Author Topic: Imperial Rubble from AP  (Read 10990 times)

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Offline blessOTMA

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Imperial Rubble from AP
« on: December 08, 2011, 12:41:53 AM »
For six weeks in the summer of 2005 ,Helen A , worked at  Rare Books Fund at the State Museum-Preserve "Tsarskoye Selo".  http://eng.tzar.ru/.  Most  evening she would take walks in AP park...basically along the paths taken by the family in the afternoons so long ago.  2005  was quite a time to be there. AP was no longer the naval HQ , but the major renovations of today had not begun. Pieces of rubble from the palace were simply laying about on the ground. Helen A. returned home with some and kindly gave me a piece. I thought others would like to see it.

However faded,  it's thrilling to see the Alexander Palace  yellow on what I believe to be  stucco that covered AP's  bricks....if one takes a closer look, you can see very small stones. It appears to me beach sand/stones was used as grit. Also there are two colours...the pale yellow we are familiar with and underneath that , a more orange colour.


"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna

Sunny

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2011, 01:57:33 AM »
However faded,  it's thrilling to see the Alexander Palace  yellow on what I believe to be  stucco that covered AP's  bricks....if one takes a closer look, you can see very small stones. It appears to me beach sand/stones was used as grit. Also there are two colours...the pale yellow we are familiar with and underneath that , a more orange colour.

Maybe it has been repainted in the centuries? I remember the Winter Palace had not always been white &green but has had a reddish stucco once. I'm uite sure it was already yellow hen Nicholas was born (right there!) but it was built for Catherine the Great's son Alexander I, the tsar whi defeated Napoleon, so in the end of the 18th century (Catherine died in 1801 if i remember right) so it could have changed colors in over 50 years before Nicholas was born, couldn't it?
This could be a really interesting thing to have a search on!

Anyway, THANKS to Helen for collecting such interesting items!

Offline blessOTMA

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2011, 03:54:56 AM »
Maybe it has been repainted in the centuries? ...
oh for sure..but it's cool to see it
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  (Catherine died in 1801 if i remember right)
lol! I only know this because I just finished Massies's new book about Catherine...it was 1796
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so it could have changed colors in over 50 years before Nicholas was born, couldn't it?
no doubt they repainted it, they would have to! But when would be interesting ...and I'm thinking the under colour was not on the building as long as the faded yellow...because no one cared for the building for so long, the top color is much more faded than the bottom....they could be the same color even...but the top one faded more from  being on the building so much longer
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This could be a really interesting thing to have a search on!
I'm hoping someone with knowledge of these things will look at it...the little stones in the mix make it interesting
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Anyway, THANKS to Helen for collecting such interesting items!
Indeed!

"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna

RomanovMartyrs

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2012, 07:23:44 PM »
Probably not a great idea to publicise the fact that you have a piece of a Russian government-owned historical building obtained without permission and without compensation to the state.

Just saying.

Sunny

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2012, 12:45:05 AM »
Probably not a great idea to publicise the fact that you have a piece of a Russian government-owned historical building obtained without permission and without compensation to the state.

Just saying.

Maybe they were collecting before the laws forbade it.

RomanovMartyrs

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2012, 04:41:42 PM »
Never said any law outright forbids it. Still not sure it's legal. It's already hard enough to get a Russian visa (I know from personal experience- Been there twice)...Good luck next time should they come to find that out.

Offline blessOTMA

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2012, 05:12:11 PM »
RomanovMartyrs  I remember when you ran away from your Catherine Palace tour in order to see AP when it was still behind a fence.... and be on  the grounds when you weren't suppose to be ...that was a great video :)  Whenever one asks when Alexis and his sister will join the rest of the family,  one is often told : the Russians have bigger fish to fry right now. I think my crime is way down the list...but you have a point. Today the lesser offences  are often the ones that are punished. Thanks for your concern

"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna

RomanovMartyrs

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2012, 03:03:32 PM »
RomanovMartyrs  I remember when you ran away from your Catherine Palace tour in order to see AP when it was still behind a fence.... and be on  the grounds when you weren't suppose to be ...that was a great video :)  Whenever one asks when Alexis and his sister will join the rest of the family,  one is often told : the Russians have bigger fish to fry right now. I think my crime is way down the list...but you have a point. Today the lesser offences  are often the ones that are punished. Thanks for your concern

No, I was in Alexander Park which has always been open to the public; the fenced-off area is a small section directly behind the palace and I did not trespass into that area. blessOTMA have you been there? Have you dealt with Russian border guards? Do you know Russian law? I'm not trying to sound like some paranoid Western McCarthyist here, but things are very different in Russia than in other places. I love Russia, I think that there are some amazing warm-hearted, sweet people there. But the government is not something to be taken lightly. Forgive me for trying to warn someone based on how things are in an area of the world they may not have first hand experience in. Russia does have bigger fish to fry than re-uniting deposed monarchs, true. However, a tourist attraction undergoing tremendous renovations with massive funding is a completely different thing.

To be entirely honest, I may or may not have done the exact same thing with a certain piece of Alexander Palace rubble. This is not a unique idea and I'm sure many people get away with such things at many historic sites around the world. But given what I know about Russia, I certainly wouldn't boast about that online, especially not with visual evidence to prove it.

Regards.

Offline blessOTMA

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2012, 07:37:27 PM »
lol well I certainly wasn't boasting. I thought others might like to see the masonry , it tells a great story and  in layers. This wasn't taken yesterday from the building ...this chip  was picked up  7 years ago from the ground. I appreciate your concern and my ignorance of the country . But if you feel  I'm in trouble , perhaps a PM about it would have offered me more cover? They will nab me for it or not. At my age , fear is often not a good enough reason not to do something. Mostly we seemed punished for what we don't do

"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna

Offline Maria the Beautiful

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2012, 07:50:03 PM »
BlessOTMA, I'm envious that you have such a treasure.   Thank you for sharing it.   And don't worry, if the Russian Gov't comes after you I'm sure the entire AP Forum will stand strong in unison to protect you  :)  ;)  :-X

Offline Sarushka

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2012, 08:22:52 PM »
They will nab me for it or not.

More than likely they would nab Helen A instead. With the information you provided in your original post, it wouldn't take much detective work to track her down.

Personally, I agree that it's unwise to display this piece so publicly. If you'd like the thread deleted, please PM me.

Offline edubs31

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2012, 08:23:32 PM »
BlessOTMA, I'm envious that you have such a treasure.   Thank you for sharing it.   And don't worry, if the Russian Gov't comes after you I'm sure the entire AP Forum will stand strong in unison to protect you  :)  ;)  :-X

It looks like we all live just a few miles from each other too! So I'm sure we can meet up and devise a plan in the event of such a problem :-)

Thanks for sharing by the way BlessOTMA, great find!
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right...

pastpalacelife

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2013, 10:45:32 AM »
Somewhere on one of the photo sites where you upload your photos, I saw pics of a girl who had old photos of the IF in the park and she was trying to take modern pics of the same spots. I love that idea and wish anyone who is a regular visitor would try and capture the exact spots where any of the IF was photographed. But this girl also had photos of her taking a piece of the flaking exterior paint off of the right wing. I have to say I would love to do the same, even though it is surely not the paint from Imperial times.

Offline EmmyLee

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2013, 04:11:15 PM »
I love then and now photos-- I started a thread some time ago on this. I wish you had the link to the site you're talking about; I don't believe I've seen her photos before.

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=12241.0

Offline blessOTMA

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Re: Imperial Rubble from AP
« Reply #14 on: March 03, 2013, 09:04:12 AM »
Thanks for posting that thread! Then and now photos are so great

"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna