June 30, 2018 - Yesterday we explored what has proven to be a highlight of this episode, St Petersburg. The city truly lives up to the hype.
It was founded and planned by Peter the Great and he spared no expense. He sought the help of Italian designers and built a European world capital that rivals Paris.
There were a lot of candidates for today’s blog. I settled on ‘The Church on the Spilled Blood’. It is a stunning Russian Orthodox Church filled with glittering mosaics.
Despite it’s name, it is not named after the blood atonement of Christ. Instead, the name derives from the fact that a Russian Tsar , Alexander II, was murdered on this spot. He was getting out of his carriage on a cobblestone road when someone through a bomb at him, blowing his legs off. His son decided to venerate the spot by building a church over the spot complete with an alter over the original cobble stone where he died.
There is more. When the Russian revolution happened in 1917, there was a movement to tear down all the churches. Many were destroyed. Thankfully this one was not wrecked.
However, Soviets wanted to make a point about “No God allowed”. So they used the building to store potatoes. Today it is ‘a Museum’. No worship services are held here.
But there is so much more here - It was quite a day -
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