Commissioned by Peter the Great, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul is located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg, Russia.



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Peter and Paul Cathedral

Built on Zayachy Island, between 1712 and 1733, the cathedral's bell tower is the world's tallest Orthodox bell tower. It also acts as a lightning rod protecting the cathedral.

The cathedral houses the remains of most of the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II; including Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1991.

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One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg was founded by Catherine the Great, in 1764, and has been open to the public since 1852.



Hermitage Staircase

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✈ Project 366 - Daily Travel Photos.

The Jordan Staircase of the Winter Palace leads up to the exhibition rooms.

Although badly damaged by fire in 1837, the original plans from architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli were used for the reconstruction of this grand state entrance.

I waited for the small child to move up the marble stairs to help illustrate the grand scale of the elaborate detail before our eyes.

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When I travelled by rail from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in April, 1992 I was glad to see the Soviet State Railway Emblem still on the train.



Soviet Railway Emblem

► Day 7: January 7th, 2016 - One Photo Upload a Day.
✈ Project 366 - Daily Travel Photos.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union had taken place in December 1991 and Russia was now briefly a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS.

The State Emblem of the Soviet Union (some call it a coat of arms) shows a five-pointed red star above the traditional hammer and sickle over a globe, with ears of wheat around it.

There is a rising sun under the globe, and a red ribbon around the two wreaths of wheat with 'Proletarians of the world, unite!' written in the official languages of the fifteen (former) Soviet Republics.

If you're interested, the languages are Turkmen, Tajik, Latvian, Lithuanian, Georgian, Uzbek, and Ukrainian on the left; Estonian, Armenian, Kyrgyz, Moldovan, Azerbaijani, Kazak and Belarusian on the right; with Russian joining them all together at the base.

Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were fifteen union republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. 

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