Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ment of registry for a simple ceremony, usually attended only by immediate fam-
ily and close friends. Then the wedding party takes a tour of the city, laying
flowers at war memorials to remember the dead, and drinking champagne at
other landmarks to celebrate the living.
Newlyweds' most beloved site in St Petersburg is pl Dekabristov, where Peter
the Great sits astride his horse. Here, brides and grooms, friends and family
come to memorialise their wedding day in photographs. More often than not, an
amateur band is on hand, playing requests from the wedding parties to earn a
few roubles. Everyone is invited to partake of the bubbly, to toast the glad day
and the couple's joyful future together.
SSQUARE
ARE
PLOSHCHAD DEKABRISTOV
(
Пл декабристов
; Admiraltey-skaya)
Centred on the famed statue of the Bronze
Horseman, pl Dekabristov (Decembrists' Sq) is named after the first attempt at a Rus-
sian revolution: the Decembrists' Uprising of 14 December 1825. The Decembrists
were young officers who were inspired by radical ideas from France during the Napo-
leonic campaigns and wanted to introduce constitutional monarchy. Ineptly, they set
up their protest on the same day as the swearing-in ceremony of the new tsar, Nich-
olas I. After repeated attempts by Nicholas' ministers to reason with the rebels, they
were fired upon. Many officers and bystanders died as a result. Most of the leaders
later ended up on the gallows or in Siberia.
The dominant feature of pl Dekabristov is the immense facade of St Isaac's Cathed-
State Historical Archives and the new Yeltsin Presidential Library, both of which are
housed in the former Senate and Synod buildings, built by Carlo Rossi between 1829
and 1834.
CATHEDR
THEDRAAL
NIKOLSKY CATHEDRAL
(
Никольский собор
; Nikolskaya pl 1/3; admission free; 9am-7pm; Sadovaya)
Just
south of the Mariinsky Theatre, surrounded on two sides by canals, this ice-blue
cathedral is one of the most picture-perfect in the city, beloved by locals for its
