BLING-ed out in St.Petersburg

Having done just some rudimentary homework before embarking on the trip to St.Petersburg , i  was only prepared for the grandeur of The Hermitage Museum and the riches of Faberge Museum .
But it turned out that St.Petersburg is just awash with BLING.

A pointer was the enormous  2storey high video installation  in the Pulkova Airport ,St. Petersburg , showcasing the Art and History of the place (below) that greeted one on arrival .

Now to the sights .
The First visit in the city had to be ....
The Faberge Museum ! And it had not just the Eggs ! There were colour coded rooms , exhibiting all sorts of treasures the Tsars cluttered their homes with .

The Museum is a private exposition run by a Foundation that first purchased from Forbes, a load of masterpieces created by  Faberge , the acclaimed jeweler to the Tsars. More acquisitions followed and now there are more than 4000 articles on show in the neoclassical  Shuvalov Palace ( dated to 1780s) by the  River Fontenka , a classy neighbourhood of the town.
The Imperial Eggs all belong to the time of Emperors Alexander III and Nicolas II .
The Blue Room has 9 Eggs ( an equal number is in Moscow Armoury Museum).
 Each meticulously created Egg holds a "Surprise"inside , as they were made as Gifts for the ladies and young children of the Family.
The jewelers excelled in making 'objects de fantasie' that were lovely but had no practical use ! "There are people who long ago got tierd of diamonds and pearls , and sometimes its also inconvenient to give jewels, but these little things make perfect gifts " - Carl Faberge .

" The Duchess of Marlborough Egg" made in 1902 . The Imperial Eggs were created by Carl Faberge's "The House Of Faberge"established in 1842 to make opulent trinkets for the Romanovs.

The Lillies Of The Valley Egg (1898). It is crowned by portraits of Tsar Nicholas II and his daughters Olga and Tatiana painted on Ivory.

Fancy tableware of silver decorated with fine enamel work in The SkyBlue Room 

Gold plated Silver tableware  in The Red Room 

                                                         A bejewelled Album Cover

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The Church of the Savior on The Spilled Blood (Russian: Tserkovʹ Spasa na Krovi) is one
of the main sights of Saint Petersburg.

Erected by Alexander III , on the site where political nihilists fatally wounded his
father , Emperor Alexander II , in March 1881. The church was constructed
between 1883 and 1907, funded by the imperial family.
The architecture is Medieval Russian and resembles the 17th-century Yaroslav
church design of the more famous St. Basils Cathedral in Moscow.

                     A model exhibited inside the church. It does look like a Cake for a Disney Princess   Themed Party, but one must marvel at the imagination of the architect .

The interior is covered by over 7500 square meters of mosaics made of colored
glass , the scenes linking the Emperor’s killing to the Crucifixion of Christ .
After the Russian Revolution, the church was ransacked and looted, badly
damaging its interior. The Soviet government closed the church in 1932.

During the Second World War during to the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi forces,
the church was used as a temporary morgue for those who died in combat and
refuge for those suffering from starvation and illness.
After the war, it was used as a warehouse for vegetables, leading to the nick
name ‘Saviour on Potatoes.’

                       ( Ceiling )

Today , it is a major tourist draw .
There are so many details , it would take forever to do justice to them all . Not an
inch left uncovered .
The sheer magnitude of it is stupefying . How did they ever manage to paint /
mosaic the ceiling !

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State Museum of Saint Isaac's Cathedral  

Dedicated  to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great, it was turned into a museum by the Soviet government in 1931 . Very recently , the Governor of the province  offered to transfer the cathedral back to the Russian Orthodox Church, but the citizens would have none of that ! So it continues to be a museum , with religious rituals also undertaken occasionally  .

Built on the order  of Tsar Alexander I to replace an earlier structure , it is the fourth consecutive church standing at this place. French-born  Auguste Montferrand , the architect designed it to accomodate 14,000 worshippers( standing) at a time . 

It  took 40 years to construct, from 1818 to 1858.The building was erected  on a foundation of 25,000 wooden piles driven into the marshy soil for stability .

The huge glistening golden dome can be  seen from afar. 

The edifice has a traditional  neoclassical look of a Greek-cross ground plan with a large central dome and four subsidiary domes. Built  of grey and pink stone , it sports a set of gigantic red granite coloumns which are among the largest in the world . There is a stairway  to the colonnade encircling the dome on top , from where one can have a panoramic view of the city . But climbing 300 narrow winding steps was out of question, dint do it . 

The Diameter of the central dome is 25 meters and total height of building is 333ft. The general appearance resembles that of many cathedrals around Europe .

The cathedral's bronze doors, covered in reliefs are modeled after the celebrated doors of Ghiberti at the Duomo of Florence .

The  portico of a double row of eight highly polished monolithic red granite pillars is impressive . Each coloumn is  60 feet high , 7 feet in diameter and weighs 114 tons .

Information about the technologies used for hauling and erecting these pillars is exhibited at the entrance hall . With the  help of wooden stockades , ropes and rotating drums , reportedly, “just 8 people could lift up one pillar in 40 minutes” ( claim of the guide . Needs reference)  

The iconostasis is framed by columns of valuable stone: six of malachite and two smaller ones of lazurite. Obviously they must have cost a bomb because they had to be imported from elsewhere. The four pediments are also richly sculpted.

The walls are covered with mosaics ( close up, above) ,  laid over earlier murals which were disintegrating . Reportedly , 400kg of gold was used for gilding the domes and decorations  . Biblical scenes , angels and cupids are seen all over from floor to ceiling . 

During the war and the Soviet era , the church was plundered of its gold and gem encrusted Icons and was converted into The Museum of Atheism . It was used as a hall for propaganda , as well as a shelter and storehouse . 

( A soviet era scene , showcased in the museum )

The cathedral has gone  through cycles of glory and misfortune . As a museum today , its august magnetism draws adoring crowds  from all over the world who just cannot get enough of its many wonders. It is one drop-jaw gorgeous monument that will overwhelm  anyone .