St. Petersburg ~ Day 6

On our last day we did some family things for which I was warmly included in and am very grateful for. We also did the last bit of tourism in St.Petersburg. Evgueni, his Grandfather and I walked through some very affluent residential neighbourhoods, past and inside a church for 3 seconds (due to my delinquent headscarf), over the Panteleimon (Pestel) Bridge with it's beautiful and unique gold and black street lamps, past the Mikhailovsky (Engineers) Castle (briefly inside the courtyard), then stopped at the Cathedral of the Resurrection aka Our Saviour-on-the-Spilled-Blood, 1883-1907 which is adjacent to the Catherine (Griboyedov) Canal. This is a memorial to Alexander III built at the location he was mortally wounded. There is an entrance to the Cathedral at the Canal, covered by a gold canopy marking the exact fateful spot. The other Cathedral entrances are as elaborate, lined with semi-precious stones. The exterior is brick decorated with mosaic and enamel tiles. The façades mini-mosaics are little faux-recessed-windows depicting different symbolic images within each. The domes are all different: gold leaf or green, blue and white enamel tile in smooth ice-cream-cone swirls, diamond shaped spikes in swirls or in checked spikes in random patterns. One roof rougher than the previous ~ or perhaps… one is smoother than it's predecessor until the colours shine gold... (ahhhhh…..).

The interior of the Cathedral is even more elaborately decorated than the exterior. I didn't think it was possible either. There are at least 30 types of Italian marbles in at least this many different colours. The marble and its natural beauty decorate the floors and walls in geometric and concentric patterns. There are over 7000 square meters of glass mosaics depicting religious and political personas and events (the closer to eye level the greater the detail and finish). Looking closely at the glass tiles they are less that 1cm x 1cm. Each!!! We learned of the interesting ways they minimized the arduous construction process to save time. Ultimately, they still laid each teen-tiny mosaic tile, one at a time. The main domed ceiling has a portrait of Jesus looking down. To give you an example of scale, one of his eyes is almost 1 meter across. It was truly vivid, awesome and beautiful.

Along with many other beautiful structures, this cathedral was also damaged in WWII. Religious and valuable (gold and semi-precious stone) motifs were removed, never to be replaced. There were, as well, several bombs dropped on it. One bomb was dropped through the largest dome (at Jesus’ elbow) landing unexploded on Cathedral floor. Eventually the bomb was deactivated and the Cathedral was used as a storage space. During this time the marble, being outside of its natural environment, aged badly and a large fire erupted damaging several mosaics and further damaging the marble finish. Eventually, the Cathedral was recognized as an architectural monument and restored to the bright glory we saw.

After the Cathedral, we headed home to eat (of course) J and pack L.

Cathedral: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/church-of-savior.asp

The morning of our departure, it was 1 degree and snowing as we waited for our taxi. Hummf, burr. Well, at least I got to see Russian snow!!