Тур по Царскому селу на английском языке

Welcome to a guided tour of “Tsarskoye Selo” (or Tsar’s Village) which  is the most attended and memorable suburb of St. Petersburg that is  included in the “must visit list” of any traveler, regardless of their age and taste. And no wonder, for it is a splendid monument of the world architecture and landscape art of the Russian Empire.

I'll be your tour guide today and I hope you`ll be pleased with our excursion.

You may call me Diana. If you have questions I`ll answer them willingly.

The complex of the State Art and Architectural Museum "Tsarskoye Selo", located in the town of Pushkin, includes the palace and park ensemble of the XVIII-XIX centuries

Tsarskoye Selo is located 25 km south of Petersburg. This is a small town with two huge palaces, around which are divided parks.

The dominant of the Museum is the Catherine Palace that is majestic and luxurious– these words occur to us at its description. But the tourist are even more surprised by the fact that the palace had been rebuilt 6 times from scratch by the outstanding Italian architect Francesco Rastrelli for Her Majesty Elizabeth until she was satisfied with the final result.

The building is laid in 1717 by order of Russian Empress Catherine I, after whom it is called; during the XVIII century was reconstructed several times and in modern form is the example of the late Baroque. In Soviet times, the Palace became a Museum. During the great Patriotic war the Palace was badly damaged.

Then you  have an opportunity to walk around the absolutely amazing Catherine Park. Its uniqueness is not in its romantic landscapes – they are unlikely to surprise refined elite, but in those charming pavilions and monuments that suddenly open up to our eyes  and each of them has its own story.

But what amazes one most of all is the awareness that all this magic landscape has really been created by human imagination.

Most of the park is completely man-made, made in the classic English style, and as ornaments selected Italian marble sculptures.

If you look to the left you will see that the wing of the Great Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, the ground floor of which was occupied by Empress Catherine II’s last favourite – Platon Zubov (the Zubov Wing), is adjoined by a complex of buildings that was created between 1780 and 1794 by the architect Charles Cameron. These buildings marked the boundary between the regular and landscape parts of the Catherine Park.

The ensemble comprises structures with different functions linked by a common artistic treatment: the Cameron Gallery, the Cold Bath pavilion with the Agate Rooms, the Hanging and Flower Gardens and the Ramp.

The central part in the ensemble that Cameron constructed is taken by the Cold Bath pavilion.

The model of the Cold Bath was completed in 1780 and in the spring of that same year construction of the pavilion – a fairly small two-storey building – began. Its lower floor contained a bathing hall, a warm bathroom and a Russian steam bath. The upper floor consisted of six richly finished rooms for relaxation and amusements that became known as the Agate Rooms.

The Agate Rooms

Cameron paid particular attention to the state rooms on the upper floor of the Cold Bath: the interiors of the Agate Rooms are decorated with marble, painting, patterned parquets, coloured Urals and Altai jasper that eighteenth-century Russian craftsmen worked with exceptionally mastery.

If we go straight ahead we`ll come to the  grotto pavilion decorated inside with seashells and tufa (porous limestone).

The project for the construction of the Grotto on the bank of the Great Pond in the Catherine Park was drawn up by the architect Rastrelli. Most of the work to construct it was carried out in 1755–56 under Empress Elizabeth, but it was completed in the 1760s under Catherine II.

Now walking through the wonderful English park we make our way to

 the Lower Bathhouse. This pavilion, situated aside from the alleys of the park and intended for use by members of the court, was built to the design of the architect Ilya Neyelov in 1778–79. The Lower Bathhouse contains ten rooms grouped around a central hall with a large round bathtub. The water was heated in two boiler-rooms that had separate entrances and delivered by pipes to the steam-room and the rooms with baths.

On the edge of the Mirror Pond in the Catherine Park stands the Upper Bathhouse pavilion that was constructed in 1777–79 by the architects Vasily and Ilya Neyelov.                

Until the middle of the nineteenth century the Upper Bathhouse retained its original function and contained six rooms: an entrance hall, changing room, bath, steam bath, boiler-room and a central hall for relaxation.

At present the pavilion is used for temporary exhibitions.

Another tourist attraction of Tsarskoe selo which I can`t mention about is The Imperial Lyceum, also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder Tsar Alexander I, was an educational institution which was founded in 1811 with the object of educating youths of the best families who would afterwards occupy important posts in the Imperial service.

The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was opened on October 19, 1811. The first graduates included Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov.

As for  spiritual heritage of our museum , Znamenskaya church, was laid in 1734. This is the oldest church and first stone building in Tsarskoye Selo. Members of the royal family often visited the church. One of the most sacred icons in the church is the icon of Our Lady of the Sign. Peter I blessed Elisabeth Petrovna with this icon before her death. Now Znamenskaya Church is also the home for the icon of Seraphim of Sarov that was presented to the church by the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

"Here so many lyres were hang on branches..." - these words from A. Ahmatova poem could be the epigraph to the story about literature monuments of the Pushkin-town. Its fate is wonderful and unusual. It is called by right "The Town of Muses".

In that town the youth Pushkin years were spent. He was one of Lyceum's pupils - the privilege educated building for the children of distinguished nobility and since that time the town is always connected with the poet's name.

So, our excursion has come to it`s end. During it we tried to show the historical, educational and spiritual values of this unique place.

Thank you for your attention!