most important residence of the Russian tsars.

The museum was created in 1764 of the collection of Catherine the Great. With this she expanded the collection considerably, which Tsar Peter the Great had started. The various successors of Catharina the Great further expanded the collection with many purchases. The collection was stored in Moscow during World War I, to be sure. The building then served as a hospital. During the Revolution of 1917 the Tsar was deposed and all palaces, including works of art, were nationalized and the Hermitage and the Winter Palace were declared museums. The museum survived the Siege of Leningrad in the period 1941-1944 (with some damage to the building). The top pieces of the collection were then temporarily accommodated in an area behind the Ural mountains. With 20 copies, the museum owns one of Europe's largest and most important paintings collections by Rembrandt (Rijksmuseum: 19 pieces). One of the most famous is the nude Danaë. The Hermitage has a number of outbuildings in St. Petersburgbut also in Amsterdam, for example.

Name: "Pushkin / Tsarskoye Selo" (2016)

Price: 500 R (Russians) / 1000 R (tourists)

Time: 10:00 - 18:00 (Tuesday closed)

Website: www.eng.tzar.ru

Content:

From the train station in Pushkin the complex is about a 2 km walk. You can also take several marshrutka's (minivans) to the complex from the station. By arrival you have to buy first a garden ticket (Catherina Gardens) for 120 R before you have to queue up for the Catherine Palace. Because of the capacity of the palace and the big hurdle of tourists, this may take some time. Every fifteen minutes a group of people go inside. Officially, (Western) tourists have to pay the double entrance fee for the palace. An earpiece for tourists costs an extra 150 R but you can also take a tour. The

Catherine Palace is the highlight but also the gardens are beautiful with bath houses, the cave, the cathedral, a Hermitage and a large lake. You can also visit the Alexander palace and gardens for an additional fee. Tsarskoje Selo is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Name: "Artillery" museum (2001)

Address: Alexandrovsky Park 7

Price: 300 R (photos 100R)

Time: 11:00 - 18:00 (Tuesday closed)

Content:

"Voyenno istorichesky Muzey Artilerii" is located opposite the Peter and Paul fortress on the other side of the canal in a large red brick building. Before the building there are countless artillery pieces on display. The museum is displaying a variety of weaponry from antiquity to recent times with a large section about WWI and WWII. The highlight of the museum must be the armored car of Lenin, with which he drove a parade ride from the "Finland" station of his return to Russia.

Name: Hotel "Neva" (2001)

Address: Ul Chaykovskogo 17

Price: 1100 R (single)

Phone nr. : 278 0500

Website: www.nevahotel.spb.ru

Content:

Located in the quiet stately neighborhood "Liteyny" and "Smolny" near the summer gardens and other attractions this was a great hotel. You can choose between different class rooms - economy and luxury. On each floor there is a floor lady who takes the keys and cleans them when you are out. It is now called (2016) 'Indigo' hotel.

Name: Hostel "Bedandbike" (2016)

Address: Maratastr 25a

Price: 400 R (dormitory)

Phone nr. : + 79 31 37 07023

Website: www.bedandbike.ru

Content:

Located in the district "Vladimirskaya" and "Vosstaniya" this is a great hostel to stay a few nights. There are different types of rooms (including 4 and 6 bed dorms) and you get a small towel and linen. The beds are okay and you get keys for the front door, the bedroom door and your safe. The shower and toilet areas could have been slightly larger, just like the kitchen where it is often busy. You can use the freezer, refrigerator and tea, sugar and free items left at your disposal. Beds are not made up. People at the reception are young and speak reasonable English. In addition, the hostel is close to supermarkets, restaurants, metro train and bus station. It is close to busy and major roads but is still fairly quiet.

FK Zenit St Petersburg plays in the highest division of Russian football, the Premjer League, The club plays its home games in the Petrovski stadium (21,570 places). The highlight of Zenit St. Petersburg, with Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, played the UEFA Cup finals against Glasgow Rangers in Manchester on May 14, 2008, and won 2-0.

Places of Interest - Russia

"St. Petersburg"

introduction

highlights

geschiedenis

tips & advice (2001 en 2016)

see also:

LANDEN: