(continuation of the article Interesting facts about St. Petersburg for tourists. )

How long does it take for the Hermitage

The Hermitage stores more than 3 million valuable exhibits. All of them are located in 5 buildings. To examine them, you need to go through 350 halls and over 20 kilometers. And even if each exhibit is given at least 1 minute, it will take 8 years of life. Therefore, immediately choose what you need to look now, which is more interesting and important. Also in the Hermitage there are dozens of cats and cats that protect the cultural values ​​of St. Petersburg from rodents. They are official employees of the Museum, serving as its irreplaceable guards.

The Winter Palace is the main building of the Hermitage. The whole complex of the Hermitage consists of several buildings on the embankment of the Neva- the Winter Palace, the eastern wing of the General Staff, the Depository, the Menshikov Palace. The most beautiful monument is the arch of the General Staff, crowned with the sculpture of Glory on the chariot of Victory.

The most-most in St. Petersburg

It's impossible to see everything in Petersburg even for the whole summer. But you can start with the most-most. St. Isaac's Cathedral is one of the largest cathedrals in Russia and the 4th largest in the world. Climbing a narrow spiral staircase to the colonnade of St. Isaac's Cathedral to a height of 43 meters, you can admire the city on the Neva, for all its finest part from a bird's eye view. Panorama of St. Petersburg, which opens from here as in the palm of your hand, is liked by all tourists.

However, being at an altitude of 101.5 meters, the St. Isaac's Cathedral is inferior to the highest church in St. Petersburg, which is the Cathedral for the First-Ever Apostles Peter and Paul, the Orthodox Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress, from which the great St. Petersburg started. And here, for that very reason, all the tourists who come to the city on the Neva go first of all. Also here is the tomb of Russian emperors. The famous spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the whole world, shining in the sun and being viewed for many kilometers, is the visiting card of the Northern capital. The height of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is 122.5 meters, the height of the spire is 40 meters, the height of the figure is -3.2 meters, and the wingspan is 3.8 meters.

Poteshnoe, but the successful decision of Peter III

After Peter and Paul we should definitely visit Palace Square. On it is a solemn, with white columns and gilded Winter Palace, designed by Rastrelli and built in 1754-1762. At the end of the construction, the area was so cluttered with construction debris that it would take a very long time. But the Emperor Peter III came up with a brilliant idea. The king ordered to declare to the people that everyone can take free of charge from the square everything that he needs, what he likes, etc. A few hours later the whole area was cleared.

Beware of the Alexander Column

The Alexander Column was built in honor of Russia's victory in the war of 1812. The column with a height of 47.5 meters and weighing about 700 tons is crowned with the figure of an angel with a cross. It turns out that the column stands so simply on the ground and is not fixed, it is held on a pedestal and on an honest word, so to speak. But under the weight of his weight. Catch the difference? Residents when the column appeared on the square, it was not clear that this is such a strategically safe maneuver of the great Montferrand. The local people were very much afraid of walking past the column, bypassing it by the 10th road. Then the author of the monument, looking at this matter, decided every day to walk for a long time around the column, writing out circles and winding many kilometers, thereby convincing the townspeople of the security of their invention and structure. Therefore the answer is No!

Fountains without pumps

Being in St. Petersburg and not visiting Peterhof, it's not just a " moveton", but theft of personal excellent impressions, extravagant emotions and exclusive positive. It is impossible to remain indifferent from Peterhof, which is one of the districts of St. Petersburg, where it is quite easy to get there. In Peterhof there are 173 fountains and 3 cascades. In 1990 this ensemble of fountains was recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage.

Initially, he was known as an engineering miracle. For the supply of water, pumps have never been used here. Water comes here naturally from the Ropsha heights along the riverbed of the Shinkarki River and a whole system of canals, ponds and floodgates, called the Ropshinsky water channel. This natural feature was noticed by Peter I in 1720 and decided to use it to decorate Petrodvorets, instructing to develop a system of communicating vessels to the engineer-hydraulics Vasily Tuvolkov. This system operates to this day, only the pipeline is replaced from the wooden to the cast iron.

Why Mariinsky

The official emblem of the Mariinsky Theater is its curtain. It was made by Alexander Golovin in 1914. The curtain combines at once 2 art techniques, such as painting and appliqués, and repeats the design of the train of the dress of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of Alexander II. It was in honor of the king's wife that the theater received its name - the Mariinsky Theater.

Behind the stage of the Mariinsky Theater is the bell "Honored Artist" of the Mariinsky Theater, which is played in the operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina. The bell is almost 200 years old, but in the theater it was only in 1930. It is said that with the arrival of the Bolsheviks, the bell was thrown into the Kryukov Canal, where he lay for many years. But one day he was raised and returned to the theater. Also in the walls of the Mariinsky there were many different events. Here a quarrel between the poets Gumilev and Voloshin, which was resolved by a duel.Golovin wrote a portrait of Shalyapin in the costume of Boris Godunov in the theater.