Description of the attraction
The Alexandrovsky, or New Tsarskoye Selo, palace was founded in 1792 by order of Empress Catherine II and presented as a gift for the wedding of her beloved grandson, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alekseevna. In May 1796, in the last year of the reign of Empress Catherine II, the construction of the palace was completed, and on June 12, 1796, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich and his wife entered the New Palace.
The project of the Alexander Palace belongs to the famous Italian architect G. Quarenghi; the palace was built under the supervision of the architect P. Neyelov. The palace is an elongated two-story building with two wings on the sides. In the center of the main northern facade there is a magnificent through colonnade, consisting of two rows of columns.
The interiors, designed by G. Quarenghi, corresponded to the classical canons, in the forms of which the entire building is sustained. The halls of the State Suite were located along the garden facade of the palace. In the center of the suite there was a hall with a semi-rotunda, divided into three parts by wide arches. The middle part of the room was called the Semicircular Hall, from the east it was adjoined by the Portrait Hall, from the west - the Billiard Hall (or the Crimson Living Room).
Today the Alexander Palace is associated with the last page in the history of the Russian Empire. In this palace, 12 years of the reign of the last Russian tsar passed. Until recently, the famous palace was closed to visitors, and few people knew that it preserved the interiors of the Grand Suite and part of the decoration of the personal apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Alexander Park, adjacent to the Catherine Palace from the side of the Parade Square, covers an area of about 200 hectares. Even during the reign of Empress Catherine I, a section of natural forest located behind the palace was fenced off and a Menagerie was arranged in it, in which wild animals were kept for the royal hunt. In the middle of the 18th century, the Menagerie was surrounded by a stone wall with bastions at the corners, in two of which were built entertainment pavilions. Between the palace and the Menagerie, a New Garden was planned, crossed by cross-shaped alleys.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the northeastern territory of the Alexander Park, stretching from the Alexander Palace to the Egyptian Gate, was built up.
