July 25, 2009
We drove about 20 miles outside St. Petersburg to the magnificent Catherine Palace.
Peter the Great gave the original estate to his wife, Catherine I, in 1710 as a summer residence. At that time it was a 17-room stone building, however over the next 60 years it was expanded to the current magnificent palace.
The palace became the summer residence of Catherine II in 1770. She was known as Catherine the Great and was Empress of Russia from 1762 until her death in 1796, the longest-ruling female leader.
The ballroom known as The Amber Room:
Catherine came into power after a coup d’etat that overthrew her husband, Peter III. During her reign, Russia grew stronger and was recognized as one of the great powers of Europe.
The German army destroyed the palace after the siege of Leningrad in World War II. Major reconstruction began in 1957 to restore the palace to its original grandeur.
We saw the palace and the grounds of the palace and drove back to the city. Our guide, Sergey, is a pleasant young man who is an assistant professor of history at the university. His parents were Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan who fled to Russia during the Azerbaijan/Armenian war in 1988.
We had the late afternoons and evenings to ourselves to explore St. Petersburg on our own. We found some great restaurants for dinner. The Eliseyev Emporium is located on Nevsky Prospect:
The Eliseyev Emporium was built in1903 in the Art Nouveau style of architecture. Today it’s a retail complex and one of many impressive buildings in St. Petersburg.
The man in the photo below was walking his pet baby bear. You don’t see that everyday!!
