Description
Tsarskoye Selo, or the Tsar`s village, about 25 kilometers from St. Petersburg, was the home of the imperial family from the days of Peter the Great until the time of the last tsar, Nicolas II. It is a fascinating monument of world architectural and gardening art during the 18th and 19th centuries. Here you can enjoy a beautiful English-style park, unrestrained by the geometrical formality of the "Russian Versailles." The centre of the ensemble is the Catherine Palace, containing exquisite objects d`art, furniture, paintings and unique collections of porcelain, amber and bronze.
Itinerary
10 a.m. Meeting with your guide at the hotel
Drive 30km South of St.Petersburg to Pushkin Town (app. 40min)
11 a.m. Tour to Tsarskoe Selo. Excursion to the Catherine’s Palace, including visit to the Amber Room.
Walking around the Grounds (almost 600 hectares of beautiful parkland full of beautiful pavilions, gardens, marble statues)
2 p.m. Drive back to the city
3 p.m. Back to the hotel
History of Pushkin
Enjoy an excursion to Pushkin (the Tsars’ Village), the favorite palace of Catherine the Great and other Russian tsars and tsarinas, located 24 kilometers south of St Petersburg. You will dive into the atmosphere of the 18th century walking the strict lines of the French garden and wandering through the golden enfilade of the palace. The interiors of the Catherine Palace are spectacular. The so-called Golden Enfilade of state rooms, designed by Rastrelli, is particularly renowned and forms the focus of the palace tour. Guests enter via the State Staircase which, although it blends effortlessly with the rococo grandeur of Rastrelli's interiors, in fact dates from the 1860s. With its ornate banisters and reclining marble cupids, it gives a taste of what is to come. The Great Hall, also known as the Hall of Light, measures nearly 1,000 square meters, and occupies the full width of the palace so that there are superb views on either side. The large arched windows provide enough light to relieve the vast quantity of gilded stucco decorating the walls, and the entire ceiling is covered by a monumental fresco entitled The Triumph of Russia. Using similar techniques but on a smaller scale, the White Dining Room is equally luxurious but, like many of the rooms in the palace, its grandeur is softened by the presence of a beautiful traditional blue-and-white tiled stove in the
