Hi Hive friends!

Today I would like to show you some more beautiful and historic buildings and sights from St. Petersburg from my short trip there. What impressed me from the beginning was the magnificent construction of the buildings. In Germany, where I come from, the churches, for example, look completely different - they are smaller and not as ornate and less colourful. I spent my vacation in St. Petersburg with friends of mine, who fortunately are also enthusiastic about art and history, so we looked at the most important buildings and places in St. Petersburg, even though it was quite cool there at this time of the year. I hope you like my little digital journey there and maybe one or two of you will consider travelling there too or have even been there before:)

The Church of the Blood

I was allowed to get to know St. Petersburg for a few days and my very first stop was of course the Church of the Blood: the name Blood Church comes from the actual name Resurrection Church or Christ Resurrection Church or Church of the Redeemer on the Blood. It bears this name because Tsar Alexander II, whom I told you about in my last post, was killed here by an assault.Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the inside of the churches from St. Petersburg for you, as we weren't allowed to take any photos inside.Tsar Alexander the 2nd did not survive the assassination attempt in 1881, as the second explosive charge caught him completely. His descendants then began to build the Church of the Blood around 1883 and it was completed around 1912. If you want to visit it, remember that it is closed on Wednesdays:) Since I can't show you any photos of the inside of this beautiful church, I'll try to describe it: although it looks very colourful from the outside, it's a completely different world inside: you just have to see it up close!

A futile protective structure

The second sight we visited was St. Miachael's Castle - and I must say I had imagined it to be a bit nicer. The Michaelisburg was a former residence of the tsars in St. Petersburg and was founded by Tsar Paul I, who was afraid of an assassination attempt at the time and built the Michaelisburg on the site of the demolished summer residence of Tsarina Elisabeth.

And his fear was not unfounded: although Michaelisburg Castle was actually well protected by moats and high walls, he was murdered there a short time later. No one from his family wanted to live there any more, and an engineering school was given the opportunity to teach there. In the Second World War, the castle was badly damaged, so that it has had to undergo repeated restoration work ever since.

The inner courtyard is octagonal, which must be particularly exciting for architects. The moats have of course been filled in by now.

The cathedral with the golden ornate stars

Which I also have to tell you about in this post: The Trinity Cathedral - The Golden Stars of St. Petersburg! I think it looks incredible: The domes are light blue and decorated with golden stars, just like the Archangel Michael Cathedral in Moscow. For me, the combination of the blue background with the golden stars on it is super successful!:) It was originally meant to be a replica of the former mobile wooden church. During the Soviet Union, the cathedral was used for social purposes for a long time; it was closed during this time. Since the 1990s it has been restored and even "survived" a major fire in 2006. The fire severely damaged the main dome (a wooden dome) and a secondary dome, but the treasures were brought to safety. By 2007, it was fully restored.

The two "lighthouses" of St. Petersburg

The two Rostra columns are an incredible 105m high and are made of stone. The colourful Rostra Columns are located in the Neva Delta on the east side of the Vasily Islands.They were erected in 1811 and, as we were told, they were meant to help the seafarers at that time, like a kind of lighthouse. The ships on the Neva River were supposed to be able to orientate themselves by them, which is why they were built so high. Today, the two attractions can still shine, but they tend to do so at big festivals or on special occasions in St. Petersburg.

The style of the two columns is somewhat reminiscent of ancient Rome and Greece, at which time such columns were erected primarily to draw attention to victories on the high seas. The stone statues at the bottom of the columns represent the rivers Volchov, Volga and Neva. In addition, the columns were decorated with the ship's beaks of the time - a particularly unusual idea if you ask me!:)I hope you enjoyed my little digital tour through the beautiful corners of St. Petersburg and of course I would be very happy about any suggestions and feedback from you:) My personal favourite is definitely the Church of the Blood - which is probably just because of the pompous sight and the many happy colours - a complete contrast to the churches I've been to so far. What did you like best? I can only recommend a trip to St. Petersburg and the many different places and the stories behind them, it's a stark contrast to the more southern countries of Europe and of the countries in middle of europe. Have a great weekend!
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