Third Port of Call: St. Petersburg, Russia (Part 2)

On the drive to Catherine's Palace, Nadya gave us an introduction to Russian history. She seemed a little nervous about my note taking and asked if I was part of the KGB, when I assured her I just like to take notes she relaxed.

St. Petersburg was founded on May 27, 1703. Prior to that there were two dynasties (one started from the Vikings and another from Ivan the Terrible). From 1598 to 1613 was "the time of troubles," when they lost territory to Sweden (second time we heard Sweden bashing on this trip, the first was in Denmark). In 1613 my notes say was "the 1st Rep of 2nd dynasty by Michael the grandfather of Peter the Great." Hmm... might need more research on that one.

1698 Peter the Great tried to get the property back from Sweden.
1700-1721 there was the Northern War
1703 Peter the Great arrived to the Neva River (the main waterway in St. Petersburg). The Neva is about 45 miles long and leads to Finland.
1712 the army of Peter the Great moved the court from Moscow to St. Petersburg and made St. Petersburg the capital of Russia. ("Huzzah!" As my Colonial reenacting friends would say.)
St. Petersburg remained the capital of Russia for 200 years before it was moved back to Moscow. 

The history lesson made the time fly on the way to Catherine Palace.


Peter the Great married twice. Divorce was against the law. His options were 1) murder his first wife or 2) send her to a convent. He chose option #2. This palace was his 1710 wedding gift to his second wife, Catherine I. The original portion was about the size in this picture, still quite a large place for one woman.

I love the shade of blue used for her palace. It, like much of what we saw on this trip, is in the process of being restored to its original glory. It is impossible to get the entire palace in one picture, unless maybe if you flew over it in a helicopter. Even then I'm not so sure.

The chapel. Every palace has one. We did not see the inside.
Domes are used because snow doesn't settle on domes
and damage the roof -- or so our guide said.

The color scheme was chosen because they were Catherine I's favorite colors: blue for her eyes, white for her milky skin, and gold for her hair. 

Catherine Palace was named that by her successor, "Elizabeth the Spender." Catherine I ruled for two years after his death. Elizabeth the Spender ruled and took over the palace. She earned her nickname by expanding the palace immensely (hard to say -- five, six, ten times the original size more research is needed) and named it after her mother, Catherine I.

Elizabeth's nephew, Peter the III, became ruler. He was not a good ruler and was murdered six months later. He married Catherine II (also known as Catherine the Great), the granddaughter-in-law of Peter the Great. Big mistake since she is the one who had him murdered so she could be empress. Guess there was no equivalent of sending her husband to a convent, so death was the only option. Catherine the II ruled for 34 years, until 1796.

Nadya continued to tell us about the history of the czars until Nicholas II, who was the last czar and was murdered along with his family (including his famous daughter, Anastasia) in the February 1917 revolution.

Any time we had a break in what we were doing (such as on long van rides, or waiting in line), Nadya told us more Russian history. Hearing all this made me appreciate when I went to school I only had to learn a few hundred years of history.

The "little" house next to Catherine Palace belonged to the architect. 

Famed Russian poet, Pushkin, went to a special school for noble sons that was located next to the palace. 

The original palace (in Catherine I's day) only had sixteen rooms. 

Nadya showed us the line if we didn't have tickets. It was at least 3 1/2 hours long. The benefit of being on an organized tour.

As we entered the building, we were told to put booties on to protect the newly refinished floors. This was definitely the type of place where you don't know where to look: up to the ceilings? down to floors? along the walls? It was almost fortunate there was hardly any furniture to add to the confusion, just hundreds of tourists all gawking at the same treasures.

The first room we went into was the Great Hall. It is 800 square meters with a 7 meter (25 foot) tall ceiling.

 
There is no way to compare that to my 200 square foot rooms with 8 foot tall ceilings.  The ceiling is painted on canvas. It is flat, but has the illusion of being domed. This painting is original, having survived World War II because it was taken down in the 1790s (the room was built between 1752 and 1765). There was a fire in January 1944 that was put out by a snowstorm. During the renovation process in the 1950s the original ceiling painting was found, along with sketches and it was decided to use this (rather than the 19th century painting that was there longer) as the ceiling in the Great Hall.

After World War II a massive restoration was started. Much of the restoration was only possible because the Nazis took pictures of everything. The palace is being restored from these photographs and water colors.


The room in the picture has an abundance of 24-carat gold that is eight times thinner than human hair and applied using a brush made from hair found in squirrels' tails. Maybe I should look for a brush like that for Ashley.

The White State Dining Room, in the Baroque style, features three different place settings as examples of their china.

The sitting room features red fabric on the walls. The fabric is red aluminum foil. Aluminum was very expensive, therefore this was an obvious show of wealth. 

The next room featured a green clavichord. I'm showing it for my musician friends.

This room with the portraits was pretty overwhelming. I believe this is the room Nadya said was camouflaged during World War II in order to protect it from the Nazis. They put fake plywood walls over the paintings. It sounds like it didn't fool the enemy. When the building was opened to the public in 1918 (after Nicholas II's assassination and making everything open to the public), the enemy went in and took notes about the treasures.

This picture of the Amber Room is what one calls a loophole. No photographs are allowed to be taken IN the room, but our guide (and I'm sure hundreds of others) point to a spot in the following room where we can stand to take a picture (just one) looking inside the Amber Room. Restoration in the palace started in 1944, after the end of World War II. It was not completed in the Amber Room until 2003. Many treasures were kept hidden in Siberia. They compared photographs of the original Amber Room and painstakingly matched up pieces of amber to make an historical replica, including the parquet floor, paintings, and tapestries. Following the restoration, samples of furniture were placed in the rooms to get a feel for what was there, yet also allow space for tourists to move around without damaging the art. One kilogram of amber only yields 200 grams of usable amber.

Catherine II liked the classical style. The pink room is considered a simply decorated room. It was not destroyed by the Nazis.

From here we had a much-needed lunch break. Unlike many other tours, lunch was included -- a salad, soup, main entree, and dessert. Ashley avoids dairy (to make her stomach happy). Dessert included ice cream. After talking to the kitchen, the offered her an apple. She was not expecting the apple to come out looking like a swan. It certainly brought a smile to her face.

After lunch we toured Peterhof -- Peter's "yard."