Saint Petersburg - Nevsky Prospekt pg 2

	The most prominent feature of Decembrists' Square is this statue of Peter the Great. This statue was erected by his grand-daughter, Catherine the Great. This statue was immortalized in Aleksandr Pushkin's poem, "The Bronze Horseman." A larger version of this picture is available in the wallpaper gallery.
	The Bronze Horseman. Note the bride and groom having their picture taken with "Peter the Great" (behind the woman with the cell phone).
	The Bronze Horseman. The inscription on the base reads in Latin, "To Peter I from Catherine II - 1782." This inscription is repeated in Russian on the opposite side of the statue.
	St Isaak's Cathedral, built 1818-1858 by Ricard de Montferrand. A larger version of this picture is available in the wallpaper gallery.
	St Isaak's Square, with St Isaak's Cathedral to the left and the Monument to Tsar Nicholas I to the right. You can also see down Voznesenskiy Prospekt to the spire of the Admiralty.
	Yusupov Palace, built in the 1760s. This palace is best known as the place where Grigoriy Rasputin was murdered. The Lonely Planet Saint Petersburg guidebook describes the scene better than I ever could: In 1916 Rasputin, invited here to dinner by Prince Felix Yusupov and friends, was filled with poisoned food, cakes, cookies and drink. After he ate and drank all this and was happily licking his fingers, the Yusupov gang shot ol' Raspy repeatedly. But like a tsarist-era Terminator, he refused to die, and when Yusupov knelt over him, Rasputin grabbed him by the throat! At that point, Yusupov did what any sane man would do: he ran like hell. When he returned with reinforcements, they found Rasputin had dragged himself outside. They shot him a few more times, beat him with sticks for good measure, and stuffed him through the ice of the frozen river. Apparently, after all the abuse, Rasputin ended up dying of drowning—water was found in his lungs. The Moyka River in front of Yusupov Palace, where Rasputin finally met his end.

	The Mariinsky Theater, built in 1859. It was known as the Kirov Theater during Soviet times, and its ballet company is still known as the Kirov Ballet. Notice the color of this building and other buildings in these pictures. As a rule of thumb, Saint Petersburg architecture can easily be recognized by its color. Buildings in the classical style are yellow, while buildings in the baroque style are green. The locals call this "harmonic." I call it a little boring.
	The Mariinsky Theater. While I was in Saint Petersburg, the workshop building of this theater (a few blocks away from the actual theater) burned to the ground—probably the work of an arsonist. Millions of dollars worth of costumes, sets and props were destroyed.
	Across the street from the Mariinsky Theater stand statues of two of Russia's greatest composers, Mikhail Glinka and, here, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Jim and I attended a performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory to the right of this statue. Next page

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