ABC Wednesday--S is for...

Continuing the tour or Russia, S is for St. Petersburg.

Sometimes known as the Venice of the North, St. Petersburg has a network of canals which provide water navigation through parts of the city. Here we are looking along the canal to the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. The elaborate architecture rivals St. Basil's in Moscow, which was in last week's post. The name commemorates the fact that the church was built on the site of the assassination in 1881 of Emperor Alexander II.
The Russians build churchs to commemorate some interesting things. This one was built to celebrate a battle won.

The nobles sought a cool respite from city life in the summer. This is the Catherine Palace, the "summer cottage" of Emperess Catherine the Great outside the city.

...with it's chapel topped by five golden domes. I do not remember the significance of having five domes, but many of the Russian Orthodox churches and cathedrals have five.

St. Petersburg was Czar Peter the Great's city, and there are a number of statues of him there. This one may be less famous than some of the others. Maybe it is because his head is so small?

While we were in St. Petersburg, we attended the opera. We saw Carmen. Our balcony seats, purchased the same morning, left something to be desired for seeing the stage, but made for interesting people watching before the show.

The Cathedral of St. Isaac comes from a different architectural style. Imposing, but less elaborate on the outside...

...the inside included lots of gilt and mosaics.

I seem to be missing some photo files from this segment of the trip. I will have to scan them from the snapshots sometime. they would include the ones I took when we climbed to the top of the cathedral dome. Yikes! What was I thinking? I'm always climbing to the tops of things. Maybe I was so petrified that I didn't take any shots.

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This shot of the spire Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul at the fortress of the same name was not taken from the top os St. Isaac's, though I am sure we were able to see the island it is situated on from there. This is a later structure, and is the final resting place of Czar Nicholas II and his family.

ABC Wednesday, started by Denise, is winding down to the end of its fourth round. You will find other ABC celebrants here.