Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Preserve, St. Petersburg (must see)

Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Preserve is a former imperial residence whose development began in the early eighteenth century and continued for more than two hundred years. It became especially closely associated with Empress Elizabeth and Catherine II, whose reigns transformed the estate into one of the principal imperial residences.

Today, the museum-preserve comprises two major palace-and-park ensembles centered on the Catherine Palace and Alexander Palace. The Catherine Palace acquired most of its present Elizabethan Baroque appearance during a major reconstruction completed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1756. Its ceremonial interiors include the gilded Great Hall and a long sequence of state rooms, including the reconstructed Amber Room. The original amber panels, first given to Peter I by King Frederick William I of Prussia in 1716 and later incorporated into the palace by Rastrelli, disappeared during the German occupation in the Second World War; the reconstructed room was opened in 2003. Catherine Park combines the older formal garden with a landscaped section containing pavilions, bridges, monuments, and ponds. Nearby, Alexander Palace was begun in 1792 to designs by Giacomo Quarenghi and completed in the 1790s. It later became the principal home of Nicholas II and his family, particularly from 1905 until the Revolution. The palace-and-park complex suffered severe destruction and looting during the Second World War, and restoration has continued for decades. Today, visitors can explore restored palace interiors, historical exhibitions, gardens, and architectural monuments representing several periods of imperial history.

The museum’s collections include paintings, furniture, porcelain, sculpture, decorative arts, documents, and personal objects associated with members of the Romanov family, allowing the ensemble to present both the ceremonial and private sides of life at the imperial residence.