Alexander Palace
The Alexander Palace ( Russian Александровский дворец ) was the preferred residence of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. It is located in Pushkin, not far from Saint Petersburg . The palace was built by Catherine the Great for her favorite grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I , for his wedding to Louise von Baden in 1793 in the immediate vicinity of the Catherine Palace. The classicist wing building with 10 mighty representative Corinthian columns in front of the main courtyard and as a connection between the wings as well as with the high round arches of the wing fronts flanked by columns , crowned by a circumferential balustrade on the flat roof , was planned by Giacomo Quarenghi and built in 1792–96.
Since Alexander left the Alexander Palace to his brother, the future Emperor Nicholas I , it has served as a summer residence for the heir to the throne. Between 1830 and 1850 the palace was redesigned and adapted to contemporary tastes. The plans for this come from, among others, D. Cerfolio, A. Thon, D. Yefimov and Andrei Stakenschneider. The wife of Nicholas I, Empress Alexandra (Charlotte of Prussia), died in the Alexander Palace in 1860.
The last emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra (Alix von Hessen-Darmstadt) valued the palace very much. After St. Petersburg's Bloody Sunday in 1905, the Tsar moved his permanent residence from the Winter Palace to the Alexander Palace. Alexandra had the palace redecorated in Art Nouveau style . After his abdication on March 2nd, July / March 15, 1917 greg. Nicholas II and his family were placed under house arrest in the Alexander Palace until they were deported .
The Alexander Palace served as a museum until the Second World War . The German military leadership used the palace, which was not destroyed in the war, as a command center and set up a cemetery for fallen SS soldiers in the garden . After the war, art treasures were stored in the Alexander Palace; after it was handed over to the Soviet Navy , it was also used as an orphanage .
The palace has been open to the public again since 1997.
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Coordinates: 59 ° 43 '16 " N , 30 ° 23' 34.9" E