Pentecost Excursion to St. Petersburg, 2006
Dóbry djen St. Petersburg
With this in mind, the Institute of Art History intends to approach the second largest city in Russia in the form of an 8-10 day field trip for students of the subject immediately after WT 2005/06. The aim of the study trip is, this only 1703 by Zar Peter the Great as a “window to Europe” founded city and its unique art and buildings to get to know. Thus, it is about the consideration of the most important art and cultural historical testimonies in the transformation of a still young urban work of art, whose eventful history is reflected not least in its multiple name changes to Saint Pieter Bourgh, Petrograd or Leningrad.
Obligatory stations on these time travels are first the historic nucleus of the city, the Peter-Paul Fortress, the Summer and Winter Palace, the Palace Square with the Alexander Column and the General Staff Building, the Decabrist Square with Falconet's monumental equestrian statue Peters the Great. Of course, some of the numerous residences and administrative buildings in a national Russian embossment of Baroque and Classicism, the Nevsky Prospekt, the “backbone” of the city, and - no less impressive - various art nouveau banking and department stores. Among the sacral buildings, in particular, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral and the Church of the Resurrection will be on the program, as well as the Smolnyj Monastery, where the specific requirements of the Russian Orthodox liturgy are particularly well read. As far as the museums are concerned, the visit to the world-famous Hermitage with its almost inexhaustible riches is of course the first priority, in addition to the Kunstkammer Peter the Great as well as the Russian Museum, where icons of the 12th century will be on display, as well as works by Malevich, Rodchenko or Kandinsky. At the gates of the city, several czar residences await us; In addition to Peterhof and Pavlovsk, especially Tsarskoe Selo, where the myth of the legendary “Amber Room” has been restored in the Katharinenpalast just in time for the 300th anniversary two years ago.
An indispensable means of transport on these daily tours, which we hope will be the end of at least one visit to a theater or concert, will be the metro, with some of its stations expanded into “palaces for the people” and, as such, their own work of art. In addition to all these historic highlights, however, the new St. Petersburg will always be experienceable, which is no longer primarily a former imperial residence, city of the October Revolution and heroic city in the Second World War, but wants to be a metropolis on the way to the modern cosmopolitan city; a city that has lost its relatively homogenous social structure from the former Soviet era after glasnost and perestroika, becoming visible in the growing presence of successful investors, bankers and brokers, as in countless new openings of the most expensive boutiques, bars, nightclubs and trendy western clubs. The cost for round-trip travel are between 150 and 200 Euro. Information on the cost of accommodation in a centrally located middle-class hotel can not yet be made, the same applies to entrance fees. However, as the excursion is being prepared and accompanied by a native speaker, we will again be able to negotiate optimal pricing conditions. Those who want to conquer the Capital of Culture of Russia, those who want to conquer the city of Pushkin and Dostoyevsky, the city of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Pasternak, are not fixated on the famous “White Nights”, but are also prepared to endure white days with Siberian temperatures and would like to refine this discovery by means of a self-certified personal contribution in the form of a presentation, which can be entered in the non-binding list of interested parties.