Alexander Palace

The Alexander Palace (Russian Александровский дворец ) was the favored residence of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, he is not far from Saint Petersburg to Pushkin. The palace was built by Catherine the Great for her favorite grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I., to his wedding in 1793 to Louise of Baden in the immediate vicinity of the Catherine Palace built. The classical grand pianos with 10 powerful representative Corinthian columns in front of the courtyard and the compound between the wings and the flanked by pillars tall arched the wing fronts, surmounted by a circular balustrade on the flat roof, was designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and built in 1792-96.

Since Alexander the Alexander Palace had left his brother, the future Emperor Nicholas I, he served as a summer residence for the heir to the throne. Between 1830 and 1850, the palace was redesigned and adapted to contemporary tastes. The plans for this are the Members of D. Cerfolio, A. Thon, D. Yefimov and Andrei Stakenschneider. The wife of Nicholas I, the Empress Alexandra ( Charlotte of Prussia ), died in 1860 at the Alexander Palace.

The Last Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra estimated with (Alice of Hesse- Darmstadt) the palace very much. According to the St. Petersburg Bloody Sunday 1905, the Tsar moved his permanent residence from the Winter Palace in the Alexander Palace. Alexandra made ​​the palace in the Art Nouveau newly set up. After his abdication on 2 Märzjul. / March 15 1917greg. were asked up to their deportation in the Alexander Palace under house arrest Nicholas II and his family.

Until the Second World War, the Alexander Palace served as a museum. The German military leaders used the Palace, which was not destroyed during the war, as a command center and put in the garden to a cemetery for fallen SS soldiers. After the war, art treasures were stored in the Alexander Palace, after transfer to the Soviet Navy, he was also used as an orphanage.

Since 1997, the palace can be visited again.