Trumann woman visits 'Venice of the North'

Barbara Lewallen makes a point to the Trumann Lions Club during a talk about her recent trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. (Democrat Photo/Mark Randall)

Barbara Lewallen had been to Paris, Venice, Rome and a few other of Europe's major cities before.

But even she wasn't prepared for all the splendor she encountered when she stepped off the plane in St. Peterburg, Russia on a recent trip to visit her brother.

"It's just a beautiful city," Lewallen said. "It reminds you of Paris with its river embankments, and Venice with all the canals, and the Italian cities with all of that beautiful architecture."

The city of nearly five million people is known as the Venice of the North because of its location on the Neva River on the Gulf of Finland.

St. Petersburg is Russia's second largest city and Europe's fourth largest city behind Moscow, London and Paris.

Lewallen shared pictures of her trip during the Nov. 19 Trumann Lions Club meeting.

Her brother works for International Paper Company which acquired half ownership in four Russian paper mills. He has been in the country for the last 18 months helping the company to make the four mills more efficient.

"My brother went there as a deputy CEO," continued Lewallen. "They're going to streamline those four mills because they're still carryovers from the Soviet era."

Lewallen said St. Petersburg has a rich history dating back to Peter the Great who founded it in 1703.

While the city has many distinctly Russian features, most notably its palaces and churches, its architecture also has a European influence.

"He (Peter the Great) had traveled a lot and imported architecture and art -- everything from Europe -- and built this city," Lewallen said. "He decreed that it was going to be stone. Every time a boat or wagon came to St. Petersburg they had to bring so many stones. A lot of it is stone or brick or stucco over the prick and painted."

She was struck by the number of bridges in St. Petersburg.

Because the city is built around the river and its many canals, St. Petersburg has many bridges, she said.

"There are bridges everywhere over the rivers and canals," Lewallen said.

Her brother John and sister-in-law Francis live in a three bedroom, 2 ½ bath apartment with a beautiful view overlooking a canal and St. Nicholas Cathedral which costs $8,500 a month.

"I couldn't believe it," Lewallen said. "I was just staggered. But everything in that city is pricey, pricey, pricey. But the company pays all that."

One of the unique features of the apartment -- aside from the bathroom having a bidet -- is its heating system.

Lewallen said every building in St. Petersburg is heated by a piped steam system.

"The heating system is a carryover from the old Soviet system," Lewallen said. "They start that system up in the fall and that apartment was so hot I could hardly stand it. It was like being in a sauna. I couldn't get over how warm it was."

A group of engineers from Alabama made the mistake of turning the radiators off in their apartment which drew the ire of their neighbors in the building.

The engineers didn't realize they had turned the water off for the entire building.

"The downstairs neighbors banged on the pipes and came up wanting to know what these Americans had done," Lewallen said. "You can't shut them off."

Lewallen spent her time touring the various churches, museums and places in and around the city.

One side trip took her to Novgorod, one of the oldest sites in Russia where she saw lots of old churches.

"Novgorod was at one time a major, major trading center," Lewallen said. "It has some of the oldest churches in Russia. Some of the buildings date to before 1,000 A.D."

The countryside also has "man dachas" which are small, wooden homes which urban residents use to get away from the city.

Lewallen said some of the churches and palaces she visited are some of the most ornate structures she has ever seen.

The city is just now beginning to restore many of the churches which during the Soviet era were used for storage.

"They stored potatoes and grain," Lewallen said. "It practically ruined the insides of them. So they have been rebuilding and renovating these churches ever since."

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently reinstated the Russian Orthodox Church.

Lewallen said she was especially blown away by the many palaces such as Alexander Palace and Yusopov Palace which were used by the Russian Czars.

"The palaces are so sumptuous, elegant, luxurious, ornate," said Lewallen. "I couldn't get over it. It puts Versailles to shame. At Catherine's palace you just went from one sumptuous room to another. There would be the classical room. There would be the grand gallery, then a ballroom. I mean, it was just unbelievable."

St. Petersburg is also home to many international corporations like Ford, Samsung, Coca-Cola and Singer Co.

The Singer Co. building is in an art nouveau building which has a bookstore on the lower two floors. The upper floors overlook Kazan Cathedral.

Lewallen said there was a lot of traffic on the roads and construction.

In fact, people park on the sidewalks.

"Most cars are parked on the sidewalks," Lewallen said. "And if you're driving down the street and you want to turn around, there are points that everybody knows on these streets that you can make a U-turn and go the other way. It was amazing to me how they don't get killed because the traffic was so fast."

She also noticed a lot of weddings and brides. It's a tradition in Russia for the wedding party to visit all of the scenic sites in the city to have their pictures taken.

"Every place we went there were brides getting their picture made," Lewallen said.

The Russian people were friendly, but didn't speak much English, and Lewallen also noticed that there were not very many people of different nationalities in St. Petersburg.

Lewallen said she is glad she got the chance to visit St. Petersburg. It's not a city she ever would have thought about visiting had her brother not been working there.

With the downturn in the global economy, the company has since put the project on hold and her brother will be retiring in March.

"They are sending all of the consulting engineers back to the United States because they can't go on with the project at the moment," Lewallen concluded. "So I am glad I got to go. It was really very interesting. I would never have gone if he had not been there."