Catherine Palace - Table of Contents ............... Architecture Around the World
Ballroom - Catherine Palace
AKA Grand Ballroom / Great Hall / Hall of Light
Pushkin, Russia, 25 km south-east of St. Petersburg, Russia
The interiors of the
Catherine Palace are no less spectacular. The so-called Golden Enfilade
of state rooms, designed by Rastrelli, is particularly renowned and
forms the focus of the palace tour. Guests enter via the State
Staircase which, although it blends effortlessly with the rococo
grandeur of Rastrelli's interiors, in fact dates from the 1860s. With
its ornate banisters and reclining marble cupids, it gives a taste of
what is to come.
The Great Hall, also known as the Hall of Light,
measures nearly 1,000 square meters, and occupies the full width of the
palace so that there are superb views on either side. The large arched
windows provide enough light to relieve the vast quantity of gilded
stucco decorating the walls, and the entire ceiling is covered by a
monumental fresco entitled The Triumph of Russia.
Using similar
techniques but on a smaller scale, the White Dining Room is equally
luxurious but, like many of the rooms in the palace, its grandeur is
softened by the presence of a beautiful traditional blue-and-white
tiled stove in the corner.
Other highlights of the Grand Enfilade include the Portrait Hall, which
contains remarkably good portraits of both Catherine and Elizabeth, the
Picture Gallery, in which almost every inch of wall space is covered
with paneling comprising 17th and 18th century canvases and, of course,
the legendary Amber Room.
Further on in the
Catherine Palace, the most noteworthy interiors are those in the
so-called Cameron Rooms, the suites decorated in the reign of Catherine
the Great by her favourite architect, Charles Cameron. His penchant for
classical symmetry and his superb taste for colour are evident in the
charming Green Dining Room, originally fitted for Catherine's son Paul,
and the delightful Blue Drawing Room, with its blue-and-white
painted-silk wallpaper and superb painted ceiling. More flamboyant but
equally charming, the Chinese Blue Drawing Room also boasts exquisite
painted-silk wallpaper featuring intricate Chinese landscapes. - SaintPetersburg.com
Rococo Style Note columns in center of the illustration. See below: Detail below: Rococo style ..... Gilding ..... Rococo chair features cabriole legs ..... Fire screen ..... Parquet floor |