City Breaks

St Petersburg Episode 14 Art and Architecture

Art lovers flock to St Petersburg's wonderful and extensive collections in the Hermitage and of course we will look at some of the highlights to be found there. But first, a nod to the architectural styles to be found in the city, from the glorious baroque palaces of 18th century St Petersburg, via the much more Russian-influenced design of the Church on the Spilled Blood, to the designs favoured in the Stalinist era. Also, a visit to the Russian Museum, where thousands of exhibits tell the story of Russian art from the earliest icons to the twentieth century and lastly, some pointers for those wanting to see modern art Russian-style.

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St Petersburg Episode 13 World Capital of Ballet

Surely ballet is one of the first things you think of when it comes to St Petersburg. Hear a brief history, beginning with the 'twelve little girls' invited in 1738 by the Empress Anna to join the city's first ballet school, held in the Winter Palace attic. Find out more about the 19th and early 20th centuries, when many of the great Russian ballets were first seen and dancers like Vaslav Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova graced the stage. Hear too what happened to ballet in the Soviet era and how Rudolf Nureyev brought such exciting new techniques from Leningrad to the west, then find out what it's like to see a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in the city today.

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St Petersburg Episode 12 Music and Theatre

Hear about some of St Petersburg's many musical connections, with potted biographies of composers from Glinka, often known as the father of Russian music, to Shostakovich, via, of course, Tchaikovsky. And not forgetting Rubinstein, whose Russian Musical Society did so much to put St Petersburg on the musical map or Stravinsky, whose 'Rite of Spring' delighted and outraged audiences in equal measure. Find out too about some of the city's best-known musical and theatrical venues, from the jewel-like little theatres built for the Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great to the ever-popular Mariinsky Theatre and the Shostakovich Philharmonia Halls. Learn which museums and cemeteries have most to tell you about the city's musical heritage.

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St Petersburg Episode 11 The Siege of Leningrad

St Petersburg's haunting Memorial to the Defenders of Leningrad recalls the dreadful 900 day long blockade of the city by German troops during the Second World War. Supplies to the city were so ruthlessly cut off that the population was starved and 800,000 people lost their lives. This episode provides a little history, some extracts from the diary of teenager Lena Mukhina who lived through it and – against all odds - survived, and an account of the day in August 1942 when the defiant remaining musicians from what had been the Leningrad Radio Orchestra staged an outdoor concert which was broadcast across the city. Finally, there are some details about the monument itself.

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St Petersburg Episode 10 The Soviet Era

What happened in St Petersburg after the 1917 Revolution and where can you find traces of the Soviet era in the city today?  After a little history, we visit three sites with much to tell: the terrifying Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, the State Museum of Political History and the former home of the dissident poet Anna Akhmatova.  After a look at metro stations designed in the 1950s as ‘Palaces of the People’, find out where you can experience Soviet culture today, whether you wish to play 1970s arcade games like Morskoi Boi (battleships!), dine in a Soviet-style restaurant on, say, borscht or draniki (beetroot soup or potato pancakes) or seek out the Donut Café where the atmosphere today still feels like ‘Stalin-era Russia.’

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St Petersburg Episode 09 Revolutions

First, some ideas on the increasing demands for reform which played out through the 18th and 19th centuries in St Petersburg, including the Decembrist revolt of 1825 and the assassination of Emperor Alexander II in 1881. Then, a look at end-of-an-era St Petersburg in the early years of the 20th century, especially the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905 and the uprising in February 2017, which led to the abdication and, ultimately, the death of the last Romanov, Tsar Nicholas II. And finally, of course, the revolution of October 2017. A mix of facts and eye-witness accounts will leave you understanding these turbulent times – and therefore St Petersburg itself - a little better.

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St Petersburg Episode 08 Faberge and Rasputin

The two city-centre palaces featured in this episode both tell us more about the end of the Romanov dynasty, albeit in very different ways. The Shuvalov Palace, a former glittering hub for St Petersburg's aristocracy, is today the home of a museum housing many artistic treasures, including a collection of Fabergé eggs, which remind the visitor of the luxury enjoyed by the last imperial Romanov family. By contrast, an exhibition at the Yusupov Palace tells the story of Rasputin, the spiritual adviser, or 'mad monk', who exerted such an influence on Nicholas and Alexandra that he was eventually lured here by Prince Felix Yusupov and his accomplices and murdered.

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St Petersburg Episode 07 Alexander Palace and the last Romanovs

The Alexander Palace was the family home of choice for a number of Tsars, even if they hosted big public events in the swankier Catherine Palace across the park. Nicholas II, the last Emperor, was born here, and made it a comfortable family home for his wife and 5 children, until they were taken away in the middle of the night in July 1917 and sent to their deaths in Siberia. There are reminders of them throughout the building, from the paintings and photographs they collected, to rooms like the Lilac Study, daytime retreat of the Empress Alexandra, where the family gathered to take tea every afternoon at five o’clock.

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St Petersburg Episode 06 The Palace Embankment

This episode tours the many waterways of St Petersburg, looking first at some of the canals and bridges and then taking a stroll along the Neva, up the Palace Embankment, starting at St Isaac's Cathedral, whose gleaming dome soars above the city 'like a shining mitre'. The walk continues past the Winter Palace whose 1000+ rooms were once the home of imperial families, but which is now better known as one of the world's best art galleries and we finish at the Summer Gardens and Summer Palace, the idyllic riverside refuge designed by Peter the Great as a venue for summer parties and outdoor frolics.

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St Petersburg Episode 05 Nevsky Prospekt

Nevsky Prospekt 'is Petersburg' according to Gogol, writing in the 1830s, and this long road is still today the backbone of the city. We explore it, stopping off at three of its best-known buildings, starting with the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, burial ground of Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky. Then it’s on to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, scene of so many imperial funerals and of the Te Deum held to celebrate the delivery of Moscow from the Emperor Napoleon. And finally, we take in the onion-domed, riotously colourful Church on the Spilled Blood, built on the exact spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, and hear the story behind that.

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