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Monday, 23.07.2007
The first steps on hallowed soil
This is your first time in Petersburg? Then it’s something to treasure, because nothing is more beautiful and memorable than the first moment of acquaintance with a new place. All the more so if it is St. Petersburg.
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Our tip: On your first day, go straight to the Neva – to the point of Vassily Island or the beach by the Peter-Paul Fortress or to the Troitskii Bridge, from where you can best take in the Petersburg ‘skyline’, the horizontal lines described by the water, embankments, houses, palaces and northern sky.
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It is an unusual place. Petersburg has only just turned 300, and yet it had already experienced as many dramatic events as cities twice or three times the age, all during modern times.
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Everything in Petersburg is exceptional: It was founded in 1703 by the visionary Tsar Peter the Great, who dreamed of gaining Russia access to the sea and joining it to Europe. Conceived on the drawing board, it was built on swampy, uncultivated lands, unloved and unappreciated in the Moscovite empire of the early 18th century; finally it became the glittering capital of the Russian Empire, a recognised European metropolis in the 19th century, on equal footing with Paris, London, Vienna and Paris.
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An unheralded cultural and economic flourishing marked its entrance into the 20th century, accompanied by deep social confrontations, which led to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 that finally put an end of the ‘Petersburg Empire’.
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In 1918, Lenin made Moscow again the capital. Petrograd, as Petersburg was called since 1914, then in 1924 changed its name again to Leningrad, and transmuted into a outsized provincial city, robbed of its status and role as Russia’s ‘window on Europe’. Then the 900 days siege by German troops in the Second World War seemed to have dealt the city a killer blow. But… .
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…the city lived on, and retained its presence and dignity throughout Khrushchev’s “Thaw”, Brezhnev’s “Stagnation” and Gorbachev’s “Perestroika“. And finally, on 6th September, 1991, the city regained its original name.
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Today, there are efforts to recapture its previous status, but the Soviet legacy is a difficult one. The city, like the whole country, is in a process of transition, with painful social change confronting the population with difficult choices.
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What we admire about Petersburg today is the unique harmony of the architecture – this coherent ensemble of baroque, classicism, eclectic and art nouveau: and all of that in duet with the water. No other city in the world has an intact old town of such a size at St. Petersburg does. And few cities have as many problems in preserving it.
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The city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is undeniably crumbling, although a lot was done for the 300th anniversary in 2003. But more remains to be done, and there is little money to go round.
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Walk as much as possible
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Take a turning off Nevsky Prospekt – through an arch or along a sidestreet, and you’ll find a quieter, less ostentatious Petersburg. Follow the Fontanka, the Moika, the Neva and the canals.
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You’ll discover picturesque corners, tranquillity in the midst of the metropolis. And journey out of town to the palaces and parks at Peterhof, Pushkin, Pavlosk, Gatchina and Oranienbaum, or to the beaches on the Gulf of Finland.
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And don’t be afraid! No more than the usual caution is needed in Petersburg: don’t let wallet and passport hang out of your pockets, avoid dark corners etc.
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Foreigners are welcome in Petersburg, and locals will sometimes escort you all the way to the door of the Hermitage. For all the tough exterior, Peterburgers are very friendly if you strike up a conversation. We hope your memories of your first visit to Petersburg will remain with you for many years to come, and will cause you to return to stroll its streets and waterways. Be warned: Petersburg can insinuate itself like a virus in impressionable souls, forcing you to return, preventing you from forgetting.
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(sb/rufo)
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