8. Aug 25: St. Petersburg - 3 of 3

Gate to Catherines' Palace

Aug 25: St. Petersburg, Day 3 of 3

Catherine's Palace, in Pushkin, outside of St. Petersburg.

Drive from gate to palace -Buildings on either side were kitchens and servants' quarters (I think).

                  






 
Sorry it's so dark, but this will somewhat show the size of the palace.

We were welcomed by a band!

 

One of the other entrances

The Palace Church.  Yes, that's gold!  And that's just a start!

I just love it when framing shows up!  This, again, is the Palace Church.

 A modest little side entrance :-)



 


             A private lake, with a gilded little
                   lakeside cottage.









Initial reaction: WOW!

First of all, it's 1000 feet from one end to the other. That's more than three football fields end to end. It has either 115 or 150 rooms, according to the guide. (On a website, I found the number of rooms to be 52. Hard to know whom to believe.) However, as the Nazis left after the siege of Leningrad, they destroyed the palace completely, leaving only an empty shell. Millions have been spent on restoration – so far only 30 rooms have been completed, including the Amber Room (which we were not permitted to photograph). Over 30 different shades of amber. This is a reconstruction, because the original Amber Room was dismantled and shipped somewhere by the Nazis, and nobody knows where the original material ended up. (Note: I just went googling, and found an article from the Houston Chronicle dated March 3 of 2015, indicating that the original 27 panels that had been crated up might have been buried in tunnels outside the city of Wuppertal, in Germany.)

The amount of gold in the palace, in the rooms, on the walls, doors, windows, etc., is beyond imagining. And on the outside of the buildings, and on the domes on the palace church. One can easily visualize the stunned amazement of state visitors, back in the day, to such a display of opulence.

Catherine II was into Delft -- this is a heater: the vent is behind the gold door.

 Just your average everyday normal gilded hallway, opening onto room after splendid room.











I couldn't help thinking about how the vast wealth of the Royals was raised, and what the real cost was for the serfs, the peasants. The economic imbalance between the Tsars and other nobles and the common people is stunning. No wonder there was a revolution!

And at the same time, we have to keep in mind that the Communist regime has been and is responsible for the rebuilding, and regilding, of the palace. Hard to square that with the old-time Marxist ideals of equality for the masses.

Back to the ship for lunch and things more on a more-or-less normal-for-us scale.

 

And with this last shot of the elegant building next to the pier, we set sail for Tallinn, Estonia.