The Admiralty

The center of the grandiose ensemble of the Admiralty Avenue is the Admiralty building. The shining golden spire is topped with a caravel, that has become an original symbol of the city that is situated near the Baltic sea. 

  The foundation of the Admiralty as a shipyard happened in 1704. By 1706 the Admiralty turned into the fortress with five land bastions. In 1806-1823 according to the design of the architect Zakharov was built the third -- recent building. In the aspect of the Admiralty is very important the theme of the glory and the power of the Russian Navy.

  The huge construction (the main façade is 407 metres wide) consists of two buildings in the form of the П—the internal and the external ones. In the centre of the main building there is a high tower with a spire on the top. Its basis is cut through by an arch and its center is surrounded by the colonnade. The height of the tower with the spire is 72 metres. An extremely important role in the appearance of the Admiralty is played by the monumental-decorative sculpture. 

  The construction of the ships in the Admiralty yard continued untill 1844. Afterwards only the institutions managing the fleet remained in the building.

  During the Grate Patriotic War the spire was put under the slip-covers. The significant restauration works took place in 1928 and 1977,

The State Hermitage

The State Hermitage occupies six magnificent buildings situated along the embankment of the River Neva, right in the heart of St Petersburg. The leading role in this unique architectural ensemble is played by the Winter Palace, the residence of the Russian tsars that was built to the design of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-62. This ensemble, formed in the 18th and 19th centuries, is extended by the eastern wing of the General Staff building, the Menshikov Palace and the recently constructed Repository.

Put together throughout two centuries and a half, the Hermitage collections of works of art (over 3,000,000 items) present the development of the world culture and art from the Stone Age to the 20th century. Today the Museum is creating its digital self-portrait to be displayed around the world. Computer technologies enable the State Hermitage Museum to provide people from all over the world with wider access to information about the Museum and its treasures.

Below are some pieces from Hermitage that I love.

Grand Coronation Carriage

Crouching Boy - Michelangelo

Statue of Jupiter

Aphrodite (Tauride Venus)

Cupid

"Pensive" bodhisattva Padmapani

The Death of Adonis - Giuseppe Mazzuoli

Boat Trip on Neva River and its Canals

Pictures of buildings on the bank of river Neva taken during the boat trip I took with my friend. Beautiful architecture,interesting details.I enjoyed each moment of this trip. :) Hope you like the pictures too.

The Palace of Beloselskih-Belozerskih

The Big Dramatic Theatre

Mihailovskiy Castle

Catherine's Palace - Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo)

The residence originated in 1717, when Catherine I of Russia engaged the German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to construct a summer palace for her pleasure. In 1733, Empress Anna commissioned Mikhail Zemtsov and Andrei Kvasov to expand the Catherine Palace. Empress Elizabeth, however, found her mother's residence outdated and incommodious and in May 1752 asked her court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to demolish the old structure and replace it with a much grander edifice in a flamboyant Rococo style. Construction lasted for four years and on 30 July 1756 the architect presented the brand-new 325-meter-long palace to the Empress, her dazed courtiers and stupefied foreign ambassadors.

During Elizabeth's lifetime, the palace was famed for its obscenely lavish exterior. More than 100 kilograms of gold were used to gild the sophisticated stucco façade and numerous statues erected on the roof. It was even rumoured that the palace's roof was constructed entirely of gold. In front of the palace a great formal garden was laid out. It centres on the azure-and-white Hermitage Pavilion near the lake, designed by Zemtsov in 1744, overhauled by Rastrelli in 1749 and formerly crowned by a grand gilded sculpture representing The Rape of Persephone. The interior of the pavilion featured dining tables with dumbwaiter mechanisms. The grand entrance to the palace is flanked by two massive "circumferences", also in the Rococo style. A delicate iron-cast grille separates the complex from the town of Tsarskoe Selo.

Although the palace is popularly associated with Catherine the Great, she actually regarded its "whipped cream" architecture as old-fashioned. When she ascended the throne, a number of statues in the park were being covered with gold, in accordance with the last wish of Empress Elizabeth, yet the new monarch had all the works suspended upon being informed about the expense. In her memoirs she censured the reckless extravagance of her predecessor: "The palace was then being built, but it was the work of Penelope: what was done today, was destroyed tomorrow. That house has been pulled down six times to the foundation, then built up again ere it was brought to its present state. The sum of a million six hundred thousand rubles was spent on the construction. Accounts exist to prove it; but besides this sum the Empress spent much money out of her own pocket on it, without ever counting".

In order to gratify her passion for antique and Neoclassical art, Catherine employed the Scottish architect Charles Cameron who not only refurbished the interior of one wing in the Neo-Palladian style then in vogue, but also constructed the personal apartments of the Empress, a rather modest Greek Revival structure known as the Agate Rooms and situated to the left from the grand palace. Noted for their elaborate jasper decor, the rooms were designed so as to be connected to the Hanging Gardens, the Cold Baths, and the Cameron Gallery (still housing a collection of bronze statuary) - three Neoclassical edifices constructed to Cameron's designs. According to Catherine's wishes, many remarkable structures were erected for her amusement in the Catherine Park. These include the Dutch Admiralty, Creaking Pagoda, Chesme Column, Rumyantsev Obelisk, and Marble Bridge.