July 24, 2002

After sailing along the Neva river we arrived in St Petersburg about 8 a.m.

From 1713 - 1918, St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia and its magnificence as a city is largely the result of Peter the Great's admiration for the art and architecture of Western Europe.

8:30 a.m. Commenced a bus tour of the city. There were streetscenes galore to record but I was particularly captivated by the passing architecture.

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We had a stop outside St. Isaac's Cathedral. St. lsaac's Cathedral, dates from the early 19th century. The Cathedral is enormous, necessarily so as it was intended to match the impressive proportions of the neighboring Admiralty and Winter Palace. Building materials were brought from Finland by ship, and by a specially constructed railroad. No expense was spared - one estimate of the cost was in excess of 23 million silver rubles which accounts for the prodigious quantities of gold, bronze, 14 varieties of marble, malachite, jasper and mosaic. The interior can accommodate 14 000 worshippers.
Later we visited the famous Hermitage Museum. The former Winter Palace is part of the museum, which houses one of the finest collections of art and antiques known. It undoubtedly has more masterpieces of Western paintings than any other museum - from Da Vinci to Picasso.
The evening was spent at Yussupov’s Palace. Built in 1760, the Yussupovs were the richest family in Russia at the time of the Bolshevic Revolution. It is the place where Prince Yussupov murdered Rasputin in 1916. The rooms have been restored to the character they had when Rasputin visited the Palace, the night of his death. A highlight is the spectacular Moorish Hall, where Islamic arches and motifs are picked out in golds and reds. The theatre interior, equally resplendent but in contrasting rococo style, is still in use today and we were treated to a concert of the Russian romances, arias and scenes from the best-known world operas perfomed by the soloists of Mariinsky and other theatres of St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg Philarmonia
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