It appears that we still haven't walked Nevsky Prospekt
at night. But this is also a continuation of the album on the Anichkov
Bridge and its surroundings. That's why we walk from the Bridge and in the
direction of Palace Square.
So here you are, Nevsky. To the left, the
trading rows of the Anichkov Palace and a part of the actual Palace (a
bit further on and up). To the right one sees the stone plates with
which Nevsky (and other central streets) recently was paved. Discussions
are still raging on the question of whether this is good or bad (we used
to have asphalt). But one might as well get angry at the weather.
The
plates are of course longer lasting than asphalt, and look nicer,
although one has to get used to them. However, rather dangerous ice is
formed on them. And also, they are less comfortable to walk on for women
with high heels than is the flat asphalt. I think :)
Here, I just liked the shadow.
Gostiny Dvor or Yard (central part).
In general, very few buildings appear in this album. The majority is
either too large for photographs, or covered in scaffolding, or
badly/not at all lit.
Spas-na-Krovi (the Saviour on the Blood)
by the Griboedov Canal.
From the look of it, they have changed the colour of the lighting,
and it's gentler. The Cathedral now looks good and turns out well in
photographs.
The Kazan Cathedral. This photo is
composed of three separate ones; therefore, the colonnade looks uneven.
The Cathedral was built in 1801-1811, and the architect was A.N.
Voronikhin. Following the emperor Paul I's wishes, the Cathedral bears a
marked resemblance to St. Peter's in Rome.
In 1813, the Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov was buried here, inside the
Cathedral, with French trophy banners, and apparently also city and
fortress keys, at his side.
From 1932 to 1992 this was a museum of religion and atheism.
As the clergymen write on their site
www.kazansky.ru:
"A dark force appeared, destroying temples and monasteries,
annihilating people of faith, stealing them from God with false
promises, creating false gods, negating love and morality, introducing
new foreign rituals, replacing the life in God with a life in
permissiveness and sin."
One feels that an attack of "permissiveness and sin" as by magic
coincided also with the return of the church from 1986-1993.
The "false gods" are evidently the worship of science and the education
of the whole population as opposed to a select few.
Their discontent is understandable - it's a bit more difficult to get
the educated to go to church.
This is the Mertens Trading House (that
is the name it was built under by the architect M.S. Lyalevich in
1911-1912). The Great Konyushennaya Street ends here.
This looks completely different at day.
Moika from the Politsiya (People's,
Petrov, Green) Bridge.
One of the lamps on the Bridge.
The
lamps were put up in 1904-1908. Later, they were lost, but came back on
the Bridge again in 1951.
The Arch of the General Staff.
Going
through it takes us into the next album...
No, we will hardly stop on Palace Square, but go further to the
Strelka.
