Tsarskoe Selo

Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the town of Pushkin. Tsarskoye Selo forms one of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.

The town bore the name Tsarskoe Selo until 1918, Detskoe Selo ( ru , Детское Село , translation = Children's Village) between in the years 1918–1937, then Pushkin ( ru , Пушкин) from 1937 onwards.

History

The area of Tsarskoye Selo, once part of Swedish Ingria, first became a Russian royal/imperial residence in the early 18th century as an estate of the Empress-consort Catherine (later Empress-regnant as Catherine I, ), from whom the Catherine Palace takes its name. The Alexander Palace (built from 1792 onwards) originated as the home of Catherine the Great's grandson, the Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, who later became Emperor Alexander I (). After his abdication, Nicholas II and his family, were under house arrest here until 13 August 1917.

The Royal Forestry School, perhaps the first such school in Russia, was founded in Tsarskoye Selo in 1803; it was moved to Saint Petersburg in 1811, to become the Imperial Forestry Institute.

According to Robert K. Massie, "Tsarskoe Selo was a magnificent symbol, a supreme gesture, of the Russian autocracy. At the edge of the great St. Petersburg plain, fifteen miles south of the capital, a succession of Russian tsars and empresses had created an isolated, miniature world, as artificial and fantastic as a precisely ordered mechanical toy. Inside the park, monuments, obelisks and triumphal arches studded eight hundred acres of velvet green lawn. An artificial lake, big enough for small sailboats, could be emptied and filled like a bathtub. At one end of the lake stood a pink Turkish bath; not far off, a dazzling red-and-gold Chinese pagoda crowned an artificial hillock." The two palaces stood five hundred yards apart in the Imperial Park. "Outside the palace gates, Tsarskoe Selo, was an elegant provincial town..." The town included "The mansions of the aristocracy, lining the wide tree-shaded boulevard which led from the railway station to the gates of the Imperial Park..."

Nickname for elite Soviet neighborhoods

In the Soviet Union the nickname "the Tsar's village" came to apply to blocks and small neighborhoods that housed the nomenklatura (Soviet elites). Their stores were better stocked, although they were still affected by Soviet-era shortages. The buildings in the neighborhoods were better designed, constructed and maintained.
One such neighborhood, west of Moscow, contained less industry and more parks than any other neighborhood.
Masha Gessen, (2017). ''The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia''.

Monuments

* Alexander Palace and associated park
* Catherine Palace and associated park
**Amber Room
**Kagul Obelisk
* Sophia Cathedral
* Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

Gallery

File:Grot pavilion in Tsarskoe Selo.jpg, Grotto pavilion in Catherine park of Tsarskoe Selo, Saint Petersburg, Russia
File:Catherine Palace & Cameron Gallery (Premazzi).jpg, Catherine Palace with a view of the Cameron Gallery; Tsarskoye Selo in a watercolor by Luigi Premazzi, c. 1855
File:Catherine Palace - Great Hall 01.jpg, The Catherine Palace, the Great Hall
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13687.jpg, Fire in the Catherine Palace 1942
File:Galerie Cameron du Palais de Catherine full size.jpg, Cameron Gallery Catherine Palace
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13625.jpg, Jubilee Exhibition for the 200th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo 1911
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13635.jpg, Catherine Palace at the main entrance, September 9, 1911. Adolphe Kégresse seated behind the wheel of the Imperial "Benz"
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13685.jpg, Catherine Park, Pavilion "Grotto" 1910
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13627.jpg, Catherine Park, Pyramid 1910
File:Catherine - Parc - Palladio (01).jpg, Catherine Park, Palladian Bridge
File:PalacioDeAlejandroResidenciaDelZarTsarkoieSelo--fallofromanoffsh00londrich.jpg, Alexander Palace 1918
File:Automobil mit Schneeraupe und vorne Skiern - CH-BAR - 3241597.jpg, Kegresse track outside Alexander Palace, January 1917
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13683.jpg , "Chapel" in Alexander Park. 1897
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13725.jpg, Large Chinese Bridge in Alexander Park 1910
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13717.jpg, "Grand Caprice" in Alexander Park 1911
File:Sankt-Peterburg oldfoto 13619.jpg, Farm outbuilding with a tower in Alexander Park. 1910
File:TsarskoeSeloEmperorStationPostcard.jpeg , Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Station/ Emperor railway station in Pushkin town 1910s

See also

*Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo
*Emperor railway station in Pushkin town
*Adolphe Kegresse

References

Further reading

*

External links

Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin town, historical facts of the city, map, local weather, directions from St. PetersburgThe State Museum of Tsarskoye Selo

Alexander Palace Time Machine
The Alexander Palace Time Machine
Tsarskoye Selo in 1910 – a guide to the Palaces, Park and TownLast Days at Tsarskoe Selo
Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo by Count Paul Beckendorff
Photographic views of Tsarskoye Selo, c. 2002
The Nostalgic Glass
Tsarskoye Selo Photos
Iconicarchive Gallery

{{Use mdy dates, date=October 2012

Palaces in Russia
Gardens in Russia
Royal residences in Russia
World Heritage Sites in Russia
Charles Cameron buildings
History of forestry education
Forestry in Russia
1905 Russian Revolution
Saint-Petersburg State Forestry University