Tsars have been buried there for the past few hundred years. Recently, the remains of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family were brought from the Ural mountains where they were executed nearly 100 years ago and interred in a chapel on the church.
This view form near the Hermitage included one of the hydrofoils that take people to the Peterhof and other spots outside town, in the upper Gulf of Finland.
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It is partly a pleasantly wooded park.
The inside of the church, shown in the two photographs below, would be outstanding in most other cities, but it seemed almost mundane to us after having visited the locations we had visited over the previous week or so, and have portrayed earlier on this site.
The
scaffolding is evidence of on-going rennovation.In most places we visited, there were a few photographs of the conditions of the building 20 or 40 years ago. The difference today is impressive
At the end of it, Milvina's crew was fully saturated with the exotica. There is SO MUCH of it in St P.
We have not shown any photos of our visit the rather small museum of the siege. it was not great, and prohibited photographs. It is sobering to realize what the residents went through, as Hitler's army attacked continuously for 900 days, with the avowed intention of razing the city, and destroying the Tsarist grandeur.
After an enjoyable day looking around and visiting Michail in his apartment, we filled up with the low-cost Russian diesel, and headed West down the Gulf of Finland. (After the rather complicated procedure of clearing out at customs.