9 Facts About Catherine Palace

Image: Wikimedia Commons

1. In 1717, Peter the Great commissioned German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to build a summer residence for her wife, Catherine I. The resulting structure was a modest-looking, two-storey palace.

2. In 1733, Empress Elizabeth had the palace expanded with the help of two notable baroque architects of that time, Andrey Vasilievich Kvasov and Mikhail Grigorievich Zemtsov.

3. The unsatisfied empress thought the palace looked cramped and outdated despite the initial expansion, so she commissioned Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, her court architect, in May 1752 to demolish the edifice and replace it with a much opulent structure in an elaborate Rococo style. The construction was completed four years later (July 30, 1756).

Catherine Palace south view. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Catherine Palace north view. Image: Wikimedia Commons

4. The palace’s stucco façade and the statues erected on its roof were finely covered in a staggering 100 kilograms of gold.

5. Catherine Palace measures 325 meters long, and almost a kilometer in circumference.

6. Catherine denounced the lavish spending of private and state funds that came with the palace’s expansion and refurbishment. "…What was done today, was destroyed tomorrow. That house has been pulled down six times to the foundation, then built up again till it was brought to its present state. The sum of a million six hundred thousand rubles was spent on the construction. Accounts exist to prove it; but besides this sum the Empress spent much money out of her own pocket on it, without ever counting," she stated in her memoirs.

7. The highlight and currently the most visited part of the palace have to be the Amber Room. It was designed by Rastrelli, who made use of amber mosaic panels—originally intended for an amber cabinet at Königsberg Castle—gifted by Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia to Peter the Great. Splendid panels comprised of 450 kilograms of amber, which were fashioned to perfection by Russian and Florentine craftsmen, were also used. The room was further embellished with “gilded carving, mirrors… and further mosaics of Ural and Caucasus gemstones”, according to Saint-Petersburg.com.

Catherine Palace Cameron Gallery. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Catherine Palace Ballroom. Credits: Wikimedia Commons

8. The Amber Room was looted and dismantled within just 36 hours by Nazi Germany’s Army North Group during World War II. The glorious amber panels were then brought to Königsberg to be displayed. The expensive articles, however, were never found again after they were moved for safety’s sake after the Nazi regime started to crumble.

9. Restoration of the Amber Room began in 1982 and was successfully completed $12 million and 20 years later (2003).