Shot Before Dawn

The Players, The Parties

Tsar Quality

The buildings, the ballet, the borscht! Josie Goodbody on the splendours of St Petersburg

Ever since I can remember, my father has had a romantic love affair with all things Russian. Indeed, I am surprised he didn’t read me War and Peace as a bedtime story. However, his love affair hadn’t carried him to the country itself, so for his 70th birthday I decided to take him for a long weekend in St Petersburg.

St Petersburg was founded in May 1703 by Tsar Peter I of Russia and for more than 200 years (until 1918, after the Revolution) was the capital of the Russian Empire. It is still thought of as the cultural capital of Russia and has been described as the ‘Venice of the North’ for its winding canals and grand Italianate architecture.

Situated on a series of islands where the River Neva meets the Gulf of Finland, it was a planned city. Peter the Great took up residence in a tiny log cabin by the Neva and personally supervised the construction of his grand European capital, a project continued by his niece Anna and daughter Elizabeth.

But the city was more than just an ostentatious project. At the time, western Russia was threatened by Sweden, and a vast naval port was created to allow the Russian navy to assert its dominance over the Baltic Sea. Nevertheless, the grandiose palaces immediately marked St Petersburg out as one of the great cities of Europe.

My father and I flew out on British Airways — after a year of running, Terminal 5 has quite an air of tranquillity, particularly once you have gone through security, passed the souk of luxury shops and are sitting in the club lounge sipping a cappuccino, reading the papers and eating the delicious breakfast from an assortment of choices.

Having thought ahead for once, I even managed to book a sought-after spot for a divine Elemis Spot-On Power Back Massage, which helps to stretch out and release the spine, at the lounge’s spa; consequently the four-hour flight spent in Club Europe (there is no first class on this route — maybe because most of the oligarchs who would fly it have their own planes?) was very comfortable.

On arrival at St Petersburg we were picked up by the Hotel Astoria’s limo service — rather than the usual taxis, many of which had gunshots through the windscreens! We sped easily into the centre of the city, to St Isaac’s Square and the Astoria, the Rocco Forte hotel that commands a prominent place overlooking St Isaac’s Cathedral.

The hotel was built in 1911–12 and was a model for the time, with central heating, telephone lines and a French restaurant, as well as the Winter Garden and banqueting hall. Very quickly the hotel became an important part of the city’s social arena. In 1941, the Astoria was a hospital for those wounded in the war. However, it was also here that Hitler planned to hold a banquet to celebrate his conquest of the city.

The hotel is now part of the Rocco Forte Collection and is the preferred residence for many important dignitaries, including politicians and film stars, which is not surprising considering its stunning location, impressive architecture and flawless service. There are some 200 rooms, including 42 suites, of which five are presidential and ten ambassador suites. The exquisite Italian marble bathrooms with huge baths are just what is needed after a long traipse around the Hermitage Museum (more of which below), while the spa, with its payou treatments and sauna, and Turkish-bath relaxation areas are a must.

My father and I decided to have a tour guide for our trip and were so lucky with Natalie, who was a fountain of knowledge of all things St Petersburg, but most importantly she managed to get us to the front of the extremely long queue for the Hermitage. It was built by Catherine the Great, who began adding to the Winter Palace of previous tsars in 1764.

Her already immense collection of art needed somewhere to be housed. The museum grew in size from the original two buildings and in 1852 was opened to the public. Nowadays, if one were to spend a minute in front of each exhibit, one would be there for some 11½ years and have walked 25km. Understandably, Natalie showed us just the highlights — and even then it was a three-hour tour.

That evening, after an invigorating massage, sauna and very long bath, my father and I went down to the David Collins-designed Kandinsky Bar in the hotel — quite different from the notable architect’s current hotel bars but still rather sumptuous — and we also dined in the hotel itself, in its Davidov Restaurant.

Natalie picked us up the next morning and took us on a tour of the city. I have always been intrigued by the mystery of Anastasia, so it was interesting to visit the Peter and Paul Cathedral in which they, along with the tsars and tsarinas from Peter the Great to Anastasia’s father Nicholas II (and family) are buried — the latter in a special chapel.

The current building was designed by Trezzini and built between 1712 and 1733. Its golden spire is 404ft high, with one of the most important symbols of the city at the top, an angel holding a cross. It is quite something seeing the ornate tombs of the previous monarchs all together, considering that many of them plotted to kill each other.

The cathedral is on the north bank of the River Neva within the fortress that Peter built in 1703 to protect the city. Although it was never used for this purpose, from 1720 it served as a base for the city garrison and also as a prison, the Trubetskoy, for high-ranking or political prisoners. Now it serves as a tourist attraction.

Something which should not be missed is a production at the Mariinsky Theatre. Only a stone’s throw from the Astoria, the theatre was for most of the 20th century known outside the Soviet Union as the Kirov. With its company, the Kirov Ballet, it became a symbol of the great tradition of Russian classical ballet. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, thousands of names that had been changed by the Soviet government were being changed back to their pre-1917 incarnations.

The Kirov reverted to the Mariinsky, and the world-renowned Kirov Ballet no longer existed. We were fortunate enough to see a production of The Nutcracker and were dazzled by the beauty of it all, as well as that of the Mariinsky itself. No Nutcracker will ever be the same for us.

I hope for my father’s sake that his 70th birthday trip to Russia was what he had imagined. Of course, St Petersburg is now so different from what it would have been like all those years ago when he started to think about Russia. The huge, imposing buildings remain — even if the muted pink, green and yellow shades that cloak many of them have changed over the years.