Nevskiy Prospekt and Beyond

  St. Petersburg, North-West Russia, Russian Federation
Saturday, September 20, 2008

Nevskiy Prospekt

The quintessential experience of travelling in St. Petersburg is to walk down Nevskiy Prospekt, the main boulevard lined with outrageously ornate buildings and breathe the car exhaust and cigarette smoke from people passing by.  As I observed the city in the morning chill, the feeling of grandeur dulled by dirtiness was almost overbearing.  It seemed as if no one had bothered to clean the buildings after a hundred years, and perhaps no one would clean them for another hundred years.  I thought if I could power-wash the buildings I would be able to step through time - but as I traced history through the palaces, monuments, bridges and canals, it occurred to me that it was impossible to undo the tumultuous events that aged the city.  When I looked up at the caryatids supporting their buildings' balconies and cornices, I could feel how tired they had become.

rusted balconies

Further away from the city center the buildings were in more disrepair.  The wrought iron balconies were rusted and spalling, and the buildings were visibly blackened by soot.  My arrival into the city at night was greeted by an empty street in front of the non-descript door of the B & B booked by my budget travel company.  When I entered I found a staircase that looked like it could have led to a grand ballroom at one time. But climbing up the moldy and chipped concrete steps with my suitcase felt as reassuring as walking through a dark alley at night.

Nevskiy Prospekt

At 10:30 in the morning, our tour guide and driver were waiting for us outside holding a sign with our names.   After I stepped into the stuffy van, it slowly made its way into the crush of cars and buses on the main thoroughfare, Nevskiy Prospekt.  This street was flanked by Baroque and Neo-classical four-story buildings and appeared as a continuous façade that stretched toward the horizon.  At its vanishing point the Admiralty's thin golden spire pierced the sky.  When I looked through the window's reflections I tried to capture the images of ornate buildings clad with pediments, pilasters, floral embellishments, and nymphs hovering overhead; but there was too much detail to absorb using the camera's viewfinder.  As the van moved past the next palace or cathedral, I could not take photos quickly enough before the pictures disappeared from my view.

Nevskiy Prospekt

   By the time we reached the Anichkov Most Bridge it felt like we arrived at the city's historical center. Four bronze horses framed the bridge, as the vista over the canal revealed grand and elegant buildings along the water's edge.  These buildings showed off their pastel yellow, pink, and green hues better than the dingy buildings facing the street.  The Fontanka Canal was the first in a series of canals that ringed the city.

Our tour guide told us that Peter the Great was the first Russian Tsar to travel to Europe and was inspired to transform St. Petersburg from a marshy bog into a grand European city like Venice and Amsterdam.  That was obvious after passing by the numerous canals, but I found them lacking the intimacy and charm of those found in European cities. Instead, canals in St. Petersburg were broad promenades where the boats seemed to be on parade and the buildings stood as a backdrop to a stage. 

A canal along Nevskiy Prospekt

Nevertheless the city was unmistakably influenced by Europe. When our van passed numerous historical sites along this stretch of Nevskiy Prospekt, we passed many buildings that were deliberate imitations of those built in Italy.  The Cathedral of Our Lady Kazan appeared as a truncated version of St. Peters in Rome, the Aeroflot building had the same bunker-like heaviness as the Medici Palazzo in Florence. The Stroganov Palace looked like the Baroque buildings in Germany, adorned with flourishes like frosting on a cake.  Even before we reached the Hermitage I could almost hear Peter the Great demand that I must be impressed.  Certainly, I would have surrendered to this exquisite city already.

The Hermitage

After the van crossed the Neva River it stopped to let us out on Vasilevskiy Island.  From the tip we were able to see the panoramic view of the Hermitage Museum across the river.  The museum was actually three buildings connected by overhead galleries; the most recognizable building was the Winter Palace, where the Russian royal families lived until 1917.  The colonnaded green façade adorned with Greek gods perched above the cornice provided a sweeping display of the opulence from the era of the Tsars.  From this vantage point it was easy to fantasize how royalty lived; yet it was also easy to imagine the jealousies that led to the events that brought about the Russian Revolution. Facing the Hermitage on the other side of the Neva River the Russian Tsars were buried inside the Peter and Paul Fortress, whose golden spire rose straight into the sky like a compass needle.

St. Isaac Square

After being harassed by the Matroyshka doll vendors set up at this popular stop, we headed back to the van to continue the tour.  The van circled past the university buildings on the island and then brought us back along the palace embankment past a series of heroic statues and monuments.  They included Peter the Great on his horse trampling a serpent, the Decembrists' Square's arch, and Tsar Nicholas I riding a horse at the center of St. Isaac's Square.  Here we stopped to stretch for a few moments and marvel at St. Isaac's Cathedral, the massive black church with a golden dome.

Nicholas Cathedral

The next site was the first cozy and gentle monument on the tour.  The Nicholas Cathedral was painted in baby blue and adorned with cherubs over all the column capitals. It was located in its own garden-like area facing a small chapel.  When I stepped inside however, I was shocked to see gold gilding splashed across the room. The showy interior seemed ill-fitted for the devout people who fervently prayed, pressing their foreheads against the glass that encased paintings of saints.

The Church on Spilled Blood

By now I was fatigued by looking at all the grand monuments and ornamental buildings, yet there was still one more site left to be seen.  The Church on Spilled Blood was a dizzying creation of colorfully decorated domes and detailed mosaic patterns.  It stood apart from the European-inspired buildings because the onion domes gave the church a distinctly Russian identity and the steeply pointed windows added a Persian flair.  Looking up at the jumble of shapes they almost seemed to conjure a fairy tale castle, except its terrifying name spoke of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.  Across the street, souvenir vendors showed off another wild display of shapes and colors - the endless arrays of painted Matroyshka dolls.