City of Palaces
Along the Fontanka River in St. Petersburg
ON STREET AFTER STREET and building after building, majestic facades reflect their pastel colors in the long summer sun.
It’s “white nights” in St. Petersburg, Russia where we are spending the month of June and where the sun barely sets. This picture of a row of former palaces was taken at 9:30 PM just as the sun’s glow was starting to soften for the day.
It’s not hard to imagine these buildings 120 years ago being occupied by royalty and nobility. One palace after another, built in the classical style, with stunning views of the canals that string through the city.
Lomonosov bridge and Troitsey-Izmailovsky Cathedral
What’s hard is to picture them being taken over by the Soviet regime following the revolution of 1917. The owners being either kicked out or the entire family being relegated to a few rooms and having to share the rest of the building with other families, strangers—and it staying that way for some 70 years, during which some grand cathedrals (like the one pictured here) were used as storehouses for vegetables.
Nowdays the former palaces are either public or office buildings, or fine apartments. Their architectural majesty still resides, the colors still reflect, but the character of the noble Russian spirit has not recovered. It is trying, but there are so many conflicting interests and obstacles in the economic, political, and social spheres.
Meanwhile, this splendid city pulses with beauty, business, culture, youth, and change. Lots of change. Especially when the sun barely sets.
