St. Peter & Paul fortress

The sun does shine in St Petersburg, even in November! On the 4th day of our trip we were rewarded with sunny weather combined with dramatic skies.
On our last day we decided to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733 on Zayachy Island (Rabbit Island) along the Neva River. Both the cathedral and the fortress were originally built under Peter the Great.

We also knew that the fortress had served a sort of Russian "Bastille" being the prison for numerous aristocratic (such as "Decembrists" - aristocratic movement trying to establish constitution in the eraly 19th century) or simply dangerous prisoners such as Tadeusz Kościuszko fighting for independence of so-called "North-Western district" containing parts of nowadays Belarus, Ukraine, Poland & Lithuania, Tsarevich Alexis - Peter I son and even Marshal Josip Broz Tito - statesman of Republic of Yugoslavia, to name more resent characters.


Despite all these facts we never visited it during our previous visits to St. Petersburg so this time we decided to catch up.

Dramatic skies. Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and "Flying Dutchman" sailboat.

View from Kronverk bridge

Kids on Kronverk bridge

View to the spit of Vasilyevsky Island from Zayachi Island

From the Kronverk bridge you can see the Bell tower (with spire). It is the dominant feature of this cathedral and the fortress. Not only is it an architectural symbol, it is also a lightning rod protecting the cathedral.

General view of Zayachy island with bell tower

We walked around the fortress walls. There is a nice walkway and at this time of the year instead of hords there was barely a young mother with a stroller or a jogger.

The fortress wharf

Inside the walls there are numerous museums: wax figure exhibition, exhibition of armor, panoptikum... You can also rent replicas of historical costumes and take photos.

The cathedral's bell tower is the world's tallest Orthodox bell tower. Since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the highest Orthodox Church in the world. ©Wikipedia

Within the fortress walls

The sun came out and we walked along the lanes towards the cathedral.





The Peter and Paul Cathedral

The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family who were finally laid to rest in July 1998. ©Wikipedia



 Even though according to Wikipedia...

The cathedral's architecture also features a unique iconostasis (the screen which separates the nave of the church from the sanctuary). ©Wikipedia

...we were not able to see it. The cathedral was locked and the only people who were let in were the ladies wearing working clothes who were obviously involved in the reconstruction work. Speaking of reconstruction, we were surprised to find out that...

When renovators were working to clean the angel upon the spire in 1997, they found a note bottle left in one of the folds of the angel's gown. In the note, renovators from 1953 apologized for what they felt was rushed and shoddy work (Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev wanted the angel refurbished for the 250th anniversary of the city that year).   ©Wikipedia

We really felt respect o those unknown renovators who felt sorry for doing a lousy job. 

The cathedral seen across the main square

Walking along the fortress streets we found ourselves facing quite an unusual angle...

Repin Art Academy

The purpose of our visit to St. Petersburg was to visit Erkki's son Kaspar, student of Faculty of Painting in  Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. It is informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, or Repin Institute of Arts.
Kaspar is a talented young artist who made sort of unusual choice. In the times when young men of young European democracies flee to the Western countries Kaspar decided to pursue his art education in the East - in Russia.
Studying at art schools of Tallinn and attending international workshops he came to conclusion that painting taught in Western countries tends to be more and more abstract. Splashes and drops, blots and stain become the main techniques used while traditional education is more often then not being neglected.
He decided to get "classic" education mastering among others perspective, plastic anatomy, art history and philosophy and then use it as a foundation for building his own unique style.
He is right. According to Wikipedia

After the advancement of 20th century modernism, European and American art schools embraced thinkers who rebelled against nineteenth century academic and historicist traditions. They believed the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated. While art education in the West was changing, traditional academic teachings were nourished in the Soviet academy.  ©Wikipedia

As a school, Soviet Socialist Realism surpassed the best naturalist and realist genre painting in the West during the third quarter of the twentieth century! It was a 'renaissance of realism' behind the Iron Curtain. — Vern Grosvenor Swanson. 

His hopes and aspirations came true and his level of realistic art jumps every time we see him. Here you can see some examples of his work.


Repin State Art Academy occupies huge 18th century building alongside Neva river.

The edifice for the academy was built in 1764-89 to a design by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe and Alexander F. Kokorinov.

However our acquaintance did not start from the facade.
As we lived around the corner we approached the building from its backyard and were surprised to see... horses and ponies there. 

Academy boasts huge ceilings, long corridors and a series of 5 interconnected courtyards.
To our surprise the central, most beautiful courtyard was beautifully restored and well-kept but... locked. As to the other 3 instead of an outdoor summer cafe or an open-air  modern sculpture exhibition there was... junkyard.
All high-ceiling corridors and wooden stairwells were ragged and overall building made impression of really missing a thrifty administrator, not an artist as its head. We were told though that most money paid by foreign students does not stay at the Academy but goes to its headquarters in Moscow and this is the reason why the building is so neglected.
The reason is sure valid. However we felt if the Academy authorities mobilized all students for a big cleaning day some of the problems could have been solved...

Warning signs: "Do not enter. Naked models" can be found throughout the Academy. Due to large quantities of Chinese students some are translated into Chinese...

All sorts of "Do not enter" signs on the atelier doors

We also visited one of the ateliers shared between the 4th and 5th year students :