Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Walk north from the column to the courtyard
of the:
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Winter Palace
The palace's now tranquil courtyard bus-
tled with court activity in Empress Eliza-
beth's and Catherine the Great's days,
and with revolutionary activity 150 years
later. You can pick up a museum plan
while you're here, though a visit to the
Hermitage deserves at least an afternoon
or a full day to itself. As you leave the
courtyard, take in the view of the curved
General Staff building across the square.
Head left toward the Moika Canal, then turn
right and follow it down to Nevsky Prospekt.
Note the uniformity of the buildings along the
canal, all in various shades of yellow, and the
odd proportion of the wide bridges crossing the
narrow waterway. Cross Nevsky and head left,
until you reach the columned gray facade of:
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Kazan Cathedral
Walking the length of the cathedral's con-
cave colonnade gives you a stepped-back
view of Nevsky on one side and a sense of
the cathedral's scale on the other. Its mod-
ern, secular lines are almost reminiscent
of the Capitol Building in Washington,
built just 2 decades earlier. Compare this
to other Orthodox churches you see
around Russia. Even if you don't go in,
note that the church's entrance is on the
east side instead of facing the street, to
satisfy Orthodox church canon.
Cross the avenue again and stop at the corner
of Nevsky and Griboyedov Canal to admire:
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Dom Knigi
This Art Nouveau treasure is just another
building along Nevsky, but worth noting
are its glass dome and mystical mosaics. It
once belonged to the Singer sewing
machine company, whose name is still
engraved on the facade. For decades it
was Dom Knigi, or House of Books,
Leningrad's main bookstore.
Cross Griboyedov Canal and head north along it,
past the boatmen hawking canal tours, toward
the dizzying domes of the:
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Church of the Savior on the
Spilled Blood
Built 7 decades after Kazan Cathedral,
this church sprang from an entirely dif-
ferent era and worldview. Though con-
structed during Russia's industrial and
economic boom of the late 19th-century,
the Church of the Savior harkens back to
the piled, etched, color-coated domes of
medieval Russian churches. Inside, note
the spot where czar Alexander II was
assassinated by a revolutionary.
Walk around the cathedral along the outer edge
of Mikhailovsky Gardens, stopping to study the
undulating patterns of the cast-iron fences sur-
rounding the gardens. Continue to follow the
fence around to the entrance to the gardens.
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Mikhailovsky Castle & Gardens
The warm coral of the castle makes it
look almost inviting despite its grim his-
tory. The paranoid czar Paul I had it built
because the Winter Palace made him feel
too exposed to threats from without and
within his court. (Paul was right about
the threats, but not about the security of
his new home: He was assassinated by
advisers soon after he moved in.)
Mikhailovsky Castle is now the Engineer-
ing Museum.
Circle the palace and turn right onto Italian-
skaya Ulitsa, heading straight until you reach
the Square of the Arts. Take a rest on a bench in
this small rectangular plaza, then wander its cir-
cumference to study its components:
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The Russian Museum
This museum is housed in the tri-
umphantly classical Mikhailovsky Palace
(Dvorets). The optimism of the period
when the palace was built (1819-25) is
reflected in the mock war trophies that
top its gates and victorious frieze.
Walk around the square past the Mussorgsky
Theater (check out its repertoire of ballet and
opera performances on the way), around the
Grand Hotel Europe and across Mikhailovskaya
Ulitsa to the:
