Day Eight–St Petersburg from the inside.

If yesterday was about seeing the exteriors of the many beautiful buildings of the former Russian capital then today was about seeing the interiors of three cathedrals. After a morning spent lazing by the pool in the hot sunshine we boarded our coach at 1.15 that took us on the now familiar route into the city.

First stop was the magnificently golden domed St Isaacs Cathedral, named in honour of St Isaac of Dalmatia whose feast day is celebrated on Peter the Great’s birthday.

The building is now longer used as a place of worship but has been restored to it’s former glory after years of abuse and neglect under the former Soviet regime.

The photographs barely do justice to the gilded statues…

…..the painted mosaics….

…and the superb dove at the centrepiece of the dome.

It seems absurd that for decades this building was used as a store room for army uniforms and to house an exhibition proving to the masses that God did not exist.

The next stop on the tour was the Church of St Nicholas and the Epiphany, known by the local children as Father Christmas Church.

This is the only church that we were visiting that was still an active church and therefore no photographs were allowed inside. A baptism was taking place and judging by the noise that the baby was making, if it is true they cry to let out the devil, it would be a very pure baby indeed. In fact the cries were probably due to the method of baptism, the child being held by it’s ankles and totally immersed not once but three times.

In common with many churches, the bell tower is situated a little away from the main church structure so as not to be too heavy on the church.

Interestingly the gold that gilds the towers of the church was gifted to the congregation by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1960s.

Throughout the city there are many statues of the famous former residents including this one of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov,

…a little further down the street was the house where Rasputin was murdered.

Our final stop was the iconic Church of the Resurrection of Christ “On Spilled Blood”, built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded in 1881.

Again the walls are adorned with magnificent depictions of Saints ..

..and bible stories….

… with  ornate chandeliers…

.

and ceiling mosaics.

Despite the crowds the visits were most memorable and will serve as a life long memory of the magnificence of this city.

We always knew that St Petersburg would be the highlight of the trip but the sights of this city were truly breath-taking and the weather was really a bonus. I am writing this at 10.15pm local time while Sylvia is laying on the balcony in the warm evening sun. At it’s height today the temperature reached 27 or 28C something you don’t really expect in the Baltic.

So as the sun sinks in the sky and Fred Olsen “Balmoral” slowly overtakes us….

….we look forward to Tallinn tomorrow.