Emperor Alenander II was assassinated in March 1881. After assuming power in 1855 in the wake of Russia's disastrous defeat in the Crimean war against Britain, France and Turkey, Alexander II initiated a number of reforms. In 1861 he freed the Russian serfs (peasants, who were almost enslaved to their owners) from their ties to their masters and undertook a rigorous program of military, judicial and urban reforms, never before attempted in Russia. However, during the second half of his reign, Alexander II grew wary of the dangers of his system of reforms, having only barely survived a series of attempts on his life, including an explosion in the Winter Palace and the derailment of a train. Alexander II was finally assassinated in 1881 by a group of revolutionaries, who threw a bomb at his royal carriage. The decision was taken to build a church on the spot where the Emperor was mortally wounded. The church was built between 1883 and 1907 and was officially called the Resurrection of Christ church. During the time of the Bolsheviks, the church was shut down.
All of the pictures in this church are mosaic and AMAZING!! Unlike the mosaics in St. Isaac's these are not sanded down flat.
Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7th. We were able to go to the Church of Spilled Blood and watch a choir concert. It was breathtaking!
Hermitage
This is the line to get in. It is about twice as long as you can see AND there are two of these lines!!!
I put this picture in for the shear amazement of it, it states that it is the main cloackroom. This suggests to me that there are other cloakrooms. The main cloakroom is big enough to hold 3,700 cloaks. That's a lot of cloaks! I wonder how many cloaks can this place hold if we were to fill up ALL the cloakrooms!
This is the main cloakroom. I am standing at the beginning of it. It goes on forever! I hope there is not a fire! I could be trampled to death after everyone waited in line for their cloak. Because we all know that the Russians would rather burn to death in a fire than go outside without their coats.
Main Entry
My family stopped being cooperative with pictures early on so, I just started taking pictures of people who were posing where I wanted a picture.
I get that there is world famous art in this museum, and we saw it! It was breathtaking and amazing beyond words but, if I were to post pictures of all the pictures we saw, you would just see a picture of a famous picture. So, I am posting other things about the museum I found interesting.
One thing we learned here is that contrary to current life, you do not have to look amazing to have your picture hung for all to see.
Glad these pants are no longer in style.
You also don't have to be a human.
How would you like to have to lie down next to that each night??
I'm sure there is some sort of significance to this painting. It looks a little bit like Jesus but, I couldn't read what it was about and it sort of gave us the giggles.
Nicholai Romanov (Coolest dude ever!!)
I am continually amazed at how much detail goes into stuff here. My Ferris Bueller-esque picture series is to show this.
Peter and Paul Cathedral
The cathedral is the burial place of all Russian tsars from Peter I to Alexander III, with the exception of Peter II and Ivan VI. The remains of Nicholas II and his family and entourage were re-interred here in the side St. Catherine's chapel on July 17, 1998, the 80th anniversary of their deaths.
Catherine the Great
Peter the ok. Hahaha. Just kidding. Of course he was great! Peter the Great!
15 years ago Chris and I came to St. Petersburg with my sister and her husband. We brought them to a folk dance concert at this very same building! It was so much fun to be back here watching the same-ish type of program!
Helsinki
We got up at the butt-crack of dawn and rode a shuttle bus for 4 hours, it picked us up at our apartment and dropped us off at the temple. It wasn't a bad way to travel, other than the border crossing. At border control, we had to get out of the car in sub-zero weather and wait in line at a both to show our passports. This happened twice on the Russian side and twice on the Finish side.
This is a life-sized nativity on the temple grounds.
The temple has housing where people can stay when they come to the temple. This is available since a lot of the people who usually come for a week at a time. We didn't stay the night but we loafed around in between our time in the temple.
Bought this salad on our way out of town. It was the best salad I have ever had! Just wanted to share the joy.
New Year's Eve
We went down to Palace Square for the countdown to the new year. There were tons of people there and lots of pretty lights. Sadly, there was no official countdown. It was pretty funny actually. We kept waiting for and official hoorah but, there wasn't ever anything. Lots of cheering and random celebrating. Around 12:10, we headed back to our apartment. It was a little less climatic than we were anticipating but, still fun.
