PUSHKIN, Russia — Twelve miles south of St. Petersburg, this town of about 110,000 is named for its most famous native son and the country’s great 19th-century poet, Aleksandr Pushkin. He also attended a school here. The most famous building, though, is the Catherine Palace, a stunning example of Russian baroque architecture.
The palace, painted a vivid blue with white columns and gold embellishments, also is a monument to Russian craftsmen’s restoration skills, for it was almost burned to the ground by the Nazis, who occupied it during their 908-day World War II siege of Leningrad, now known by its original name, St. Petersburg. The Catherine Palace, the Alexander Palace and their many outbuildings and gardens are in Tsarskoye Selo — the royal village — in Pushkin.
Alexander Palace, built in the neoclassical style, was the favorite residence of Czar Nicholas II and his family. They were residing there at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and were placed under arrest. Later there they were taken to Tobolsk, Siberia, and then to Ekaterinburg, where they were killed by Bolsheviks in 1918.
It is the Catherine Palace that gets the attention and helps the royal village become the major employer in Pushkin.
Although interior sections of the Catherine Palace still are not completely restored, the rebuilding of the Amber Room was the most recent major accomplishment. The amber disappeared during World War II, its whereabouts unknown. The walls, including trimming and other design elements, are covered in intricately cut pieces of carved and engraved amber and may not be photographed by visitors. The room opened in 2003 and alone would be worth a visit to the palace.
The new parquet floors are splendid in patterns of woods of different colors. The chandeliers also are splendid, and more lighting by mirrored panels makes the gold leaf glitter on the walls and around windows, where it curves, curls and confounds as only the baroque can.
The palace is named for Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great, the founder of St. Petersburg. It was Catherine — described as a camp follower before she met Peter — who made it a royal residence, but it was her daughter Elizabeth I who had it enlarged to its present size. It was a country palace for Catherine; with Elizabeth, it became a palace as splendid as any in the city but in the country.
Elizabeth used the palace for gala parties, balls and dinners, and it was large enough to hold her many dresses. She died after a stroke, and her nephew became Peter III. He had vowed that he would undo everything Elizabeth had done, and he exiled her advisers and shut the Catherine Palace. It was reopened after he was deposed by his wife, who became Catherine the Great.
Although it is often assumed that the palace was named after Catherine the Great, she is associated more with the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, where the Hermitage collection she founded is exhibited along with her fine French furniture and English and French dinner services.
After touring the palace, visitors can stroll in the formal gardens behind the palace and the more natural park setting in front, stopping at pavilions and by fountains and admiring statues.
Even in October, before Russia’s northern winter sets in, the number of tour buses attests to the popularity of the palace. It is a reminder of the power and wealth of Russia’s rulers before the revolution, and it shows the country’s attempts to rebuild some of the czars’ and empresses’ creations that please the eye and draw tourists and foreign money.
Anyone visiting St. Petersburg should get out of the city and see the Catherine Palace and Peter the Great’s palace, Peterhof. Often they can be visited by passengers on large and small cruise ships as a shore excursion from their ships docked in St. Petersburg. If they can dazzle, in the rain, how about in summer — or snow?
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