Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin)

   In 1710 Peter the Great decided to hand over the part of the Menshikov's ownership to Ekaterina Alexeevna, who was not Empress yet. The date of the foundation of the Tsar's village is the 24th of June 1710, which was spoken about in the letter: - His Majesty is pleased to give to Ekaterina Alexeevna Sarskaja and Koporskaja granges in the Koporskiji uyezd with the villages which are owned to them, with the peasants and the all places, and when you get it those granges with all owned to it villages and others give to her, to Ekaterina Alexeevna, and from the accountant books those granges write off, and all that there will be for getting off you write down and send to me the register.

   As Ekaterina Alexeevna entered into the ownership of Sarskaja "myza", which officially became the Tsar's village since 1725, she began to make it better. During the life of Peter the Great The Empress Ekaterina Alexeevna founded the beginning of the small park around the new stone wards and ordered to make the part of the forest as the Zoo (the natural place where the wild animals lived) , she also ordered to surround it with the fence. Exept the alder grove and the fir "perspectives" ( synonym of the word "prospect"), planted by the broad of the park, the garden master Jan Rosen had been charged to plant along the nowadays Sadovaja street the wide fruit garden and to make frames and greenhouses near the fence of the Zoo.

   Tsarskoye Selo flourished under Catherine II. It was during her reign that the Church and Zubov Wings of the Great Palace were built alongside the Cold Baths with the Agate Rooms, the Hanging Garden and the Cameron Gallery, in the style of ancient Roman thermae (1780-87, architect Charles Cameron).

   The imposing Alexander Palace was erected between 1792 and 1800 by Giacomo Quarenghi for Catherine II's grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I. The architecture of the palaces blends harmoniously into the surrounding landscaped parks and gardens. The Catherine Park is punctuated with a host of pavilions (the Hermitage, the Grotto and the Admiralty), designed by such famous architects as Mikhail Zemtsov, Sabbas Chevakinsky, Antonio Rinaldi and Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli. It also boasts a variety of fanciful bridges, pergolas and sculptures. To commemorate the victory of the Russian Fleet over the Turks in the Bay of Chesme in the Aegean Sea in 1770, the Chesme Column was erected in the centre of the Great Pond. The landscapes of the Alexander Park with their romantic structures, such as the Chinese Village, the Arsenal and the White Tower, are no less picturesque.

   Prior to the 1917 revolution, the Great Palace served as the summer residence of the Russian emperors. In 1918 a museum of art and history opened here. During the Nazi occupation the palaces and monuments of Tsarskoye Selo suffered immense damage and since 1957 repairs and restoration work have been conducted.

   The museum houses remarkable collections of paintings, porcelain, furniture and fabrics. Visitors can explore Rastrelli's Grand Hall in the Great Palace and the Portrait Hall with its canvases by Dutch, Flemish, Italian and French artists. Work is currently in progress on the re-creation of the world-famous Amber Room, which disappeared during the Second World War. Details of the contemporary version can already be seen. In terms, of its artistic workmanship, it is in no way inferior to and perhaps, in some respects, even superior to the original. An exhibition, devoted to the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and his family, occupies the Alexander Palace.

Open: 10am - 5pm
Closed: Tuesdays and the last Monday of every month
By public transport: Train from Vitebsk station ('Kupchino' platform) to Detskoye Selo
Location: 7 ulitsa Sadovaya 189620 Pushkin