Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WHAT TO SEE & DO
The town's original name, Tsarskoye Tselo (Tsar's Village), comes from the palaces and
parks built by empresses Catherine I (Peter the Great's second wife) and Elizabeth I (their
daughter). The electric-blue, white, and gold
Catherine's Palace (Yekaterinsky
Dvorets)
—the world's longest palace, at nearly 300m (984 ft.)—is the town's central star.
In the Soviet era, the town was named after the adored Russian poet Alexander Pushkin,
who studied at the
lycée
here for 6 years in the early 19th century and later had a
dacha
(country house) in town. The Pushkin-related sights are worth visiting only if you speak
Russian. The town has since readopted its pre-revolutionary name, but many Russians
and much literature about the town still refer to it as Pushkin.
Although the palace was named after Catherine I, it was Catherine II (the Great) who was
responsible for much of its interior design. It was built in stages, each of which reflects the char-
acter of the empress in charge at the time. Its baroque, festive features come from Elizabeth's
favored court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who later designed St. Petersburg's Winter
Palace, while the simpler, neoclassical interiors came from Catherine the Great's English
architect Charles Cameron. The facade of the palace is as sunny as the muted green face of
the Winter Palace in Petersburg is misty, and much of the interior of Catherine's Palace glares
even more brightly than its exterior. The gold cupolas of the palace church rise above one end
of the facade, and a flowery, ornamental “E” (the Russian initial for Yekaterina) tops its entrance.
The palace's masterpiece, the
Amber Room,
is a crucial part of every tour. Museum
guards sometimes restrict visitors' time there to control crowds. Its unrivalled concentra-
tion of amber, its unusual concept, and its dramatic history make it worth all the hype.
The room actually feels small compared to others in the palace. It takes you a moment
to realize that its walls are lined in amber panels, using nearly a ton of stone (or techni-
cally, petrified sap). Florentine mosaics portraying the five senses combine a staggering
array of shades of amber, from milky green to deep rust brown. Furniture inlaid with
amber occupies the room. Many of the works, however, are copies of long-lost originals.
The original engraved wall panels were a gift to Peter the Great from the king of Prussia
in 1716, then were stolen by Nazis who occupied the palace during the siege of Lenin-
grad. One of the mosaics,
Smell and Touch,
is an original, discovered in private hands in
Bremen, Germany, in 1997. The palace itself suffered even more widespread damage
when the Nazis retreated—they blew up many of its masterpieces on their way, and the
reconstruction took decades.
The other chief highlight of the palace is the
Great Hall,
a grand ballroom lined with
two tiers of windows interspersed with mirrors, much like Versailles's Hall of Mirrors.
When the sun shines, the hall sparkles with reflections off the mirrors—perfect for balls
on sunny midsummer nights. The palace holds chamber music concerts during the
White Nights. The Grand Hall's ceiling painting runs nearly the length of the room, and
depicts Russian military victories and accomplishments in the sciences and arts.
Similarly luxurious halls elsewhere in the palace are the
Agate Pavilion,
a bathhouse
of polished Siberian stone; and the
Blue Drawing Room, Blue Chinese Room,
and
Choir Anteroom,
all of which have intoxicating silk wall coverings. The
Green Dining
Room
is one of the first imperial rooms in Russia to incorporate a fireplace and marble
mantelpiece; until then, the preference had been for Dutch-tiled corner ovens.
Leave plenty of time to explore the grounds, in particular the
Marble Bridge
over the
Great Pond, and the
Pyramid,
where Catherine the Great's favorite dogs were buried.
The pavilion on the island was built for the musicians who accompanied royal boat trips
on the pond.
297
17
