Russia....another great tourist paradise

St Petersburg...









Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербург, tr. Sankt-Peterburg, IPA: [sant pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk] ( listen)) is a city and a federal subject (a federal city) of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. In 1914 the name of the city was changed to Petrograd (Russian: Петроград, IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat]), in 1924 to Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград, IPA: [lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat]), and in 1991, back to Saint Petersburg.

In Russian literature, informal documents, and discourse, the "Saint" (Санкт-) is usually omitted, leaving Petersburg (Петербург, Peterburg). In common parlance Russians may drop "-burg" (-бург) as well, referring to it as Peter (Питер, Russian: [ˈpʲitʲɪr]).

Saint Petersburg was founded by the Tsar Peter the Great on May 27 [O.S. 16] 1703. From 1713 to 1728 and from 1732 to 1918, Saint Petersburg was the Imperial capital of Russia. In 1918 the central government bodies moved from Saint Petersburg (then named Petrograd) to Moscow.[11] It is Russia's second largest city after Moscow with 5 million inhabitants (2012) and the fourth most populated federal subject.[6] Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and also an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea.

Saint Petersburg is often described as the most Western city of Russia, as well as its cultural capital.[12] It is the northernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is also home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world.[13] A large number of foreign consulates, international corporations, banks and other businesses are located in Saint Petersburg.

This church is known to Petersburgers as the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood - or even just the Church on the Blood - as it marks the spot where Alexander II was fatally wounded in an assassination attempt on March 1, 1881. Designed by Alfred Parland in the style of 16th and 17th-century Russian churches, the Church of the Resurrection provides a stark (some would say jarring) contrast to its surroundings of Baroque, Classical and Modernist architecture.

Alexander II died of wounds inflicted in an attack by the terrorist group People's Will. Immediately, his heir, Alexander II, declared his intention to erect a church on the site in his father's memory, and moreover to have this church built in "traditional Russian" style - in distinction to what he saw as the contaminating Western influence of Petersburg.

Eventually, after Alexander had rejected several architects' designs, Archimandrite Ignaty gave the job to Parland, but made the design himself. The church's final composition drew heavily from St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev. Construction began in 1883, and Ignaty died shortly afterward, leaving Parland to complete the job.

No baptisms, funeral services, weddings, or other traditional church services were held in the Church on the Blood, as this was not in Alexander III's plans. However, weekly requiems (for Alexander II) and sermon readings attracted large numbers of worshippers.

After the Revolution, the church - despite becoming an official cathedral in 1923 - was looted. It was closed in 1932, and essentially turned into a garbage dump. Rumors abounded that the church would be torn down. Damage from World War II and the Siege of Leningrad can still be seen on the church's walls.

After World War II, the church was used as a warehouse for the Small Opera Theatre. The valuable shrine was almost completely destroyed. Four jasper columns with mosaic mountings in them, and a part of the balustrade were all that remained.

On July 20, 1970 the church was made a branch of the St. Isaac's Cathedral museum, and eighty percent of the church's extraordinary restoration was funded by profits from St. Isaac's. The decades of deterioration and then restoration culminated in the dramatic re-opening of the church in August 1997, when thousands of eager visitors swamped the church.

The project was estimated to cost 3.6 million rubles, but ended up costing 4.6 million rubles, mainly from the extravagant collection of mosaics. The more than 7500 sq. meters of mosaics link Alexander II's murder with the crucifixion.

One of the most impressive elements of the church is the extravagant shrine constructed on the spot where Alexander II was fatally wounded, which has maintained a special place within the church's interior. It was constructed to Parland's design, and completed in July 1907. Four columns of gray violet jasper serve as the base of the shrine. Rising up the shrine, small rectangular columns unite the carved stone awning and the decorated mosaic icons with images of the patron saint of the Romanov family. The columns are supported by a frieze and cornice and stone-carved pediment with vases of jasper along the corners.

The church has an outstanding and varied collection of mosaic icons. Several icons were completed in the traditions of academic painting, modernist style and Byzantine icon painting. The large icon of St. Alexander Nevsky was created according to a design by Nesterov. The icons of the main iconostasis Mother of God with Child and the Savior were painted to designs by Vasnetsov. The mosaic panel Pantokrator (Almighty) which depicts Christ giving a blessing with his right hand and holding the gospels in his left, in the platform of the central cupola was painted according to a design by N. Kharlamov. Parland and Andrey Ryabushkin completed the framed icon mosaic ornaments.

another great palace which you should never want to miss in St Petersburg...The Catherine Palace..

http://criticschoicevacations.typepad.com/photos/russia/catherine_i_pushkin_palace_st_petersburg_2.jpg[img]

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the grand palace of peterhof...remarkable, opulent and obscenely extravagant!!!

st petersburg is like venice with bridges...

thanks for the nice pics

Any pics of the hot russian chicks?

russian women are among the most beautiful women in the world. they made the best brides. they made the best lovers.they made the best friends. but many of them are not pure russians. you have many mixed russians. many of the beautiful russian girls are actually tartars. they are very beautiful but they are also very fierce and very ferocious.

The impressive and powerful Kremlin Wall and The Red Square..









behind this powerful wall IS THE seat of power . the seat of world power. the seat of global intrigues and the power there is...impressive!!!

Saint Basil's Cathedral....a very impressive piece of masterpiece!!! a must see in Moscow...

The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat (Russian: Собор Покрова пресвятой Богородицы, что на Рву) or Pokrovsky Cathedral (Russian: Покровский собор) are official names for a Russian Orthodox church in Red Square in Moscow.[5] The church is also called the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), anglicized as Saint Basil's Cathedral. It was built from 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.

St. Basil's marks the geometric center of Moscow (not to be confused with the geographic center, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower). It has been the hub of the city's growth since the 14th century[6][7] and was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.[8]

The original building, known as "Trinity Church" and later "Trinity Cathedral", contained eight side churches arranged around the ninth, central church of Intercession; the tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries the church, perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City,[9] as happens to all churches in Byzantine Christianity, was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the tsar.[10]

The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky,[11] a design that has no analogues in Russian architecture. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design."[12] The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.[13]

As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's anti-theist campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928.[14] It was completely and forcefully secularized in 1929[14] and, as of 2012, remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.[15] It is often mislabelled as the Kremlin owing to its location on Red Square in immediate proximity of the Kremlin.[16]

The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat (Собо́р Покрова́, что на Рву) also known as the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed (Храм Васи́лия Блаже́нного) on the Red Square, Moscow.

The Moscow Metro is like an exhibition hall and a museum.The Moscow Metro (Russian: Моско́вский метрополите́н, tr. Moskovsky metropoliten; IPA: [mɐˈskofskʲɪj mʲɪtrəpəlʲɪˈtɛn]) is a rapid transit system serving Moscow, Russia and the neighbouring Moscow Oblast towns of Krasnogorsk and Reutov. Opened in 1935 with one 11-kilometre (6.8 mi) line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2013, the Moscow Metro has 188 stations and its route length is 312.9 km. The system is mostly underground, with the deepest section 84 metres (276 ft) at the Park Pobedy station. The Moscow Metro is the world's third most heavily used rapid transit system after Tokyo subway and Seoul Metropolitan Subway.The Moscow Metro is a state-owned enterprise.Its total length is 312.9 km (194.4 mi) and consists of 12 lines and 188 stations. The average daily passenger traffic is 7 million. Ridership is highest on weekdays (when the Metro carries over 9 million passengers per day) and lower on weekends. Each line is identified according to an alphanumeric index (usually consisting of a number), a name and a colour. Voice announcements refer to the lines by name. A male voice announces the next station when traveling towards the centre of the city, and a female voice when going away from it. On the circle line the clockwise direction has a male announcer for the stations, while the counter-clockwise direction has a female announcer.

The Moscow Metro is a tourist attraction!!!If you are in Moscow, don't miss the Metro...take a ride and you will be very pleasantly surprised. The place is clean.It is cool.It is well ventilated.It is very safe.The whole station is a world class museum.And you can people watch and you can see many beautiful Russian girls - they are simply gorgeous!!!

The largest country in the world, Russia offers a broad array of travel experiences, from treks up the slopes of glacier-capped mountains to strolls along the shoreline of Earth’s oldest lake. Historical sites and cultural activities in the country’s great cities abound as well. Whether you’re exploring the grounds of Moscow’s Kremlin or wandering through the steppes of Mongolia, a visit to Russia is an adventure not soon forgotten. These top tourists attractions in Russia can inspire a great Russian itinerary for a memorable trip.