Private rooms of the Winter Palace

Thank you all for your replies. I never realised that there were 3 winter gardens. I suppose that because the palace was so huge they required more than one of everything, as the walking distance would have been a problem.  I wonder where they were, somehow i think they were very far from the private apartments. I cannot find anything on the floor plans.
But I can imagine wanting to have a quiet moment with a book in the winter garden, and having to first walk miles to the library and then to the other side of the palace to the winter garden.  Must have been exhausting. I can imagine the logistical nightmare for the servants if one of the family members had a 'peckish' moment late at night. All those miles of passages ! Perhaps they had smaller kitchens in the private rooms.

However, I would still very much like to know about the exit doors to the private garden on the side of the palace, as per my previous post, and which rooms they exited from.

Many of you have probably seen the movie "Russian Ark; which I find fascinating, and also a DVD which i ordered from the palace Shop 2 years ago. Both are a sort of guided tour of the palace, but I find it very difficult when watching these to piece together the sequence of the rooms.
Particularly because there are so many entrances. The Museum one starts at the Jordan staircase and then enters the room with the carriages, and then the small throne room. I guess one would have to sit there with the floor plan and just mark off the rooms as they come up, to get some sort of idea as to where the guides are heading.
Versailles is a lot easier I find, as the building seems to flow a lot better.

And yes the Winter palace was a security nightmare for the family, especially after the bombing attempt on Alexander II"s  dining room.
I think there were just too many entrances to gaurd, and the result was a feeling of insecurity for everyone who lived there.

There are many city palaces in Europe whic have no gardens to speak of. I think the City Schloss was another example. It does not look as if it had any garden at all.

Edward VII's comments were probably made because he was spoilt by the beautiful private gardens behind Buckingham palace.      

Thanks Bob,
A wonderful photo which shows a very different angle of the palace not normally seen. I presume those are stairs leading down to what used to be a garden.
Was this taken before the revolution or after? I seem to think that the railings and garden were removed after 1917. And that the railings were made by the same factory, and to a similar design, as those made for the private balcony at the Alexander Palace. Many people thought they were very unattractive.

Pavlov,
I did a little checking and found information on the Winter Palace garden on the Hermitage website and learned the garden was fenced in in 1901 and the fence was removed in 1928.
The archives label the photo 1900, and I would not be surprised if this was just before the garden was redone and the fence built as there is nothing in the area (the fountain etc.) and other pictures from the archives show the fence with fairly young trees.

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_4_6.html

BobG

Concerning a garden entrance, other than the Saltykov Staircase, maybe there was a ground floor entrance/exit like there was on the Neva side? I have a watercolor, c.1820, showing a entrance/exit that would led to the future garden location. Perhaps this was reopened (or never closed) for private access?

I have no idea why the image hosting site re-sized my uploaded image to teeny-tiny, cannot see size. It makes it difficult, if not impossible, to see the door!

I sent  the morning rooting around in my photo file and found another image of what I believe is a photo of Nicholas II's balcony. I must have taken this photo from a book, but I don't remember which book it was. I'm sorry about the poor quality, but on the lower left side, at street level, is an entrance.




 

Having read through the first few pages of this thread, I cannot thank the posters enough for their floor plans and maps of the last Tsar's private quarters! I took extensive photography while there and wanted to piece it all together as the Romanovs saw it. Now I can! I'll post the photos to this thread once they're all uploaded and sorted. All the confusion got me thinking- why has no historian drawn up a map of the Winter Palace that labels all the rooms as they were used in Imperial times? Or maybe there is such a map that I haven't yet seen? After having been to the Hermitage twice now, I can say that, though the collection of art is impressive and wonderful...I truly wish they had kept the palace section of the Hermitage as a museum of exactly what it was- a palace. To me, it's a shame to see art from France, or Italy, or Japan, in the place the Tsar's billiard once stood.

Anyway. I look forward to sharing photos. And thanks again so much for the floorplans!!

Youtube video featuring photos of all Private Rooms of Nicholas II and some videos. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9cBD8Dm0po

I have no idea why the image hosting site re-sized my uploaded image to teeny-tiny, cannot see size. It makes it difficult, if not impossible, to see the door!

I sent  the morning rooting around in my photo file and found another image of what I believe is a photo of Nicholas II's balcony. I must have taken this photo from a book, but I don't remember which book it was. I'm sorry about the poor quality, but on the lower left side, at street level, is an entrance.