Thursday 28th March 2013
St. Isaac’s Cathedral : Church on the Spilled Blood
Mariinsky Theatre
Although we woke to a beautiful blue clear sky, we soon discovered it was icy cold when we were not walking in the sun.
Today, we are planning to visit St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Church on the Spilled Blood. Our time is limited today as we need to be back at the hotel early to get ready for the ballet which starts at 7.30pm.
However, before we set off in the direction of St. Isaac’s, we decide to walk to the Mariinsky Theatre to ensure we know the route for this evening.
A while later we were glad we had decided to check the route as at one point we weren’t at all sure which way to go and resorted to asking a passerby for help. Now we know the way and also how long it will take us.
We had intended to immediately retrace our steps and walk to St Isaac’s but we saw straight ahead a beautiful church with impressive architecture. The building was actually St Nicholas Cathedral; the Baroque façade was painted pale blue and white and crowned with five gilded cupolas. As we neared the cathedral we saw some more cupolas ahead and continued to walk towards them. This church had only one very small chapel that was open to the general public.
We returned to St. Nicholas’s and went inside. It had a beautiful green and gold interior. A service was taking place with half a dozen priests in their full regalia. While chanting, they were walking amongst the small congregation swinging their thuribles. The pleasant fragrance of the incense drifted toward us. This cathedral is dedicated to all sailors and known locally as the Naval Cathedral.
On leaving the cathedral, we again noticed more cupolas but agreed not to walk towards them as one could do this all day. So we continued with our original plan and walked along the side of a frozen narrow canal towards St. Isaac’s.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. Its golden dome rises high above the city. Its interior is immense and incredibly beautiful. The rich green malachite pilasters stand next to vivid blue lapis lazuli ones and together they enhance the iconostasis’s beauty.
There are also huge pink rectangular columns made from pink granite. There are spectacular mosaics, paintings and other works of art.
This is another religious building that was changed into a museum of atheism throughout the communist era. It still remains a museum today and in one area there are glass displays showing items for sale including amber earrings. However if you ignore this section, it does appear and feel like a cathedral. There is a small chapel where photography is prohibited and services still take place.
As it was later than we had expected, we decided to leave visiting The Church on the Spilled Blood until another day. We found a place for lunch where we ate our main meal of the day and returned to the hotel.
I had spent some considerable time researching the ballets and their theatres in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It wasn’t too long however before I came to the conclusion that if I was going to a ballet I wanted to go to either the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and see a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet Company or to the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg which is the home of the Kirov Ballet Company. These two ballet companies are world-renowned and their theatres are magnificent. I just knew that watching the performance in a beautiful historic theatre would enhance the experience. Perhaps you have noticed that I have used the personal pronoun I, and not we, as Dave is not interested in ballet but he has agreed to go and is therefore leaving the choice to me. (Aren’t I lucky?)
The decision on which ballet and which theatre was, however, made for me as there was only one ballet performance during the dates that we were in Russia. The ballet was Raymonda, which was performed by The Kirov Ballet Company at the spectacular Mariinsky Theatre. Raymonda is based on a medieval legend and was originally premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1898. It has three acts, two intermissions and is 3 hours and 15 minutes long.
The same architect who designed the Bolshoi Theatre, Alberto Kavos, also designed the Mariinsky Theatre in the 19th century. It is magnificent, the architecture and the ornate decor is breathtaking. The circular ceiling has artwork with dancing girls and cherubs. Our seats are in one of the royal boxes.
The performance was magical; the whole experience was wonderful. We didn’t realise at the time how extremely lucky we were to visit this wonderful theatre. Just a few days after we had seen the performance, the new Mariinsky 2 theatre opened. This is of course a modern theatre and I do not believe the experience would have been the same.
At the end of the performance, we went to the cloakroom to collect our coats. Unfortunately I could not find the token. Our coats were the only ones remaining. The cloakroom lady, who had her coat on ready to leave, was insisting (I’m sure, even though we couldn’t understand) that we couldn’t have our coats unless we had the token. The entrance to the box where we had been seated was unlocked for us to search, but we did not find it. Dave unceremoniously emptied my handbag on the cloakroom’s counter but it was not there. By now the lady’s colleague had arrived and the staff were obviously anxious to go home. Finally, they demanded one hundred rubles as payment for the missing token and we were handed our coats. On reaching our hotel, we again tipped the contents of my handbag out onto a table, it was only when I was putting them back in that I felt it, the missing token was tucked inside my passport. Now we have a souvenir from the Mariinsky Theatre …
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