offpeakfang

Peterhof Palace, St Petersburg, December 2019 Built on drained former marshland, the city of St Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great as the capital of his great empire. He intended it to be a symbol of how he was westernising Russia, as well as being a better port to trade from than Arkhangelsk which was frozen for half the year. Its architecture was intended to signal Russia's place as one of the great European powers, and is clearly a mix between Western European and Russian designs.  Entrance to the Peter and Paul Fortress The first building of the newly-founded city was laid by Peter the Great: the Peter and Paul Fortress on an island in the river Neva. It now contains a museum complex including the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where the Tsars of Russia are buried.  Peter and Paul Cathedral This includes the chapel where the Romanov family are now buried together, having been executed together in 1918.  Romanov family chapel in the cathedral It's also h...

Hammer-and-sickle ventilation ducts in Narvskaya metro station, St Petersburg, December 2019 Much remains of Soviet architecture in the ex-USSR. St Petersburg is no exception, with its socialist-realist architecture around the city but especially with its metro system. It follows the Soviet architectural philosophy of designing public spaces as palaces for the people.  House of Soviets, on Moskovskaya Square The first building we saw in the city after arriving from the airport was the House of Soviets on Moskovskaya Square, completed just before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Its construction was part of a plan to move the city centre from the historic centre to somewhere less flood-prone, with plans for a much bigger square flanked by triumphal arches, but this was stopped by the 1941 invasion of the USSR. This left the House of Soviets on the front line of the Siege of Leningrad, with concrete pillboxes around the square surviving to this day.  The building itself ...

Winter Palace, St Petersburg, December 2019 Getting a Russian visa is usually a very complicated process: you first need a hotel to issue an invitation, then spend a day going to the Russian Embassy to submit your forms and pay a substantial amount of money. However, tourists from the EU and a few Asian countries can now also visit certain parts of Russia with only a free e-visa: the Russian Far East, Kaliningrad, and St Petersburg. The latter is the most worth visiting for now, though there are currently plans to introduce an all-Russia e-visa in 2021. I'll likely visit again if and when that comes into force; I'd certainly like to at least visit Moscow, and the Trans-Siberian Railway remains on my long-term list as well.  For now, the application for St Petersburg e-visas is free and straightforward: filling out a form online, with booked flights and accommodation. The e-visa PDF came through after just a few days.  Luton is my least favourite London airport, but even then i...