FRIDAY CHURCH RIOT

On Friday, August 17, I visited two of the three churches I had intended to hit: Kazan Cathedral and St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Around 3:00 p.m., I began to notice around town young people wearing colorful winter balaclavas over their faces on one of the very few, warm, sunny summer days we have enjoyed since arriving in SPB on August 1.

It was only after returning home late that night and turning on the TV news that I learned that the political performance artists (or feminist punk rock band) who call themselves “Pussy Riot” had been sentenced to two years in prison for having danced crazily with pink, red, and gold balaclavas back in February of this year inside a Moscow orthodox church for a “music” video they produced decrying Vladimir Putin and his re-election.

Thus the title of this blog…

A lot of ground was covered this day, and below are selected photos.

Kazan Cathedral is modeled on St. Peter’s in Rome, but certainly much smaller. It was completed in 1811 to house the miracle-working Our Lady of Kazan icon. And in this, the 200^th anniversary of Napoleon’s withered retreat from Russia, it must be acknowledged that this cathedral stood for years as a monument to the defeat of France’s Grande Armee by Field Marshal Prince Mikhail Kutuzov under Tsar Alexander I. During the Soviet period, the cathedral was a shrine to anti-religion and atheism, but since 1990, the icon has returned and the bells ring again.

Small altar upon entering the cathedral.

View from west to east inside Kazan Cathedral.

Looking up at the Kazan Cathedral dome above the grand chandelier.

When the Kazan Cathedral was a pantheon to atheism during the Soviet period, this would have been unheard of: Now Tsar Nicholas II and his crown prince son, Alexei, are considered saints.

Real devotion: people not only pray before religious paintings and icons, they kiss them, activating a small army of nuns  who scurry about washing off lipstick and lip marks from the paintings and icons.

Religious paintings with real gold relief that are found in great abundance in orthodox churches.

Long line for the famed Lady of Kazan icon.

Kissing the Kazan.

Church of the Spilled Blood along the Gribadoeva Canal, which I had hoped to visit but did not on Friday, August 17. Eventually I will get there!

Will along the adorable Griffin Bridge that crosses the Gribadoeva Canal near the Economics & Finance University. There are two griffins on each side of this little foot bridge. It is one of SPB's icons.

Looking down the Gribadoeva Canal from the Griffin Bridge.

Looking down Gorokhovaya Ulitsa toward the Admiralty at the very end.

Crossing the street in front of the Admiralty, looking at the main fountain in Alexandrovsky Park on the way to St. Isaac's Cathedral.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral is a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. It was designed to “wow,” and it does through sheer scale and precious materials. One of the little things I found fascinating is its 17^th Century air cooling system: air blowing high above is channeled down to ground level where along the supporting structures are little golden doors that can be opened to usher in the cool air flowing down from above.

While it may not be the tallest structure in SPB, from its colonnade that runs around the drum of the dome, you can see the entire surrounding city without obstruction. It happens quite often when one is traveling and visiting so many historic places, but to stand on this ground that had two churches prior to the one completed here in 1858 and to see photos of this church during the Russian Revolution, the siege of Leningrad and after The Great Patriotic War forces one to pause and consider one’s mortality and insignificance as a speck in the spectrum of space and time.

From the colonnade atop St. Isaac's Cathedral, looking over Alexandrovsky Park at the Peter Paul Fortress on far left, the Admiralty tower peak and the Hermitage.

Work along one of the four lesser domes at St. Isaac's.

Close up of worker high above the ground!

Will atop St. Isaac's Cathedral.looking out to Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Looking down on Nicholas I square from St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Exterior of immense bronze doors on south side of St. Isaac's.

Looking up inside St. Isaac's dome. If you look closely, you can just see the white dove that hangs inside.

The iconostasis inside St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Inside what is officially called the St. Isaac Museum.

Interior bronze doors.

Exterior of St. Isaac's Cathedral from the Nicholas I park on the south side.

Statue of Peter the Great in Alexandrovsky Park. This statue is known as the "Bronze Horseman."

The plaza at the Bronze Horseman, looking out toward the Kunstkammer on the left, one of the two red spits , and on the right, the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Silhouetted Bronze Horseman rides again!

Statue of Nicholas 1. From here, I visited the super luxurious Astoria Hotel, where Hitler had hoped to spend New Year's Eve 1941 (sorry Adolph.) The list of luminaries who actually stayed at the Astoria are engraved on gold plates that run alongside the elevators in the lobby. I then proceed to eat a very good and quite filling Indian dinner at Tandoor on Admiralteiskky Prospekt before walking all the way home.

The past weekend was busy with an excursion to the Hermitage on Saturday and the Ethnography Museum. I will post those photos and comments soon.