Hello, and welcome to your guided tour of St. Petersburg! My name is Joshua and I’ll be guiding you through today’s tour. If you have a video iPod, and have our power point presentation, you can enjoy some of our “Material Enhancers”.
Our first stop is the Hermitage Museum, which is one of the largest museums in the world. The Hermitage Museum was built in 1754-62 and contains over 3 million items from the Stone Age to modern day. The Hermitage holds the Guiness World Record for having the largest collection of paintings, some done by Michelangelo, da Vinci, van Gogh, and many more. The Hermitage also contains the famous Fabergé jewellery, which is the Royal Russian Jewellery. The beginnings of The Hermitage: were started by Catherine the Great, and was first her private collection because very few could see her collection. She once said in a letter “only the mice and I can admire this.”
Next on our journey is the Church of Spilt Blood. This is one of Russia’s main Orthodox Churches. Its official name is The Cathedral of the Resurrection of
Christ. Its name refers to the blood of Alexander II where he was assassinated. Work began in 1883 under Alexander III in honor of his father and didn’t finish until 1907 under Nicholas II. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the church was ransacked and looted and its interior was badly damaged. It was also used as a warehouse for vegetables during WWII.
Our next quick stop is the Russian Museum formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III. The Museum was established in 1895 and most of its artworks were from the Hermitage Museum, Alexander Palace, and the Imperial Academy of Arts. The main building of the museum is the Mikhailovsky Palace built in 1819-25.
The next stop is St. Valdimir’s Cathedral, which is in the centre of Kiev and is one of the city’s major landmarks. It was commemorated for the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Kievan Rus. People all over the Russian Empire started donated to this cause, so much so that by 1859 the cathedral had amassed a huge fund of 100,000 rubles.
The 5th stop in our tour is the Mariinsky palace, which is also known as the marie palace. Its construction was complete in 1844 and its original purpose was to house the prince of conde and other foreign worthies visiting and was later used as a military school. The interior and exterior design of each main room is designed in a different historic style.
Next is the Mariinski theater. Which was opened in 1860 and is famour for its opera and ballet. And served as a debut for many classical artists. Such as Mikhal Glinka, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, and Khachaturian’s Spartacus. And it continues to stage innovative productions of modern and classical Russian operas.