Catherine's Palace

Catherine Palace Throne Room

A unique day - the 300th anniversary of the founding of the town of Pushkin and we were there. Security is everywhere and roads are closed because the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church will be here to rededicate a church. The town was renamed on it's 100th anniversary for the poet, Pushkin, because he grew up here. But we're her to visit Catherine's Palace, named after Peter the Greats wife, but primarily used by his daughter, Elizabeth I. The 2nd floor of the palace is where the royalty lived and entertained, thus it is all glitter. Since the town was occupied during World War II by the Germans most of the building was destroyed and thus the palace is completely rebuilt. The first floor which was mostly servant quarters is not reconstructed yet. The main throne room takes up half of the palace's second floor. When it was built, it was the largest unsupported room in the world. We walked through many rooms filled with glittering gold decorations, chandeliers, and parquet floors to the highlight of the palace, the amber room. This room was dismantled by the Nazi's and the original 100,000 pieces of amber have never been found. It took 8 years to rediscover how to tint the colors of amber from it's natural yellow and black to the reds used in this room, and another 22 years to rebuild the room. Amber is used in many different colorful patterns here. After touring the rest of the palace rooms, we visited the gardens, some French style, some English with their many pavilions. With the short summers (last freeze in early June, first freeze in late August), the gardens were filled with flowers to celebrate the warm months.

Panel in Amber Room

In the evening, we attended Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The girl who played the angle of death stood out as the most interesting of the dancers. Both the music and the dancing climaxed in the death scenes, which were charged with emotion. This 19th century theater was one of 5 royal theaters in Russia. It too was a spectacular setting, recently refurbished. Upon leaving the theatre, the sun was still shining, sunset will be about midnight and sunrise at 4 AM. We're in the period of 'white nights' where the sun is never more than 6 degrees below the horizon.