St. Petersburg of the Tsars

St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703, was the imperial capital for more than two centuries and that is easy to see by the immensity of palaces that embellish its streets. In the morning we will go to visit the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. We will continue the visit with the Winter Palace, initially built by Peter the Great. It is located between Dvortsóvaya Náberezhnaya Avenue that borders the Neva River and the Palace Square, in St. Petersburg. The current Winter Palace is the room that was built and underwent continuous remodeling between 1750 and 1837, when it was seriously damaged by a fire being rebuilt immediately. Inside the palace you can see an image of how it was demolished and how it has been rebuilt faithfully. In 1917, the attack on the palace became an icon of the revolución rusa. white and green palace has the shape of an elongated rectangle. It has 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms and 117 stairs. Its main facade measures 150 m in length and 30 m in height. At dusk, we will discover why St. Petersburg is also called the Venice of the North, we will cross the canals of the city by boat and enjoy all its majesty.

We will have breakfast early and we will go to the Hermitage Museum. We will dedicate all day to this visit. Our private guide will lead us through the halls so that we do not miss any fundamental piece of the collection that deserves to be seen and will captivate our ears with the history of the collection. In the afternoon, we will cross the Neva River, and visit the island with the Fortress of St.Peter and St.Paul. Hexagonal in shape with 6 bastions in each of its angles, it was built in 1703 by Peter the Great. It includes a cathedral where most of the tsars are buried. Without a doubt, the view of the Winter Palace is incredible from this place.

Today we will visit the Peterhof Palace, also known as the Russian Versailles that overlooks the Baltic Sea. In our opinion, the most beautiful of all the Russian palaces we have visited. The Peterhof Palace is part of a set of palaces and parks (upper and lower) located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, about 29 km in the east of St. Petersburg. It is located in the territory of the city of Peterhof, hence its name.

The next day we will travel to the Catherine Palace, located 25 km southeast of St. Petersburg. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars, in Rococo style. In Isabel’s life, the palace gained fame for its obscenely luxurious exterior. More than 100 kilos of gold were used to gild the sophisticated stucco facade and numerous statues erected on the roof. It was even rumored that the roof of the palace was built entirely of gold. In front of the palace a huge formal garden was designed. Later, we will go to the Alexander Park, located in the same palatial area, next to the Catherine Park. There we will find the Alexander Palace, famous, among other things, for being the palace that housed the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. The palace was previously built for his brother Alexander, prior Nicolas I. If we only had 3 days, we could decide to do Peterhof’s Palace and Catherine’s Palace in one day, leaving Alexander’s Palace for another trip.

We will get up, have breakfast and prepare our bags to start our march towards the airport.