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Catherine Palace
AKA Tsarskoye Selo
Pushkin, Russia, 25 km SE of St. Petersburg
| The Catherine Palace was the Rococo summer residence of the Russian tsars, located in the town of Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), The Catherine Palace is named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great, who ruled Russia for two years after her husband's death. Originally a modest two-storey building commissioned by Peter for Catherine in 1717, the Catherine Palace owes its awesome grandeur to their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who chose Tsarskoe Selo as her chief summer residence. Starting in 1743, the building was reconstructed by four different architects, before Bartholomeo Rastrelli, Chief Architect of the Imperial Court, was instructed to completely redesign the building on a scale to rival Versailles. In Elizabeth's reign it took over 100kg of gold to decorate the palace exteriors. [1 kg is roughly the size of a golf ball.] |
Photos and their arrangement © 2010 Chuck LaChiusa
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