PUSHKIN (TSARSKOYE SELO)

Book an Excursion to Tsarskoye Selo with The St Petersburg Traveller.

The town of Pushkin is situated 20 kilometers from St Petersburg. Formerly the Tsar's Village, it used to be the imperial residence. In this town used to live A.S.Pushkin, N.M.Karamzin, M.Yu .Lermontov, A.N.Tolstoy, A.AAkhmatova.

Here can be seen the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum, a brilliant monument of world architecture and park and garden artistry of the 18th-20th centuries.  In Tsarskoye Selo the full range of artistic styles is represented, from the Baroque (in buildings by Bartolomeo Franchesco Rastrelli) and Classical eras (buildings by Charles Cameron, Giacomo Quarenghi, Vasily Stasov and others). Imperial rulers from Catherine I to Nicolas II have left their mark on Tsarskoye Selo. The compositional centre of the ensemble is the Catherine Palace, a magnificent baroque-style palace. In the Great Hall of the Palace and the Golden Enfilade of formal halls, among which can be found the Amber Room, amaze with the luxury of their decoration. The Alexander Palace is one of the best examples of world architecture executed in the classical style. More than 100 architectural objects with a total area of 300 hectares occupy the territory of the Catherine and Alexander parks: from the most magnificent palaces and monuments, to pavilions and bridges.

In the early XVIII century Peter the Great granted Menshikov a small county estate. It was then bequeathed to the tsar's wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna.

In 1718 the construction of a small palace with a garden began and by the middle of the XVIII century Tsarskoe Selo had become a main imperial residence.

The project of the Bolshoi Catherine Palace was started by M.Zemtsov and A.Kvastsov. In 1748 the construction work was headed by the architect V.Rastrelli. He developed a general plan of the construction of the palace and park. The facade with a height of more than 300 m is embellished with columns, figures of Atlantis, cartouches with coats of arms and openwork balcony railings. The suite of the golden parade halls along with the widely known Amber Hall has impressed many of the architects' contemporaries. The palace is surrounded by picturesque parks adorned with marble sculptures (by masters of the Venetian school such as P.Baratta, A.Tarsia, D.Bonazza).

The Ekateriniskiy and Alexandrovskiy parks surrounding the palace on both sides are easily seen from windows of the parade halls. The parks contain various pavilions.

Not far from the palace, near the Hermitage alley, there are two pavilions in the simple classic style: the Upper and Lower Baths designed by the architect I.Neelov. On the shore of the pond, the architect also erected the Admiralty. Decorative brickwork, lancet windows, and crenellated turrets contribute to the striking uniqueness of this edifice.

The Cameron Gallery was intended particularly for viewing and walking about the park and was designed by the architect Ch.Cameron. The peculiar beauty of the gallery is reflected in its sculpture : bronze busts of the ancient philosophers, poets, political and military leaders.

The area of Alexandrovskiy Park contains the most remarkable structure - the Alexander Palace. The Alexander Palace was built by Quarenghi in 1792.  Catherine the Great wanted him to built a second, smaller palace at Tsarskoye Selo for her beloved grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I.  The classical austerity of the Alexander Palace is in contrast with its Baroque neighbour.  A graceful yellow and white two -storey building was made up of the central part and two wings.

The main decorative feature is the double row of columns on the Northern facade. The Palace is quite wide; it has over one hundred rooms warmed by multicolored porcelain stoves, so that the smell of burning wood mingles with the fragrant scent coming from smoking pots of incense. Parquet floors were covered with rich Oriental rugs. The rooms were furnished in mahogany, marble, gold, crystal, silk and velvet. The state apartments and formal chambers were clustered in the central building.  The ministers of court and ladies-and gentlemen -in-waiting had apartments in one of the two wings.

Though the palace was built for Alexander, he preferred the Catherine Palace, but Nicholas I and Alexander III spent much time at the Alexander Palace.  It was here, to the Alexander Palace, that Nicholas II brought his bride in the spring of 1895.

It became their home for twenty-two years. Every season, Empress Alexander filled the Palace with flowers; in spring and summer they were brought from the gardens and greenhouses around St.Petersburg, in winter from Crimea by trains.

And it was here, where Nicholas II and Alexander spent their last night at Tsarskoye Selo on August 13, 1917.  After the October Revolution of 1917, the Imperial apartments were preserved intact as a unique Soviet Museum for some time, but during World War II the palace was badly damaged. Much effort has been devoted to the repair of the palace.

Tsarskoe Selo also holds the Lyceum, a school for the children of the nobility. It was located in the four-storey wing of the Catherine Palace, reconstructed for educational purposes by V.Stasov.Pushkin was educated here from 1811 to 1817.  The motif of the Lyceum and its beautiful parks influenced all of Pushkin's works. The Lyceum houses the Pushkin Memorial Museum.

Excursions to Pushkin / Tsarskoye Selo can be booked for Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, leaving at 2pm.  The trip, which includes an English speaking guide and entrance fees to the Park and Palace, costs 1800 roubles per person and can be booked with The St Petersburg Traveller company, telephone (812) 314 0814, email spbtraveller@yandex.ru.