My People and Places Portfolio and Blog
We arrived into St Petersburg Pulkovo 1 airport from Moscow to be greeted by the damp cold that you just don’t get in Moscow, we took a cab we booked at the airport right into the historic Centre by St Isaac’s Cathedral where our hotel was for a reasonable 700 rubles.
We arrived at the hotel , Petrov Palace Hotel, late in the afternoon which quickly became evening after we had dumped our stuff at the hotel and took a walk around the area but the temperature had plummeted with a bitterly cold wind so we didn’t stay out long, although I grabbed a few long exposure shots including an accidental one when I was carrying the camera so just got a load of random light trails. After the walk we decided it was too cold to venture far so we ate at the restaurant adjoining the hotel, and were treated to a gypsy and dancing bear show, which was very bizarre but often funny to watch, I should mention the bear was someone dressed up in a huge bear costume.
The next day we were off out with other friends who had travelled to St Petersburg that weekend to Pushkin, which is also known by its historical name of Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village) to see the Catherine Palace and to neighbouring Pavlovsk to see The Grand Palace of Pavlovsk, the tour was booked via ADM with a driver and english speaking guide who was excellent. The Catherine Palace is huge and was originally built on land gifted to Catherine I by her husband Peter the Great and was a more modest building than is in place now. The building in place now was commissioned by Empress Elizabeth, however building work was started many times but each time Elizabeth was not happy with the palace but finally settled on the design by Rastrelli. The palace was decorated on the outside with lots of guilding around the windows, these days most of this has not survived but is instead painted gold.
Inside, the Palace is huge and has distinct parts, part decorated in lavish Russian Baroque style with lots of ceiling paintings and gold guilding, the other parts are decorated in the classical style as you can see in the photos below. We couldn’t walk too much around the grounds as it was so cold but I imagine in the summer it would look amazing and well worth spending a lot of time wondering around the estate. Note that you can take photographs inside, but there are certain rooms that either do not allow flash photography or in the case of the Amber room no photography at all.
From here we went to Pavlovsk and its Grand Palace, it was lovely and mostly decorated in the classical style, inside here you have to purchase an additional ticket if you want to take photographs but you cannot use a flash, if you have a fast enough lens it is well worth paying the small fee. Pavlovsk was originally commissioned by Catherine the Great, but a redesign and extension was commissioned by Tsar Pavel to make it a more grand imposing building. This was a long day so what else could we do later but go out for a few drinks, although the Kiwi contingent suggested an English pub for the night out, so this where we went, great Russian beer and vodka, with some great food.
The next day we went over to Peter the Great’s Peter and Paul Fortress with the beautiful Peter and Paul Cathedral, another cold day meant we didnt spend too much time here and skirted around too The Church of Christ our Saviour on Spilled blood. This is similar to the much older St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, but the detailing on the outside is amazing. It was built between 1883 and 1907 on the site where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881 by revolutionaries.
After this we were lucky enough to be driven around by a colleague of Lou’s who is from St Petersburg and was in town for the long weekend, so we saw other parts of St Petersburg such as the Grand Mosque, and more ‘modern’ architecture than much of St Petersburg being from 19th to early 20th Century and finally to Smolny Cathedral where i got some stunning long exposure photographs during the night time.
The next day we only had a couple of hours to spare, but we wanted to see the Hermitage, so we went around ot for 2 hours from its opening time at 10.30am, but the hermitage is huge and you need a day or so to wonder around especially if you are really into art from both European masters and Russian artists.
All in all a great trip, especially for photographers but I want to go again in the Spring, and in the summer to experience the city in full swing.
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