Religion in St Petersburg

While the rest of the city celebrated victory, we explored various religious sites in St Petersburg.

Taylor and I celebrated our own small victory at St Isaac's Cathedral where we climbed 262 steps to get to the colonnade to enjoy the vista of the city.

St Isaac's Cathedral, across the street from our hotel.

View from the top of the 262 step hike to the colonnade, of the bell tower of St Issac's.

Outside the Church of the Savior on the Blood.  This is the site where Czar Alexander II was killed in 1881.

Inside Savior on the Blood I discovered a reason for the "selfie" mode on my phone - I used it to capture the ceiling mosaic on the dome of Savior on the Blood.

Choral Synagogue - one of three synagogues clustered in the same area.  This synagogue is the second largest orthodox synagogue in Europe. It is active, men were praying as we were there.

One of the oldest orthodox churches, Naval Cathedral of St Nicholas.

Smolny Cathedral built by Empress Elizabeth in 1761. This was the first state school for girls and a nunnery.

Today we focused on a lot of religion which was a good contrast to the military celebration swirling around us.  Tomorrow we move on to the more secular side of Russian life.