The Catherine Palace Museum covers a history of almost 300 years when the initial development of the palace and gardens began under Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great. However it was only during the reign of her daughter, Elizabeth I that the vision of her architect, Rastelli, began to be realised. Besides staterooms, drawing rooms and living quarters, Rastelli incorporated a chapel into his designs for the palace, (The chapel is in the far left corner of this picture under the gold minarets.
The Grand Hall (above) is an enormous room with an area around 850 square metres permeates a sense of majesty and greatness. . Bright and airy, it seems even larger than it actually is because of the many mirrors, the abundance of gilding and the spectacular painted ceiling. heating stoves were concealed behind false windows and mirrored glass.
One of the main features of the Palace is the famous Amber Room. In 1716, the King of Prussia, Frederick William I gave to Peter the Great the Amber Study. This was delivered in a number of crates but was not really installed until 1746 when Elizabeth I began her construction of her Catherine's Palace. There the Amber Room remained until 1941 when the panels were carefully removed and reinstalled in Konigsburg Castle until at least 1944 when they were removed and dispatched to places unknown. The original amber panels have never been found. In 1979 the Russian Government decided to recreate the glory of the Amber Room. This work took 24 years by master Russian craftsmen to recreate 'the eighth wonder of the world' and it received its first visitors on the 300th Anniversary of the foundation of St Petersburg.
Under Catherine II the vast park of 100 hectares around the Palace was developed into gardens with a numerous pavilions, monuments, statues and lakes.
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The Second World War was to wreak enormous havoc on Catherine's Palace. Immediately after Germany declared war against the USSR began an evacuation of museum artefacts. But no one really expected the Germans to seize the town. An attempt was made to deconstruct the Amber Room but the panels were too fragile so their preservation was devised by glueing with gauze and padding with batting sheets. On 17 September 1941 the units of te German police entered Pushkin. The occupation lasted until 24 January 1944 at which time Soviet troops liberated Leningrad after a decisive assault. In the once luxurious halls of Catherine's Palace breaches in the collapsed floors gaped under the open sky. Only 10 of 55 unique halls partially escaped fire. Nothing was saved from the Amber room. Fortunately 11 Nazi aircraft bombs set up in the basement were neutralised; but the devastation was enormous.
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| The Vandalism that is War |
This encounter with Catherine's Palace was truly a visit to such magnificence as to leave one open-mouthed at its opulence; to be aghast at the vandalism of war; to be in awe of the brilliance of its restoration. It is not only a treasure for the Russian people as the country residences of its imperial rulers for many years but it is also inseparably linked to the name of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin who continued to visit here throughout his life and is the source of inspiration for many of his writings.
I am left alone at my ends,
The feasts, the mistresses the friends,
Had vanished with the slim illusions -
My youth had faded right away,
With all its gifts of false allusions.
Like this, the candles, that through the night
Were burning for young feasters' sight,
In ending of the mad profusion,
Are paling in the light of day.
Alexander Pushkin
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