Posted on 05/28/2003 8:03:25 AM PDT by RussianConservative
By Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Trees, monuments and a mountain peak -- those are the most prominent gifts received by St. Petersburg for its 300th birthday from other cities, regions and countries.
The festivities marking the northern capital's tricentennial centered on the city itself Tuesday, officially commemorating the day in 1703 when Peter the Great laid the cornerstone of the Peter and Paul Fortress, whose golden domes and spire still gleam on the banks of the Neva.
The day began somberly with church services at two of the city's main cathedrals and a wreath-laying ceremony at the main monument to the city's founder. Other official events, attended by Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, included a parade of military cadets, the opening of a new entrance to the Hermitage Museum and an evening concert to inaugurate one of the few functional gifts: a Steinway piano presented to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic by sister city Hamburg.
Another practical gift was 100,000 euros' worth of medical equipment for two children's hospitals, given by the Austrian city of Graz.
Most gifts, however, were aimed to please the senses.
The favorite was trees. The Siberian republic of Altai sent 300 of its famed cedars, Helsinki matched that with 300 apple trees, but Japan outdid them both with 1,000 of its celebrated cherry trees.
"The sakuras are now in the botanical garden getting used to the climate," said Vyacheslav Burtsev, spokesman for the city's foreign relations committee. "But with time they'll be flowering in parks across the city."
Next in line in terms of popularity were sculptures. The city of Milan, with help from the Italian Embassy, adorned St. Petersburg's Manezh Square with monuments to four great architects who left an indelible mark on the so-called Venice of the North: Quarengi, Rastrelli, Rossi and Rinaldi. The Greeks and Canadians also set up monuments to their famous sons, while the mostly Muslim republic of Tatarstan erected a bronze bust of Tatar poet Gabdulla Tukai in front of the city's newly renovated main mosque, whose turquoise domes twinkle not far from the fortress.
Tatarstan made at least one more contribution to beautifying the city by painting buildings along the street named after its capital, Kazan.
But not all the birthday presents got an equally warm reception. Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi complained that the metal and glass Tower of Peace, a gift from France unveiled Tuesday in downtown St. Petersburg, clashed with the city's aesthetic image. "We don't need this glass monument on Sennaya Ploshchad," Agence France Presse quoted him as saying. "Sennaya Ploshchad is a homogeneous space protected as a UNESCO heritage site, and constructing this monument will breach its integrity."
Shvydkoi added that nothing new should be built in the historic center of St. Petersburg "other than badly needed public utilities."
Thus far, the two most extravagant -- and certainly the highest -- gifts have been a mountain peak and an asteroid. Mountain-climbers from St. Petersburg and North Ossetia scaled the 3,500-meter peak in the Caucasus range last week and affixed a plaque there, naming the mountain in honor of the city's tricentennial, Interfax reported. The certificate for the asteroid, part of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, was presented to Governor Yakovlev by Nobel laureate Zhores Alfyorov, the Vesti.ru web site said.
Other gifts included a small city square built with support from the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. The square resembles the crisscross pattern of the St. Andrew flag, since the regions share a rich maritime history. A number of religious gifts were also presented, among them a copy of a 19th-century cross made from coins paid by soldiers for prayers as they went off to the Crimean War in 1854.
St. Petersburg was to finish off the day with late-night water and laser shows on the river.
In keeping with the Russian tradition that the birthday boy treats, St. Petersburg gave out some gifts of its own, including free apartments for the first, 27th and 300th babies born on the city's founding day. Interfax reported that the first baby, a girl, was born three minutes past midnight, but other reports challenged the claim.
The "active gift-exchanging" in recent weeks has involved some predictable bureaucratic hassles, Alexander Sazhin of the city's economic department said with a sigh: "Because there are some presents that you can just stick in a closet, you see, and some that you cannot."
The festivities, which began last Friday, will continue until Sunday.
isn't that a froggymoron?
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