The Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo
Today Bev visited the Catherine Palace. Here are some of her adventures getting there.
I followed the directions in the guide book - go to the right metro station, follow the signs to buses to the airport, take one of these 4 buses and ask for the 'palace'. I didn't recognize the stop and had to try to make myself understood. By that time I'd ended up at the last palace (which I knew is closed Mondays).
Off the bus, catch one the other direction. Same problem again (palace 1 instead of palace 2). I was looking for the blue and white palace but the stop is at the end of the forested park and the building is hidden by trees. But this time I figured it out sooner.
It's a small town so I didn't have to walk back more than a km. I had a nice walk around the palace park grounds to find that I came to the online ticket entrance quite naturally.
I was surprised by the palace. The buildings and grounds are enormous but much of the main building is closed and parts of the exterior are under going renovations.
The interiors are fantastically rich with frescoes and gold. It's a rectangular building on the outside and Italian baroque inside.
I'm getting very bored of rectangular buildings. But aren't most buildings? Maybe it's the color with white trim I'm bored of.
The Catherine Palace is named after Catherine I (not Catherine the Great), the wife of Peter the Great, who ruled Russia for two years after her husband's death.
Originally a modest two-story building commissioned by Peter for Catherine in 1717, the Catherine Palace owes its awesome grandeur to their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who chose Tsarskoe Selo as her chief summer residence.
Starting in 1743, the building was reconstructed by four different architects, finally Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Chief Architect of the Imperial Court, was instructed to completely redesign the building on a scale to rival Versailles.
Catherine the Great, actually regarded its "whipped cream" architecture as old-fashioned.
It is hard to get the scale of the Palace from photos. This aerial photo best shows the extent of the Palace.
You can also take the Google Street View tour:
Entrance Side
Garden Side
During the siege of Leningrad, it was used as a German barracks and for target practice. Stalin bombed the site during the occupation to prevent the Fascists from enjoying their stay. Before retreating the German forces intentionally set the palace ablaze leaving it a hollow shell. Fortunately, prior to the war the interior was fairly well documented and the work of restoring it began based on that documentation. A task that continues today.
I followed the directions in the guide book - go to the right metro station, follow the signs to buses to the airport, take one of these 4 buses and ask for the 'palace'. I didn't recognize the stop and had to try to make myself understood. By that time I'd ended up at the last palace (which I knew is closed Mondays).
Off the bus, catch one the other direction. Same problem again (palace 1 instead of palace 2). I was looking for the blue and white palace but the stop is at the end of the forested park and the building is hidden by trees. But this time I figured it out sooner.
It's a small town so I didn't have to walk back more than a km. I had a nice walk around the palace park grounds to find that I came to the online ticket entrance quite naturally.
I was surprised by the palace. The buildings and grounds are enormous but much of the main building is closed and parts of the exterior are under going renovations.
The interiors are fantastically rich with frescoes and gold. It's a rectangular building on the outside and Italian baroque inside.
I'm getting very bored of rectangular buildings. But aren't most buildings? Maybe it's the color with white trim I'm bored of.
The Catherine Palace is named after Catherine I (not Catherine the Great), the wife of Peter the Great, who ruled Russia for two years after her husband's death.
Originally a modest two-story building commissioned by Peter for Catherine in 1717, the Catherine Palace owes its awesome grandeur to their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who chose Tsarskoe Selo as her chief summer residence.
Starting in 1743, the building was reconstructed by four different architects, finally Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Chief Architect of the Imperial Court, was instructed to completely redesign the building on a scale to rival Versailles.
Catherine the Great, actually regarded its "whipped cream" architecture as old-fashioned.
It is hard to get the scale of the Palace from photos. This aerial photo best shows the extent of the Palace.
You can also take the Google Street View tour:
Entrance Side
Garden Side
During the siege of Leningrad, it was used as a German barracks and for target practice. Stalin bombed the site during the occupation to prevent the Fascists from enjoying their stay. Before retreating the German forces intentionally set the palace ablaze leaving it a hollow shell. Fortunately, prior to the war the interior was fairly well documented and the work of restoring it began based on that documentation. A task that continues today.
posted by John at
4:26 PM
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