Puttering around in St. Petersburg Part Tri

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A word about St. Petersburg's layout. This is a planned city in that it was build from nothing on a salt marsh in the early 1700s by Peter the Great. (Thousands of serfs died in its construction, but that's another story.) The streets are laid out like one half of a spider's web, with the centre of the web located on the Neva where the Winter Palace (Hermitage) and the Admiralty Building are. Several streets fan out from this central point and proceed more or less straight to other parts of the city, the largest of these being Nevsky Prospect. The cross streets connect these straight streets in large concentric circles around the central point. Then the canals make it really interesting. There are two large ones, which are called "reka" (rivers): the Moika and the Fontanskaya. The latter forms part of the cross webbing of the spider's web, while the former meanders rather haphazardly. In addition, there are myriad smaller "kanaly" (canals) that basically try to prevent you from getting where you want to go, although there are many bridges, both pedestrian and for traffic. So if it happens that your destination has a street that leads to it, Bob's your uncle; if not, it can be a very circuitous route to get there.
  
I mention all this because today I tried to map out a route around sites to see in the western part of the city, where I have been only briefly before. It ended up definitely being circuitous. The first item of interest was the Marinsky Palace, a slightly more modern building dating from around 1840, a wedding present for Nicholas I's daughter, Maria. It's interesting architecturally because it actually looks more like an English palace but still has that St. Petersburg-ness to it. It stands on the south side of a large square that is actually a bridge over the Moika. In the middle stands a statue of Nicholas I on his horse facing north towards the massive St. Issac's Cathedral on the north side, which we visited as part of the tour.

Next stop was the Yusupov Palace, right on the banks of the Moika. In fact, it's so close to the canal that its virtually impossible to photograph unless you go past it, cross a bridge to the other side of the Moika, then retrace your steps on that side. The Yusupovs were a rich aristocratic family. Felix Yusupov was the one who decided that Rasputin was exercising an unhealthy hold over Nicholas II's wife, Alexandra. He invited him to this palace and served him poisoned food. When it had no effect, he and his co-conspirators shot Rasputin twice, bashed him in the head, and finally threw him in the Moika. An autopsy showed Rasputin drowned.

An aside: I neglected to bring scissors with me on this trip. My goatee, which I usually keep short, has of course been growing for over a month. Vioiet recently opinioned that I was starting to look like Rasputin, so I borrowed a pair of children's scissors from a toy collection at the hospital and now I look normal again.

I then walked to the Marinsky Theatre, which faces the Conservatory Concert Hall. The Marinsky is really beautiful. It has hosted premieres of works by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov and many others. The concert hall across the street is frankly more stodgy, but I was intrigued to note that the two halls it comprises are named in honour of Glasinov and Rubinstein. On either side of the concert hall are statutes: Rimsky-Korsakov on the north and Glinka on the south.

My final major stop was the St. Nicholas Cathedral. The curious thing about this gem of a church is that it's surrounded on 3 sides by a park with many trees. I could see the church through the bare trees but in summer I'm sure you could not. And there is no access to the church from the park. So it's kind of a hidden treasure. Only on the one side is there a relatively small gate in the wall that lets you into the courtyard. This is a working church, so didn't enter, but walked around and marvelled at its pastel-blue beauty. Traditionally this church has been special to sailors, and in the park there is a monument to all those who have died on the sea.

Starting homeward, I passed the Yusupovsky Gardens--yes, same family. At the far end of this public park is yet another palace (rich family). Very picturesque. My route took me through a large square, Senaya Ploschad, which was very crowded and obviously a shopping hub, then back to Nevsky along the Gostiny Dvor, described earlier.

I was really pooped when I returned. Maybe a bit too much walking today. My target tomorrow is the Smolny Monastery.

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