St. Petersburg -- The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

St. Petersburg, Russia's window onto Europe, is decidedly European in architecture and flavor.  However, there is one building here that clearly is from the Russian Orthodox school...and it is called the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.  The reason for the name?  In Tsar Alexander II (reigned 1855 -- 1881) emancipated the serfs in Russia.  This made him beloved by most, but angered many as well.  On 2 March 1881, he was assassinated on this site in St. Petersburg.  His son, Alexander III, built this church on the site of his father's death. therefore we have the "spilled blood" portion of the name of the church.  The church was started in 1883 and finally finished in 1907.

The Northern face.

The southern face is at the head of the Griboedov Canal.

The outside facade has many different sections, this one has the banner of each of the provinces of Russia.

This is the cupola which stands over the EXACT spot on which Tsar Alexander II was killed.

To include the spot of death inside the church, the Church had to be extended into the canal.

One of the reasons for the length of construction was that the ENTIRE interior surface is made up of mosaics.

Mosaics are preferred over painting in Russia due to the incredible changes in humidity and temperature, which makes paintings need restoration almost regularly.

It's hard to tell from this mosaic, the there are two methods of mosaic creation.  The quicker method is to create the picture, then reverse the sketch and create the mosaic by putting the colors "down".  The more difficult, but producing a more painting-like feel to the mosaic, is by creating the mosaic as it would appear to the viewer.  The best mosaic makers could only produce one square meter a year this way.

In the dome, the Pankrator

New term for me...Iconostasis.  It is the door/wall that separates the congregation from the altar.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- The Hermitage

I shipped one box of winter clothes and papers to China.  Put everything else in PDF form.  Gave away and donated a bunch of clothes and am moving to China with one big and one small backpack!

Travel companion?  The one and only DD.  My backpack on the left, hers on the right.

We landed in St. Petersburg at 145AM and we were up and ready to go for a 9AM tour of the city and an 1140AM appointment at the famed Hermitage museum.

Being that Russian is a language NEITHER of us speak nor read (Cyrillic) we decided to travel Russia in a semi-private fashion.  I had a touring company book our train and hotel tickets and provide local guides.  Here is our St. Petersburg guide, Elena.

If you ever wanted to know the address of the Hermitage......it's housed in The Winter Palace of Peter I (aka Peter the Great).

 

DD and I entering on the grand entrance to the Hermitage.

This sepulchre is made ENTIRELY of Silver.  It was built for Alexander Nevitsky, who defended the city and is now, essentially, the patron saint of the City of St. Petersburg.

To give you an idea of how grand The Winter Palace is.....take a look at this doorknob.

The two-headed eagle is the symbol of the Romanov family, which ruled Russia up until the Revolution of 1917.  The two heads of the eagle represent the two parts of the Roman Empire (after the breakup) because the Romanov called themselved "Tsars", which is derived from the word Caesar. 

Now, a little Russian History lesson (mostly for me to write it down...it also impressed Elena that I was able to get it figured out so quickly).  This is Peter the Great (who had St. Petersburg built in 1703 in 9 years).  He ruled from 1682 to 1725.

This is his second wife, a Lithuanian peasant woman, who because Catherine I.  She ruled from 1725 to 1727.

After 3 of her siblings ruled for 14 years, Catherine and Peter's daughter, Elizabeth ruled from 1741 to 1762.  She is the ruler who built The Winter Palace.

Remember Elizabeth's mother, the peasant?  That made Catherine half-peasant, and therefore nobility was not allowed to marry her.  She produced no heirs so she found a relative, Peter III of Germany to come back and be Tsar of Russia.  He lasted 6 months.

However, Peter III was already married to a German, who grew to LOVE Russia and was Catherine II, aka Catherine the Great.  She ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796.

Ok, now down to 1917.  The last Tsar was killed in 1917 in the February Revolution.  A provisional government was set up, but the October Revolution brought Lenin's group to power and it was in this room in the Winter Palace that the provisional government was disbanded...and socialism was the political system of Russia for next 8 decades.

This clock marks the time that the provisional government of Russia ended.

The throne of the Tsar/Tsarina of Russia

This room in The Hermitage/Winter Palace, I loved.  It shows the portrait of most every general that was involved in the Battle of 1812 that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.  It's so....orderly, and neat.

 

Now, onto some art.  This is The Hermitage's only Michaelangelo.  A crouching figure.

The story behind this is that a dolphin and boy were best of friends. One day, the flipper of the dolphin injured the boy while they were swimming.  The dolphin carried the boy back to land, where they both died together.

I love the purple marble, porphyry.  But this is my new favorite material, malachite.  Throughout the Hermitage, you find columns of items made of this beautiful green colored marble.

Those of you know who have been following the blog for years know that I LOVE the sculptor Antonio Canova.  Turns out, I knew that this one piece was here, The Hermitage has a SLEW of original Canova's  I was in heaven.

Our guide Elena was pretty amused at my gushing and excitement about Canova.

Psyche and Cupid

Here's DD explaining to us, the myth of Orpheus.

This isn't a Canova, but I just like the iconography, Pan and Satyr.

Inside the courtyard of the Winter Palace/Hermitage.

The Hermitage is actually three (5 buildings in total) separate named palaces.  The green on the left is The Winter Palace.  The light green in the Middle is the Smaller Hermitage Buildling, and the yellow building on the right is the Hermitage Museum building.

The Hermitage Museum Building was the only one to actually be built for the purposes of being a museum.

Tradition states that newlyweds come and touch the foot of one of the twelve Hercules for strength in their marriage.  Here it is in action!