The Catherine Palace stands at Tsarskoye Selo, now Pushkin, about 19 miles (30 km) south of Saint Petersburg. Peter the Great gave the estate to his wife in 1710, and in 1723 a two-story stone palace replaced a wooden house. Empress Elizabeth began a new palace in 1744, to a design by Mikhail Zemtsov. In 1751 Bartolomeo Rastrelli started a major reconstruction, finished in 1756, with 40 state apartments and more than 100 private and service rooms.
The facade is about 980 feet (300 m) long, with snow-white columns, sky-blue walls and gilded stucco. The lead calls it a Rococo palace. Charles Cameron designed neoclassical interiors in the 1770s and 1780s. A recreated Amber Room stands within the Golden Enfilade.
German forces intentionally destroyed the residence during their retreat after the siege of Leningrad, leaving a hollow shell. Reconstruction began in 1957 under the State Control Commission for the Preservation of Monuments.
Comments