Catherine Palace facts for kids
The Catherine Palace (in Russian: Yekaterininskiy dvorets) is a stunning Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), Russia. It's about 30 kilometers south of Saint Petersburg. This grand palace was once the summer home for the Russian tsars, who were like kings. Today, it's part of a special World Heritage Site that includes many important places in Saint Petersburg.
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History of the Palace
The story of the Catherine Palace began after a big war called the Great Northern War. In 1710, Peter the Great, a famous Russian ruler, gave a piece of land to his wife, Catherine I. This land was first called Sarskoye Selo, and later it became known as Tsarskoye Selo, meaning "Tsar's Village."
In 1723, Catherine I built a stone palace on this land. It had two floors and sixteen rooms, with fancy alabaster decorations and even tapestries. There was also a lovely garden with terraces and ponds, and a small zoo nearby.
Empress Elizabeth's Grand Palace
Later, Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, decided to build an even grander palace. Work started in 1744. The palace grew to be 300 meters long!
In 1751, a famous architect named Bartolomeo Rastrelli took over. He made the palace look truly amazing with its snow-white columns, sky-blue walls, and sparkling gold decorations. It's said he used almost 100 kilograms of gold! Rastrelli designed the inside in a Baroque style, which is very grand and dramatic. Famous artists helped create the beautiful rooms, including the Chinese Room, the Portrait Hall, and the famous Amber Room. This huge palace was finished in 1756, with 40 main rooms and over 100 private ones. New gardens were also added, with fun features like a toboggan slide.
Catherine the Great's Changes
In the 1770s, Catherine the Great became the empress. She preferred a different style called Neoclassical, which was more simple and elegant, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art. Architects like Charles Cameron and Giacomo Quarenghi updated many parts of the palace.
Cameron designed beautiful rooms like the Arabesque Room, with its detailed patterns, and the Lyons Room, which had golden-yellow silk walls and special lapis lazuli stone. The empress's bedroom even had fancy bas-reliefs (sculptures that stick out from a flat surface).
Many other buildings and monuments were added to the surrounding park during this time. These included columns to celebrate war victories, Gothic-style buildings, and even a Chinese Village.
Later Years and World War II
After Catherine the Great passed away in 1796, the park building slowed down. The palace saw some repairs over the years, including after a fire in 1820.
Sadly, during World War II, when German forces left after the siege of Leningrad, they purposely destroyed the Catherine Palace. Only an empty shell was left behind. Luckily, Soviet experts had taken many pictures and notes of the palace's interior before the war. This information was super important for rebuilding the palace, which started in 1957. Thanks to their hard work, we can see the palace almost as it was before!
Inside the Palace
Even though some parts of the palace were updated later, the Catherine Palace is most famous for Rastrelli's amazing "Golden Enfilade." This is a series of grand rooms that connect to each other in a straight line.
The Great Hall
The Golden Enfilade starts with the huge and bright "Grand Hall," also called the "Hall of Lights." This ballroom has a spectacular painted ceiling. It was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli between 1752 and 1756. The Great Hall was used for important events like balls, fancy dinners, and masquerades. It's about 1,000 square meters and takes up the entire width of the palace. Imagine 696 lamps lighting up the hall in the evening!
Dining Rooms
Next to the Great Hall is the Courtiers-in-Attendance Dining Room. This smaller room was designed by Rastrelli. It has mirrors on one wall to make it look bigger and brighter. It's decorated in the fancy Baroque style with lots of gold carvings and patterns of flowers. The ceiling painting shows the Greek sun god Helios and the goddess of dawn, Eos.
Across from this room is the White Formal Dining Room. This hall was used for the empresses' special dinners. It's also decorated with many gold carvings. Some of the furniture you see there today is original, while other pieces are copies. The ceiling painting, The Triumph of Apollo, is a copy of a 16th-century Italian artwork.
Other Important Rooms
The Portrait Hall is a large room where you can see big paintings of Empress Catherine I and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, as well as Natalya Alexeyevna and Catherine II. The floor is made of beautiful, expensive woods.
The Drawing Room of Alexander I was part of the Emperor's private rooms. What made it special was that its walls were covered in Chinese silk. It also had fancy card tables and cabinets with Japanese, Chinese, and Berlin porcelain.
The Green Dining Room, designed by Cameron, has pistachio-colored walls with stucco figures. It was damaged in a fire but later restored. Other rooms by Cameron include the Waiters' Room, with its beautiful wooden floor, and the Blue Formal Dining-Room, with white-and-blue silk wallpaper.
See also
In Spanish: Palacio de Catalina para niños
- List of Baroque residences
Images for kids
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North side, carriage courtyard: all the stucco details sparkled with gold until 1773, when Catherine II had gilding replaced with olive drab paint.
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The ballroom
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The Cameron Gallery in the 18th century.
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