Sunday, August 28, 2005
Today's Trip Pic
It's Sunday, time to look at some of the prominent churches of St. Petersburg. We paid special attention to three, though that is far from exhaustive. Two of the three I was unable to visit in 1991, so it was a great joy to get to them this time.
We started our "church day" with the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood which rests on the precise location where the great reformer Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. This building has only recently been restored and opened to the public. A bomb landed on it in WWII but did not explode and it was used for years to store flats for the state opera until the commies figured it would generate more hard currency restored and opened. When I was there in 1991 is was still undergoing restoration, so the Sovs never got to enjoy the fruits of their efforts -- shucks, couldn't have happened to a better bunch of guys.
Obviously designed to be evocative of St. Basil's, the great symbol of Russia located on Red Square in Moscow, the resemblance is only superficial. St. Basil's is a short, squat building and each dome represents a separate chapel that can hold only 10-12 people. Spilt Blood is, by comparison, enormous and high ceilinged. This is a picture of the fresco that is in the top most dome.
We then took the scenic route to St. Isaac's, the interior of which we looked at yesterday. This is one of the largest domes in Europe, the Sovs claimed it was the largest, but they were renowned for their extragant claims. As you can see it is as lovely outside as it is inside.
We finished the day at Kazan with its huge collonade facing on "Main Street" - Nevsky Prospect. Kazan was forbidden to me in the Soviet days -- it remained a working church. It is based on St. Peter's in Rome, but is as dark as this picture looks because it has not benefitted from the state restoration. While it is far from its best glory, it touched my heart more than any other. I saw so many people, so many that the state tried to have the faith beaten out of, make genuine and deeply felt actions of faith here. I teared up to know that faith survived. I knew that it had in the rural areas, but the the Soviet second city, to see faith alive and thriving made me glad.
