Today we toured the treasures of the Armoury, Russia's oldest museum. They have very limited entries and this was the only day we had been successful in gaining tickets. There are nine rooms full of wonderful objects. The gold was simply stunning. This museum has the largest collection of European silver in the world. There are bibles studded with precious gems inserted into gold filigree.
The Faberge eggs were exquisite. They were traditional Easter gifts between the Tsar and the Tsarina and put our chocolate eggs to shame. Many contained precious objects, one a gold train with ruby headlights to commemorate the completion of the Trans Siberian railway. Others had a gold ship, a gold horse, miniature portraits and lots more.
We also saw the royal regalia with thrones and crowns from the Tsars. The Monomakh crown had lots of gold filigree and gems with a sable trim.
The carriage room containes coaches and sleighs all lavishly decorated. Included was the large sleigh that Empress Elizabeth rode in from St Petersburg to Moscow pulled by 23 horses at a time.
Later we walked to the Pushkin Fine Arts Museums. We visited two of them. One had magnificent objects from Ancient Egypt, beautiful sculptures and paintings. Then we went next door to the 19 and 20 century European art that had possible the largest collection of Impressionist paintings in the world. There were full rooms devoted to each Impressionist artist.
We visited the nearby cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The original church was built from 1839 - 1883 to commemorate the Napoleonic victory. It was demolished by Stalin in 1931 who planned to build the 300 metre "palace of soviets" including a 100 metre statue of Lenin. This did not eventuate and for 50 years the site housed the world's largest swimming pool. This new church was built in 2 years to celebrate Moscow's 850th birthday opening in 1997 at a cost of about $350 million.
We returned via the statue of Peter the Great on the banks of the Muscova River. After a subway ride, we walked up through beautiful arcades and classy department stores on the way back to our apartment. An exhausting but exhilarating day!
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2 comments:
So...you bought Amanda and me Faberge eggs? Sounds like there are some really fabulous museums and galleries in Russia. But am trying to envisage how you put a swimming pool in a church
I must tell John that if he wants to treat me like a queen he should buy me a faberge egg.
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