The Farm Palace, in Peterhof

[Joanna]

I am not sure if this is referred to as the Farm Cottage or Farm Palace but it is located in the Alexandria Park close to the Cottage that Empress Marie lived in during the reign of Nicholas II. I have read that the building survived but the interiors were destroyed during WWII. This is where the children of Nicholas I and Alexander II lived and studied and then in the 1890's and 1900's the Farm was where Alexandra's children after Olga were born. Has anyone been to the Farm or know if it is being restored? Are there any pre 1917 photographs and plans?

Joanna

[Greg_King]

It's variously called the Farm or the Farmhouse Palace in quite a few references.  The building is indeed still there, though as you say the interiors were largely gutted by a fire in WWII (a shame, as some of them were quite nice).  Off the top of my head, I think only Tatiana and Marie were born here-Anastasia and Alexei at the Lower Palace-N and A lived here during Tomishko's reconstruction of the latter.  I've heard various reports as to possible restoration work, but nothing concrete.  There is if I recall a watercolor of Alexander II's blue study in Prince Michael of Greece's "Imperial Palaces of Russia," and some photographs, as well as floorplans, in the 1976 book "Architectural Monuments of the Leningrad Suburbs" by Petrov.

Greg King

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Hello Joanna and Greg,
Just to add to that already said by Greg, the Imperial family spent in the Farm Palace the summers of 1896, 1897. Olga was born in the Alexander Palace, as far as i can remember; Tatiana in the Farm Palace and Maria, Anastasia and Alexey in the Lower Palace.  
Last summer they were working in the Farm Palace so i suppose it will be soon restored...
The best book to see this palace´s interiors is: " Imperial Palaces in the vicinity of Saint Patersburg" by Alain de Gourcuff editeur. The "book" is indeed a boxed edition with four volumes full of marvellous watercolors from the 19th siecle depicting the palace interiors.
The four books are:
Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo.
There are many watercolors of the Farm Palace.
I think this book is a must have for any of us. The only problem with this editor´s books is the price...they are luxury editions with luxury prices... around 300 $!!!

[gleb]

I' d be gratefull to anyone who could post a plan of this building (the Farm of Alexander II)  and other informations or images.

Thanks

[Scott]

Not that great of a photo, but I took this in December 1998:

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Hello Joanna and Greg,
Just to add to that already said by Greg, the Imperial family spent in the Farm Palace the summers of 1896, 1897. Olga was born in the Alexander Palace, as far as i can remember; Tatiana in the Farm Palace and Maria, Anastasia and Alexey in the Lower Palace.  
Last summer they were working in the Farm Palace so i suppose it will be soon restored...
The best book to see this palace´s interiors is: " Imperial Palaces in the vicinity of Saint Patersburg" by Alain de Gourcuff editeur. The "book" is indeed a boxed edition with four volumes full of marvellous watercolors from the 19th siecle depicting the palace interiors.
The four books are:
Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo.
There are many watercolors of the Farm Palace.
I think this book is a must have for any of us. The only problem with this editor´s books is the price...they are luxury editions with luxury prices... around 300 $!!!

   

i ordered this set, sight unseen, primarily for the Gatchina volume.

i was extremely impressed w/ the set as a whole.   the watercolors were beautiful -- however, i thought it was amazing that there were no plans for any of the buildings.    i know it's a collection of watercolors[/b], but it would have nice to know "where i was"
when i was i was looking at something.   i mean really, for the ungodly amount of money it cost, they should have put a little more into it.      

as much as i love them, books like these are nothing but a luxury for me (i'm a grossly underpaid social-worker -- not making very much more than the people i work with!), and, from that perspective, i'd have to say THE WINTER PALACE, SAINT PETERSBURG (an enormous volume by the same publisher, and at HALF the cost) is much more satisfying --- for me, anyway.     indeed.   while i can't recall what the deciding factor was, i decided not to buy the IMPERIAL PALACES IN THE VICINITY...   luckily, i had asked to look at it before i paid for it.   i'm SO glad i did.

don't get me wrong, all 4 volumes are very beautiful --  i think i had expected the set, as a whole, to be bigger (if i recall correctly, they're actually rather petit, aren't they?)  

i guess what i'm voicing are my doubts that it's worth $300.   but those things are always subjective, aren't they?       i should also say that i strongly suspect that if there had been plans, i would very probably have bought the set.     i guess it's just a matter of "does it contain," for you, "anything that's worth the price?"

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Hello Joanna and Greg,
Just to add to that already said by Greg, the Imperial family spent in the Farm Palace the summers of 1896, 1897. Olga was born in the Alexander Palace, as far as i can remember; Tatiana in the Farm Palace and Maria, Anastasia and Alexey in the Lower Palace.  
Last summer they were working in the Farm Palace so i suppose it will be soon restored...
The best book to see this palace´s interiors is: " Imperial Palaces in the vicinity of Saint Patersburg" by Alain de Gourcuff editeur. The "book" is indeed a boxed edition with four volumes full of marvellous watercolors from the 19th siecle depicting the palace interiors.
The four books are:
Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo.
There are many watercolors of the Farm Palace.
I think this book is a must have for any of us. The only problem with this editor´s books is the price...they are luxury editions with luxury prices... around 300 $!!!

   

i ordered this set, sight unseen, primarily for the Gatchina volume.

i was extremely impressed w/ the set as a whole.   the watercolors were beautiful -- however, i thought it was amazing that there were no plans for any of the buildings.    i know it's a collection of watercolors[/b], but it would have nice to know "where i was"
when i was i was looking at something.   i mean really, for the ungodly amount of money it cost, they should have put a little more into it.      

as much as i love them, books like these are nothing but a luxury for me (i'm a grossly underpaid social-worker -- not making very much more than the people i work with!), and, from that perspective, i'd have to say THE WINTER PALACE, SAINT PETERSBURG (an enormous volume by the same publisher, and at HALF the cost) is much more satisfying --- for me, anyway.     indeed.   while i can't recall what the deciding factor was, i decided not to buy the IMPERIAL PALACES IN THE VICINITY...   luckily, i had asked to look at it before i paid for it.   i'm SO glad i did.

don't get me wrong, all 4 volumes are very beautiful --  i think i had expected the set, as a whole, to be bigger (if i recall correctly, they're actually rather petit, aren't they?)     i guess what i'm voicing are my doubts that it's worth $300.   but those things are always subjective, aren't they?       i should also say that i strongly suspect that if there had been plans, i would very probably have bought the set.     i guess it's just a matter of "does it contain," for you, "anything that's worth the price you must pay?"
.
.
.

[Robert_Hall]

Yes ,Brian, it is a matter of what it contains for  the buyer  as well as how much one is able or willing to pay. I have this set as well and several other volumes, well worth the investment to me, obviously not to others.  I was horrified when a decorator friend of mine bought the set simply to dismantle the volumes, frame the indivual prints and sell them seperately !
I am not afraid of paying a price for volumes that "to me" add to my library collection, on the other hand, one must always be aware of those simply taking advantage of a weakness for such things.
Book buying is a costly past-time now, and it is best to spend on what one really is after.

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Yes ,Brian, it is a matter of what it contains for  the buyer  as well as how much one is able or willing to pay. I have this set as well and several other volumes, well worth the investment to me, obviously not to others.  I was horrified when a decorator friend of mine bought the set simply to dismantle the volumes, frame the indivual prints and sell them seperately !
I am not afraid of paying a price for volumes that "to me" add to my library collection, on the other hand, one must always be aware of those simply taking advantage of a weakness for such things.
Book buying is a costly past-time now, and it is best to spend on what one really is after.

very true, very true.    it's all just a matter of degrees.    as i said, the volumes are very beautiful ....but, personally & generally speaking, it's the floor plans that i love & would go to the ends of the earth for, or, at least, try[/i] to, for those i really want.   hence my belief that had they contained any plans, i'd have probably bought them.

i tend to create the interiors, for a given building, in my imagination and sometimes am greatly disappointed when i see what they really look/ed like.    it's odd, but every time i finally see plans that i've searched-for and longed to see, i have an actual physical reaction.     i can't really describe it accurately, but it's sort of "thankful euphoria" (that's as close as i can get...) that glides over me in one big wave.  



hmmmm.....  




too much information?

   

[gleb]

I did not know if to post these pics of the Farm, becouse they are well known and I did not want to be repetitive, but then I thought the book where I took them is very expansive and not so easy to find, so here they are:

The main facade of the Farm, to the right you can see the Gothic Chapel, built by Schinkel.
I do not know when it was painted but it must be before some restoration works, becouse an aile of the house is still missing.

As far as I know the house already existed when Stackenschneider was given the order to rebuild it. Maybe this watercolour is from that period.

[gleb]

[gleb]

The study of Alexander II

[gleb]

[gleb]

The Sitting room of Maria Alexandrovna

[gleb]

Isn't this house marvellious? So cozy, bright and lively.

If there is anyone who knows more about its history....

One question:

Is it true or not that Ksenia used to live here?


p.s.

I am bit late, but Thanks a lot Scott for the pic! It's fascinating.


Have you got photoes of it? Why are they so rare?