7th September 2019
St. Petersburg is a Russian port city on the Baltic Sea. It was the imperial capital for 2 centuries, having been founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, subject of the city's iconic “Bronze Horseman” statue. It remains Russia's cultural centre, with venues such as the Mariinsky Theatre hosting opera and ballet, and the State Russian Museum showcasing Russian art, from Orthodox icon paintings to Kandinsky works.
One of St. Petersburg's most famous and popular visitor attractions, the palace and park at Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets) are often referred to as "the Russian Versailles", although many visitors conclude that the comparison does a disservice to the grandeur and scope of this majestic estate.
Versailles was, however, the inspiration for Peter the Great's desire to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of his new city and, after an aborted attempt at Strelna, Peterhof - which means "Peter's Court" in German - became the site for the Tsar's Monplaisir Palace, and then of the original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade.
The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky.
Day one, really stupid time to wake up to join our tour group before 7am. Official process to get ashore not too long, they seem to have realised it’s too good an opportunity to get tourist dollars and so, even without a smile, they don’t make it too hard to get in just for the day, however woe betide you if you deviate from your tour.
About an hour on the motorway to reach Peterhof and the palace. A bit of a wait to get in with all the other bus tours and a fair bit of a palaver to sort coats, bags and overshoes to get through to the actual palace rooms.
All over the top decoration, paintings, gilding, seriously ornate. All very much like Versailles, exactly how it was planned to be. Many of the floors made up of parquet, some pattens using up to 15 different timbers (hence the soft overshoes provided).
Afraid got rather confused by the guide as to which Peter or other monarch planned and built the palace but luckily that didn’t matter too much. The palace was very badly damaged in WWII and has been restored to it’s present as original condition.
Leaving the palace took a tour of the gardens, also formal layout in the style of Versailles.
At the appropriate time we joined everyone else to watch the “launch” of the fountains to musical accompaniment. Spectacular, all gravity fed fountains gushing forth from gilded statues with cascades and waterfalls, the centre piece being Sampson fighting a lion, representing Russia defeating Sweden in the Great Northern War. By pure good chance we had chosen the brightest sunny day to visit, I suspect on a dull day the spectacle would be much less.
Time for a bit of a walk round before rejoining our coach to return to the ship.
Many very fancy buildings along the route, many dating from the time of ther Palace’s use, all very colourful and ornate.
Along the roadside were milestones, very fancy and about ten feet tall!
Also went through areas of the famed Dachas, out of town housed for the rich, mostly surrounded by high fences, some dilapidated still to be renovated.
The evenings Folkloric Show by the Petersburg Theatre Company was excellent and most professional, lots of Balalaika music, traditional singing and dancing, All really good.
