The Hermitage

A trip to St. Petersburg cannot be complete without a visit to the State Hermitage Museum, or simply the Hermitage. It is rated #1 in Trip Advisor among attractions in St. Petersburg and it is completely understandable why. This museum is set mainly in the beautiful Winter Palace, but as the collection grew over the centuries, additional buildings - the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage, and the New Hermitage - were erected as part of the palace complex where visitors can view the public exhibits.

Catherine the Great is known to be one of the greatest art collectors in history and it was she who established the Hermitage. The collection in the museum is said to consist of more than three million items, and only a small fraction of them is on permanent public display. What makes the Hermitage unique is that it is set in a palace, and you are not only awed by the great art but also by the grandeur of the rooms in which they are housed.

Once you enter, you are greeted by the lavish Grand Staircase. Imagine that, we were just at the entrance and even then we were already being wowed. (My photo below doesn't do it justice, you have to see it in person to be truly impressed.)

We were then taken through a series of rooms, each one just as impressive as the next. The resplendent Armorial Hall has gilded columns and was one of the palace's main reception areas.

You can find the Great Imperial Throne at the far-end of the The St. George Hall (or Large Throne Hall). This opulent room has a very intricately-decorated ceiling included a bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon. What makes this hall even more astonishing, and I would never have noticed if our guide didn't point it out, is that the parquet floor has been designed to look like a reflection of the ceiling decorations, including the chandeliers. Amazing!

Our guide from Marina Wilson tours told us that the Hermitage contains artwork from every significant artist in the world. Not that I know every important artist, but I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration. However, as we started going through the displays, I realized that statement may actually have been more accurate than I initially thought. Among the displays are an early painting by Leonardo Da Vinci called Madonna with a Flower. (He actually has another Madonna and Child painting at the Hermitage. Both paintings are located in the same room.)

Madonna and a Flower by Leonardo Da Vinci

There is a large section of paintings by Rembrandt, who is probably one of my favorite painters because of his mastery of chiaroscuro, or the use of strong, dramatic contrasts between light and shadow. We stopped at this next painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, as our guide pointed out to us the hands of the father. You will see that one hand is wide and masculine while the other is soft and almost feminine, which seems to suggest fathering and mothering at the same time.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt

We also got to see some paintings from Vincent Van Gogh, including this one entitled Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles).

Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) by Vincent Van Gogh

Pablo Picasso was also well-represented in the Hermitage. His painting Friendship demonstrates his popular style of cubism and was completed during his African Period.

Friendship by Pablo Picasso

The sculpture Crouching Boy is the only work of Michelangelo that can be found in the museum. While it seems unfinished or unpolished, some people feel that it was intentionally sculpted this way.

Crouching Boy by Michelangelo

The Raphael Loggias were modeled after the famous gallery at the Vatican. I initially thought that these frescoes were painted by Raphael himself but apparently he supervised his students who were the ones who painted the walls and columns in this hallway.

Raphael Loggias

What I love about museums is that you get to see and appreciate beautiful work of artists you haven't heart of before. Our guide directed our attention to this magnificent painting called Departure for the Market (Autumn Morning) by Constant Troyon, a French painter who mastered the art of painting animals. I also love how he rendered this painting with an early morning mist.

Departure for the Market (Autumn Morning) by Constant Troyon

I was also impressed by this painting entitled The Angel of Death by Horace Vernet.

The Angel of Death by Horace Vernet

This sculpture, called The Three Graces, was created by Italian artist Antonio Canova. It's impressive how this piece was created out of marble and yet it looks exceptionally delicate and soft. Take a closer look, especially at the hands and fingers of the women.

The Three Graces by Antonio Canova

Our tour lasted only 3 hours but my mom and I decided to stay a bit more so we could spend more time looking at the artwork and cultural artifacts on display in the museum (and also to buy souvenirs). We could easily have spent more time inside if not for the fact that we had tickets to a ballet that same night so by around 4pm we left the museum to head back to our hotel.

Our guide (coincidentally, her name was also Irina, similar to our walking tour guide) told us that in each trip she takes to the Hermitage, she always sees or learns something new. Not hard to imagine given the size of the museum and the vastness of the collection. The Hermitage is a definite must-see when you visit St. Petersburg and it is now probably my favorite museum in the world.

Next post: Palaces around St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg: Fantastic Walking Tour

My search for tours in the internet led me to find Get Your Guide, which provides a lot of touring options of many different cities around the world, including St. Petersburg. As there are a lot of places to visit in the city center, I booked a private walking tour of St. Petersburg with Ulko Tours through Get Your Guide so we had someone who could bring us to the key places of interest within the city.

Our tour started at 9 AM when our guide, Irina, met up with us at the lobby of our hotel which is located at the far end of Nevsky Propspekt, the main street in St. Petersburg. Our hotel proved to be a good starting point as our guide walked with us through  entire street and talked to us about the history of St. Petersburg, interesting facts about the city and its important sights, how life is here, and how things are a bit different here when compared to Moscow.

I won't list down every place we visited and everything we saw since that would make this blog post too long (it's long enough as it is). I will, however, share some of the most important places we saw. Probably the best place we visited that day was the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. This cathedral was built on the site where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. It is inspired by medieval Russian architecture which is why it more closely resembles St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow rather than most other baroque or neo-classical buildings in St. Petersburg.

This elaborate and awe-inspiring church is a must-see when you visit St. Petersburg. As if the facade hasn't impressed you enough, when you step inside, you are greeted by walls and pillars that are elaborately decorated with 7500 square meters worth of multi-colored mosaic. Unbelievable! From a distance, everything looks to have been painted. I can't even imagine how much work it took to prepare every single piece of mosaic in the right color and put in the right place. Entrance is 250 rubles but it is definitely worth it. You can read more about this spectacular cathedral here.

Not too far away is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, or simply Kazan Cathedral. It was modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and its remarkable colonnade is probably the most impressive part of its exterior. Photos are not allowed inside but entrance is free.

To complete our church experience of St. Petersburg, we also visited St. Isaac's Cathedral, the biggest in the city. The main area of the church (entrance: 250 rubles) was closed to visitors when we were there because I think they were preparing for an important ceremony.

We did head up the 300 steps to the colonnade at the base of the massive gold-plated dome (entrance to the colonnade is 150 rubles). Here we had pretty awesome views of the city.

Our walking tour wasn't just about churches. We also visited other sights of cultural and historical significance. A short walk from St. Isaac's Cathedral is the Bronze Horseman, a statue of Peter the Great riding a horse. This statue was commissioned by Catherine the Great and came to be known as the Bronze Horseman after a poem written by the Russian literary great Alexander Pushkin.

Along Nevsky Prospekt, I saw this interesting countdown to the 2014 Winter Olympics that will be held in Sochi, Russia.

Our guide Irina also took us to the Winter Palace, which houses the spectacular Hermitage museum. Our visit to the Hermitage was reserved for the next day but we did get to enjoy the beautiful architecture of the palace and visit the Alexander Column which stands at the center of Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, or Palace Square.

We also visited the Eternal Flame in the Field of Mars, which used to be a military training ground but has become a park open to everyone. The eternal flame commemorates the victims in St. Petersburg of all wars and revolutions.

Irina also took us to see Chizhik-Pyzhik, a small statue of a bird at the embankment of the Fontanka River. Similar to the rabbit statue at the Peter and Paul Fortress, the local custom is to throw a coin at the statue and make a wish. If you land the coin on the pedestal, your wish will come true. Irina told us that this statue is very popular with students hoping to pass a very important exam.

Our tour lasted 8 hours, and most of that time was really spent walking or standing. We did have a bit of a break when our guide took us to a hole-in-the-wall for lunch that serves great pirogi, or Russian pie that can be either sweet or savory. However, despite our walk being done at a leisurely pace, we were still pretty tired after. At 5pm, Irina brought us back to a section of the Nevsky Prospekt near the Russian State Pushkin Academy Drama Theater where we had a meal at Chaynaya Lozhka. We intended to head back to our hotel after but with some food and coffee in our system, we got our second wind and decided to see more of the sights in the city and look for souvenirs. We passed by the Chocolate Museum which houses an exquisite array chocolate sculptures that are for sale.

We then walked further along Nevsky Prospekt to visit Yeliseyevsky, a beautiful building that houses one of the oldest food stores in St. Petersburg.

There is an assortment of products you can buy in this posh gourmand shop. My mom bought a small bottle of vodka as a souvenir. We never got around to it, but I thought it would be nice to have some coffee and pastries here.

I took a snapshot of this intricate roof structure at the top of the corner edge of the Singer House. This low-rise building is apparently the first steel-structure building in Russia.

Despite having a tremendously long and full day, we decided to pass by the Galeria Mall before heading back to the hotel. Irina told us that there was an H&M shop here which we checked out, along with a few other shops. I capped off the evening with a meal and coffee at Coffee House (or КОФЕ ХАУЗ as written in Cyrillic). My mom was still full though so as I was eating, she continued to go around the mall for more window shopping.

Thankfully this mall was only one metro stop away from our hotel. We had a bit more time to rest that evening since our guided tour of the Hermitage the next day was going to start at 11AM. Next post: The Hermitage.

St. Petersburg: Peter and Paul Fortress

It was finally time for us to see and experience more of Russia by heading to St. Petersburg. We booked a first class cabin in the overnight train so that we could get a decent night's sleep and have enough energy for touring. We were lucky and thankful that when we arrived at our hotel at around 8:30 AM, the receptionist actually agreed to check us in, about 5 1/2 hours earlier than our official check-in time. Cool! This allowed us to get a bit more rest and cleaned up before heading out. Our first (and only stop) on our first day in St. Petersburg was the Peter and Paul Fortress.

We took the Ioannovsky Bridge into the Peter and Paul Fortress where you have pretty good views of the Neva river and the important and historic buildings on the opposite bank.

We noticed a lot of people converging on one side of the bridge and looking down. Here we spotted a statue of a rabbit that everyone was taking photos of and tossing coins at. I took a picture of it but didn't know its significance until the next day when our tour guide explained the significance of this statue. Unfortunately, I can't quite recall what it was LOL. I think that the rabbit represents Peter the Great and managing to land a coin on the piling is supposed to bring you luck or something good.

Within the fortress walls, you can find several areas of interest. Arguably the most important of these is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, whose towering gilded spire is a defining landmark in the city.

While the cathedral exterior is noteworthy, it's what you can find inside that is of great historical significance. Apart from the lavish gilded iconostasis, you can find the graves of most of Russia's prerevolutionary rulers, including Peter the Great (Peter I)...

...and Catherine the Great (Catherine II).

We quickly passed by the strange bronze statue of Peter the Great with its disproportionately small head. My mom actually managed to inadvertently catch a flying bird in the shot when she took my picture. Can you see it?

We skipped the climb to the top of the 122.5 m high bell tower despite the promise of a breathtaking panoramic view of the city from the top. We also got the combination entrance ticket that I thought included access to the Neva Panorama, a walking route along the fortress walls. Unfortunately, it didn't, and we didn't feel like paying extra. However, it was next to the entrance to the Neva Panorama that we spotted an opportunity to have photos taken while dressed as Russian royalty. Depending on the outfit, you pay 500 to 700 rubles and you are allowed to put on a dress and take photos with your own camera for 15 minutes. That seemed like a better use of our time and money so my mom went for it.

It started to rain so we decided to head indoors to the places that were included in our ticket. This included the Neva Curtain Wall where you can see "The History of Peter and Paul Fortress" display as well as a bronze replica of the gilded angel at the tip of the cathedral spire.

We then headed towards the Commandant's House where you will find a fascinating exhibit of the history of St. Petersburg. It includes several marvellous displays that depict how life in St. Petersburg was from 1703 to 1918.

Our final stop was the Trubetskoy Bastion. You can see the different cells of political prisoners from the 18th to the early 20th century.

It started raining a bit more heavily as we were about to leave so we stopped by one of the cafes in the fortress to have a late afternoon snack and some coffee. (The food here was actually pretty good.) By the time we stepped out, the sun was thankfully up again. We had nothing else planned that evening so we headed back to the hotel quite early to get some rest. After all, we had an 8-hour walking tour of St. Petersburg the next day. More on that in my next post.

The Golden Ring: Vladimir and Suzdal

Given the length of our stay in Moscow, we had an opportunity to visit a few more cities on the Golden Ring. My book recommended visiting Suzdal and Vladimir but given the language barrier, I was a bit worried about traveling to these two cities by train and bus. Thankfully, Three Whales also offers a one-day private tour to Vladimir and Suzdal. So I booked this tour on our fifth day in Russia.

Vladimir was our first stop in this tour. This city, which is about 3 hours away from Moscow, was very important during the 12th century under the reign of Prince Andrei Bogolubyosky. It was during this time that two of the Vladimir's most important landmarks, both UNESCO World Heritage sites, were built. The first of these is the Golden Gate, a defensive tower and triumphal arch that you pass when you enter the city.

Our tour included a trip to the Military Museum inside the Golden Gate. Here, we learned more about the history of Vladimir. There is a diorama that showcases the fall of the city during the Mongol Invasion in 1237.

The other important landmark in the city is the Assumption Cathedral. This cathedral is very important in Russia because the Assumption Cathedral at the Kremlin in Moscow was modeled after this, and the Moscow church then served as model for the Assumption Cathedral built in Sergiev Posad. There was a religious ceremony that started once we completed our tour inside the cathedral, making our experience here even more interesting and memorable. 

There is a third UNESCO World Heritage site in Vladimir which was built after the death of Prince Andrei Bogolubyosky. The Cathedral of St. Dmitry stands a couple hundred meters from the Assumption Cathedral and is worth visiting to see the profusion of stone carvings that fill its exterior walls. Visitors are not allowed to enter this cathedral.

It was during this tour to Vladimir that we had our first official Russian meal at Traktir. We had a four-course meal that included a Russian salad, Borscht (a popular soup of Ukrainian origin), a chicken dish, and ice cream. It was a very satisfying meal that gave us energy for the rest of the day. (Lunch was included in our Three Whales tour.)

Once we had seen the key sights in Vladimir, we then made our way to Suzdal. My book said that if there is only one place on the Golden Ring that you visit, it should be Suzdal. This town is charming and idyllic, with its quaint wooden cottages and churches and monasteries that feature old Russian architecture. A trip to Suzdal is like stepping back in time and it is easy to understand why it is a very popular tourist destination.

We first visited the Saviour Monastery of St. Euthymius, Suzdal's biggest monastery. There are a few places of interest inside, including the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour with its green domes surrounding a central golden dome...

...and the Cathedral Bell Tower, which features a concert of chimes and bells every hour on the hour. Naturally, our tour guides (both Oleg from Three Whales and our local Vladimir and Suzdal tour guide) made sure we got to see this concert while we were there.

We then made our way to the beautiful Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life. In this open-air museum you will find a collection of preserved wooden buildings such as log cabins, barns, and windmills that have been brought here from different parts of the Vladimir region. Highlights here include the Transfiguration Church (on the left, which can only be viewed from the outside) and the Resurrection Church (on the right which visitors can enter).

Our final stop in this picturesque town was the Suzdal Kremlin ("kremlin" actually means a town or city's fortified stronghold). The most prominent structure here is the Cathedral of the Nativity, with its beautiful blue domes decorated with gold stars.

Similar to other Russian Orthodox churches, this cathedral features a dazzling interior, including an impressive iconostasis, several brilliant relics, and resplendent blue-themed frescoes that cover all the walls and pillars.

Our trip to the Kremlin also included a visit to the Suzdal History Exhibition in the Archbishop's Chambers. As our tour was pretty jampacked, we didn't have a lot of time to purchase souvenirs so my mom took some time at this museum to buy a few items. I would actually have loved to spend a lot more time just meandering about in Suzdal, taking in the sights and maybe even enjoying a carriage ride. Three Whales does provide an option for an overnight stay in Suzdal so if you have the time, this might be a good option to take.

Next up: St. Petersburg.