War Damage of Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof

[lilianna]

1. Church on the restoration. But ... want to make a plastic box (I read).
2. A big, big thank you for the photo during the war. For us, the Russian, it is particularly interesting. I call these photos MY ATLANTIS.

[Akira Takiguchi]

Great photos from spanish "Blau" division!  It is interesting to see that the great hall has been (a bit) cleaned compared to 1941 photos.

Also thank you for the corrections, Alexandre!

I believe there are a lot more photos of these palaces out there.  I hope more will be posted!

[lilianna]

We are looking for these photos, but they are very few. The Germans were driven out of all the people of the city. No one could take a photo. Only fascists.

[Akira Takiguchi]

I know germans made a very good effort to record what happened there.  That's why we see even massacre photos.

So military collectors should have a lot of photos of these palaces taken by german photographers to offer.  Up until 1944.

[Akira Takiguchi]

I returned home to check monthly map of Heeresgruppe Nord to find 250.Division (sp.) - Spanish division occupied this region from September 1942 until September 1943.  Thus the photos from Antonio were taken during this period.

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

That train car was the one in which Nicholas abdicated, and then used to return to the Alexander Palace.  

Thanks dear Admin !!

The photos of the Alexandria Cottage in Peterhof are fabulous !

Do you know where is ( was ? ) the chimney of the third photo ?

Dear Akira Takiguchi , it's a pleasure :-) , your photos are fantastic , and thanks for this clarification about the dating of spanish photos.

Liliana I'm pleased to learn that the Catherine palace church are on restoration .
After the palace church of Pavlovsk and recently Peterhof , Tsarskoïe Selo will be maybe the next ;-D
The palace church of Gatchina need too a big restoration .

War damages on the imperial russian palaces will going to give lot of work for the future , in particular restoration of the Zubov wing's rooms .

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Hello Alexandre,

The chimney is from the Lyon Drawing Room.

Regards,

Antonio

[Akira Takiguchi]

Dear Antonio, your grandfather survived the war, did he not?  Glad if he did, to leave these photos for us later generations.

Anyone, russian, german, spanish... must have had great luck to survive the hell of Leningrad...

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Dear Akira,

He didn´t actually take these pics, the only ones he took back home were ones I don´t think are fit for posting. They were just a few portraying erotic pieces of furniture. Quite graphic I´m forced to admit. I keep them, but just in case they´ll be of any use in future. And yes, he survived the war, even despite of the truly frightful retreat. In any case he went them not as a soldier but just as a veterinary, so I guess he didn´t have to put up or even risk a lot!!

Regards,

Antonio

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

Hello Alexandre,

The chimney is from the Lyon Drawing Room.

Regards,

Antonio

Dear Antonio , Thank You very much !!! Yes it's the Lyon Drawing Room chimney , I didn't recognize it ;-)

This photo is very important for the future restoration of this room .

A small " slide show " like I love it .. ;-D

We see this chimney on these two documents :

The Lyon Drawing Room in 1878 ( called too the Lyons Hall or Yellow drawing room ) , by the painter Luigi Premazzi :



Autochrome of the Lyons Hall before the WWII ( probably 1931 ) : the colors of this photo are true !!



The Lyons hall chimney during the WWII ( 1942-1943 probably , according Akira Takiguchi ) :



The Lyons Hall today , very sad room with the surviving items from its pre-war furnishings , but this room is waiting to be restored !! :-D

We recognize the surviving fire-screen of the chimney.
 


I look forward to see this room once restored , retourned to its original splendour !...

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Dear Alexandre,

Don´t worry, the originals are rather big for the time, pristine and full of details. I´m only trying to find a way to scan them properly, but they are infinitely better believe you me. And thank you for the kind remarks, its really my pleasure :-)

All the best,

Antonio

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

Dear Antonio , it's my pleasure too : these photos are a rare and precious treasure .

I would like to bring my humble contribution to this topic : it's an original photo stereoview I own ( bought in a secondhand market a few years ago in Bordeaux , France , where I live ) , dating probably between 1941-1944 .We can see the Peter-and-Paul cathedral of Peterhof , and in the foreground a ruined building , probably destroyed by bombing but i don't know what was it ..



I'm sorry for the bad quality of this scan , the original is better  :-(

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Dear Alexandre,

That picture has nothing humble about it, it´s actually great!! I have only one of that cathedral in peterhof but nothing of the surrounding area. And you know every single bit counts!! :-)

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Dear Antonio , it's my pleasure too : these photos are a rare and precious treasure .

I would like to bring my humble contribution to this topic : it's an original photo stereoview I own ( bought in a secondhand market a few years ago in Bordeaux , France , where I live ) , dating probably between 1941-1944 .We can see the Peter-and-Paul cathedral of Peterhof , and in the foreground a ruined building , probably destroyed by bombing but i don't know what was it ..



I'm sorry for the bad quality of this scan , the original is better  :-(

That ruined building is what makes you pic you much interesting than mine. Mine is just a close up(an extremely good good, granted) of the cathedral. But yours, well, yours is just telling us a bit more. Give me yours anytime!!! :-) That is, unles we were talking about the AP.......

[Forum Admin]

Autochrome of the Lyons Hall before the WWII ( probably 1931 ) : the colors of this photo are true !!

The Autochromes were taken in late summer 1917, not the 1930s.  Autochrome was a unique and early color photography process invented by Lumiere in the 1890s.  Never very popular because they were difficult to make and one could only make a single glass image without any way to reproduce it.  However, literally the day after the Imperial Family left for Tobolsk, Lukhomski realized the urgency to preserve the exact appearance of the palaces for the future.  He found the only person in Petrograd, Dr. Zahest, who could make Autochrome images and engaged him to the task.  It took Zahest several weeks to accumulate the needed chemicals and glass slides and then he photographed the Catherine Palace and Alexander Palace.  The long lost images of the AP were the ones returned last year to the Alexander Palace Museum.