Interiors of Churches, Cathedrals, and Palaces, St. Petersburg, Russia

Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral where the tsars of Russia were buried.

The Church of the Savior of the Spilt Blood where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded.  The interior is mostly covered with mosaics.

St. Issac's Cathedral

The Winter Palace - The Hermitage - The Jordan Staircase

This staircase was the original entrance for the ruler's formal areas for balls and receptions.  It was named for the Orthodox ritual of the Blessing of the Waters at Epiphany held on January 6th each year by cutting a hole in the ice of the river.

The Winter Palace - The Hermitage - Throne Room of Peter the Great

Baltic Song and Dance Festival, Riga, Latvia

The Song and Dance Festival is hosted in Riga every five years and attracts singers and dancers from around the world from Baltic cultures.  They were in the parks, the streets, and sidewalks - all across the street from my hotel and free to the public.  Everyone was friendly and having a great time which made the city fell very welcoming.

Catherine Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

The front court of the Catherine Palace.  It was built in the 1730s by Peter I (Peter the Great) for his wife, Catherine.

The palace is outside the city of St. Petersburg and was favored by Peter's daughter, Elizabeth.

The gilding on the chapel has remained, the statues on the sides of the building have had the gilding removed.  All of the brown-painted statues were once completely gilded as well.  However, when the Nazis had Leningrad under siege, their officers lived within the palace.  On their way out, they tried to burn down the palace.

Renovations of the palace include restoring the floors that had been hidden under temporary flooring prior to the occupation of the Nazis.  Because of that, all visitors have to wear coverings over their shoes to prevent damage to the original floors throughout the palace.

I found this blue and white piece interesting.  It is a steam heater.  On the sub levels, there were stoves where fires were tended by servants.  There were vents connected to pieces like this that directed the heat to the rooms where the members of the imperial family lived.

Entrance gate to Catherine's Palace

Ostrovsky Square, St. Petersburg, Russia

Alexandrinsky Theatre was built in 1832 and named for the wife of Tsar Nicholas I.

I attended a performance of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky composed in 1875.

 The interior of the theatre from the front row, center seats we had for the performance!

The interior was detailed in its design including painting above the curtains.

I could see the orchestra from my seat.  This is them preparing for the performance.  No pictures or video was allowed during the show.

There were private boxes on either side of the stage.

In Ostrovsky Square, there is a Monument to Catherine II (Catherine the Great).  It was built in 1873.

At the base of the monument, she is surrounded by nine of her closest associates.

St. Issac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russia

In 1710, a wooden church was built on this site, but it was not popular or attractive, so there were several attempts over the years to redesign it at the request of the emperor.  The problem was that the altar could not be removed because it had been consecrated.  The church would have to be built around it.

It was finally built as it now appears in 1818.  The 112 marble columns each weigh tons and are single pieces rather than segments as was the common practice.

The placement of each column was completed individually by the construction crew.  It took nearly an hour to stand up each column by the crew.  It was such a production that crowds would gather to watch the placement of the columns.  The crowd included the imperial family as times.  Because of the weight of the columns, they were placed before the walls of the cathedral was even raised.

The gilding on the dome has survived for hundreds of years because of the method used to attach it.  Copper sheets were coated with gold amalgam and mercury that was then evaporated.  This process was repeated three times.  While it is permanent, it is also dangerous to the workers because the mercury was toxic.

The doors are so heavy that it takes more than one person to open them.

The interior is covered in gold and painting from floor to ceiling.  During World War II, it was used as a morgue because it was cool enough to store those who had died.  It was necessary because during the Siege of Leningrad (the name of St. Petersburg after the Bolshevik Revolution) that began in September 1941 and lasted for 900 days, one and a half million city citizens died - mostly of starvation.

The iconoclast includes a stained glass window that includes an image of Jesus.  It is not lit from the outside.  Rather, it is lit from lamps for effect.  The lamps would illuminate the glass after the people came in for services.

Constant air raids and artillery bombardments left their mark on the city.  In most cases, the buildings were repaired or rebuilt.  In some cases, like the column above, the marks were left as a reminder of the siege.

St. Issac's Square is where I stayed while I was in St. Petersburg.  My hotel is behind the trees to the right of the cathedral.  The building on the right is the Astoria Hotel.  It is famous and exclusive hotel.  Not shown to the left, was the German Embassy building.  After World War II, allies found unsent invitations to a celebration to be held at the Astoria and hosted by Hitler.  He planned to celebrate Nazi victory over in the siege.  The Nazis never took the city in the siege.  In fact, my tour guide was proud to share that the people of St. Petersburg know that they live in the only city in Europe that has never been occupied by a foreign power.

The view of St. Issac's Cathedral from my hotel room.

Highlights of Vilnius, Lithuania

University of Vilnius was established in 1568.  It began as 12 buildings and today it has expanded to much of the old town. 

Part of the University campus, the Church of the Sts. John was originally built in the 14th century and was reconstructed in 1737 and 1749 after fires.  During World War II, the Nazis used the church for medical storage and closed to religious practice.

Church of St. Anne (1495) was constructed of 33 varieties of bricks.  There is a story that it was a favorite of Napoleon who wanted to put the church in his pocket and return it to Paris with him.  It is considered extremely plain on the inside, so it is not often visited.  

One of the original gates of the medieval city of Vilnius.  This was the merchant's entrance to the city.  Most of the city gates and the walls were torn down as the city expanded and the walls of the city became less necessary.

At the top of the gate, the symbol of the city including St. George defending the city.  St. George is a commonly selected patron among the Baltic states.

The cobblestone street just inside the city gate.

The reason that this gate was not destroyed was because of the chapel built above the gate facing inside the city.  It was not uncommon for the space above gates to be used for a variety of  shops, offices, and chapels as space within medieval city walls would be limited.  In the case of this chapel, there is local legends of miracles associated with this chapel.

Vilnius Cathedral, Lithuania

Before becoming a Christian church and then a cathedral, this was the site of a pagan temple.  The Baltic area was one of the last regions of Europe where Christianity spread which did not arrive until the early 13th century.

As I noticed in many of the churches in this region, there are multiple patron saints associated with the cathedral.  It is often multiples of three as can be seen at the top of the cathedral entrance facade.

The original cathedral was built in 1251 by Grand Duke Mindaugas and was repaired and rebuilt after fires several times over the centuries.  This was the main parish of the grand dukes and it was location of the coronations of the grand dukes of Lithuania.

The church was constructed in a mixture of styles - mostly Romanesque and Gothic.

Despite being closed by the Soviets in the 1950s as a church, the building was used as a portrait gallery and concert hall.  The organ was used for the concerts and saved from destruction.  However, the frescoes on the walls were painted over and destroyed.

When the church was returned to the Catholics in 1989, paintings were brought into the church when the frescoes could not be recovered.

On August 23, 1989, over two million patriots from Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia joined their hands and formed a chain of humans more than 400 miles in length across all Baltic States from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn. The block above marks the location of where the chain began - in the square outside of the cathedral.

Castle Square and Old Town (Stare Miasto), Warsaw, Poland

The Old Town of Warsaw is the only reconstructed location on the UNESCO World Heritage List.  It was completely destroyed during World War II and the people of Poland saved and worked to reconstruct the medieval buildings in the decades after the war.

Castle Square marks one of the entrances to the Old Town.  Warsaw is one of the youngest European capital cities.  It became the capital of Warsaw in 1596 when King Sigismund III Vasa moved his residence from Krakow.

The Statue of King Sigismund is from the 17th century and is the oldest secular monument in Warsaw.  There is a local legend that the statue raises his saber before battles to inspire bravery among the citizens of Warsaw.  Some claim that they saw the saber raise in 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland and Warsaw tried to stop the German army.  The marble column was destroyed by the Nazis and it was replaced after the war.

Castle Square at the base of the King Sigismund column is a common meeting point for young Varsaovians (Polish) for rallies and protests.  In fact, when we were walking around Old Town one evening, we could see and hear a small group protest. 

A portion of the original medieval wall was left partially standing and marks the entrance to Castle Square.

When the Nazis retreated from the city, they expressed their anger and frustration with the people of Warsaw for their attempts to rise against their occupation.  As they were preparing to abandon the city, they wanted to level it completely.  In addition to mines placed throughout the city, the Nazis drilled holes into walls and filled them with explosives.  Nearly every building in the Old Town was destroyed.  However, the foundations and facades of many survived and were used to reconstruct the city from their footprint.

Among the building that were specifically targeted for destruction was the Royal Castle.  It was the residence of the Polish kings and the seat of parliament.  After World War I, it became the residence of the Polish president.

Original fragments of the Royal Castle including stucco walls, carvings, and wall paintings were used in its reconstruction.  In addition, art saved from the building before the occupation and artwork that survived Nazi vandalism were returned when construction was completed in 1984.