Cathedrals
There are lots of famous cathedrals in St Petersburg – I have already shown you the St Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Nikolsky Marskoi in Kronstadt.
The Kazansky Cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan, the most venerated icon in the Russian Orthodox church. It is strongly associated with Marshall Kutuzov, the great general who defeated Napoleon, who reportedly asked the Lady of Kazan for help. He is buried in the cathedral.
St Isaac’s Cathedral is the largest cathedral in the city. The interior is now a museum but tourists can also climb to the colonnades around the dome for some great views of the city.
Technically not a cathedral but still an impressive building, is the Church of Spilled Blood. This was built on the exact spot where Tsar Alexander II was attacked and killed by revolutionaries in 1881.
The Hermitage
Formerly the Winter Palace and residence of the Imperial Tsars and their governments, this is now Russia’s biggest and most famous museum. In includes rooms of the Royal Residence restored to what they looked like before the Palace was stormed by the Bolsheviks, but also now contains huge exhibitions of Russian culture, history, archaeology, art, and also collections of foreign art and exhibitions of foreign cultures, far and wide. It is comparable in some ways to both the British Museum and Windsor Castle.
Cruiser Aurora
The storming of the Winter Palace during the October Revolution in November (yes, I know…) 1917 was instigated by a shot from a warship, the Aurora. It’s still there, still moored on the Neva, and is now a museum you can visit. It was closed when I passed by but I took a couple of pictures.
Finally a few more images of St Petersburg over the three days.
This Is Not Bromley 