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Cultural tour - Educational tours - Musical tour - Winter tour
Alexander Palace - Novgorod - Pavlovsk - Peterhof - Tsarskoye Selo
On the territory of the Tsarskoye Selo ensemble, in the northern part of the
Alexander Park stands a wonderful palace with
more than two centuries of history. This is the Alexander Palace.
The foundation was laid in 1792 by order of Empress Catherine II the Great,
and the palace presented as a gift to her first and favorite grandson,
Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich (the future Emperor Alexander I) on the occasion
of his marriage to Grand Duchess Elizabeth (1779 - 1826).
The palace construction was completed in May of 1796, during the last year of
Catherine the Great's reign. On June 12, 1796, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich
and his spouse moved into the New Palace.
Emperor Nicholas I loved the Alexander Palace very much. He spent the
happiest and saddest days of his marriage there.
On October 19, 1860, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I,
Empress Alexandra (1798 - 1860) passed away in the Alexander Palace.
For Alexander Alexandrovich, the grandson of Nicholas I and the future Emperor Alexander III,
the Alexander Palace was the residence of the Grand Duke, and his apartments were
located in the right wing of the palace.
Following the 1905 Russian Revolution, the Alexander Palace became the permanent
residence of Emperor Nicholas II, who had been born in Tsarskoye Selo.
It was here that the 22-year reign of the last Russian Emperor was passed.
On the morning of August 1, 1917, the Tsar's family was taken from the palace
and sent to exile in Tobolsk.
All important events connected with the activities of the Russian State were carried
out in the Alexander Palace: receptions for diplomats and foreign dignitaries,
celebrations such as the 300-year anniversary of the Romanov dynasty and the
200-year anniversary of the foundation of Tsarskoye Selo all took place here.
The square in front of the palace was also a frequent site for official parades,
court appearances and cavalry celebrations.
On June 23, 1918, the Alexander Palace was opened to visitors as a state museum.
Later the right wing of the palace would house a sanitorium for NKVD agents,
and the left became the Young Communard Children's Home, in place of the former
closed rooms of Nicholas II's children on the second floor of the building's left wing.
In 1941, at the start of World War II, chandeliers, carpets, furniture, marble and
porcelain objects and a part of the library books were evacuated from the
Alexander Palace museum. After the town of Pushkin was seized by German troops,
the halls of the Alexander Palace housed the German headquarters and Gestapo,
and the cellars became a prison, the square in front of the palace was turned
into a cemetery for SS soldiers.
At the end of the war the palace remained standing, and in 1946 was turned over to the
Academy of Sciences of the USSR to house the collections of the Institute of Russian
Literature (Pushkin House) and expositions from the Alexander Pushkin Museum.
In 1947 - 1951, reconstruction and restoration work on the palace began, during which
it was decided to repair not only those interiors designed by Giacomo Quarenghi,
but also to recreate the interiors from the reigns of Emperor Nicholas I and Nicholas II.
However, as work was in progress, the remaining decorative elements in the Maple and
Rosewood rooms of Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna and the
Dressing Room of Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich were destroyed.
In 1951 the Alexander Palace by government decree was transferred to the Navy
Department, and the museum's collection sent for keeping to the Catherine and
Pavlovsk palaces, including objects created especially for the interiors of the
Alexander Palace.
In 1996 a grant from the World Monuments Fund was obtained to finance the restoration
of the Alexander Palace.
In August of 1997, with the assistance of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum, as well as
the military organization located in the palace itself, following the remodeling of
the left wing, the exhibition "Reminiscences in the Alexander Palace" was opened
in the personal apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna.
The partially preserved historical and non-authentic interiors (exhibit rooms)
today display furnishings and personal belongings of the Emperor, his spouse and
their daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia, as well as their son,
Crown Prince Alexis.
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Russian Tours - Details and Prices - Essential Information -
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