WINTER IN MOSCOW & ST PETERSBURG JANUARY 6-20, 2019 TOUR LEADER: MICHAEL CARR WINTER IN MOSCOW Overview & ST PETERSBURG Experience the wonders of Moscow and St Petersburg – two vastly different cities – against the back drop of winter and Orthodox Christmas, Tour dates: January 6-20, 2019 when twinkling lights and snow turn Red Square and the Kremlin into a winter wonderland and St Petersburg’s beauty is at its most delightful. Tour leader: Michael Carr This tour explores the art, history and culture of Russia when the galleries and museums are less crowded and during a season that has a special Tour Price: $10,795 per person, twin share place in Russian culture, permeating its literature, performing arts and national identity. Single Supplement: $1,675 for sole use of double room Our 15-day residential-style tour starts in Moscow, the heart of Old Russia, the city of the Tsars before Peter the Great, centre of the Russian Booking deposit: $500 per person Orthodox Church and the capital since the Russian Revolution. We then travel to St Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great, arguably Russia’s Recommended airline: Emirates AIrlines greatest ruler, to rival the great capitals of western Europe. Its European style and elegance are reflected in the architecture, culture and grand Maximum places: 20 palaces built by Peter and championed by Catherine the Great. Itinerary: Moscow (7 nights), St Petersburg Throughout the tour, we visit a range of museums and galleries, including (7 nights) the Great Armory Collection, State Diamond Fund and Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. We also see some of Moscow’s leading contemporary art galleries, the hub of new Russian art, where we will be greeted by senior Date published: March 26, 2018 curators and dealers. In St Petersburg we will be escorted by a curator on a private tour of collection highlights from the incomparable Hermitage Museum. St Petersburg’s grand palaces are artworks themselves, and our seven-night stay includes visits to the Yusupov, the summer palaces of the Tsars at Pushkin and Catherine the Great’s Palace, home to the dazzling Amber Room. The tour is rounded out by art talks and an evening performance at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre where world class performances of classical music and ballet are regularly performed by the Bolshoi Ballet and St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Your tour leader Michael Carr is an art dealer and historian with over 20 years’ experience in handling major Australian and international paintings and sculptures, including Old Masters and contemporary works. He is a graduate in Arts and Law from the ANU and has an LL.M from Cambridge University. After working as a diplomat and commercial lawyer, Michael opened his first gallery in Enquiries and Sydney, Olsen Carr, in 1994. bookings In 1999 he opened Michael Carr Art Dealer, which operated until late 2007 For further information and to when he moved to Moscow to open CarrVesey Art Dealers, the first secure a place on this tour Western style art consultancy to be based in Moscow since 1917. please contact Jamal Fairbrother at Academy Travel He has also lectured extensively over the years to numerous audiences on 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 including the AGNSW Society, corporate groups and societies and more (outside Sydney) or email recently at the NGA, Canberra and the David Roche Foundation, [email protected] Adelaide. Tour Highlights RED SQUARE Admire the heart and soul of Russia at Moscow's iconic Red Square. It is a focal point in the social and political history of Russia and the Soviet Union; the scene of celebrations, executions, riots, speeches and powerful parades of military might. Explore its iconic red walls, flanked by the onion domes of St Basil Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum and the GUM, the former state department store. THE KREMLIN Survey the mighty Kremlin, "fortress inside a city", and the red heart of Russia, the seat of government, former residence of the Tsars. and centre of the Russian Orthodoxy. Steeped in history and myth, we explore the three imposing churches in cathedral square and go inside its palaces to view the wealth of treasures housed inside the State Armoury and the Diamond Fund. ST PETERSBURG Explore a treasure trove of history and art amongst St Petersburg's ornate palaces. Be guided by a senior curator through the world's great collections at the Hermitage Museum. Travel to Peterhof on the Gulf of Finland, the centrepiece of Peter the Great’s Russian Versailles complex. Visit the Yusupov Palace and admire the creations of Carl Fabergé at his eponymous museum in the Shuvalov Palace. CATHERINE’S PALACE Witness the opulent lifestyle of the Tsars with a tour through the sumptuous apartments and interiors, including the legendary Amber Room, at the magnificent Catherine Palace. Named after the wife of Peter I, and designed by Rastrelli, chief architect to the Imperial court, the palace owes its grandeur to the Empress Elizabeth who chose it as her summer residence. A WINTER WONDERLAND Savour the historic buildings and Cathedrals of Moscow and the grand palaces and squares of St Petersburg during winter when they are dressed in a veil of snow. Take the time to savour the best of Russia’s incomparable art collections in the galleries and museums without the crowds and enjoy the decorations and lights of a Russian Orthodox Christmas that adorn Moscow’s streets and illuminate Red Square. Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D. Tour start & finish time The tour starts on Sunday January 6 at 6.00pm, at the Peter 1 Hotel, Moscow. The tour ends on Sunday January 20 after breakfast, at the Angleterre Hotel, St Petersburg. Sunday 6 January Arrive The tour commences at our Moscow Hotel. After meeting Michael Carr for introductions, we enjoy a light dinner in the Above:Christmas comes alive at the GUM department store on Red Square hotel. Overnight Moscow (D) Below: Over 700 statues were ‘laid to rest’ in the Graveyard of Fallen Monuments at the end of the Soviet era; Kuskovo Estate houses the Monday 7 January Sheremtev private art collection Red Square A majority of Russians identify as members of the Russian Orthodox Church which marks today as Christmas day according to the Julian calendar. Our touring commences with a visit to the iconic Red Square, a vast cobbled area that plays host to a large Christmas tree and ice skating rink over the festive period. Flanked by some of Moscow’s most famous sites, we visit St Basil’s Cathedral with its brightly coloured onion domes, Lenin’s Mausoleum and GUM department store with its elaborate façade - designer stores having replaced the queues of the Soviet era. This evening we celebrate Russian Christmas with dinner at Café Pushkin. Overnight Moscow. (B, D) Tuesday 8 January Metro and Gorky Park No visit to Moscow is complete without a ride on the metro, and this morning we see some of the elegant stations decorated in frescoes and lined with marble. Stalin declared that ‘the whole country will build the metro’ and employed some of the Soviet Union’s finest artists to decorate the stations. Emerging form the subway, we wander through the snow-covered woodlands and Graveyard of Fallen Monuments of Gorky Park, made famous by the novel and film it inspired. This afternoon a curator from the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art takes us through the collection which is dedicated to the development of Russian art from the 1950’s to the present. Overnight Moscow. (B) Wednesday 9 January Kuskovo Estate and Pushkin Museum This morning we travel to Kuskovo Estate, a unique example of a great aristocratic country house on the outskirts of Moscow. The salmon pink and white neoclassical structure operates as a museum housing the private Sheremtev collection, perhaps the finest in Imperial Russia, and uniquely retains its original interiors dating from 1779. In the afternoon we visit the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, which houses a large selection of European works from the Italian Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age and complete collections of 19th and 20th century masters donated by individual collectors. Overnight Moscow. (B) Thursday 10 January Tretyakov Galleries We visit the Tretyakov Gallery, home of the world’s greatest collection of Russian art. Works in the gallery range from pre- Mongolian icons and mosaics to landscapes, portraits and masterpieces of the 20th century. Among the exhibits are The Trinity by Andrei Rublev and Russia’s most revered icon, the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The galleries of the New Tretyakov house a diverse collection of modern art trends including avant-garde artists such as Kandinsky and Chagall and Russian socialist-realist styles depicting the glories of communist values. Overnight Moscow. (B) Friday 11 January The Kremlin Today we visit the Kremlin, seat of the Tsars, headquarters of the Soviet Union and now the residence of President Vladimir Putin. Since its foundation in 1156, the Kremlin has been a symbol of power of the State. We visit the churches in Cathedral Square, among them the most important church in Moscow, the Cathedral of the Assumption. Also in the Kremlin complex is the State Armoury, which showcases the wealth accumulated by Russian tsars over many centuries and the Diamond Fund, which boasts among its jewels the famous Orlov diamond presented to Catherine the Great by her lover Count Grigory Orlov. Overnight Moscow. (B, L) Saturday 12 January Above: Kandinsky’s Red Square in the Tretyakov and the Kremlin’s golden domes in Cathedral Square Tolstoy Museum Below: The Orlov Diamond mounted in the Imperial Sceptre made for and Novodevichy Convent Catherine the Great in the Diamond Fund This morning we visit the Tolstoy House Museum, the writer’s winter abode in central Moscow dedicated to his home life.