Private rooms of the Winter Palace

[mclisa]

First, thank you, everyone who has posted plans of the Winter Palace.

Does anyone have a scale for the plans on this site? If not, does anyone know the measurements for any of the rooms in the private apartments, which could be used to figure out a scale for the plans?

Also, does the plan of the ground floor use the same scale as the second floor (American) or first floor (British)?

[Gavin.O]

The Neva facade is said to be 200 meters long, while the Admiralty facade is 160 meters. This might be enough for you to create an approximate scale.

For example, using a print out of the floor plan from this thread -- and assuming that the Neva facade is 200 meters -- I measured about 5 meters from the outer wall to the two columns in the bedroom.

Hopefully, somebody will have a more precise way of telling the size of these rooms

--Gavin.

[hikaru]

As for the ballrooms: Main ballroom was the biggest room of the Palace - Nickolay hall.
The biggest balls, such a New Year Ball took place there.
The biggest balls were for 5000 guests.

[Gavin.O]

Can someone tell me what room is depicted in this remarkable painting from the Hermitage site?

"Breakfast of Alexander II and Wilhelm I in the Winter Palace"

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/04/2005/hm4_1_116_1.html

Thanks.

--Gavin.

[hikaru]

I suppose that this is the private room of the Alexandra Feodorovna (and Marina Alexandrovna) on the 3rd floor .
(upper floor of the Gorden Room).
Now in those room is located the collection of Turkish ceramics , which is usually is closed.

[Joanna]

Is this painting of the small winter garden of Alexandra Feodorovna part of the suite that was converted for Nicholas II and Alexandra which had the balcony attached? Can anyone identify if by room number?

http://hermitagemuseum.org/html_Ru/05/hm5_7_8_2_8.html

Joanna

[G.Michael]

I'm not certain, but I believe it is the room marked No. 179 in the diagram posted earlier in this thread.

[Aleksasha]

Gavin O.,

The Breakfast of Alexander II and Wilhelm I is in the former "corner study" of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna ( Nikolai I wife), number 185 on the coulured plan ( and D on the plan at the time of Nicholas II).

Joanna,

The little winter garden of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna ( Nicholas I wife) in marked on the coloured plan as 182. It is the same space with the Empress's "boudoir" and connected with the "large winter garden" ( 181 on the plan).

[amy]

I need to make a change to the floor plans of Nicholas and Alexandra's rooms in the Winter Palace. I have been puzzling over some discrepancies for some time and have finally figured it out.

The map Greg King provided has an error. Alexandra, Nicholas II's wife, did not have both a Dressing Room (King's F/ Hermitage 183) and a Boudoir (King's G/ Hermitage 183). They are, in fact, one and the same. Greg King evidently realized this error some time between when he posted this map and when he published The Court of the Last Tsar because the floor plans in this book account for the error.

I think part of the confusion stems from the fact that both sets of Nicholas and Alexandras shared many of the same rooms. Alexandra (Nicholas I's wife) did have both a Dressing Room (King's F/ Hermitage 183) and a Boudoir (King's G/ Hermitage 182.) During the second N&A's reign, Alexandra's Dressing Room was Alix's Dressing Room/Boudoir. And Alexandra's Boudoir was a section of Nicholas II's Study.

Since a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, here is a new map to reflect the change. It accounts for both the Hermitage number map and Greg King's alphabetic map.



Key (In case the image is image is too small to see! If you want a higher resolution copy, PM me.)

B=187=Alix's Empire Drawing Room
C=187=Alix's Silver Drawing Room
D=185=Alix's Sitting Room
E=184=N&A's Bedroom
F=183=Alix's Boudoir
H=180-182=Nicholas's Study
I=178=Nicholas's Gothic Library
O=177=Nicholas's Billiard's Room
P=175&176?= Nicholas's Reception Room

Original Hermitage Map:

[amy]

Now that the map business is taken care of...

Pictures of Alix's Boudoir, King's F/ Hermitage 183:

1. Alix's Boudoir 1917




2. Alix's Boudoir 1917, after the storming of the Palace




3. Alix's Boudoir c. 1910




4. Alix's Boudoir 2004
Sorry for the fuzzy quality. Camera "died" during our trip




5. Ceiling fragment from Alix's Boudoir 2004

[Eddie_uk]

Wonderful photos, thank you Amy! It's sad to see the state of the IF rooms (there home!!!) after they were stormed, but very interesting. Are there many photos in existance showing it in disaray?

[amy]

I'm sure there are more, but I only have two photos from the Winter Palace after the storming.

Caption:
Soldiers in the Ministerial Reception Room of Nicholas II after the storming of the Winter Palace, 1917.

Corresponds to King's P/ Hermitage 175 (maybe also 176). Confussing because the space has changed. During NII's time there were 2 rooms occupying the space that now has 3!

[amy]

Floor plans from Nicholas I and Alexandra's era.

[amy]

Last photos for today of the space that was Alix's Boudoir. (King's F/Hermitage 183)

Below are scans of water colors, from two different dates, of Alexandra's, Nicholas I's, Dressing Room.

1. Alexandra Feodorovna's Dressing Room, 1871.

Caption:
Alexandra Feodorovna's dressing room lay next door to the bedchamber. The walls, originally covered with pink fabric, were hung with blue brocatelle in the late 1850s. The rosewood furniture, commissioned from Peter Gambs in 1839, was also covered in blue to harmonize with the smalt or blue glass of the dressing table top. The mantelpiece ornaments are of St. Petersburg manufacture of the 1830s.




2.  Alexandra Feodorovna's Dressing Room, no date.

Caption:
This view of the dressing room shows different curtains, carpet and furnishing fabric. This was the room in which the Empress dressed, as can be seen from the cloths depicted to the left of the painting.
Through the large glazed door to the right can be glimpsed the boudoir, and beyond it the Small Winter Garden.

[amy]

The little winter garden of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna ( Nicholas I wife) in marked on the coloured plan as 182. It is the same space with the Empress's "boudoir" and connected with the "large winter garden" ( 181 on the plan).

This is the response that prompted me to rehaul the map. I am so sorry for the original error. 

Joanna- The picture in question, from Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna's era, is from room 181, looking towards room 185. Room 182, during the first Nicholas and Alexandra was Alexandra's Boudoir, but during Nicholas II's era, room 182 was an extension of his study, not Alix's Boudoir. During the fiirst N&A, rooms 180 and (possibly) 181 were Alexandra Feodorovna's Small Winter Garden. I'm still trying to work figure it out. I have more photos from each era which should illustrate how the space was used, but I won't have time to post them until January.