Things to see and do Pushkin/Tsarskoye Selo (Пушкин/Царское Село)

Severely damaged during the Second World War, but superbly renovated, the Great Catherine Palace is the baroque jewel of the architect Rastrelli. It offers visitors the suite of stately rooms and private apartments, which have been perfectly restored. A Baroque staircase leads to the exhibition rooms on the first floor, dedicated to the history of the palace. Overlooking the main courtyard and the gardens, the Great Ballroom dazzles with a variety of rococo ornamental details, gilded wood carvings, inlaid parquet flooring and the Triumph of Russia on the ceiling. The reception lounges offer an abundance of Baroque mirrors, overmantels and gilded woodwork. The dining rooms are decorated with paintings with mythological themes.

The ceiling of the Portrait Room features a painting of Olympus by Tiepolo. Among the many portraits, you will notice those of the Empress Catherine I and Elizabeth; the former is the origin of the palace, the latter brought her magnificence to it.

Decorated by Rastrelli, the Painting Room brings together works from the 17th and 18th centuries, mainly from the Dutch, Flemish and Italian schools. The blue salon, with its Pompeian ceiling, crystal torches, carved armchairs, and walls decorated with portraits of Peter the Great and Catherine I, was the favourite room of the Great Catherine. Next came the private apartments of Empress Maria Fyodorovna, where blue and pastel green tones dominated.

The Blue Chinese salon, stretched with Chinese silk, has a marquetry parquet flooring that combines rare woods such as ebony, rosewood, sandalwood... The palace chapel, finally, is one of the most beautiful baroque flights of Rastrelli. Covering the walls of the narthex, the gilded tapestry with bird motifs was made in the 18th century by Russian serfs weavers.

Designed for Catherine II, the Ionic Gallery, located to the south-east, on the garden side, connects the empress's apartments, designed by the same architect in the antique style and decorated with jasper and agate.

The famous Amber Room is a 100 m² room, decorated with amber panels of all shades. A marvel, even if it is in fact only a reconstitution of the work offered in 1716 by Frederick I of Prussia to Peter the Great. The original panels were stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War and could never be recovered.

The old garden, the regular part of the park is to the south-east of the palace. The central aisle is oriented towards the Hermitage Pavilion. On the city side, the old garden is bounded by the waterfall canal; to the south-east, by Sadovaya Street (of the park); to the south, il donne on the large pond. This large pond includes a small island that you can reach with a kind of small towed ferry, which is taken at the Admiralty. The passage costs RUB 200 per person, but there is not much to see on this island.

The old garden is divided into four parties : the Upper Garden, on the three upper terraces facing palais ; the Lower Garden, from the third terrace to the canal at Poissons ; the Hermitage plot, from the canal to the Ponds at Cascades ; and the last, unnamed, from the Ponds of the Waterfalls to Sadovaya Street. In the Lower Garden, along the Hermitage Alley, were dug in 1719-1722 deux rectangular ponds. The Hermitage Pavilion, which gave its name to the part of the old garden, was built between 1744 et 1749 par Zemtsov and then, after 1754, by Rastrelli. Its facades echo the Catherine Palace.

Le chaînon connecting the old garden with regular lines to the landscaped park around the large pond is the Grotto Pavilion, built in 1749  by Rastrelli. Il s is one of the best examples of late Baroque. On the south-eastern edge of the pond, there is a group of three Admiralty pavilions built of red bricks. Not far from the island rises above the water the column of Tchesma, high above 14 m. Built to celebrate the memory of the victory over the Turkish squadron in the Bay of Tchesma in 1771, this column is decorated with symbolic rostrums and crowned with a bronze eagle breaking a crescent moon (symbol of victory). To the south-west of the pond is the light-coloured Turkish bath building, reminiscent of a mosque, built in 1850. Further down, the Podkapriznaya road got its name from the Grand Caprice and Petit Caprice, large rocky mounds and small tunnels under which this road passes. At the top of the Grand Caprice rises the Chinese bower, from which there is a beautiful view of the park (the name "caprice" is usually attached to the fact that after these mounds the path divides, and that it was here that Great Catherine, when she was walking, chose her route at the very last moment).

The complex includes a landscaped park of almost 200 hectares near the Alexander Palace, with elegantly curved ponds, a huge forest plot (the former animal reserve where the Tsar hunted at ^{XVIIIe siècle}), the new garden, on a regular plan, the territory of the Chinese village and finally the orangeries. All of this is especially interesting for long walks, especially during "sleepless nights". The people of St. Petersburg also like to go there with their families on weekends. It was in this park that Pushkin walked during his studies and discovered romantic melancholy.

The white tower:the white fortress, which looks like a knight's castle, is surrounded by four knights: an Englishman, a Frenchman, a German and a Russian, the first three representing the Allied States of the time. It was built by Emperor Nicholas I for his children - the great princes Alexander (the future Alexander II), Constantine, Nicholas and Michael. It was here that the young heirs received their general education and practiced their physical and military exercises. From here one can reach the observation point of the tower (only for a few people at a time) with a view of Tsarskoye Selo.

Museum of the First World War: the history of this unique museum in Russia is more than 100 years old. Completely renovated in 2011, it is a modern center dedicated to the Great War. The museum was inaugurated as a "War Chamber" in 1913 to display relics, weapons and souvenirs of the great victories of the Russian armies. After the First World War and the Revolution, the place was renamed and reassigned. It was affected during the Second World War by suffering many thefts and degradations of the Nazi occupiers during the terrible siege of St. Petersburg. Its collections were gradually reconstituted and the building renovated, so it reopened its doors in 2011.

The Chinese Theatre was built in 1778 according to the project of Antonio Rinaldi in the Far Eastern style popular at the time. The first Opera Theatre built in stone in Russia is now in ruins and awaits its turn to be rebuilt.

The chapel finally reopened in 2018 after restoration work. Built in the image of a Gothic chapel, it had been degraded by time. The building consists of two square towers connected by a vault, one of the two towers remained "semi-destroyed".