Samson Tears Open the Lion’s Jaws at the Peterhof Palace
The Palace at Pavlovsk
Hermitage Gate
Hermitage at Night
The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood
St. Isaac’s Cathedral
Canal looking towards St. Isaac’s Cathedral
“Citizens! During artillery bombardments, this side of the street is more DANGEROUS”
Different time, different place.
WOW! Thanks.
We didn’t get there. Gorgeous, spacebo.(sp)
Yeah, these are great. Thanks.
Beautiful. Those nyemetsky b*stards tried to destroy the place, but they didn’t succeed. The photo of the canal in particular is incredible. I’d love to visit. Maybe one of these days.
The amazing thing of course, as with all things, is that it’s even more gorgeous in person. I highly recommend going. The secret is getting out though. Thanks to the strong Euro, there has been a huge influx of European tourists, particularly (and ironically) Germans. Just three years ago I could walk into the Hermitage, buy a ticket and start browsing without waiting. Now the line is out the door, through the courtyard, and a block long. Tourist groups can bypass the wait though due to block/advance purchase.
I should put some post war pictures up comparing before/after restoration. I wish I had taken more of those. It’s amazing what the Russians have been able to piece back together. The beauty that you see is more a testament to the restorers than to the original artists. The Germans flat out destroyed many things. For example the Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo Palaces are outside of the city, and were completely gutted. Peterhof has been largely restored (90% I think is the official count), but Tsarskoe Selo has a ways to go. The exterior of Tsarskoe Selo has been restored, and is particularly striking. But take a tour of the interior, and most of the rooms are white walls. They’ve restored the famous Amber Room. But the Amber wall panels were stolen and never recovered, so what you see now is completely new, put together tile by tile. Living here I learned to really hate the Nazis.