At this point we are still on the waterways, cruising around seeing everything from the water edge.
next we come up on a former Russian naval ship that has played an important part in the country's history, the cruiser Aurora is now a museum in St. Petersburg. The Aurora was built between 1897 and 1900 at the Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg. It was one of three Pallada-class cruisers, all of which served during the Russo-Japanese War. One of the largest ships of its time, the ship measures about 416 feet long, 55 feet wide and weighs a whopping 6,700 tons. Maintaining a speed of 35 km per hour, it can travel independently for up to 1,440 sea miles.
The Aurora was to play a huge part in the 1917 revolution. It was the refusal of an order for the Aurora to take to sea that sparked the October Revolution, triggering an episode in Russia's history that led to 70 years of Communist leadership. The ship is famous for firing the shot that signaled the attack on the Winter Palace.
Right behind the Aurora is the Nakhimov Naval College, the Nakhimov Naval School is a form of military education for teenagers introduced in the Soviet Union and once also located in other cities. They are named after Imperial Russian admiral Pavel Nakhimov. The first Nakhimov School was introduced in Tbilisi in 1943 during the second world war, for sons of military personnel who died in action.
Peter the Great’s Summer Palace, across the river from the Peter and Paul fortress. Impressed by the royal parks that he had seen in Europe, Peter the Great was very keen to create something similar in his newly built "Venice of the North". In Peter's new park everything was created according to the latest fashions; the trees and bushes were trimmed in the most elaborate way and all the alleys were decorated with marble statues and fountains. Peter the Great used to organize regular receptions and balls in the gardens.
Tsar Peter commissioned the city’s first and foremost architect, the Italian Domenico Trezzini, to build a small palace in the park. The palace had no heating and was intended only for summer time use, hence its name "Summer Palace", as opposed to the "Winter Palace" that Peter had built just down the same embankment of the Neva. The Summer Palace, a small two-story yellow building, was built between 1710 and 1714, with 7 rooms on each floor. After the Second World War the palace was carefully restored, the older interiors were recreated and a collection of early 18th century artifacts, many originally owned by Peter the Great, was put on display.
One of the oldest and most beautiful stone bridges in St. Petersburg, Prachechny Bridge crossed the Fontanka River at the point where it runs out of the Neva, next to Peter the Great's charming summer palace. Dating back to 1769, the bridge was partly designed by the elder Rossi, and built in conjunction with the Fontanka's granite embankments. The bridge, also granite, is a three-span hump-backed structure with beautiful curving parapets. The name - meaning "Laundry Bridge" - refers to the palace laundries, which were once located nearby.
I can't remember what these are....
Standing in one of St. Petersburg's most picturesque spots, across the Fontanka River between the Engineer's Castle and the Summer Gardens, the Panteleimonovsky Bridge is named after the nearby Church of St. Panteleimon. A wooden aqueduct carrying water to the Summer Garden fountains was built here in the 1720s, and was replaced in 1824 with an elegant chain bridge, removed for safety reasons and replaced with the current single-span arched steel bridge, completed in 1914 and remarkable for its ornate, gilt-laden lamps, railings and cladding.
The Mikhailovsky Castle is both a beautiful and unusual architectural phenomenon for St. Petersburg and was a silent witness to some interesting episodes in the dramatic story of the short-lived reign of Emperor Paul I, son of Catherine the Great. Catherine overthrew her husband Peter III to gain access to the Russian Imperial throne and then ruled the country until her death in 1796. By then her son Paul was 42 years old and would normally have already taken over the mantle of power from his mother. However, neither the nobility nor the royal guards liked or respected Paul and he lived his life in constant fear of assassination. In order to allay these fears he ordered a fortified palace (a castle surrounded by deep ditches) to be built for him. According to a legend, one of the soldiers guarding the construction site experienced a vision of the Archangel Michael guarding the castle alongside him. This was reported to the Emperor and the castle was given the name Mikhailovsky (St Michael's).
The paranoid Emperor Paul did not live in his new palace for long. In 1801 he was assassinated in his own bedroom by a group of officers who organized a coup, inspired by Paul's son Alexander.
Later the castle was used for the Army Engineers School and became know was the Engineer's Castle. Today the building hosts a branch of the Russian Museum.
