The Flight of Hermes: Imperial St Petersburg (II)

The next visit was the subway, which has nothing to envy to the Moscow one. During the Stalinist era, was established the obligatoriness of the construction of a suburban for all those cities of the Soviet Union that exceeded one million people, Petersburg was among them.

The first subway line was built in Moscow, so the projects for Petersburg were made according to the model of the capital. But the first line here could not be opened until the year 1955 due to geological difficulties in the construction of the tube (the Neva, several underground rivers on the territory of the city and its proximity to the Gulf of Finland)

The old building (Stalinist stations) stations are the most profusely decorated, while the most recent are the most functional. The most popular are curious as they have the passenger platform separated from the tracks by steel doors which open simultaneously with the doors of the train that arrives, is known as horizontal elevator system.

Petersburg subway is the deepest underground of the world with an average of 60 metres deep, with a maximum of 110 meters. Remember that it was built in a swampy area full of rivers, its four lines pass below the river Neva, the mightiest iver in Europe with almost 25 meters depth.

The columns are lined in Bohemian crystal... On escalators is mandatory to remain on the right hand, leaving the left side of the ladder for those in a hurry.

In the subway of Petersburg there are 10 type horizontal lift stations, and in all Russia there are no more stations of this kind; this system consists on an isolated platform tract by a wall equipped with metal doors that open to the arrival of the train by matching the doors of the wagons with the of the platform, producing its opening simultaneously. The frequency between two trains is 50 seconds in rush hour 4 minutes during the hours of less affluence.

This figure gives an idea of the perfection and efficiency of the Metropolitan system of Petersburg. With a length of about 100 km of lines and 58 stations, Petersburg subway has a very high intensity of use with more than 4 million people a day, which is about 40,000 people per kilometer and day. This causes in the peak hours (around one in the noon) and despite the high frequency between convoys, some tremendous jams in the interior of the coaches, being very normal to observe authentic races"to see who comes first" to the mechanical stairs and not suffer tremendous queues that tend to produce to go outside.

In its interior, the coach have two rows of seats arranged longitudinally, for a better use of the space. In Russia they keep good education and habit, so lost in other countries to give up our seat to elderly people and pregnant women and even children and their companions.

Underground stations differ from those of the rest of the metropolitans of the world, in what refers to its access. While the entrances of the European, tend to be isolated in the middle of the street, with access by some stairs that descend to the platforms, those of St Petersburg are "camouflaged" in the facades of the buildings, and can be hidden for the neophyte, if he does not realize of the small blue letter "M" on white backgroud that indicates its existence. Moreover, often the entrances seem doors to stores by the number of people entering and leaving, and even located on many occasions in the basement of buildings of neighbors.

To access the hallways were we can find the ticket office and escalators that descend to the platforms, we normally raise 5 or 6 steps that take us up from the floor of the lobby on the street, in order to avoid that in case of (very common in Petersburg) inundations the tunnels get flooded. Starting from the Center, our journey can begin by Pl. Vostania station located next to the Moscow station, being the first one to be opened in 1955. It is a stalinist station which complies to the perfection the ideas of this character of turning the subway into the Palace of the People.

From here we headed south, making a stop at the station Pushkinskaia, dedicated to the famous poet whose statue is usually always covered with flowers carried by his countless fans; the station is fully decorated in marble.

Then we will go up to Avtova, depending on the time and to be more comfortable in the subway, stopping here on the way if we travel in the morning very early, when people go up the South to attend to their work at the Centre, or on the contrary stopping at intermediate stations to turn if the travel we do later and the line that descends to the South is full of passengers; in any case the stations in which we must get off are Baltiskaia, Narskaia, and Kirovski zavod, the first decorated with white and gray marble, the second with columns that have friezes that refer to different works of the person, teachers, military, workers. Kirovski Zavod is decorated with fake skylights and motives forged in iron that make reference to the mechanical (gears, wheels...) on its marble walls. Finally Avtova is decorated with spectacular chandeliers on the tracks and glass columns in which are carved five-pointed stars, referring to one of the symbols of communism.

We went back to the bus, which was waiting for us on the entrance of the subway and headed to the Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan

The Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan is one of the masterpieces of Russian architecture of the 19th century. It was built in the place of the old stone church to keep the old icon of our Lady of Kazan, to which it owes its name.

In 1800 Emperor Paul I ordered to build the Cathedral following the model of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Its design was elaborated by the architect A.Voronikhin, who had been the servant of count Stroganov, and lately became Professor of architecture at the Academy of fine arts.

The foundations were made one year later; the construction of the Cathedral lasted 10 years. It was designed in the form of a Latin cross. Voronikhin had to solve a difficult task. The problem was that to preserve the canons of the Church, the altar had to be settled in the East, while the main exit and the facade would look to the West. Thus, the Nevsky Avenue was not the main façade but the side. Voronikhin solved the problem complementing the Cathedral with the great semicircular colonnade open to the Avenue, that added beauty to the Cathedral. In addition, the colonnade rose up with a wide staircase. The wings of the Colonnade form the square in front of the Cathedral. and the monumental portals, simultaneously serve as paths. Voronikhin attempted to construct a similar colonnade on the South side; but, the war of 1812 broke their plans.

The Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan is one of the peaks of classical architecture and shining example of the synthesis of the arts. The best sculptors and artists such as V.Borovikovsky, V.Shebuyev, O.Kiprensky, A.Yegorov, A.Ivanov took part in its decoration. They painted the iconostasis and other parts of the Cathedral. The icon of our Lady of Kazan, in traditional greco-bizantine style, would have been painted, according to the experts, in Constantinople during the 13th century.

The sacred work presents half body image of the Blessed Virgin holding the child Jesus on her knees, who is nearly on foot and in attitude of blessing his mother, to whom raises his right hand. The icon is coated with a thin layer of silver that covers the figure and their clothes, leaving only visible the faces of the mother and the son. Under this cover design and colors are preserved perfectly, which leads to consider that it is not only a piece of high religious value, but also a true work of art. The plate that covers the image dates from the 17th century and contains inlays of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and pearls, most of which were added by various donors who so wanted to express their devotion to the sacred image.

On October 1st 1552, feast of the "Protection of the Virgin", the army of Tsar Ivan the Terrible takes by assault the walls of the city of Kazan, capital until then of United Tartar Kingdom. The Tzar, in appreciation for the triumph retrieved, ordered to build a great basilica in honour of the mother of God, dedicating it to the mystery of the Annunciation. During the year 1579 Kazan was ravaged by a violent fire that destroyed half of the city. While the population slowly recovered from the misfortune, the Virgin appears to a nine-year-old girl. She ordered her to digg among the ruins because there she would find the holy icon. On July 8, 1579, between the ashes is found the image of our Lady of Kazan.

Transported to the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Kazan, begins to be object of great religious devotion, attributing it countless miracles. It remained there until 1612 when the image is transported to the city of Moscow. In 1790 the Tsar Peter the Great invokes it as "protective and banner" in the battle of Poltava, against Charles XII of Sweden. After the Russian triumph the icon is enthroned in the Cathedral of Moscow and then transferred to St Peterburg and placed in a shrine that is dedicated to it.

The night of June 29th, 1904, during a popular revolt, it disappears along with other treasures of the Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan. After almost sixty years it reappeared in an exhibition of art in the United States. After seeing it in the Soviet Pavilion in the fair world of New York in 1964, the blue army of Fatima brought together the several million dollars needed to buy it and take it to the Portuguese Shrine on July 21, 1970. In 1970 its purchase is done by the 'Centre Russian Catholic from our Lady of Fatima" and then, after being carried to Fatima, that same year, it is enthroned in the Byzantine Chapel where, until today, it is worshipped as a sign of unity between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East.