Oreanda

[Svetabel]

I think the Palace in Oreanda deserves some attention.

The construction of the Palace for Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, spouse of Emperor Nikolay I, began in 1842 by famous acrhitect Andrey Schtakenschneider.
Today we can't imagine all the splendour of this Palace as it was burnt up in 1882 and never re-edified. The Palace was 2 storied high,in Classic style,had the Atrium and resembled Belveder (in Peterhof).

There is no detail info or pictures of the interiors, all is khown that the finery was in Pompeian (Greek) architectural style. Since 1860 year GD Konstantin Nikolayevitch became the owner of the Palace , he personally fought a fire in 1882 . Grand Duke did not have enough money for reconstruction of the burnt-to-ashes Palace and just decided to build a church near the ruins.After the WW II the ruins were demounted and in 1948 on the place was built a health resort.

Here is the floorplan of the ground floor (1860).




1 - Dining room
2 - Hall
3 - Vestibule
4 - Drawing room (Reception room)
5 - Working Study
6 - Bedroom
7 - Atrium
8 - Room for Officers on duty
9 - Room for Officers on duty
10 - Dressing room
11 - Inner courtyard

[Svetabel]

Though there are a few pictures of the Palace and some of its ruins. I have 2 or 3 pictures and post them later. If anyone also has the images of Oreanda please post .

[Reco]

Ruin after 1882 fire :

[Svetabel]

Oreanda



Fantastic view ...

[BobG]

Svetabel,
Do you know it the building on the left is the building GD Konstantin Nikolayevitch and his family used after the big palace burned down in 1882?  The new book, Gilded Prism, also mentions that besides living in "the wooden dacha" the family used the "Villa Tiesenhausen" for entertaining.  Do you know anything about either?
Thanks,
BobG

[Svetabel]

Svetabel,
Do you know it the building on the left is the building GD Konstantin Nikolayevitch and his family used after the big palace burned down in 1882?

 I can't say exactly. You can see 2 buildings on the left in the picture. One of them is the Admiral's (former Imperial) House ,where GD Konstantin N. lived after the fire, and the other is the Suite House I think.

[Morecambrian]

Svetabel,
Do you know it the building on the left is the building GD Konstantin Nikolayevitch and his family used after the big palace burned down in 1882?  The new book, Gilded Prism, also mentions that besides living in "the wooden dacha" the family used the "Villa Tiesenhausen" for entertaining.  Do you know anything about either?
Thanks,
BobG

The villa Tiesenhausen was no doubt the same property as the later home of Count Soumarokov- Elston and later Prince Youssoupoff at Koriez.Countess Tisenhausen who never married was the mother of Felix Nikolayevitch Elston 1820-77.He married Countess Helena Soumarokov and took her name and title.The eldest of his 3 surviving sons Felix 1856 - 1928 married Princess Zenaida Youssoupoff and like wise adopted her rank & title.The Youssoupoff's spent much time at Koriez and it was from this last perch in Russia they fled aboard the HMS Marlborough with the Dowager Empress. Countess Tiesenhausen must have bequeathed the estate to her descendants. She left her stupendous gems and her shares in vastly profitable mines in the Urals to the Princely Clary family, Bohemian based descendants of her sister.

[Ortino]

According to Greg and Penny's book, Gilded Prism, Oreanda is mostly in ruins. Are these ruins open to the public? In other words, can one go explore/walk among them or does one encounter a lovely iron fence telling you not to enter?

[Forum Admin]

If you read the first post above, you will see that Oreanda remained in ruins after the fire of 1882 until after WWII when the ruins were removed and a sanitarium/hospital built on the site.  Empress Alexandra used to often enjoy wandering the ruins while at Livadia.
There are many pictures of the ruins and her visits there in Vyroubova's albums.

[Ortino]

I did read the first post and all I am interested in knowing is if someone can visit there now or if it is fenced off or something.

[Forum Admin]

You asked specifically "Are these ruins open to the public? In other words, can one go explore/walk among them or does one encounter a lovely iron fence telling you not to enter?"  There are no ruins left to see. There are no remains of Oreanda as is was. I suppose one could go see the post war sanitorium, though not sure of the status of it being open to the public.

[Vassili_Vorontsoff]

I may imagin that some would be interested to see palns of Oréanda palace designed by Schinkel (plan of 1835) but never realized because of the growth of the works...It  is a mix opf Semiramis garden ans palce on the Acropole(in fact of hellenistic art taht Schibnkel admire...)We may regret that such tresor woukld not have been constructed...

http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dfhhcj1.jpg" target="_blank"><img

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http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3920cs5.jpg][img=http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/6657/3920cs5.th.jpg][/url]

[Vassili_Vorontsoff]

http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fdfza9.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/390/fdfza9.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>

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This link has not work,I hope that this time would be the good...I hope some would appreciate this posts even if it is quite possible that someone have always post it before...

Vassili

[Helen]

Oreanda, 1858, by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky:
http://www.topofart.com/artists/Ivan_Konstantinovich_Aivazovsky/art_reproduction/3778/Oreanda.php

[gleb]

Oreanda, 1858, by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky:
http://www.topofart.com/artists/Ivan_Konstantinovich_Aivazovsky/art_reproduction/3778/Oreanda.php

Thanks for the link