Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
borgskaya)
This fascinating light-blue baroque cathedral dates from 1740 and is a
beautiful highlight of a remarkably ugly and industrial area of the Vyborg Side - it's
well worth the trip out here. It is believed to be the church where Catherine the Great
married her one-eyed lover Grigory Potemkin in a secret ceremony in 1774.
Today it's a delightful place, having been repainted and restored to its original
glory both inside and out. The cathedral's most interesting feature is the calendar of
saints, two enormous panels on either side of the nave, each representing six months
of the year, where every day is decorated with a mini-icon of its saint(s). The enorm-
ous silver chandelier above the altar is also something to behold, as is the stunning
baroque, green-and-golden iconostasis. Don't miss the frieze of a young Peter the
Great on the wall behind you when you face the main iconostasis.
PISKARYOVSKOE CEMETERY
72; 10am-5pm; Ploshchad Muzhestva)
It's hard work getting to this rather remote
cemetery, but as the main burial place for the victims of the Nazi blockade in WWII,
it is a poignant memorial to the tragedy.
CEME
CEMETER
TERY
Originally, this area was just an enormous pit where unnamed and unmarked bodies
were dumped. Some half a million people were laid to rest here between 1941 and
and has been an integral part of the city's soul ever since. Every year on Victory Day
(9 May) the cemetery is packed out with mourners, many of whom survived the
blockade or lost close relatives to starvation.
From metro station Ploshchad Muzhestva, take
marshrutka
123 in the direction of
Ladozhskaya metro, which passes by the entrance to the cemetery.
HERE LIE THE PEOPLE OF LENINGRAD
No place better captures the horror of the holocaust that took place in wartime
Leningrad than Piskaryovskoe Cemetery. Defiant, yet moving, music emanates
from the speakers; a devastated Mother Russia casts her eyes over the destruc-
tion and the inscription on the wall behind the sculpture reads:
