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