Catherine Palace with the Amber Room

Of all the imperial palaces none is more evocative of both the heyday and twilight years of the Romanov’s than those at Tsarskoe Selo, (Royal Village) which is situated 25 km from St Petersburg. This small town can boast of two world famous palaces – Catherine Palace (named after Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great) and Alexander Palace (a wedding gift from Catherine II to her favorite grandson, future Alexander I). The name of the town is also associated with the great poet Alexander Pushkin, who studied at the town’s Lyceum (a school for boys from Noble families) – so in 1937 its’ name was changed to Pushkin to commemorate the century after the famous poet’s death. Tsarskoe Selo was once a model town connected to Pavlovsk and St Petersburg by Russia’s first train line (built for the Imperial families convenience) and featuring electric lightning, piped water and sewage works. Its numerous villas for nobility were turned into orphanages after the Revolution when the town was renamed Detskoe Selo — “ Children Village”.