ALEXANDER III (1845, St. Petersburg — 1894), Emperor (since 1881). Second son of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. From 1865, he was heir to the throne and Tsarevitch. He married the Dutch princess, Dagmar (see Maria Fedorovna). General of the Infantry (1874). He served in the Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment; later he commanded the 1st Guard Infantry Division, then, from 1874, the Guard Corps, and, from 1880, the Guard Forces and Petersburg Military District. As the heir, he lived in the Anichkov Palace. After ascending the throne, he moved to Gatchina and visited St. Petersburg only to participate in official ceremonies. His reign is characterised as an epoch of "counter-reforms", in particular, the New University Rules (1884) and City Regulations (1892). It was during Alexander III's reign that the country's economy started to recover, and St. Petersburg became one of the largest capitalist cities. The most important statesmen during Alexander III's reign were K.P. Pobedonostsev, Count D.A. Tolstoy, P.S. Vannovsky, Count I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov, and S.Y. Witte, among others. He died in the Crimea and was buried in the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral. His owned the Anichkov Palace, Gatchina City, and Ropsha grange. In 1909, a monument to Alexander III was erected at Znamenskaya Square (sculptor P.P. Trubetskoy). In 1937, it was dismounted and moved to the courtyard of the State Russian Museum; in 1996, it was installed in the yard of the Marble Palace.

References: Чернуха В. Г. Александр III // ВИ. 1992. № 11/12. С. 46-64; Твардовская В. А. Александр III // Романовы: Ист. портреты. М., 1997. Кн. 2. С. 491-582; Александр III: Воспоминания. Дневники. Письма. СПб., 2001; Барковец О., Крылов-Толстикович А. Н. Неизвестный император Александр III: Очерки о жизни, любви и смерти. М., 2002; Великий князь Александр Александрович: Сб. док. М., 2002.

Y. A. Kuzmin.

A pavilion with the Late Classicism style facades was constructed in 1827-1830 to the design of V.M. Gornostayev . At first it was intended for summer pastime of children of Emperor Nicholas I: the Heir and Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolayevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, and Olga, Maria, Alexandra, three his sisters. A lounge, located in the center of the house, was used for joint games. Four small rooms, for the each of the children, were located on every lounge sides. Wooden partitions between rooms could be slid apart. Interiors with small children’s furniture were decorated with modeling, plafonds were covered with the fancy painting in Louis XIV style. Children’s House was located in the terrace of the artificial Children Island in the center of the Children’s Pond. Ferries carrying people to Children’s House went across the pond between granite piers. The house and island were the favourite place for games of children of Alexander III and Nicholas II . There was an original “children’s ground” with the landscape planning, toys and garden tools, a ”cape of kind Sasha”, a grove, planted by emperor’s children, marble busts of teachers of Alexander II, the poet V.A. Zhukovsky and K.K. Merder. Alexander II, Emperor
Alexander III, Emperor
Gornostaev Vasily Maximovich
Nicholas II, Emperor
Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich

Alexander I was the author of the original architectural idea and customer of Kochubey’s country-house. The work with the project was begun in 1816 from a draft developed by the emperor himself with the help of the architect P.V. Neyelov, the final design was completed by V.P. Stasov. A semicircular terrace with columns and spherical dome, oriented to the “To my dear comrades” Gate in the Catherine Park and developed the architectural motifs of the Alexander Palace and the Concert Hall pavilion designed by G. Quarenghi, was successfully planned by the monarch-architect. The gift certificate was drawn up in April 1817 in the name of Princess M.V. Kochubey. The building was constructed in 1817-1818, the garden planning and building works were completed by 1824. During 1835-1857 it was the Tsarskoye Selo country-house of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, who was born in Tsarskoye Selo. By his full age the mansion was rebuilt in 1856-1857 to the design of the architect I.I. Charlemagne, but after the finishing of building the Grand Duke refused the country-house. The project of Charlemagne was high appreciated and the architect became an academician of architecture, but his architect career was interrupted in view of fault-finding of the owner. The spectacular terrace with two stairs and sculptures of the Italian marble lions at the eastern façade of the building remembers about Charlemagne’s work. In 1859 Alexaner II ordered to name the country-house as the Reserved Palace.
In 1895 The Reserved Palace was transferred to Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich. In 1876-1878 the architect A.F. Vidov built three cavalier’s houses for the Grand Duke retinue, wings for servants and later a garage and ice-house was built. In 1882 Alexander III considered necessary to register officially the transferring of the Reserved Palace to Vladimir Aleksandrovich under the ownership in right of primogeniture with especial conditions. Further attempts of the Grand Duke and his heirs to get the unlimited rights of ownership for the palace remained unsuccessful. After the Grand Duke’s dearth, the palace, which came into the ownership of the widow Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (Senior), was renamed the Vladimirsky Palace (in 1910), according to the Emperor’s order. In troubled 1917 during short-time the Vladimirsky Palace was used by the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and Soviet authorities, a school- colony for juvenile delinquents, then here there was a School of VKP(b) (Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)) for the Communist Party activists of agricultural establishments. During the Nazi occupation of Pushkin Town in 1941-1943 the palace burned and was highly damaged, so the question about its restoration for placing the dormitory of the School of the Communist Party Education did not solve for a long time. In 1948 Doctor of Architecture, professor V.I. Yakovlev and B.L. Vasilyev, an architect of the State Inspectorate for Monuments Protection, disputed this idea of the palace using and recommended to use the palace for a culture-educational establishment (a theatre, club). Restoration and recovery work was done according to the design of the architect-restorer M.I. Tolstov in 1955-1958 for using the palace as the Palace of Pioneers. At the present time the most luxurious Palace of Wedding is placed here. Cavaliers’ houses and wings are occupied by the Cadet Corps of the Federal Frontier Service. Alexander I, Emperor
Alexander II, Emperor
Alexander III, Emperor
Kochubey Viktor Sergeevich, Duke
Nikolay Nikolaevich (Sr.), Grand Prince
Quarenghi Giacomo
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Tolstov M.I.
Vidov Alexander Fomich
Vladimir Alexandrovich, Grand Prince
Vladimir Alexandrovich, Grand Prince
Yakovlev, V.I.
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 22

The Tsarskoye Selo Women College of the Saint Petersburg eparchy department was founded according to the Emperor order by Grande Duchess Olga Nikolayevna, later the Queen of Württemberg. The college opening took place on 22 October 1843 in the presence of all tsar’s family firstly in renting stone house of the Full State Councilor Obolensky (it was built in the 1820s according to the design of V.P. Stasov and V.P. Geste). The college was conceived as the exemplary one and was under the patronage of Empress Alexandra Fiodorovna and under the trusteeship of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolayevna. Later tens women religious colleges were founded per its sample in different places of the Russian Empire.
In 1846 the college was granted by the Emperor a plot of 4 desyatinas (11 acres) of the palace land - the garden of the School Gardening establishment at the Kuzmisky Gate. Until 1917 it was used for kitchen garden and meadow as well as for pupils walking and named “pepiniere” (now it is the garden near the Monument to A.S. Pushkin).
The former house of Obolensky, bought in the college ownership, was enlarged and rebuilt for educational aims in 1847-1851 according to the design of the architect D.Ye. Yefimov. A domestic chapel, consecrated in the honour of the Intercession of the Mother of God by Metropolitan of Saint Petersburg and Novgorod Nicanor in 1849, was constructed in the building. At the corner from the side of the Alexander Park a garden was laid out, it was surrounded with the fence on the stone foundation and with massive posts.
In 1881-1883 in the connection of the increase in the number of the college staff the building was overbuilt with the third floor and enlarged to the yard side according to the design and under the direction of A.F. Vidov. The engineering equipment was made at the plant of San-Galli.
All tsar family often spent the time among the college pupils, attended at public services in the domestic chapel, visited the college kitchen garden – “pepiniere”. The Tsesarevna and then Empress Maria Fiodorovna was the last august trustee since 1879, Emperor Alexander III often was here.
In the honour of the Tercentenary of the House of the Romanovs the eparchy department supposed to transform the college into a theological-pedagogical institute. For this aim in 1916 the civil engineer A. Pavlov developed a design of enlarging the building up to Tserkovnaya Street, where at the corner there was a two-storied house bought from A.P. Merder, the principal of the college. In 1916-1917 the college garden – “pepiniere” supposed to allot for constructing the Institute of Experimental Surgery to the design of S.A. Danini. However these projects had been not had time to finish in the connection of the events of 1917. After 1918 the college and chapel was liquidated, the building has been used for a school until the present time. Alexander III, Emperor
Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress
Danini Silvio Amvrosievich
Efimov Dmitry Egorovich
Hastie Vasily Ivanovich (William)
Maria Fedorovna, Empress
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Vidov Alexander Fomich
Dvortsovaya Street/Pushkin, town
Moskovskaya Street/Pushkin, town

18 May. The son Nicholas, the future Emperor, was born in the family of Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich in Tsarskoye Selo. Alexander III, Emperor
Nicholas II, Emperor