Rich Heritage of St Petersburg-final

NEMONIC CONCEPTS UNVEILS ST PETERSBURG
A TAPESTRY OF RICH RUSSIAN HERITAGE, CULTURE AND ELEGANCE
Nemonic Concepts has unveiled St Petersburg
for high-end incentives and small meetings groups
in conjunction with Rusmice, one of Russia's
premier destination management companies.
Designed to capture the imperial splendour of the
Romanov dynasty and a glimpse into the city's
Russian Revolution legacy, each individualised
programme showcases St Petersburg's iconic
attractions, venues and unique cultural experiences
including the tsars' royal palaces and gardens,
performances by the captivating Mariniinsky Ballet
Company, a host of city museums housing priceless
Romanov artefacts, European art and historic
exhibits, and other great 'city moments' that
embrace St Petersburg's local flavours and varied
streetscape.
The bedrock of sophisticated European culture,
Rusmice's team of experts also share their insider
secrets on the city's hotspots after dark.
"Just within a generation of Perestroika and
Glasnost, St Petersburg has become one of Europe's
most desirable incentive destinations. Rusmice's
custom-designed programmes not only captures
the grandeur of St Petersburg but also infuses oncein-a-lifetime experiences especially geared towards
the performing arts and festivals," says Sue
Wallace, Senior Partner, Nemonic Concepts.
From a host of cultural and historic attractions Catherine the Great's world-famous art collection at
The Hermitage, Grand Peterhof Palace,
Alexander Palace, the Mariniisky Ballet and
the impressive Russian Museum, together with a
guided walking tour around the Nevskiy
Prospekt and guided boat tour along the city's
winding canals to fine dining, entertainment,
shopping, to name a few - groups will be inundated
with choice.
Rusmice's high-end programmes are customised to
meet every PCO's budget and guest requirements,
including a stylish base to explore the city;
Kempinski Hotel Moika 22, Hotel Astoria or W
Hotel, all ground transfers, special venues focused
around the arts, theme dinners and dazzling day
excursions. Complementing the St Petersburg
experience is an optional three-four-night stay in
Moscow, offering groups a taste of Soviet Russia
and its Cold War and aerospace legacies.
EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION:
Imbued with grandeur and elegance, St Petersburg
was built on a swamp near the Baltic Sea by Peter
the Great - Tsar Peter II and first Emperor of
Russia. He not only envisaged the city to become
Russia's "Window on the West", but entirely
European in appearance and approach.
After touring the sophisticated and elegant cities of
Europe, the young tsar went about reforming his
country and quickly transformed St Petersburg into
one of the continent's cultural capitals. Along the
way, he hired the finest architects and artisans,
constructed Neo-Classical palaces and academies
that were connected by a labyrinth of graceful
canals, designed myriad parklands that rivalled any
English or French estate, and amassed a superb
Dutch, Italian and Flemish art collection.
Following his visit to the Palace of Versailles,
Peter the Great was also inspired to build his
own "Russian Versailles" and commissioned
French architect, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre
Leblond to design and lay down the stone
foundations for his next palace at Peterhof,
situated on a shoreline bluff overlooking the
Gulf of Finland.
Comprising sculptured gardens of topiary
and scented blooms that fan across two levels
- Upper Gardens and the Lower Gardens - as
well as several royal households including the
Grand Peterhof Palace, which served the
summer residence of the Romanov tsars, the
Estate also features numerous pavilions,
museums and galleries, and over 176 ornate
fountains with cascades connected by an
enormous network of pipes and a canal,
linking them to the sea.
Enjoyed as a day excursion, Rusmice guests
additionally explore the surrounding Baltic
landscape including Repino, an artistic resort
town dotted with dachas - Russian cottages, and
the lavish imperial palace and gardens of
Tsarskoe Selo estates in Pushkin including
Catherine Palace and Alexander Palace. The
royal residence of the last Romanov tsar, Nicholas
II, the palace served as his family's place of
imprisonment following his abdication in 1917 and
eventual execution in 1918 by their Red Guard
captors. Now a museum, the palace features a
superb exhibition centred on its imperial history.
Along with viewing three fully restored staterooms
and ten galleries featuring personal items,
photographs and other royal artefacts, guests can
watch a documentary on the royal family filmed
during Nicholas II's sad and controversial reign. At
the time of his death, his wealth was estimated at
$200 million; $900 billion in today's currency.
Also close by are the gardens, pavilions and royal
palaces at Pavlosk and Oranienbaum, the onetime residence of Tsar Peter III and his Germanborn wife who became Catherine the Great, one
of Russia's most powerful rulers.
Time travellers can view several of St Petersburg's
earliest dwellings including Peter The Great's cabin,
where the tsar lived for six years while overseeing
the construction of the infant city, Menshikov
Palace, home of his close advisor, Aleksandr
Menshikov which forms part of The Hermitage
estate, and Monplaisr, the tsar's first residence
which was originally built as a summer hunting
lodge on the grounds of the Peterhof estate. Also
near Menshikov Palace is the Church of the
Saviour on Spilled Blood, noted for its classic
Russian architecture and the location where Tsar
Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.
Today, St Petersburg boasts over 90 museums with
many of the prominent galleries housed in many
palaces and notable buildings including the
Stieglitz Museum, a beautiful art gallery that was
inspired in design by the Italian Renaissance period
and The Russian Museum, which showcases the
titans of European art including Moscow-born,
Vasily Kandinsky's semi-abstract work.
Another programme highlight is a visit to The
Hermitage, an architectural band of stately
buildings and parklands including the resplendent
Winter Palace, which was built by Catherine the
Great. The palace remained the official state
residence of the Romanov tsars until the Russian
Revolution in 1917.
With its elegant pavilions, opulent staterooms and
unrivalled collection of European masterpieces and
impressionist paintings, The Hermitage estate also
features the lavish Hermitage Theatre, a series of
museums including the Museum of the Imperial
Porcelain Factory and the Raphael Loggias gallery,
a long hallway featuring an exquisite reproduction
of the Vatican's lesser-known biblical fresco,
Loggia, painted by Italian artist, Raphael.
Along with acquiring a library for Russia's leading
scholars and a magnificent art collection - today
numbering more than 3 million works of art and
artefacts, Catherine who corresponded with
Europe's leading philosophers, Voltaire and
Diderot, also established 25 major learning
academies including the St Petersburg Academy
of Sciences and the St Petersburg Academy of
Arts.
The city remained the bedrock for artists and
performers including realist painter, Ilya Repin, the
poet, Alexander Pushkin and author, Fyodor
Dostoevsky, who penned Crime and Punishment
while living in the old city slums. Composer, Pytor
Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker, Undina and Swan
Lake) who was a graduate of St Petersburg's oldest
music school, Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, and
ballet dancers, Anna Pavlova and Valslaw Nijinsky,
also paved the way for Rudolf Nureyev and
Mikhail Baryshnikov, both graduates from the
world-acclaim, Kirov Ballet, now known as the
Mariniisky Ballet.
Today, the Mariniisky Theatre is home to the
Mariniiskiy opera and ballet companies as well as
The Concert Hall and Mariniisky II complex, which
opened this year. Comparable to the world's most
prominent opera houses, the new theatre features
several expansive rehearsal halls and a rooftop
amphitheatre with sweeping views of the city.
One of the star attractions to St Petersburg is the
annual Stars of the White Nights music festival,
headlined by the Mariniisky Theatre's prominent
musical director, Valery Gergiev and its leading
artists. Showcased from May to August, guests
visiting St Petersburg at this time can take pleasure
in the world's finest symphonic, opera and ballet
performances.
SOVIET RUSSIA TO THE FEDERATION OF RUSSIA:
Undergoing a name change to Petrograd in 1914 during the height of civil unrest, St Petersburg's imperial
influence gave way to Russia's revolutionaries led by St Petersburg native, Vladmir Lenin and Leon Trotsky,
who stormed the Winter Palace in October 1917, marking the beginning of the Russian Revolution and the end
of Russia's ruling dynasty. A decade later, Petrograd became Leningrad before reverting back to St Petersburg
in 1991.
To experience a taste of "Leningrad", guests can visit Peter and Paul's Fortress in Petrogradskaya, which
nurtures the tombs of the Romonov tsars and tsarinas and Yusupov Palace (Moika Palace). Owned at the
time by Russian noble, Prince Felix Yusupov, the palace was also the location where the notorious mystic and
Tsarina's personal advisor, Grigori Rasputin was murdered in 1916. Yusupov Palace now features an exhibition
on the man known by many as "The Mad Monk".
On a city walk, guests can glimpse the Smolny Institute,
Lenin's onetime Bolshevik headquarters during the October
Revolution of 1917 and later, the city's local Communist Party
headquarters. In 1934, former Bolshevik revolutionist, Sergei
Kirov and head of the Communist Party in Leningrad, was
assassinated in the building, an act believed to have been carried
out on the orders of Russian dictator, Joseph Stalin during the
"Great Purge" of his former comrades. Today the building serves
as the office of St Petersburg's governor.
Other great St Petersburg moments include discovering
Souvenir Market, which sells all things Russian including Dr
Zhivago-style fur hats and quirky Cossack attire, The Church
of the Savior on Spilled Blood, St Isaac Cathedral, Peter
and Paul Fortress, Kirov Museum and the Alexander
Nevsky Monastery, where many illustrious Russians artists
including Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky and fabulist, Ivan Krylov
(The Lion and The Mouse) are buried. And a short ride on the
Metro to Moskovskaya is the symbolic, Victory Monument,
which houses the subterranean Memorial Hall, a superb
exhibition depicting the 872-day siege of the city by the Nazis
during World War Two.
Along the way, guests can enjoy a variety of
Russian-theme venues; from sampling St
Petersburg's local flavours and cafes, feasting on
imperial-style fare at Hotel Astoria's The Winter
Garden, dining amidst boisterous Russian folk
dancers and visiting the Liviz distillery, famous for
its Russian vodka, to browsing the various
boutiques, department stores and antique markets
that fan across the Gostinyy Dvor, Nevskiy Prospekt
and Sennaya Ploshchad neighbourhoods.
"Rusmice's programmes are individually cultivated
by travel experts living in St Petersburg and
Moscow. Whether your group's taste runs towards
the arts or the endless scenic attractions, Rusmice
will showcase each city's hot spots at the most
competitive cost," says Ms. Wallace.
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(c) JB/ BBC: 2013:
A short flight from Moscow, Russia's gateway city, and easily linked by a
streamlined rail service, Nemonic Concepts additionally offers groups direct
access to China Southern Airlines' European network and competitive
business and economy class fares, flying from Australia or New Zealand to
Moscow via Guangzhou.
For further programme information or quotes, please contact Nemonic Concepts:
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+61 (0) 412842843
info@nemonic.com.au
www.nemonic.com.au
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