Postcards from St. Petersburg, Russia

Eurodam recently made it’s first call at St. Petersburg, Russia, and Pam went on an all-day tour to the top attractions in the area.

The Hermitage Museum is one of the largest — with 3 million works of art (not all on display at once) — and one of the oldest art galleries and museums in the world.

The vast Hermitage collections are displayed in six buildings, the main one is the Winter Palace, which used to be the official residence of the Russian Tsars.

The statue of Cupid and Psyche, left, was sculpted by Antonio Canova in 1796. According to the ancient myth, Cupid’s mother, the goddess Venus, envious of the beauty of her son’s beloved, dispatched Psyche to the underworld to fetch a vessel containing the water of youth, forbidding her to open it. Psyche could not resist looking inside the flask and immediately fell into a deep sleep. The kiss of Cupid returned Psyche to life.

The Peacock Clock, right, also includes the figures of a cockerel and owl. Catherine II loved collecting, and Grigory Potiomkin ordered the piece for her from celebrated goldsmith and clockmaker James Cox.

Construction of the Church of the Spilled Blood began in 1883 under Alexander III, as a memorial to his father, Alexander II. Work progressed slowly and was completed in 1907 during the reign of Nicholas II. How did the church get its name? As the tsar’s carriage passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an anarchist conspirator exploded. The tsar, shaken but unhurt, got out of the carriage and started to remonstrate with the presumed culprit. Another conspirator took the chance to explode another bomb, killing himself and mortally wounding the tsar. The tsar, bleeding heavily, was taken back to the Winter Palace where he died a few hours later.

An evening performance of “Swan Lake” at the Alexandrinsky Theatre was the perfect ending to this magnificent and historic port of call.