Some amazing facts
занимательные факты по теме

                                    Some interesting facts

                                            Just imagine!  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             *The Hermitage is the complex of palaces.  

The Winter Palace has 23 000 windows and 460 rooms.

 It was  built for 7 years by the Italian architect Rastrelli.

The Winter Palace represents luxury, lightness, thoughtfulness. It was the tsar’s residence. In 1837 (December,17)  there was a great fire in the Palace. It lasted for 36 hours. They say that the Winter Palace looked like the volcano eruption. The interior of the palace was destroyed, but they managed to save all valuable collections. The architect Stasov rebuilt the building for 15 months.  

*The Isaac’s Cathedral was built for 40 years by the architect Montferrand .

The cathedral has 120 columns weighting 114 tonnes. It took 45 minutes to put down one column.The cathedral has 10 762 piles. They go un der the ground up to 14 metres deep. The cathedral is 101 metre tall. The biggest dome is 25 metres in diameter. They used 100 kg of gold to cover the dome. Montferrand wanted to be buried in the cathedral but his dream didn’t come true.

*Ekaterininsky Palace.

 They spent 1,200 roubles on its décor. Just compare this amount of money with the wages of workers at that time-only 5 kopecks a day! 1,200 roubles was a big deal of money, especially at the time of Catherine II. She had to increase taxes for salt. People joked that salt gave gold. They used 100 kg of gold to decorate the palace.

*The Amber Chamber.

Peter the Great bought the Amber Chamber from the German King. The price was only 55 soldiers (grenaders), weaving loom and a cup made by Peter . First, the Chamber was kept in Petersburg later it was moved to Ekaterininsky Palace. The amber is very fragile and Catherine ordered soldiers to carry the amber in their hands like a child. The soldiers went on feet from Petersburg to Tsar’s Selo.