Alexander Palace Restoration

[Tsarfan]

Whether you like it or not, I still feel the same about the contents of the Alexander Palace.

I don't think any of us would not like to see original furnishings returned to the palace as part of the most authentic restoration possible.  However, the restoration of the building is mostly a matter of money these days, as the artisan skills are on hand for the task.  The reacquisition of original furnishings is much more complicated, even in the case where the whereabouts of the originals are known or even in state hands at other museums.

Richard Jenrette, perhaps the premiere restorationist of buildings from the Federal era in America (the same period during which the Alexander Palace was constructed and first furnished) confronted huge obstacles in returning original pieces to his restorations, even with his great wealth and high-level connections and, often, with the knowledge of where the pieces were.  And consider that the pieces he had trouble wresting from the hands of others did not have anything approaching the provenance of property of the tsars.  It is just not that quick and easy.

I hope we can all agree on this without attributing the difficulties in overcoming impediments to the incompetence or lack of dedication of people who are getting more remarkable work done more quickly than any of us thought possible only ten years ago.

[Forum Admin]

Indeed, Tsarfan makes a valuable point.  The Alexander Palace was built, decorated and furnished by Emperors, with the power and money that accompany the office.  The current "residents" have far more challenges and difficulties facing them, but they all have the dedication to face them squarely.

The Friends of Tsarskoe Selo Society will be a great vehicle for people world wide to help overcome those obstacles, and achieve the one goal everyone here shares: The Restoration of the Alexander Palace, in the best and most accurate way possible.  Once Bob and the directors finalize the details, and we can open the membership, we hope everyone will step up and do whatever small things they can do within their means to make this goal a reality.

[Tsarfan]

This whole conversation brings up an interesting point . . . and it has to do with the definition of "authenticity" as regards the imperial palaces.

Think about it this way.  Most opera-goers today treat a performance as almost being in a church service.  One listens to the opera with near-reverence, staying as still and as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the presentation of an immutable monument to music history.  (One also occasionally dozes off.)  But opera was originally a very different form of entertainment.  Especially during the recitatives, people bustled about, came and went, chatted with neighbors, peered at the crowd.  Only during the big-name arias did people become generally attentive.  It was a vibrant, amorphous experience.  And that was its real appeal.  (Remember the wonderful scenes of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in the brilliant film Amadeus?  That is what opera was meant to be.)

I think palaces were much more like that to their occupants and visitors in their heyday.  They were not museums.  They were places where the chairs were in one place today and another place tomorrow.  Children played in them, even in the parade rooms.  Consider the slide in the Mountain Room of the Alexander Palace.   Think about King George I of Greece (Olga Constantinova's husband) and his children chasing each other on their bikes through the state rooms of their Athens palace.  Then there is that wonderful watercolor of Alexander I's bedroom at the Catherine Palace, with his boots and cast-off clothes strewn over the room and draped over furniture.

Even as late as Catherine II's time, there was not enough furniture to fill the palaces she kept expanding, so wagonloads of furniture followed her from palace to palace.  The concept of a piece of furniture "belonging" to one palace as opposed to another was alien to the occupants.  While still a Grand Duchess, there is an anecdote of a foreign dignitary having a discussion with Catherine while they were standing under scaffolding in a hall of Peterhof that was being remodeled while Empress Elizabeth was in residence and using the area to entertain.  (Less on point, there was the astonishing episode when a fire in a Moscow palace to which Elizabeth had migrated for a winter season burned and destroyed 4,000 dresses she had hauled down in her wake from St. Petersburg to get her through the party cycle.)

Take the Semicircular Hall of the Alexander Palace, for example.  Sometimes when Nicholas or Alexandra walked into it, it was almost empty.  Sometimes it was set up with dozens of round tables for a banquet.  Sometimes it was set up as a movie theater for which a hole had been made in the back wall to accommodate the projector.  So . . . which is the "authentic" way to present the room today?

What is truly authentic about these palaces is the fluidity of their use and their appearance from year to year, even from day to day.  In many ways, they were shells to hold the portable lives of tsars and their families who were constantly on the move.  It is important to restore the sense of what it felt like to live and move about in a place such as the Alexander Palace.  Viewing it as a monument that is desecrated by having this piece of furniture there instead of that piece, or having something on one wall instead of another, rather misses the whole point of what a palace was to its occupants.

[Louis_Charles]

I certainly think you are correct in your description of the original ambience of opera and even theatre --- the original productions of Shakespeare's play would have included incredibly raucous audience interaction with the stage. It  survives today in British theatre more so than American; in England they will actually boo a bad performance, while American audiences will simply sit in glazed silence rather than be so "rude". And yes, what you say about the fluidity of these palaces also makes sense. They were both public AND private spaces, with purposes for particular areas rotating from reign to reign depending upon the sociability of the monarchs, the ages of their children, whole varieties of reasons. I suppose the ideal thing would be to change arrangements of furniture and pictures with some frequency. It would be both accurate AND interesting, as well as giving a more accurate sense of it as both home and facility. It would also allow accommodation for both those who want Nicholas and Alexandra (kind of boring in the state rooms, anyway) and those who want the grandeur.

Simon

[Robert_Hall]

This is all true, Tsarfan.  Many palaces had a change of fabrics from  summer to winter. Also, often, furniture travelled with the Emperor [or empress, as the case may be]. Catherine II bought hoards of treasures from the sales  at Versailles after their revolution.  It took  lots of carts to haul this stuff around. And, later, trainloads.  Recall what N&A took with them to Tobolsk. People concentrate on the jewels but they took beds, kitchen needs and  other things they felt they may need.
 Furniture was often disposable, although we may call them valuable antiques now, they were just every day items to them.
 There was also a lot of looting,not just by the Bolsheviks and Nazis. After the last revolution, once people had vented their anger, Lenin  put a stop to it. "property of the people" and all that. Even Stalin's sales barely made a dent in the national patrimony.
 BTW, Magic Flute is my favourite opera, and the Queen of the Night aria still thrills me.

[TheMauveRoom]

While I would certainly like to see the Alexander Palace exactly as it was when Nicholas and Alexandra lived there, there is something to be said for "acquired significance," which most modern historic preservationists consider when they go to restore any landmark. What I mean is that while most of us consider the period from 1894-1917 when Nicholas and Alexandra lived at the Alexander Palace as its most significant contribution to history, there is certainly more to the story. Many museum professionals (myself included) struggled with the question of whether a landmark should be restored to one period at the expense of another.

Frankly, up until recently I thought that the restorations done at the Alexander Palace were appalling. I still am not overly fond of them, but my it took my reading Suzanne Massie's book Pavlovsk to understand why the Alexander Palace (many of the other Imperial residences as well) was in such bad shape. Even after the Revolution, most of the Russian people felt that it was important to preserve the history of their tsarist past. There was an almost immediate movement to preserve the palaces and turn them into museums (in addition to the ill-conceived idea of the AP as a children's home). Until the Nazis invaded Russia during World War II, everything was essentially the way that Nicholas and Alexandra had left it when they went to Tobolsk. Much of their clothing was still in the closets!

The goal of the Nazis when they arrived in Russia was to break the spirit of the Russian people. They felt that this could best be done by destroying their cultural centers and above all, wiping out any remnants of their history. Of course, the palaces were and are some of Russia's most amazing monuments. The Nazis went through the Alexander Palace and destroyed almost everything that had been left behind by the frantic curators, who did manage to evacuate a remarkable amount of valuables from all of the remaining palaces to secret locations around Russia. One woman remembered coming upon Nazi soldiers stomping Alexandra's hats into the ground. She was extremely distraught and began to pick up some of the broken items on the floor. She managed to find a small, undamaged vase which the Nazis allowed her to keep.

By the end of the war, Tsarskoe Selo was essentially a wasteland. The Alexander Palace had been completely desecrated. This was a very long-winded way of making my point; which is that in some ways I think that the current presentation of the Alexander Palace is appropriate because it makes clear how much was lost during World War II. We are really lucky that the building itself is still standing at all! To go back and restore everything to an exact replica of how it was when Nicholas and Alexandra lived there would mean wiping out another part of the AP's history.

However, I don't at all deny that I would absolutely LOVE to see the Alexander Palace in all of its glory!

[Tsarfan]

Many museum professionals (myself included) struggled with the question of whether a landmark should be restored to one period at the expense of another.

I am a huge fan of Quarenghi's work and view the Alexander Palace as one of the jewels of world neoclassical architecture that should be restored to his vision as a work of art.  And I am in the camp that finds Alexandra's taste in interior design to be absolutely execrable.  At the same time, I recognize that the survival of the palace at all depends in large part on its attraction to future tourists as the last home of the Russian monarchy.

Fortunately, the Alexander Palace is unusual in allowing the accommodation of both agendas in almost full measure.  Nicholas and Alexandra chose to set up their personal quarters in the least important part of the original Quarenghi building, cut off as it was from the rest of the palace by the Concert Hall and sited closest to the street and entry gate.  So, with the exception of the Concert Hall, their renovations really did not touch the core architectural fabric of the building in any significant way.  This leaves us with the great good luck that a restoration of the palace to the state in which Nicholas and Alexandra knew it satisfies both the desires of those to see the last tsar's home brought back to life and of those to see the essence of the Quarenghi building protected.

While I have a tinge of regret over the loss of the Concert Hall, it was not as architecturally significant as the main parade rooms which form perhaps the most elegant and harmonious space of any Russian palace.  And it was replaced in part by the one space Alexandra brought into being that had, at least in my opinion, true artistic merit -- the Maple Room, which is arguably one of the most beautiful art nouveau spaces ever created anywhere . . . and certainly in Russia.  The Maple Room for the Concert Hall seems, on balance, a fair trade to me.

And MauveRoom, I think your point about acquired significance is very well-taken.  For better or worse, the building played a role in some of the darkest days of modern Russian history, and there is value in acknowledging that rather than trying to erase it altogether from the story of the palace told to coming generations.  The example of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedåchtnißkirche in Berlin is perhaps too extreme when dealing with buildings as significant as the Catherine Palace and Pavlovsk, but leaving some remnants of the days of the Alexander Palace as an orphanage and as a military facility would be entirely appropriate.

[Vanya Ivanova]

In relation to the conservation and return of furniture and artifacts to historical buildings, I know a little of the difficulties involved, which are manifold it has to be said.

I work for the Bath Preservation Trust, in Bath, England. One of the Trust's properties is No 1 the Royal Crescent. Recently the Trust has managed to acquire the house next door which was originally the service wing (servants quarters) for No 1 Royal Crescent. This means that as of next summer, the townhouse will have 10 recreated period rooms as opposed to the current 5.

Most of the furniture and objects in the house are on loan from other museums and private individuals. For the renovations to re link the two properties all these items have to be returned to their owners temporarily owing to the complex and expensive issue of their insurance. The scale of cataloging, indexing, packing, shipping and storing of the items for the renovations is an immense and expensive operation. It also means that staffing levels will have to rise from 76 at the moment to 142 all told when the other 5 rooms are added to the museum.

The scale and expense of this house and its items is as nothing in comparison to a project such as the restoration of a building as large and significant as the Alexander Palace. Just purchasing and re joining the service wing of this 18th century town house has taken years of logistical planning and millions of pounds of funding from lottery grants and private individuals.

From what I have seen the external renovations and restoration of the Parade Halls at the Alexander Palace are of the highest conservation standards possible and an incredible achievement in such a short space of time. The return of every painting, chair, table etc may never be possible for a project of this scale and the restoration of the private apartments will be particularly arduous as there are so many component parts/objects to deal with.

The Russian museum authorities are world experts at this and are dealing with the Palace extremely sensitively, ie doing everything meticulously to the highest standard and that takes time, lots of it. I can understand why some visitors may feel frustrated by this but one has to grasp that if it is to be done properly then it takes a long time and you have to start with the structural and architectural integrity of the building first before you can even think about the objects and items that fill those spaces.

There is also the factor that as Tsarfan pointed out that the Soviet era and the uses of the building then are as much a part of its history as Nicholas II's tenure. Its important that the building is allowed to tell its whole story as its this layering of history that makes buildings such as the Alexander Palace so enriching. I take 'my hat off' as it where to all those who have worked so tirelessly and selflessly to bring about this spectacular transformation/rescue of such a beautiful and important building.

[Tsarfan]

This was a very helpful perspective, Vanya.  I don't want to take this thread off topic, but the Bath project sounds fascinating.  Is there anywhere I can go to find out more about it?

[IvanVII]

I would personally love to see a living type museum. Maybe a progression of time as you move through the palace, starting on one end with the original scheme and progressing through the eras, or perhaps where the rooms themselves would be on a rotation between one period to the next. Or as Tsarfan talked of, one day you would walk into the parade rooms and they would be set up for a major state function, come back in a couple weeks and perhaps they are set up for a family affair.


Just random thoughts from someone who is no expert, just a lover of history.

[Vanya Ivanova]

Hi Tsarfan,

There isn't any literature as such but the Trust has two very good websites, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk and www.bptlearning.org.uk (sorry, hopeless at hyperlinks!), the latter being specifically about events etc. The Trust was set up in 1934, primarily as a campaign to prevent a large road being built right through the heart of the city with the destruction of many of its 18th century buildings, the Trust was successful in preventing this thankfully.

The Trust was also instrumental in bringing about the award of the UNESCO World Heritage status/protection to the entire city in 1987, the only entire city to be awarded this status other than Venice.

I agree with you IvanVII, about the idea of a 'living museum' format at the Alexander Palace one day, a building of this status offers so many wonderful possibilities for the Russian Museum authorities. I don't profess to know the culture of the Russian Heritage industry personally but it has a reputation for excellence and when the Russians decide to restore a building one can rest assured it will be done to a standard that few museums in the 'west' can equal. The standard of the restoration to the Parade Halls and exterior bear this out. The Palace now has a very bright future and will delight and enrich generations to come.

[TimM]

It will be interesting to visit the Alexander Palace when the renovations are done.  I would love to go, if I can afford it, that is.

[Forum Admin]

 Wonderful news! The "Tsarskoye Selo Friends Society" project is moving forward nicely.  Bob is working with the technical people at the Museum's current website "tzar.ru" on the new site and a steady stream of conversation between Dr. Bott's office and Bob is going back and forth.  A good friend of ours is going to Russia in two weeks, as part of the US Embassy Cultural Exchange program, and Dr. Bott has asked to meet with him on our behalf!  Fortunately, he speaks very fluent Russian! (He is an expert on Russian Theatre, and self taught in Russian so he could go study at the Moscow Art Theatre.  He recently did his own translation and staging of "Uncle Vanya" here in Austin, that was really quite excellent! We met him when he asked, through a neighbor of ours, to meet with Bob to discuss some of the historical/cultural context issues of the play. The initial "15 or 20 minute"s turned into an entire Sunday afternoon! One of our antique 19th century Samovars played a "supporting role" in the first act as a featured prop. "Look, the samovar has gone cold....") The Autochromes are safely at the Museum. Bob and Mike have both been invited for private visits to the Alexander Palace next year by Dr. Bott's office!

[Inok Nikolai]

Paul Gilbert just posted a 16-minute video (with musical accompaniment) "tour" through the State Rooms of the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

I cant' tell if this is a repeat or something new. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog/1439857/the-alexander-palace-a-walk-through-the-state-rooms/

[Maria the Beautiful]

Forgive me if this has been discussed elsewhere, but a search brought up nothing.   i've noticed in a few photos of the restored Semi-Circular Hall that there appears to be a partial (is it a fresco??) in the arched niche above the cornice to the immediate right of the door.   It appears in the video that Inok posted above and also in the photo on the sample website page that Bob Atchison just posted about the Society of Friends of Tsarskoye Selo on another thread.  (I'm not very good at posting/copying photos on this site).    Can anyone provide me with some info about this?   Are there any close-up photos?   I'm intrigued.