Alexander Palace Restoration

[Vladimir_V.]

[Vladimir_V.]

You can see Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi (with a box in his hands),
Mayor (Gubernator) of St Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev and
deputy director of the TS museum Nicholai Nagorsky.

[helenazar]

Hi Vladimir, for some reason I can't see any of the images you posted :-(

[Vladimir_V.]

Strange. It is very popular photowebsite www.radikal.ru
Where do you live?

[helenazar]

I think that perhaps there is a firewall at my work computer for this site.... :-(

[Vladimir_V.]

How is that?
Do you  waste your gold working time for the photos from internet?

Du bist grundschlecht! :-)

[helenazar]

How is that?
Do you  waste your gold working time for the photos from internet?

Du bist grundschlecht! :-)

  I'm afraid I do...  LOL

[Alixz]

My husband and I are contemplating a visit to St Petersburg in November.  I have been in touch with a tour company, but we will be on our own with a driver and translator.  No buses, thank the Lord.

I emailed to ask if, on the day we visit Tsarskoe Selo, we would be allowed to visit the Alexander Palace.  I asked if it would be open to tourists.  I also asked a lot of other questions and this is one question that she did not answer.

I, too, like the austere architecture of the AP as opposed to the glamour and size of the Catherine.

I have looked forward to this trip for so long and I am almost afraid to go.  To see the reality of the Nazi destruction and also the destruction of age and time puts me off.

Our trip will include the Hermitage, the Fortress, Peterhof, and Pushkin as well as a couple of churches.  On  the one hand, I am very excited, but on the other afraid of feeling too sad because of all that has been lost.

[helenazar]

I emailed to ask if, on the day we visit Tsarskoe Selo, we would be allowed to visit the Alexander Palace.  I asked if it would be open to tourists.  I also asked a lot of other questions and this is one question that she did not answer.

I think there is one day of the week that the AP is closed, it may be Tuesdays, but I can't remember for sure. All other days they are open until 5 or 6, I believe... It would be pretty safe to assume they will be open on the weekend,  as long as you get there early enough.

[Belochka]

The Palace is indeed closed on Tuesdays. Other days it remains open until 5 p.m.

Margarita

[dmitri]

Yes this is quite normal practice to have one day where a museum is closed. In many cases it is a Monday. It gives staff time to deal with cleaning and organisation of exhibits. It is a very sensible practice.

[ChristineM]

The palace is also closed for an additional day once a month.   This is for 'hygiene'.   I cannot immediately recall which day, but an up to date guide book should help.   Alternatively call the palace.

tsaria

[dmitri]

Yes perhaps people forget that in its heyday the Alexander Palace would have had all sorts of different people cleaning and keeping the place in order even when the imperial family were in residence. There would have been lots to do. I doubt whether the imperial family would have been down on their knees polishing and scrubbing.

[charley]

   At Alexander Palace, I would love to see period photographs of the family enlarged and placed right in front of the location they were originally taken, inside and outside the palace. They do this technique at some of the historic sites and battlefields around the country. It is so exciting to look at all the details of the photgraph taken in the 18oo's and then looking ahead at the same spot. You can easily imagine how everything was at the time of the photograph. They could do this inside and ouside the palace. I am sure aside from the run down condition, alot of the sites look the same.
   I think if I was going there, I would defintely have some original photographs with me to put me in the right frame of mind when I went to the palace.

[Venois]

As a Russian I would like to say that I would doubt that Nicolas II as well as the family in general are in a low esteem in Russia right now. They are saints of our church and at least intellectuals still regard them more as martyrs than as weak initiators of 70 year long time of troubles.

Uneducated mass of the population (which, I must admit is in the majority in Russia as well as in the rest of Europe), is more careless and ignorant than sincerely negative about the last Czar. The subject of Nicolas II is very complex and it is much easier to claim that he was a treacherous dweeb than to prove that he was actually quite well as a ruler and as a man.

I also think that Potemkin's villages is a nice legend which is constantly being overused both by then foreigners as well as by the Russian opposition. Isn't that good that the facade of the palace is going to be restored? The roof? I think this is the first thing to do. Now, when we have a strong confirmation that the military are going to leave soon we can contemplate and think about how to restore the palace.

I think there is a strong commitment from the Russian government to restore the country to its imperial glory. Of course, they mix Russian and Soviet empires together, which is a mistake, in my view. But anyway, the whole restoration budget only of the city of St. Petersburg (including environs) is 260 million euro.  This is more than the whole restoration budget of France. They've restored Russian coat of arms insignia on the Senate building recently. They are going to restore the Alexander Palace too.