trust me, i know exactly what you mean....
Now I'm wondering how many floorplan junkies there are among us in this forum.
Like you two, I have been fascinated all my life by the buildings associated with historical figures and events. As a child, I even once wrote several of the toy airplane and car model companies to ask if they would consider manufacturing models of landmark buildings. (No replies, despite weeks of hopeful waiting.) Even today, I am a hobby architect, with several drafting programs on my computer with which I often amuse myself for hours on end.
While I went on to major in European history in college and grad school, my interest in history found its first legs in looking at pictures, drawings, sketches of the architectural settings in which history played out.
I first came to this forum because of the information it contained on the Alexander Palace, which I find to be one of the gems of neoclassical architecture. Of course, I soon strayed onto all the threads about the Romanovs themselves . . . and annoyed quite a few people with my generally negative view of Nicholas and Alexandra. I must admit, though, that some of my lack of sympathy for them arises from my view that, in managing the affairs of government so poorly, they helped bring an end to the era in which great palaces were the centers of civil and social activity. (And it wasn't just the revolution. Remember that the last great Winter Palace ball of the imperial era was in 1903, not 1914 or 1917.)
Now I'm wondering how many others here came to their interest in (or obsession with) the Romanovs by route of their palaces.
And, by the way . . . the Strelna floorplans really are great. Such plans provide additional critical clues to the manner in which their occupants interwove their personal and official lives and are too often overlooked for that purpose.
Thanks.
