Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

IJirEEIAL TOMBS.159

On leaving the house of Peter the Great, I again passed before the bridge of the Neva (which leads to the Islands), and entered the celebrated fortress of Petersburg.

I have already remarked that this edifice, of which the name alone inspires fear, has twice had its ramparts and its granite foundations undermined, although it is not yet 140 years old. What a struggle ! The stones here seem to suffer violence like the men.

I was not permitted to see the prisons : there are dungeons under the water, and there are others under the roofs, all of which are full of human beings. I was only allowed to inspect the church, which incloses the tombs of the reigning family. ]\Iy eyes were on these tombs while I was yet searching for them, so difficult was it to imagine that a square stone, of about the length and l)readth of a bed, newly covered with a green cloth embroidered with the imperial arms, could be the cemetery of the Empress Catherine I., of Peter I., Catherine II., and of so many other princes, down to the Emperor Alexander.

The Greek religion banishes sculpture from its churches, by which they lose in pomp and religious magnificence more than they gain in mystical character *; while at the same time it accommodates itself to gilt work, chasings, and to pictures which do not show a very pure taste. The Greeks are the children of the Iconoclasts.† In Russia they have ventured to mitigate the doctrine of their fathers ; but they might have gone further than they have done.

* En mysticité.† Destroyers of images.