Today Niko took us to Catherine's Palace and Pavlovsk Palace, both of which are about 27 km south of St. Petersburg. Both were outside the City's line of defense during the Second World War, and both were almost totally and deliberately demolished by the Nazis. Many rooms had photos of what they looked like with no floors or roofs—just partial walls with openings where windows had been.
The Russians have rebuilt both palaces with as much pride of craftsmanship as the originals must have had. The modern craftsmen had photos to guide them along with some original features that had been hidden underground or in Siberia before the war. Some rooms with dozens of chairs, decorative features, and chandeliers, might have included one or two originals that had been preserved to serve as prototypes for recreating the rest.
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| Catherine's Palace |
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| Chapel Domes |
Catherine's Palace is almost a thousand feet wide, which made taking a photo of it nearly impossible. The best shot, from the back side, gives some idea of its blue-and-gold coloring and design. One of its most dazzling features is the chapel, which has traditional onion-shaped domes covered in real gold leaf. We were “piped aboard” the building by three musicians dressed in period costume.
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| Catherine's Orchestra Members |
Once inside, we went up a grand staircase and walked through rooms that ran the whole length of the building. The ball room is as wide as the building, and like its model, Versailles, has windows and mirrors along both walls to enhance the brilliance of its real-gold covered ornamentation, candle sconces, chandeliers, and furniture. The result takes your breath away. One can only imagine the glittering splendor of a 19th Century ball held in this room.
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| The Ballroom - Catherine's Palace |
Other rooms run along both sides of the building, and their doorways, like a painter's perspective, lead from one to another, diminishing in size almost to infinity. Each room has its distinct decorative element, the most impressive being the famous amber room that the Nazis dismantled and stole. (Sorry, pictures were not allowed in the Amber Room!)
The original amber panels have never been recovered, but the room has been rebuilt over a period of about 25 years. The walls, frames of pictures, and ornamentation were all carved from amber, and the few pictures, in order to hold their own, were made of mosaics, not simple paint, although they were so finely crafted that you had to squint to notice. The opulence of the room can not be overstated as you bask in its warm glow.
After a stroll through some of the vast French and English style gardens that surround the palace, we drove to Pavlovsk Palace, which Elizabeth the Great gave to her son Paul along with nearly a thousand acres of land. This palace, designed by Charles Cameron, an 18th Century Scottish architect, is much smaller and more sedate than its riotously baroque predecessor.
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| Pavlovsk Palace |
The rooms on the second floor are mostly for show and formal occasions. They are all inspired by Greek and Roman motifs and decorated in part by genuine statuary that the the future emperor and his wife collected on their grand tour. It too has a chapel, of course, but a small one. The family actually lived in more comfortable rooms on the ground floor.
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| The Chapel |
On our drive back to the City, Niko hinted that the Winter Palace (Hermitage) will make what we had just seen look like humble summer cottages—which is what they were!
