Today's New York Times (June 18, 2006--Cultured Traveller, p 5, 10) had an interesting article:
"History Is A Perennial In The Gardens Of The Czars".
It talks about Peterhof, Tsarkoe Selo, and the AP. The devastating damage of the revolution and wars is addressed, as well as the sad state of repair of the AP.
Regarding the AP it says, in part:
"But the most stirring part of Tsarkoe Selo is not the clipped and crowded Catherine Park, but rather the neglected acres of the Alexander Park surrounding the semi-derelict Alexander Palace just to the north. At the end of a tawny meadow of un-mown kneehigh grass and clouded ponds, I came across a chipped neo-classical facade that seemed like a lost soul from the Age of Reason---imagine Jefferson's Monticello on a vast scale, painted a dirty yellow and fronted with a soaring double colonnade of flaking corinthian columns."
"Though the sun was shining, the atmosphere was drained and melancholy as a se[ia photograph. This forlorn palace was the favorite residence of Nicholas II and Alexandra, the last of the Romanovs, and for a few months after the Russian Revolution, their prison."
Do read this---Nellie
