Has anyone noticed the hooks on the central balcony of the Winter palace ? They used to hang the Imperial standard from these hooks. If one looks at the photograph of Nicholas and Alexandra on the balcony, at the declaration of was in 1914, you will see the Standard hanging from these very hooks. The hooks are still there !.
I am facinated by small details like this, especially when one can compare them to old photographs.
Also the Winter Palace Theatre. If one compares the old photographs of the famous Ball given there By N & A ( 1904?) and compare them to pictures we see of the theatre now, one can match up the pillars by the graining in the marble.
Same with the bridge in the English park at Tsarskoe, ( the one referred to before). One can almost compare the chips and marks in the stone !
I would one day like to sit right where they did. One can do this by the pattern in the wrought iron railing behind them.
I guess its a bit obsessive, but I always see small things like this, somehow they speak volumes !
