Around St Petersburg.

One of the first stops of the day was at this beautiful Cathedral. We had such a fact filled day it was hard to remember what all the locations were! This is the St Nicholas Maritime Cathedral, it was built in an area settled by sailors at the time of Peter the Great.

They construction of the church started in 1753 and is absolutely beautiful, covered in cherubs. The whole building looks like a giant Wedding cake.

This was the first time that we saw a gold dome on a building, by the end of the trip we had seen a fair few. The guide said that they were covered in gold and not gold leaf, They are beautiful and incredibly expensive!

Inside there was lots of artwork and lots of gold and bronze in evidence. I lit two candles here as well. The difference between our churches and Russian churches is that we have seats and in Russia they don't. Worshippers are expected to stand throughout the whole of the service, which traditionally runs into four or five hours. People are not kept captive they can come and go as they please !

The whole building was stunning with the sun shining off of the gold domes!

We stopped at Smolny Cathedral, another blue and white building with beautiful domes.

Construction on the Cathedral was started in 1748, it was intended to be the central church of a monastery. It was later used to house the daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth.She was initially forbidden to take the throne of Russia, so she decided to become a Nun and live at Smolny.  She wasn't there long before a coup overthrew her predecessor and she decide to abandon her harsh way of life and take the throne that was rightfully hers. 

As the day went on it became clear that Russia love blue and white buildings, we later visited the Winter Palace, which was also blue and white!!

I will post a few more tomorrow.

Don't work too hard!!!