226: Red Square and the Kremlin, from the 1000 places to see before you die book

Slowly, slowly Im catching up with the backlog of photos never blogged...nothing like being able to sit in front of your computer for a few days and finish blogs some of which are 2 years old. Doing this one however was a pleasure as it was undoubtedly one of the highlights so far.

Entrance to the red square

Lets start with the Red Square, being the smaller of the two sites, albeit adjoining the Kremlin with its up to 20m high walls. Containing the Lenin Mauseleum where the great man lies in an embalmed state and at the far end the sugar spun piped icing turrets of St Basil’s Cathedral. It’s a building I had been dying to see ever since Id seen photos of it as a child, and it did not disappoint.

Refreshlingly, after struggling through the Moscow Metro and hand signals with people as I got lost (the biggest effect of the Cold War I think is that they never studied English!), the ticket office was easy to find, the signs in English and the door guards cheerfully let me out and in again when I hadn’t purchased a ticket to use the camera.

In here lies Lenin

St Basil's Cathedral

The cathedral is dedicated to a saint…obviously and the fairy cake paint colours outside and carried inside with exuberance- covering every wall and ceiling in iconic paintings on the marble cement. Wooden painted icons surround some of the more sacred areas, but in fact the best view is just gazing at it from outside. Its like a massive circus tent with its swirls, colours, domes, lines and squares all joyfully plopped on top of each other.

inside the cathedral

The ceiling dome

outside of the kremlin walls

From the bridge overlooking the Kremlin

After that I settled in for a few hours wandering around the Kremlin. Poorly set out for tourists you can find yourself wandering the full half length of the wall back and forth to sort tickets or separate entrances. Walls running for more than a mile, this 68 acre complex is where the rule of Russia has largely been based.

The first visit (to the Armoury) took me no less than 20 minutes to navigate- from a seller who didn’t speak English and couldn’t communicate that they stagger them in 1.5 hour time slots with half hour breaks and 1 hour for lunch, to the “Entrance Kremlin” actually being the entrance for the cathredals and the armourery entailed a lap around the kremlin to get to its separate entrance, to dying off cold but then being turned back at the entrance to check in my coat. Thank god it was relatively warm outside so I didn’t worry about the back and forth.

So…finally in, I visited the Armory Museum. Highlight…without a doubt seeing my first Faberge eggs. Amazing little things. Sadly the egg that had the most prominent stand was out on somewhere. Still, there were 6 others to gaze on with admiration for both the quite modern designs in some cases and flawless jewellery skills. Second best would have to be the Ottoman Empire horsey gifts from the Turks. Just the most incredible folly to hang around a horses neck- 60cm tassels of pearls falling to the horses knees, rearing bridles of 40carat emeralds, diamond tiaras with ostrich feathers, gold cuff bracelets for each hoof. They must have looked pretty spectacular when a 200kg Russian Csarina CHECK , replete with her own 100kg dress embroidered with jewels was astride. In fact there was a classic photo in the Tretyakov Museum of a Csarina being led in finery on such a dressed horse with a boy leading it. Inscription read “Negro Boy brings Csarina XXX”. From a solid ivory throne of Ivan the Terrible through to the jewel studded crowns of the Czars, the sleeping and formal wear of the royal family and jewel studded bibles, some 4000 objects were displayed for admiration.

After that it was time for lunch…and yet another “point and pray” session. 

Suitably refortified I hit the jewel of the Kremlin- the Diamond Fun. Up there with the Crown Jewels and the ex Shah of Irans treasures, this truly was a mindblowing reminder of how rich Russia is. Displays ranging from 6kilos of rough in all the colours through to 342 carat monsters white diamonds, platinum nuggests weiging 7kilos, 36kilo gold nuggests and a beautiful 35carat yellow diamond in a tiara only made in 1980 it was quite mindblowing.  The funniest was perhaps in the regalia showcase which, aside from the usual crowns, scepters and orbs, contained a clasp of the imperial mantle. This circa 40kg chain of diamonds and platinum about 1.5m long had at its very front a brooch with a rather fetching Jesus in loin cloth, spread eagled, hands and legs each stretching down a large blue enamalled x shape.

I ended it all with another tour, another ticket and another entrance and lap back around the Kremlin walls…to the Cathedrals. I have to admit becoming slightly jaded now by icons. However I duly did a lap around the Annunciation Cathedral with its six glittering gold domes where czars were crowned and was their private chapel. Frescoes from the 14^th century decorate the walls and more than 100 icons dot the interior.

Then to the Dormition Cathedral where the Csars were buried when they died, through to the Cathedral of the Annunciation containing the 266 foot Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

Worthwhile inclusion in the 1000 places to see before you die book. Without doubt a resounding yes!!

225: Winter Palace and the Hermitage from the 1000 places to see before you die book

Before being sent by the daughter of Peter the Great and Great-Shoe-Collector Empress Elizabeth I to Pushkin to design a palace in memory of her mother Catherine I, court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli practised his exuberant over the top embellishment resulting in this icing cake mint green confection of columns, gold leaf, and balustrades in a Russian baroque style- all exercised with not so careful abandon through its 1000 rooms and 117 staircases  of which only a few held Elizabeth's 60,000 shoe collection!

Top of the staircase at the entrance hall

The outside square providing the grand setting for an even grander palace (not in picture)

Where to start- god I had no idea Russia was so rich. I mean when you think about it, it has massive mineral wealth and a dictatorship ensures no issues about cost of labour (albeit under communism which followed everyone prob worked just as hard in miserable conditions otherwise Stalin sent them to a place where they worked for free.) Lets start with the Palace and forget for the moment the Hermitage- as while the latter is located in the former- one should review the palace in its own merits.

The palace on the middle to right of picture- i.e. half of this picture!

And it is mindblowing. Empress Elizabeth really knew how to throw her weight around and, gathering from the portraits, a no mean small multiple of her quite considerable weight was churned out in gold leaf during her time to decorate her palace. Every single room was quite simply beautifully mindblowing. 

The inner courtyard providing entrance to the palace

The most spectacular rooms are the entrance which sets the tone for what will follow and the Great Hall which ran off it.

Detail of the outside

The Great hall...more gold leaf

Details of the painting on the ceiling above the entrance

Heading up the second flight of stairs of the entrance staircase- look at the height of the people compared to the two storey entrance hall

Only half way up the staircase here

Okay, at this stage Ill focus on the Hermitage...although note that most of the rooms holding the collection are actually in the Winter Palace...so you get two things to see for the price of one. The museum has one of the largest collections of works in the world totalling some 3million pieces- and the Winter Palace and 5 other buildings are needed to house the 150,000 odd works of art that are on display.

The 1000 places to see before you die  book says that it contains more than 40 Rembrandts, 40 Rubens, 8 titians, and numerous works by Michelangelo and Leonardo.

Probably my favourite hallway.

Not too sure about the coloured ostrich feathers on their helmets

My carriage awaits

Of course it goes without saying that this is a worthy inclusion in the 1000 places to see before you die book. In fact, Id go as far as to saw that you should fly to Russia if only to see this palace and museum

224 Catherine Palace and Pavlovsk Palace, from the 1000 places to see before you die book

Do I fess up at the start that in fact i didn't go into the interiors of the latter? It was cleaning day for most palaces and I forgot to check the domestics schedule. Consequently it was a dull (and rather expensive after hiring a driver for the day) trip out to the towns of Pushkin and Pavlovsk to see the two palaces.

still, I got bracing country air and an English driver- so while the gods weren't smiling on the towns as they drummed rain into them- they were at least smiling at me! Given that I could hardly say that the Pavlovsk Palace was a highlight- after all the tradesmen entrance was as far as I got- let me concentrate firstly on Catherine Palace. 

Entrance to Catherine's Palace

Now CatherineI was married to Peter the Great- says it all really. I wonder if you call your husband "oh great one" every day of your marriage whether our divorce rate would be what it is. Suffice to say, they never divorced- but then she did go and squat in another place! Catherine's Palace.

Admittedly the land was a bequest from him and thus she built a little place for herself. And there we have another issue. You see the 1000 places to see before you die  book says that she built herself a "modest summer residence" in 1917. It was her daughter- Empress Elizabeth- famous for subsequently building the Winter Palace for herself- who replaced Catherine's home in 1756 with a grander palace designed by her favourite architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli which she subsequently named after her mother.

 

A small section of the length of the Palace

 I love that the 1000 places to see before you die  book says "it set a new tone for royal excess." I think that is some gross understatement. Forget the benchmarks Czars set in Russia, by any standards anywhere around the globe this palace would be deemed an ostentatious display of wealth destined to be seen by a privileged few. At last, until Empress Elizabeth built the Winter palace for herself. As a tourist remarked to me "you can see why the peasants revolted."

The outhouse

the formal garden fronting the entrance

Me- in the great hall!

This is rococo taken to the extreme. This is a russian billionaire not even holding a candle to this site. This is Saddam turning green with envy. As the guide told me- 1100 feet of palace and 200 pounds of gold on the exterior of the palace alone. Anterooms with silk wallpaper, grandiose ceiling murals, a room full of solid inlay amber (sorry no photos permitted), gold and mirrors and more gold and more mirrors. 

Close up of mirrors

  

Entrance to the 1st antechamber

The great hall

1st antechamber

And in the war- turned into a hospital and then an orphanage. Burnt to the crisp in part by bombs, looted by ignorants in others, and little remaining by the end of World War 2. And so a complete reconstruction occurred- everything completely rebuilt and replicated from photos and sketches. One entire fabrication.

one of the private sitting rooms for the Empress

White state dining room

Including the Amber Room which cost just under $12m spent in one room alone to reconstruct. It is a truly magnificent job. No idea where they got the money- it wasn’t from ticket sales at circa £10 a ticket. However…job well done on this one. Not that I saw the original- but the new version is amazingly spectacular. Sadly...no photos allowed in this room

I think this is the small white dining room

Im not sure what all these Chinese looking ceramic additions are in the corners of the rooms- but they appeared a number of times throughout and the audio guide provided no explanation and the "watchers" in the room didn't speak English.

Bedroom

The very simple study of Peter the Great

The church on the premises

another "outhouse" around the ornamental lake

From there onto Pavslovsk palace in the next town. Where the modest mother Catherine gave a palace to her son Paul in 1777. He didn’t seem to suffer from the excesses of his female sibling and this is small and normal... if one can use such words for a palace. Burnt by Hitler to a shell it took 25 years to get it back to where it is now- and like the Catherine Palace- is in essence, one big fake. But a good fake! Anyhow, as I said in the beginning, due to the domestics needing to take control of the palace for a day all I saw was its façade. 

Entrance to Pavlovsk Palace

Entrance shot again

Worthwhile, yes definitely. And hire a guide! It’s a worthy inclusion both of them in the 1000 places to see before you die  book.  (ill give Paul’s palace the benefit of the doubt).