Gatchina Palace

[Joanna]

Thanks Reco. I never did find that person's plans but they are great. My book on Gatchina interiors has Russian with written cyrillic rather than type and is confusing.

Joanna

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

In the Gatchina topic (http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=1414.0) There are some wonderful photos posted by Svetabel showing AIII & MF's rooms as they were used by them.  Unfortunately, brnbg aka: liljones1968's  plans of the family quarters are no longer available.  Maybe we can pesuade him to repost to get a sense of how extensive their suite was.
BobG

i realize the request was made a while ago (& someone else may have beaten me to it), but just in case anyone's still interested...

[Ally Kumari]

I hope nobody would mind if I posted these paintings....

Gothic gallery


"Equestrian" saloon


Maria Fyodorovna cabinet


Maria Fyodorovna´s oak cabinet


Alexandra Fyodorovna´s dining room


cabinet


Bathroom


Rotarian chamber


chapel


cabinet in the tower


Alexander II. ´s cabinet


Maria Fyodorovna´s bedroom


Alexandra Fyodorovna´s bedroom


Bedroom


Paul I. ´s bathroom


Maria Alexandrovna´s bathroom


Alexandra Fyodorovna´s bathroom


Alexander II.´s bathroom


Paul I.´s circular hall


Another circular hall


Alexandra Fyodorovna´s room


Alexander II.´s bedroom


Another room


Marble hall


Nicolas I. ´s small "military" room


Drawing room


Before the rooms of Alexandra Fydorovna


"walk through" between Alexander I.´s rooms


Maria Alexandrovna´s study


Room for groom of the chamber


Maria Fyodorovna´s room


Nursery



I apologize if I identified some of the rooms wrong...

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Somebody put this plan in the forum

ground floor

 

mezzanine floor



first floor

those are the plans i labeled & posted a couple of years ago.   

incidentally, Ol'ga Aleksandrovna (sister of Nicholas II) was the only child of Aleksandr III to have rooms on the 1st floor (more formal rooms) because her nurse felt the small, dark rooms of the mezzanine to be unhealthy & insisted that Olga have rooms on the spacious & airy floor above.

i believe the rooms occupied by A III, Mariia Feodorovna, Nicholas, Georg, Xenia & Mikhail on a daily basis had, at one time, been servant's rooms -- although, Aleksandr III had a large suite of formal reception rooms  right next to Olga's rooms & directly above his & MF's private rooms.  the "duplex" were directly connected by a circular (or semi-circular) staircase (ie: the 1st floor reception rooms  &  private rooms on the mezzanine below.  that same staircase went from the ground floor all the way up to, i believe, the servants rooms on 2nd floor & corner tower of the Arsenal Block.


btw, Grand Duchess Ally, the watercolors you posted are by Hau
(& Premazzi ?)

[Vassili_Vorontsoff]

Grand duchess,

Your marvellous post made more difficult to forget that Gatchina is nowadays a palace that lost most of his originals interiors...what a loss!

Thanks a lot,
Vassia

[PAVLOV]

Does anyone know if the furniture shown today, is original ? Or any of it. The original rooms are so crammed with stuff, that it is difficult to identify anything. I would go crazy living with all that clutter, and the low ceilings. Very claustrophobic. But I suppose that in the Russian winter one would do anything to keep warm and cosy. I have noticed that the family letters in those times very often contained the word "cosy" when referring to their private quarters. These rooms must be what they were referring to !       

[PAVLOV]

 Just a bit of trivia........

I was looking at a book on Faberge the other day and noticed that the " Gatchina Egg" by Faberge, given to Marie Feodorovna as a gift, contains a model of the palace. It has a green roof. Does anyone know if Gatchina is supposed to have a green roof ?
Today it is a sort of dirty brown, probably the last thing people worry about because there is no money to restore it.   

[Joanna]

Does anyone know if the furniture shown today, is original ? Or any of it. The original rooms are so crammed with stuff, that it is difficult to identify anything. I would go crazy living with all that clutter, and the low ceilings. Very claustrophobic. But I suppose that in the Russian winter one would do anything to keep warm and cosy. I have noticed that the family letters in those times very often contained the word "cosy" when referring to their private quarters. These rooms must be what they were referring to !       

Pavlov, in 2006 they were restoring the State Bedroom in the main section of the palace. The bed frame and railing in front were being recreated and were in the raw thick wood style. The walls/mirrors had been completed. In 2008, I was lucky to see AIII's rooms which are low ceiling. The main section with the Crimson Drawing room, etc are high ceiling or curved as noted in some of Hau's watercolors. Whether there are any original pieces, I have not been able to determine although if not, the recreation is magnificent even in AIII's suites.

Joanna

[PAVLOV]

Thank You
I think its marvellous that they are continuing the restoration of Gatchina, it has a magic all of its own. It is so enormous and quite off the beaten track as far as most tourists go.
I am surprised that the restoration of Gatchina seems to have gained precedence over the Alexander Palace, which is so much more " doable".
How does Gatchina compare in size to the Catherine and Winter Palaces ?

I know I can probably look this up, but someone probably has the answer.!

Regards
PAVLOV

[ArchitectCS]

Pavlov,

I'm afraid I don't have exact dimensions of Gatchina, but in size it is most definitely comparable to the Winter and Catherine Palaces.  I've seen Gatchina listed as having 600, 800 or even 900 rooms-don't know which of these figures is closest to the truth, but it certainly conveys the fact that Gatchina is enormous.  I have always thought it was bigger than the Catherine Palace, but I don't have anything to back that up.  Not sure if any of this is helpful (probably not) but I thought I'd answer anyway.

Does anyone have any recent photos of the restored interiors at Gatchina?  Does anyone know which rooms are currently being worked on?

[PAVLOV]

Thanks. I have been away so my response is very late.
Does anyone know what has happened to the enormous amount of Gatchina furniture ? Was it all sucessfully railed off as was the case with the other palaces. If so, where is it today ? Does anyone know how much was saved ? There must have been tons and tons, as it is such an enormous building, and must have contained unimaginably valuable items. 

I wonder if Gatchina is going to face the same non return issues from other palaces, as is the case at the Alexander palace ?

Isnt it horrific that the Nazi atrocities of destuction still face the countries Germany destroyed more than 60 years ago !   

[Vladimir_V.]

Last restored rooms in the central part of the Gatchina Palace:
http://history-gatchina.ru/article/restavr.htm
http://history-gatchina.ru/article/anfilada.htm

[Vladimir_V.]

Unrestored hall after the fire 1944. (Today it is possible to see in the Gatchina Palace only.)
http://www.photosight.ru/photos/2817951/

The opportunity to visit such rooms is very interesting. It is like a time machine! Especially if you are alone in the room.


Photos of the restored halls:
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/condor213/view/60247?page=2

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/condor213/view/60499?page=3

http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/condor213/view/60505?page=3

[ArchitectCS]

Vladimir,

Thanks so much for the images! It's very gratifying to see that work on the palace continues.  Maybe one day we will see the palace much as it was under Alexander III.  The image of the ruined Chesme Gallery is very poignant.  It shows both what a beautiful room it used to be and how badly it has been damaged.  Fortunately, there is still so much stucco on the walls that I hope we may someday see it restored very accurately.

Pavlov,

In answer to your question about furniture, not very much of it was saved and Gatchina is having problems getting pieces back from other palaces.  Apparently, before the war Gatchina was the #1 draw and had the most extensive collection of art and furniture, which meant it attracted Soviet attention and much of the collection was sold off.  However, that still left about 70,000 items of which only about 11,000 were evacuated.  When they were brought back after the war, most of them were sent to other museums (over 40, in fact), but scrupulous records were kept and Gatchina is trying to get it all back.  I know that a set of Gobelins has been at Pavlovsk for many years and that Gatchina can't seem to get them back, and I'm sure there are other instances too.  It's fate is really the most tragic of all the palaces. 

I got all this information from the book 'Saving the Tsars' Palaces', which I highly recommend.

[Douglas]

Here are the approx. dimensions of Gatchina Palace.  All units are in feet.

Pavlov,

I'm afraid I don't have exact dimensions of Gatchina, but in size it is most definitely comparable to the Winter and Catherine Palaces.  I've seen Gatchina listed as having 600, 800 or even 900 rooms-don't know which of these figures is closest to the truth, but it certainly conveys the fact that Gatchina is enormous.  I have always thought it was bigger than the Catherine Palace, but I don't have anything to back that up.  Not sure if any of this is helpful (probably not) but I thought I'd answer anyway.

Does anyone have any recent photos of the restored interiors at Gatchina?  Does anyone know which rooms are currently being worked on?