Not far from St. Petersburg is a large tourist, scientific and military-industrial center of Russia - the city of Pushkin. Founded in 1710, Pushkin served as the Imperial Family's country residence. Today, its territory is included in the list of so-called World Heritage properties. This city with a three-hundred-year history is visited by numerous tourists who are often interested in what can be seen in Pushkin.
One of the main attractions of Pushkin is the State Museum-Reserve Tsarskoe Selo - an excellent monument of landscape art and architecture. It includes Alexandrovsky and Catherine's palaces with adjoining parks.
Palaces and parks of Pushkin
The construction of the Great Catherine Palace started in the distant 1717 for the reign of Catherine I. At that time the building was restored under the direction of the architect Rastrelli, who used rather unusual color schemes for Russia in decorating the palace: white and gold in combination with sky-blue. With the advent of Catherine II, elegant ornaments and gilding were replaced by simpler ones.
Today, in the Catherine Palace, you can visit the Throne Room, the White Ceremonial and Green Dining Rooms, the Green and Crimson Stolbovs, the famous Amber Room, the Picture Hall, in which over 130 paintings by famous artists, Opochivalnyu and Waiter's are collected. Around the palace stretches a beautiful Catherine Park with flowering alleys, artificial ponds, marble white statues. On its territory are the Hermitage, the Marble Bridge, the Admiralty and the Granite Terrace.
On the territory of the Tsarskoe Selo Reserve there is another palace - Alexandrovsky , built by Catherine the Great in honor of the marriage of her grandson - the future Emperor Alexander. This two-storey simple and comfortable palace is built in a classical style.
It is interesting to visit in the city of Pushkin another remarkable park, located between the Catherine and Alexandrovsky palaces. It consists of two parts: a geometrically correct French park and English, which has a natural and free layout.
It is also interesting to visit the Palace of Princess Paley and the Babol Palace in Pushkin.
Museums of Pushkin
The atmosphere reigning in the Memorial Museum-Lyceum , takes visitors to the times when AS Pushkin and other famous lyceum students studied there. In the museum you can visit a literary-musical evening, a lecture or a concert.
Visit the Pushkin museum-dacha . Here the poet spent the summer of 1831 with his young wife Natalia. The museum recreated the study, and the exposition tells about the poet's work at that time.
We recommend visiting other most beautiful cities of Russia.