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Friday, we visited Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Saint Isaac's Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Russia, and the 4th largest in the world. It was ordered built by Alexander I and took 40 years to build (1818-1858). It is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, who was one of the patron saints of Peter the Great, the founder of Saint Petersburg. During World War II, the dome of the cathedral was painted over with gray paint in order to avoid attracting the attention of enemy aircraft.
This is a necklace with the patron saint for the name Anastasia. I wanted to get one last year but they were all out of Anastasia's. I wanted this name because of how much I love Romanov history.
After leaving Saint Isaac's, we headed to the Grot school for one last meeting and to see the Last Bell Parade, which is a celebration schools hold at the end of every school year.
I'm not sure of the exact title of this man, but he basically provides financial support for the school. We presented him with one of our Russian club T-shirts that reads "Keep Calm and Speak Russian"
The English teacher, Olga, and I, who we have been communicating with over Skype since last semester. She's the best! ;)
The Last Bell Parade - students performing songs and skits.
We then headed to Peterhof Palace, also known as the Russian Versailles, which is made up of a series of palaces and gardens constructed by Peter the Great. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the grand (main) palace, pictured below, but sadly you cannot take pictures inside.
Probably one of the coolest features of Peterhof is the fountains. They're all unique and some of them are what are called "trickster fountains." These trickster fountains were designed by Peter the Great to play jokes on his guests - and the tradition continues today with the tourists. One example of this is a fountain he built shaped like a giant mushroom. Underneath the mushroom are benches on which you can go sit. However, at random times, water begins to pour out of the "roof" of the mushroom, trapping guests underneath it on the bench (unless they want to get wet trying to escape). Another fountain is a series of rocks laid out with several fountain spouts underneath. Tourists run across the rocks, back and forth, as many times as they can to see if they can get away with it without the fountain turning on, which it does at random, and spraying water at them. Everyone in our group last year tried this, except for me. I wasn't willing to get soaked in weather that was freezing cold!
Sadly, during WWII, Germans destroyed much of Peterhof. It was held by German troops from 1941-1944, during which many of the fountains were destroyed and the palace was partly exploded and then just left to burn down. Employees of the palace were unfortunately only able to save a portion of the treasures from the palace, and even tried to dismantle and bury some of the fountain sculptures. Russians began restoration work on the palace immediately after the Germans were gone, and the process still continues to this day.
We were given free time to roam around the palace grounds. Rather than exploring the fountains, which I did on my last trip, I decided to get some ice cream and check out the beach, which I did not get to see on my last trip.
Saturday, we headed to Tsarskoye Selo aka the Tsar's Village, which is located a little less than an hour outside of Saint Petersburg in a town called Pushkin. During the 17th century the land belonged to a Swedish noble, but in 1708, Peter the Great gave the estate to Catherine I, his wife, who would later become Empress Catherine I. Catherine I began developing the land into a country residence for the royal family. Her daughter, Elizabeth, worked with the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build Catherine's Palace.
The first palace we visited was Alexander's Palace. When the Romanovs were arrested at the Winter Palace during the Russian Revolution, they were brought here and placed under house arrest by the Provisional Government, formed after the abdication of Nicholas II . Nicholas II was arrested in another location, on a train on which he had been traveling, and brought here, reuniting the Romanov family.
In August of 1917, the Provisional Government evacuated the family to the city of Tobolsk, supposedly in order to "protect them" from the revolution, which had been increasingly gaining strength. In March of 1918, the family was still under house arrest, and was at that point, place on "soldier's rations" and subsequently had to give up coffee and butter. During the next month, in April, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and daughter Maria were moved to Yekaterinburg. Their youngest and only son, Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia, was too ill to be moved. His sisters, the famous Anastasia, Olga, and Tatiana stayed behind, and did not leave Tobolsk until May.
With all of the Romanovs in Yeketerinburg, the White Army began moving to capture the city. The decision to kill the family was then made for two main reasons. If the Romanovs fell into the hands of the White Army, they could provide motivation for others to rally to support the cause of the Whites. Secondly, if the Tsar were dead, a family member could be considered the legitimate ruler by other European nations, leading to the White gaining foreign support.
On July 16, 1918 the Czechoslovak forces began closing in on Yekaterinburg. They did not realize that the royal family was being held there, but the Bolsheviks panicked, thinking that the Czechoslovaks were there to rescue the family. Around midnight, the Romanovs were then moved the basement of the house they were being held in and shot.
Actual toys belonging to the Romanov children
Actual clothes belonging to Alexei Romanov.
Dolls belonging to the Romanov sisters.
Re-creation of one of the rooms
Actual Faberge egg belonging to the Romanovs.
Another re-creation of a room.
The bedroom of Nicholas II and Alexandra - note how there are two separate beds. This was not an uncommon practice for royalty during this time period.
Clothing belonging to the Romanovs.
Nicholas II's study
We headed back out into Tsarskoye Selo after Alexander's Palace and visited this statue of Pushkin. The lyceum that Pushkin once studied at is located in Tsarskoye Selo, so there is appropriately a statue of him near the center of the village.
This is the lyceum, right down the road from the statue that Pushkin studied at.
Next up we roamed around Tsarskoye Selo a little bit - getting lunch and doing some shopping. I bought a matryoshka and lacquer box both depicting my favorite Russian fairy tale: Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf (click here for a summary) After about an hour of free time, we \headed to the next palace: Catherine's Palace.
Catherine Palace was considered to be a "modest" palace and small in size.
It can't even fit in one entire picture unless you take a panoramic.
Catherine Palace was built in 1717, and in 1733, Catherine's daughter, Elizabeth, commissioned architects to expand the palace. However, she was still not happy, finding the palace to be "outdated and incommodious." So, in 1752, she had the palace demolished and replaced with a new structure that was finished in 1756.
Sadly, during WWII, during the Nazi retreat upon the end of the Siege of Leningrad, the Nazis intentionally destroyed the palace, leaving nothing but a shell of what it used to be behind.
Nazi's destroying the palace
Nazi officers standing outside the ruined Catherine Palace
Damage done by the Nazis.
Fortunately, Soviet archivists had documented the majority of the interior, so reconstruction was made possible. The following photographs show Russians hard at work reconstructing the palace:
After leaving Catherine Palace we headed back to the hotel to rest, as the next day (yesterday - Sunday) we were due to take a speed train back to Moscow.
The train ride only took 4 hours and we arrived back in Moscow at 7:15PM. From the train station, we headed to Moscow State University, where we will study until June 6th.
Tomorrow I'll post the pictures from our first day of school and walk around Red Square :)
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