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Overview - in this image, mainly the old part of the city is visble
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St. Petersburg is often called "Venice of the North" because of the numerous water channels.
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A broad opening, with the huge Hermitage fountain springs in the background.
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One can feel that the city is filled with deep history roots. Different monuments pop-out all over around, like this tiny mausoleum.
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...or like this half-dead sphinx.It is the guardian of an old bridge.
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The cathedrals of the city bring splendour to the streets. In the background, "Church of the Spilled Blood"; in the foreground: RS, AI, BC.
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The same cathedral, a better image, from a postcard. In the russian orthodx churches the gilded domes like onions are a symbol for the flame of Holy Spirit (I read it in a travel guide)
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Domes, detail
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St. Isaac Cathedral with a huge gilded dome. The tourists can climb to see the columns.
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AJ, RS, and AI in St.Isaac Cathedral, under the Dome.
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The cityscape from the St. Isaac. Also, a tiny gilded dome :)
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The Hermitage Palace, one of the hallmarks of the city. It is a huge building, with an inner courtyard. This is the river-side. On the water channel, in the front of the palace there is an enormous fountain spring (see the next picture)
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The Fountain Spring of Hermitage. Picture is taken from the Hermitage side.
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The Hermitage Plaza, opposite to the river. This column is the biggest monolith in the world.
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The St. Petersburg Hotel, built in the Comunist Era; we were guests here for the conference. "Samsung" and "Baltika" are just for advertising.
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From the hotel one can see the "Aurora" warship. It is preserved because the Red Revolution started from here (I didn't know this)
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Speaking about the Red Era, scattered through the city there are a lot of strange, sometimes peculiar monuments for "the Victory of Socialismus" like this.
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Also, one can find "Baroque Comunismus" lile this...
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Unfortunately, not everything is shining. The tragedy of the former economic depression is sometime visible on the walls. Wonderfull building, but in a bad shape, etc.
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OR - extremely old utility vehicles, like this one...
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But the time started to heal the wounds. I took these pictures in the courtyard of Navy Museum, where kids are happily playing among war-machines.
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Kids
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This was the most courageous: it managed to maintain the balance on the cannon for a while.
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Despite the problems, the city today is very dynamic. Huge reconstruction work is done now. Note the number of the cranes in the background!
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Typical city street, at midday.
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The bridges perform a show, each night, when they do open (to allow the passage of very big ships)
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We spotted very very nice grafitti, like this one. It seems that a contest took place here.
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The Summer Palace and its gardens are known as "Peterhof". This is the "standard" view of the huge fountains with gilded statues.
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AI, AJ in Peterhof.
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This is the highest fountain spring in te world. The central character is Samson.
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The palace itself isn't big, but is cute.
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