St. Petersburg is a city that hosts record number of art work in the Guinness Book of Records at the Hermitage Museum. The world’s largest collection of paintings at the Hermitage Museum is a state museum. It was founded in 1764 by the Tsarina Catharina 2. also known as Catharine the Great.The collection stayed for a some time in the form of private collection of the palace so only few people could have visited. The collection was opened for the public in 1852, more than 88 years later and more than two generations have passed.
During the siege of the city in the Second World War, in 1941, the art objects were moved to another city and reinstated again in 1945.
The museum has about 3 million works of art. Works are starting from the stone age.
Catherine the Great in addition to the museum she had built, she opened the first Russian Art Academy in St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg has a coast to the Baltic Sea and the Neva River passes through the city. The river and its branches within the city run everywhere resulting in the city being called Venice of the North.
Besides the Hermitage Museum the city is a complete cultural capital with museums, churches and theater halls satisfy the eye in terms of history and art. It offers a rich cultural visual. A part from the Hermitage Museum, the Peterhof Palace and the Caterina Palace are also worth visiting. The church, which was built in the location where Emperor Alexander II was killed, is a real landmark.
The Bloody Sunday of 1905 and the 1917 October revolution takes place at Dvortsovaya Plosshchad or ‘Palace Square’ in this city and left its mark on history.
In the center of the city there are bookstores, concert halls and the theater buildings. The city has an atmosphere that encourages people to read and to visit history.
It is the fourth largest city in Europe, followed by Moscow, London and Berlin.
If you need to learn more about the Hermitage in St. Petersburg you have to spend at least 3 days in order just to visit the main halls. It needs a lot of effort and time to see more. The color of the building is a legendary blend of turquoise and green. The building can easily be remembered because of its color, its magnificence and size. The museum consists of 6 separate palace buildings.
The city, which was founded by Peter the Great in 1703, is perhaps no longer the centre of an empire, but a flamboyant centre with genuine culture.
Great Peter wins the lands on the banks of the Neva River in his battle with the Swedes and the city becomes the center of the Imperial Empire in 1712. And it stays as the capital until 1918. Although the capital has moved back to Moscow for a period of four years between the years 1728 and 1732, the general impression with its many buildings, is a complete imperial capital of Russia as it is not only the center of culture and art, but it is both the transmitter of industrial revolution and the window of the country opening to the west and also the center stage for the revolution. With the war that had started in 1914, the political activities and movements also started in St. Petersburg and the city became the center of the communist revolution in 1917. In 1918, the capital moved back to Moscow.
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin was born in the city.
St. Petersburg has also been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003.
I was invited by the Ludvig Nobel Foundation to the 14th award ceremony of the Ludvig Nobel Prize in Russia. I was re-introduced at the ceremony as the winner of Russia’s “Women to be Recognized in Front of the Community”. I felt very honoured and proud.
The Award and the Foundation are both 130 years old. This year’s award ceremony was held on 30 March 2019 in the Kostaninovosky Palace.
Ludvig Nobel is the eldest brother of the Swedish Nobel family and he was the one who managed all the Nobel companies in Russia, including oil. Alfred Nobel was his brother and the founder of the Nobel Prize in Norway. It is said that, when Ludvig Nobel died in Russia, the press had written, although Alfred Nobel was alive, “Alfred Nobel is dead,” since the western press only knew him. Alfred Nobel, who had to read what was to be written after his dead, decided to take more social responsibility projects in the rest his life time.
This year’s first winner of the Ludvig Nobel Prize was a woman, Claudie Haignere, Consultant to the European Space Agency. She was admitted to Russia’s spacecraft Mir to travel in the space as an astronaut and remained in space for 24 days. She is a French citizen.
The second winner is a businessman from Saudi Arabia, Mafouz Marti Mubarak Bin Mahfouz. He has around 25 companies, a Oxford University degree and one of his leading business includes aluminium trade.
The third winner is Vasily Lanovoy. He is a famous film and theater artist. He has acted in many films and theaters. He is surely known for generations for one of his films.
The fourth winner is the Russia’s most famous conductor: Yuri Temirkanov. Apart from Russia, he is also a music genius who has directed many famous orchestras and philharmonic orchestras in England, Germany and Italy.
The official representative of the House of Romanovs in Russia, Vice-Chairperson of the Romanov Family Foundation, Prince Rostislav Romanov, a direct descendant of Emperor Nicholas was also at the ceramony in addition to many other VIPs.
The award ceremony, the concert band, Kostaninovosky Palace and the award ceremony dinner were all spectacular.The organizing committe of the Ludvig Nobel Foundation were chaired by Anna YAKOVLEVA and Yevgeny LUKOSHKOV. I congratulate the chairs of the organizing committee for the initiative they have taken about this organisation.
