Peter and Paul Fortress was the first structure of any sort constructed in what is now St. Petersburg. Built by Peter the Great, this fort served as a deterrent for any entity whom considered attacking the Russian city. Today it houses a church which contains every dead tsar from the Romanov Dynasty (basically 300 years of absolute power in Russia - Quite a feat for a country which averages some sort of revolution every 10 years or so.) These tombs include Peter the Great, Alexander I, and Nicholas II’s family who was murdered. They were shot then stabbed in a basement of a cabin in the south of Russia (Ekaterinburg to be exact) by Bolsheviks in 1917. Yikes… Because of their brutal murder, they were canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 2002. Get murdered, become a saint. A decent trade-off for any religious monarch and his family I suppose. These murders truly exemplified the stance of the Bolsheviks, and portrayed their hatred for monarchies and absolute rule. Three hundred years of being poor and powerless can really piss-off a Russian. Putin better fix this wealth dispersion problem..
Next post will be pictures of Моя квартира! (My apartment) This weekend I am off to Novgorod- one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe.
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| An elusive sunny day! The outside of P+P Fortress! |
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| Fall in all its glory |
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| Peter the Great is my man-crush |
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| Super-stoked on life |
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| Grave of Peter the Great. Complete with crying Russian babushkas paying their respects. Creepy. |
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| Memorial to the murdered family of Tsar Nicholas II. |
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