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Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo)

Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo) Before the city of Pushkin was established, all it consisted of was a small country house, which the emperor Peter I presented to his wife Catherine. Not long after the stunning baroque-style Ekaterinsky (Catherine) Palace was built. The territory around it was called Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s village). Later Alexander I, who had his own palace in the town, founded the well-known Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo: a young and cheeky Pushkin was a member of the foundation class. After the October revolution some children's establishments were founded in the town and it received a new name, Detskoe Selo (Children’s Village – the train station is still called this). It was renamed Pushkin in 1937, for obvious reasons, and Pushkin it remains.

Catherine Palace This palace, named after Catherine I, was Catherine II’s prefered country residence. The palace, another creation of the royal favorite Rastrelli (who also worked on Peterhof’s Grand Palace, and the Winter Palace, among other things) was badly damaged during WWII, when it was used as a German army barracks and the priceless engraved amber panels of one of its key exhibits, the Amber Room, simply disappeared (if you happen to find it, you could ask a cool $142 million). The government eventually gave up waiting for the panels’ return, so the room reconstructed using photos and reopened in 2003. Other rooms of note include the extensively mirrored and windowed Grand Hall, the distinctly un-Chinese Blue Chinese Room, and the enormous Picture Hall, decorated with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century paintings.

Alexander Palace This palace was made for Catherine's grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I, and was also used by the last tsar, Nicholas II. Completed by Giocomo Guarenghi in the 1796, its classical design is (perhaps) a welcome break from the gaudiness of Catherine’s palace and the tourists that throng it. Also extensively damaged during the war, only parts of the Alexander palace are open to the public.

Parks The palaces are surrounded, in the tradition of typical imperial residences, with parks of luxurious proportions. The Catherine Park contains all the paraphenalia deemed necessary at the time: ponds, pavillions, bridges, and so on. Buildings in refined, French garden include Rastrelli’s Hermitage, the Upper and Lower Bath pavillions, and the Grotto, another Rastrelli creation. In the rambling, English-style garden look out for the Cameron Gallery, where in summer you can see eighteenth- and nineteenth-century costumes, the Chesma Column, the Pyramid, the final resting place of Catherine II’s greyhounds, the Marble Bridge, and the (artificially) Ruined Tower. The centrepiece of the park is the great pond, where you can rent rowboats.

The less well-preserved but no less romantic Alexander Park contains wonders of its own, including the Cameron-designed Chinese Village (the apartments of which are now rented out to well-to-do Russians), a chapel, and a number of charming bridges.

LyceumAttached to the Catherine palace is the above-mentioned Lyceum. Pushkin was not the only famous graduate of this institution: many participants in the Decembrist revolt of 1825 also spent their schooldays there. Today you can see the Lyceum’s classroom, library, Pushkin’s bedroom, and a statue of the poet, which most certainly wasn’t there when he was.

Essential Information for Visitors

►How to get there

Take an electric train from the train station "Bitebsky" (the metro station "Pushkinskaya") or from the train station "Kupchino" (the metro station "Kupchino"). There are also a number of marshrutki to Pushkin that run from metro Moskovskaya. If you travel by train, it might be interesting to note that you are travelling on Russia’s first railway line, constructed in 1837 (but presumably updated a little since then).

►Contact Information

Phone: (812) 465-20-24.

►Opening Hours

The parks and palaces and lyceum are open Monday to Wednesday, between 10:00 and 17:00. Catherine Palace closed the last Monday of the month; Alexander palace closed last Wednesday of the month.

►Admission Prices

Catherine Palace and park, 370R, park 60R
Catherine park – 100R
Catherine Palace – 500R
Alexander Palace 260R
Extrance to the Alexander park is free.
Lyceum 200R

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