AMBER ROOM, a unique interior of the Great Catherine Palace, and 18th century arts and crafts monument. The walls of the Amber Room are decorated with the amber panels (the only example of amber used in Russian architecture). In 1716, Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I granted an amber study to Peter the Great staying in Habelberg (near Berlin), but the attempt to establish it straightaway failed. For the first time in St. Petersburg the Amber Room was arranged for the future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in the Third Winter Palace. In 1745, Friedrich II who had ascended the Prussian throne presented Empress Elizaveta Petrovna the forth Amber Room, executed at his behest in Konigsberg (in addition to the three presented to Peter the Great). In the same years F. Rastrelli, reconstructing the Grand Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, included the Amber Room in the premises of the Gala Palace. To make assurance doubly sure, panels and frames treasured in the Summer Palace of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg were moved to Tsarskoe Selo under armed guard. To set the Amber Room the premises of 96 square metres turned out to be too spacious. Rastrelli offered a three-tier composition of the decor and placed the already existing panels and frames in the middle tier. Above and below it the walls were covered with canvas and painted by I.I. Belsky to look like amber. In 1758, Prussian amber master F. Roggenbuck headed the production of new amber articles in the workshops created on the spot. In the course of four years eight shields of the lower tier and eight panels were made (450 kg of amber was used). A Florentine mosaic was made in Italy in Petroduru workshops to the sketches of G. Zocchi. During the Great Patriotic War the decor of the Amber Room was taken by German authorities to Konigsberg, in 1944 it was lost. In the 1990s, in Germany two items of the Amber room resurfaced, those were given over to Tsarskoe Selo Museum. Work on the reconstruction of the Amber Room started in 1986 (under the direction of architect A. A. Kedrinsky). The reconstructed Amber Room was solemnly opened in March of 2003.

References: Овсянов А. П. Янтарная комната: Возрождение шедевра. Калининград, 2002; Янтарная комната: Три века истории / И. П. Саутов, А. А. Кедринский, Л. В. Бардовская, Н. С. Григорович. СПб., 2003.

O. A. Chekanova. Belsky Ivan Ivanovich
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Friedrich II, King
Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke
Peter I, Emperor
Rastrelli Francesco de
Roggenbuck F.
Zocchi Guiseppe

CATHERINE PALACE (Town of Pushkin), an architectural monument of the Baroque period, compositional centre and dominating architecture of the park and palace ensemble of Tsarskoe Selo. In 1717-1723, on this site a small stone palace of Empress Catherine I (architect I.F. Braunstein) was constructed concurrently with the establishment of the Catherine Park. From 1743, work on the palace extension was started (architect M.G. Zemtsov), after his death work continued under the guidance of architects A.V. Kvasov and S.I. Chevakinsky. From late 1748 - architect F. Rastrelli. In May of 1752, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered everything that had been erected earlier to be reconstructed and in 1756 the Catherine Palace was completed. At this stage it consisted only of the western parade court, framed by single-story semicircular buildings - surrounded with splendid wrought railings with gilded details and gates along the central axis of the palace. The facades are decorated with moulded figures of caryatids, cartouche, masks (sculptor I. F. Dunker), marked with ochre colour against the turquoise background (up to the 1770s, the stucco work was gilded). Originally the front staircase was in the south section of the Catherine Palace, on the second floor were also located the "Golden Enfilade", comprising of five "antechambers", double tiered Grand Hall and a number of sitting rooms, their fretwork above the doors created an impression of a gold stream. Among the interiors is the Amber Room. The length of the Catherine palace's facades is over 325 metres. The central part of the building (The Middle House) has retained the parameters of the palace of Catherine I. The side wings that replaced the original open terrace unite the central part with the wings: to the north there is a church (1779-84, architect I.V. Neelov) and to the south - Zubovsky (1778-1784, architect Y.M. Felten). Under Catherine II, in the 1780s, new interiors were added according to the designs of C. Cameron: the Arabesque and the Lyon sitting rooms, the Silver Study and others in the south part of the Catherine Palace, the rooms of the Grand Prince Pavel Petrovich (the Green dining-room, the Bedchamber and others) in the northern part. To the south-eastern side of the Catherine Palace the complex of the so-called Cameron Gallery, the Cold Bath (Agate Pavilion), the hanging garden and the ramp (1780-87; 1792-94) are united. In 1817-20, and in the 1840s architect V.P. Stasov made some changes in the palace's interiors, in 1860-63 architect I. A. Monighetti (Chinese front staircase in the central part). Since 1918, the Catherine Palace has been a palace-museum, in 1941-44, it was practically levelled, restoration following the project of architect A.A. Kedrinsky was launched in 1957. Restoration works continue up to the present. See also "Tsarskoe Selo" article.

A. A. Alexeev. Braunstein Johann Friedrich
Cameron Charles
Catherine I, Empress
Catherine II, Empress
Chevakinsky Savva Ivanovich
Dunker Johann Franz
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Felten Yury (Georg Friedrich) Matveevich
Kedrinsky Alexander Alexandrovich
Kvasov Andrey Vasilievich
Monighetti Ippolito Antonovich
Neelov Ilya Vasilievich
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Rastrelli Francesco de
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Zemtsov Mikhail Grigorievich

The oldest part of the park, founded as the Menagerie, occupied more than a half of the Alexander Park territory. The area for the Menagerie has been chosen as early as 1710, the date coincides with the first visit of Peter I and Catherine to “Saari Mois”. During 1718-1723 gardendesigners Ya. Roozen and I. Fokht laid out the area of the Menagerie. According to the landscape design the Menagerie can be named the second “wild grove” in the Tsarskoye Selo escape. The Menagerie area was three times greater than the regular garden of that time. A square plot of spruce forest with sides about 1 verst (3500 ft. ) was enclosed with a wooden palisade and ditch. The Menagerie was located on the central axis of the stone mansion but in the distance 400 sazhens (852 metres) from it. A vista road, with lime tree planted along it, led to it. In the middle of every Menagerie sides there were lattice cabinet-work gates with wickets. In the center there was an open lattice garden-house which was set on an artificial hill. Under the garden-house there was covered up with earth stone cellar where stores for hunting were saved. Clearings (so-called “Plezir”) led from the garden-house to the gates and corners. The Zverinochny Pond, where there were pikes, was dug on the Kioke River (or Kuzminka) which flowed there. A mill dam was constructed and a mill shed and granary were built on the dam. Deer, elks, Siberian deer, wild boars were placed in the Menagerie from the beginning, sometimes hares were added. Special workers were responsible for supervising animals as far as the palisade. They worked under the direction of the senior forester. In addition the senior forester supervised forests in all country-houses of Tsarskoye Selo. The Palace sloboda peasants were contracted to supply moss for feeding up animals, hay was brought from the palace stables. In autumn black grouse hunting, using stuffed birds from disguised with fir branches boxes on sledge, was the most attractive amusement. Catherine I, Peter II, Princess Elizabeth with courtiers liked hunting elks, deer, foxes, hares and stuffed birds in Tsarskoye Selo.
In 1750-1752 according to the design of Rastrelli the hunting lands were fenced with the stone fence of 4.5 arshine (about 3.2 metres) instead of the wooden palisade. In the middles of the fence sides there were passages, two fronts crossed the Kuzminka River. So called Menagerie (Zverinets) line of the Upper hothouses, been here from 1722, bordered with the south-eastern front from the outside. According to rules of military engineering the engineer Pyetr Ostrovsky built four bulwarks crowned with lusthauses in the corners of the stone fence. Diagonal clearings which were begun at the Monbijow ground to the lusthauses. The Tsarskoye Selo Menagerie was used for presentations . According to the court ceremonial hunting for the diplomatic corps and other guests of high rank were organized in the Tsarskoye Selo Menagerie. Empress Elisabeth received ambassadors of France and Austria in the pavilion Monbijow that was richly decorated with pictures of hunting plots.
. Keeping wild animals in captivity, hunting and high perimeter fence was unacceptable for ideas of landscape parks which became popular and it changed the attitude to menageries. New landscape parks were often begun to create on these areas. The Alexander Park is one of example of this. During the rule of Catherine II, who herself was a lover of hunting, the hunting grounds were located in Tsarskoye Selo environments in forests on the Slavyanka River banks and then in Gatchina Town. Gradually the Menagerie fell into neglect and only in 1799 Emperor Paul I ordered to introduce order in the forest, to repair the Monbijow, the Menagerie roads and clearings, but works were stopped in 1801.
In 1803 Alexander I ordered to give a part of the Menagerie area for experiments of The Forestry School organized in Sophia Town. In March 1814 a gardening school or a nursery for trees, that were needed for planting on the vast territory of the creating Alexander Park, was opened. In addition to old clearings landscape roads and paths were paved in the Menagerie during 1819-1823. The east bulwark, surrounded with a ditch, was preserved and included in the new landscape composition of the park. The Menagerie wall and three bulwarks were knocked down, their places were laid out, ditches were filled up. Bricks and stones, remained after dismantling, were used for constructing new buildings: the White Tower, the Chapelle, the Farm group, the Menagerie line of Green Houses, pavilions for llamas and elephants. These pavilions served as the peculiar marking of the borders of the Menagerie territory. Alexander I, Emperor
Catherine I, Empress
Catherine II, Empress
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Foсht I.
Ostrovsky, Pyetr
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Peter I, Emperor
Rastrelli Francesco de
Roozen Yan
Pushkin, town

The Grotto pavilion with the pier , highlighting on the dark green background of the Old Garden and with its mirror reflection in the Great Pond water, pertains to classical views of the Catherine Park.
Such garden pavilion, decorated with shells and tuff inside, as well as the Hermitage was the obligatory attribute of regular park ensembles of the 18th century. In 1749 the architect Rastrelli developed the design of the Grotto pavilion for Empress Yelizaveta Petrovna and himself led the construction works. 210 big seashells and and 17.5 poods (about 480 kilogrammes) small seashells were used for decorating the pavilion. The construction of the pavilion was too long and even in 1761, when constructing the Catherine Palace was finished, the Grotto was among incompleted park constructions.
The Grotto facades are excelled with gorgeous ornamentation and magnificence of the Rastrelli’s Baroque taste. The quaint dome was crowned with carved wooden fountain, its streams spilt along the pavilion sides. The architectural décor was made using typical Rastrelli’s methods: grouping in pairs rusticated columns of composite order, pilasters, broken pediments, the complicated sculpture decoration, figured infill of doorways with sash doors. Arched windows and doors surrounds, windows-lucarnes were designed with plenty of decorative motifs, stucco moulding and at the same time with the seamless combination of atchitectural and sculptural compositions. The connection of the pavilion with “Neptune’s water kingdom” shows the sculpture decorations: volute dolphins, Neptune masks, figures of newts, heads of nereids, sea plants and shells placed on column capitals, surrounds and over windows.
Spatial and planned design of interiors with a broken cornice, columns set to walls, is typical for the Baroque style with its chamfered corners, niches for statues, exedras on butt-ends of the building. Interiors were not decorated with sea shells and stones during Yelizaveta Petrovna rule . Available now plaster decorating of interiors was made by the architect A. Rinaldi in 1771 in the time of Catherine II.
Under Catherine II the Grotto pavilion was often named as the Hall of Antiques, because of the collection of antiques sculptures and vases placed here, or the Morning Hall. In fair sunny weather the Empress, who always got up early, liked working here in mornings. She liked to practice literature in sunrise time, watching a landscape view of the park and colors, changed in sun rays, and light and shadows reflected in water mirror-like surface. The Grotto pavilion view is the most impressed at this time because it is located on the eastern coast of the pond elongated to the south-western side. Young people sometimes were gathered for having coffee or chocolate in the Morning Hall on these days. Catherine II, Empress
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Rastrelli Francesco de
Rinaldi Antonio

In the Tsarskoye Selo Palace of Tsarina Catherine Alexeyevna at first there was an camp private chapel of St. Catherine the Great Martyr. The main sight of this church was a carved iconostasis of dark blue colour. Building the palace church, being now, was begun in spring of 1746 to the design and under direction of S.I. Chevakinsky. The ceremonial laying of the Church of the Resurrection, performed by the Eminent Theodosius, Archbishop of Saint Petersburg and Schlusselburg, was been on 8 August of the same year in the presence of Empress Elisabeth, Heir Tsesarevich Pyetr Fiodorivich and his wife Catherine Alexeyevna. During bulding Elisabeth Petrovna ordered to remake a piece of done work and continue building under the direction of the chief-architect F.-B. Rastrelli.
Court painters G.-K. Grot, L. Karavak, B. Tarsia, I.Ya. Vishnyakov, A. Perezinotti were recruited to painting icons. In total in the church there were 114 icons, 59 of them were painted and 14 were corrected by famous icon-painter Fedot Kolokolnikov and Mina Kolokolnikov. The painting plafond with the image of the Ascension of Our Lord was painted by the painter G. Valeriani with assistants. Carving work was made by I.F. Dunker. The decoration of the interior was completed and Eminent Sylvester, Archbishop of Saint Petersburg and Schlusselburg, consecrated the Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord on 30 July in 1756 .
Religious services in the Palace Church of the Resurrection were performed by the court clergy during staying the Imperial court in Tsarskoye Selo. The Imperial retinue, ministers, diplomats, courtiers, officers of Life Guards regiments are present at the services. On Sundays and holidays the pupil of the Lyceum could be seen near Alexander I during liturgies.
The historian Karamzin with his family visited the church. Weddings of the Imperial family members and courtiers, christening of the Imperial family babies, who were born in Tsarskoye Selo, took place in the church. The future emperors Nicholas I and Nicholas II were among them. The church parish included the palace officials, lived in Tsarskoye Selo permanently. In 1917 public religious services were stopped and the church interior was included in the museum exposition.
The church interior had magnificent forms in the Baroque style. It was not subjected to considerable changes although the building experienced fires in 1820 and 1863. After the first fire the artist V.K. Shebuyev restored the lost in fire plafond, the church domes were restored to the design of the architect V.P. Stasov, their silhouettes were changed. The restoration of the original view of domes in the Baroque style were made by the architect A.F. Vidov after the second fire. During World War II the church inside decoration was plundered and got considerable damages, 97 icons were robbed, only some fragments were survived. After war restored repair of facades was made during 1957-1963 to the design of the architect A.A. Kedrinsky . But the church interior of the Palace Church has not been restored yet. Alexander I, Emperor
Catherine II, Empress
Chevakinsky Savva Ivanovich
Dunker Johann Franz
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Grot, G.-K.
Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich
Kedrinsky Alexander Alexandrovich
Kvasov Andrey Vasilievich
Nicholas I, Emperor
Nicholas II, Emperor
Peter III, Emperor
Rastrelli Francesco de
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Tarsia, B.
Valeriani Giuseppe
Vidov Alexander Fomich

May. The laying of the foundation stone of the Znamenskaya Church (the Church of the Holy Sign) it was built in 1747, according to the design by M.G. Zemtsov, was done on the place of the burned Church of the Annunciation in the presence of Tsesarevna Elizabeth. The construction work was headed by the architect I. Blank. Blank Ivan (Jogann)Yakovlevich
Blank Ivan (Jogann)Yakovlevich
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Zemtsov Mikhail Grigorievich

3 February. Celebrations devoted to returning the Empress Elizabeth from Moscow after the coronation took place.
Water came to Tsarskoye Selo from Vittolovo springs through a chanal. The works were done to the design by the engineer I. Zverev. Four deer were presented by Count Aleksei Razumovsky to Elizabeth and fourty two deer were brought into the Tsarskoye Selo Menagerie from the Olonets Gubernia. Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Razumovsky Alexey Grigorievich, Count
Zverev, I.

27 August. Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov visited Tsarskoye Selo according to the invitation of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. He reflected his impressions in a great poetical work where famous poet lines have sounded: "If only with a beautiful building / The number of stars must be increased, / Like the bright constellation/ Tsarskoye Selo is worthy.


The Coasting Hill with a pavilion was built according to the design of F.-B. Rastrelli between the Ramp Alley and the Great Lake. The constructive decision of this design was done by A.K. Nartov. Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilievich
Nartov Andrey Konstantinovich
Rastrelli Francesco de

According to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna the famous Amber Room, which was presented by the Prussia King Frederick- William I of Prussia to Peter I in 1716, was brought to Tsarskoye Selo. Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke
Peter I, Emperor

8 September. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was at Tsarskoye Selo for the last time. Elizabeth Petrovna died on 25 December in Saint Petersburg. Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress