Tsarkoye Selo

Stop number two of Saturday. After leaving Spilled Blood, we headed to the village of Pushkin, about 45 minutes outside the city, to visit Tsarkoye Selo, a estate frequented by the Russian nobility from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century. It was also the place from which Nicholas II and his family were taken when they began their trip east to Yekaterinburg, from which they did not return.

My first impression of the Catherine Palace (built by Catherine the Great) was that it looked exactly like the Hermitage. Maybe they had the same architect or something. Also, I'm pretty sure they were built around the same time. I guess this was what Catherine liked. Beautiful for sure, but I was surprised at the repetition. Right down to the colour.

On the left is the Hermitage, on the right Tsarkoye Selo. SO similar.














It being Saturday the place was of course crazy crowded, but we dutifully got in line to wait to get inside the palace. It didn't end up taking too long, about 20 mins, and we were inside to see the way the most powerful people in Imperial Russia spent their summers. To protect the floors we had to wear these little booties. First impression, like the Hermitage: "Wow these people like gold trim. A lot."




This is the grand ballroom, complete with gold everywhere.
Huge and beautiful and I could totally see lots of people in incredibly fancy clothing dancing around here for hours on end. And to be honest, I think the room would actually be less if it were to have less gold trim. I guess it completes it?

While walking around, I was of course thinking: how did they heat a place this big? It wouldn't be too much of a problem during balls and stuff when there's lots of people, but what about the rest of the time? The answer: a big stove like this one in every room. All decorated the exact same way, and to me, they didn't fit the decor. It was kinda weird.

My dad took this picture. At first I thought he wanted a picture of me. Then it was revealed that I was needed for scale to show just how big the stoves are. Hmmm.

The entire place was room, after room, after room. I'm not sure how well this photo worked but it was intended to show the many many doorways leading from one room to another.

It kinda worked. Most of the rooms were pretty much the same, albeit with varying furniture, but there were a few that had different decoration.











These two were my favourites:



















Despite the gorgeous decor, for me the most impressive part of the visit was at the end, when we walked through the exhibit on how the estate was affected by World War II. When the Soviet Union was invaded in June 1941, instead of immediately leaving for a safer location, the museum (the estate was a museum by that time) was emptied of as many valuable items as possible so preserve them. The evacuation and closing of the building continued right up until the German army was practically on the doorstep. The estate and neighbouring town Pushkin were occupied, and the many buildings pillaged and burned, including the famous Amber Room (not pictured in this post because there were lots of no photo signs in that room and angry looking Russian women making sure you followed the rule!). Restoration began immediately after the area was liberated by the Red Army, also very impressive.

The Catherine Palace was absolutely devastated, so what we see today is actually reconstruction.
This was the palace at the end of the war:


And after restoration:


Just one example, the main ballroom looked like this:

And today it looks like this:

There are of course many more buildings on the estate, including the smaller Alexander Palace, built by Alexander I, who also built a Lyceum where Alexander Pushkin was one of the first students. There are extensive grounds, which there wasn't time to see, but I did catch a glimpse of a lake.


Ahhhhh happy place. :)