ST PETERSBURG 153

Pushkin House-

Museum w

Музей-квартира А. С.
Пушкина
Muzey-kvartira A.S. Pushkina

Naberezhnaya reki Moyki 12.
Map C3. Tel 571 3531.

10:30am–6pm Wed–Mon.

¢ last Fri of each month. & 8
http://www.museumpushkin.ru

Pushkin was born in Moscow
in 1799 (see p134), but spent
many years of his life in St
Petersburg. From the autumn
of 1836 until his death in
1837, Pushkin lived in this
fairly opulent apartment over-
looking the Moyka, with his
wife Natalya and other family
members. It was here that he
bled to death after his fateful
duel with d’Anthès.
Some half a dozen rooms
on the first floor have been
refur bished in the Empire
style of the period. The most
evocative is Pushkin’s study,
which is arranged exactly as
it was when he died. On the
writing table is an ivory paper
knife given to the poet by his
sister, a bronze handbell and
an inkstand. Embellished with
the figure of an Ethiopian boy,
the inkstand is a reminder of
Pushkin’s great grandfather,
Abram Hannibal. Bought as a
slave in Constantinople in
1706, Hannibal served as a
general under Peter the Great
and was the inspiration for
Pushkin’s unfinished novel
The Negro of Peter the Great.
On the wall in front of
Pushkin’s desk is a Turkish
sabre presen ted to him in the
Caucasus, where he had been
exiled in 1820. It was there

Personal effects in Pushkin’s study,
Pushkin House-Museum

Church on Spilled

Blood e

Храм Спаса-на-Крови

Khram Spasa-na-Krovi

Naberezhnaya Kanala Griboedovazb.

Map D3. Tel 315 1636. q Gostinyy

Dvor, Nevskiy Prospekt. # May–Sep:

10am–11pm Thu–Tue; Oct–Apr:

11am–7pm Thu–Tue. & ^

http://www.cathedral.ru

Also called the Resurrection

Church of Our Saviour, this

church was built on the spot

where Tsar Alexander II was

assassinated on 1 March 1881.

In 1883, his successor,

Alexander III, launched a

competition for a permanent

memorial. The winning design,

favoured by the tsar himself,

was by Alfred Parland and

Ignatiy Malyshev. The Russian

Revival style of the exterior

provides a dra matic contrast

to the Neo-Classical and

Baroque archi tec ture which

dominates the centre of St

Petersburg. The found ation

stone was laid in 1883.

A riot of colour, the overall

effect of the church is created

by the imaginative juxtaposi-

tion of materials. Mosaic panels

showing scenes from the New

Testament adorn the exterior.

Colourful exterior of the Church on

Spilled Blood

They were based on designs

by artists such as Viktor

Vasnetsov and Mikhail

Nesterov. The 144 mosaic

coats of arms on the bell

tower represent the regions,

towns and provinces of the

Russian Empire. They were

intended to reflect the grief

shared by all Russians in the

wake of Alexander II’s assa-

ssination. The perimeter

of the lower wall has 20

dark-red plaques made of

Norwegian granite, which

illustrate key events of the

25-year reign of Alexander II.

Inside, more than 20 types

of minerals, including jasper,

rhodonite, porphyry and

Italian marble are lavished on

the mosaics of the icono stasis,

icon cases, canopy and floor.

The interior reopened in 1998

after more than 20 years of

restoration work.

Mosaic tympanum at the Church on Spilled Blood

that he began his most famous

work, Eugene Onegin, a novel

in verse written between 1823

and 1830. The apartment’s

most impres sive feature is the

poet’s library, which contains

more than 4,500 volumes in a

stag gering 14 European and

Oriental languages. Among

these are works by Byron,

Shakespeare and Dante.