182. St. Petersburg's suburban palaces #7 - Konstantinovsky Palace
Throughout the summer and autumn, I visited St. Petersburg's six suburban palaces that are currently open to visitors - those at Pushkin, Pavlosk, Peterhof, Gatchina, and Lomonosov. A seventh palace in Pushkin is currently being renovated and will be closed to visitors through next year. However, there is one additional palace in the suburbs that I noticed on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland and had yet to visit. The suburb of Strelna is halfway between the neighborhoods at the south side of St. Petersburg and the towns of Peterhof and Lomonosov farther to the west. The imposing palace here appeared to be in immaculate condition when I saw it several times passing by along the main highway through town.
This palace - known as Konstantinovsky Palace in honor of Grand Duke Konstantine Nikolayevich, the second son of Emperor Nicholas I - has a bit of a checkered history. Unlike the other palaces, it was never an official imperial residence. Peter the Great commissioned its construction in 1716, and the foundations were completed in 1720. In 1722, Peter gave the unfinished palace to his daughter as a gift. Work continued at various points during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in some cases to repair fire damage. In 1797 the palace was given to Grand Duke Konstantine Pavlovich, the second son of Emperor Paul I. Upon his death in 1831, the palace passed to his nephew Konstantine Nikolayevich, who made it his summer residence in 1844. It passed to his descendants when he died in 1892, until the palace was nationalized with the Russian Revolution in 1917 and began to fall into disrepair.
It turns out that the recent history of Konstantinovsky Palace is a bit different than the other suburban palaces. The palace was very heavily damaged by the Nazis during the Siege of Leningrad (as were all the other suburban palaces, save for Lomonosov). Unlike the other palaces, restoration work did not begin shortly after the war's end. It was not until 2003 when Vladimir Putin decided that it should be rebuilt and restored did any work commence. It is now the only one of the suburban palaces that has been completely restored.
Konstantinovsky Palace - part of what is referred to as the National Congress Palace complex - is actively used as a government building, and serves as Vladimir Putin's official residence whenever he visits St. Petersburg. It has been the site of various official events during the last 15 years: the G8 summit in 2006, the G20 summit in 2013, and the preliminary draw in 2015 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup football tournament, for example. This is why advanced ticketing is required to visit the palace - so that visitors can be certain that Putin is not in residence at the time, and that there are no other official events scheduled for that day.
I had a bit of trouble figuring out how exactly to visit Konstantinovsky Palace. Transportation was not the issue; I had previously verified which buses and marshrutka would take me there. However, as an official government building, the palace is not open to individual tourists. In addition to already having a ticket, you must be a member of an organized tour group. The palace's web site has very limited information, and I was unable to turn up any information about English-language excursions via a more general web search. I've been on Russian-language guided tours at several other places (notably, the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Facility), and that's not really a barrier to me. However, any tour packages I could find online all seemed to be too expensive and too touristy (I do not need to be driven to a Russian restaurant for an authentic meal after the tour, for example).
I eventually recalled that I have been walking past (and completely ignoring) excursion company sales booths along Nevsky Prospekt in front of the Gostiny Dvor shopping arcade. One evening in November after work on the way home from the Metro station, I stopped at five of these booths and inquired (in Russian) about the availability, cost, and schedule for tours to Konstantinovsky Palace. None had a weekend tour available, so I was thwarted in my first attempt. Not to be deterred, I checked again several weeks later. This time, I had success at the third booth, which offered tours on the upcoming Saturday and Sunday on the first weekend in December. So, I purchased a ticket for the Saturday afternoon tour.
The tour group consisted of approximately 15 people. We met in front of Gostiny Dvor at the appointed time and boarded a large tour bus. Our guide explained what sights we were passing on the approximately 45-minute drive to Strelna. I had already been to virtually every neighborhood and significant destination along our route, so I probably could have narrated the drive myself (though, not in Russian). Upon arrival, we had a brief wait for the start of our tour - likely designed to generate some sales at the gift shop. We then had to pass through a security checkpoint to enter the palace grounds, and walked past the extensive gardens (only open for tours during the summer).
As expected, the palace itself is very impressive. A second tour guide took us around the courtyards and then through the main palace rooms. Everyone in the group other than me was a local, so our guide's explanation of the history of the palace, its restoration, and current uses were entirely in Russian. In addition to my basic language proficiency, I had done quite a bit of research prior to the tour so I mostly knew what I was looking at. It was exciting to see the meeting rooms where world leaders have discussed global politics, the pool table where Putin has challenged other presidents to a friendly game, and the dining table where he takes his meals when living in St. Petersburg. Our tour concluded after approximately 90 minutes, and we walked back to meet our original guide and board the bus. The traffic was a bit worse in the evening, so the drive back to the city center took a bit longer. Our tour concluded just under five hours after our departure.
This was my least-favorite of the suburban palaces, simply because the sense of history is the weakest here and it is the least museum-like. It seemed a bit sterile to me and was not packed to the gills with art, antiques, and gilding like the other palaces. Nevertheless, I'm glad I visited this palace and participated in my only official excursion group during my stay in Russia. It was nice to complete the full set of suburban palace visits and to tour "Putin's Palace" which alone among its peers has an active use in modern Russian life - and to explore the palace with only 15 other visitors in the building, rather than the hundreds or thousands of other tourists that cram themselves into the more famous palaces in St. Petersburg's suburbs.
This palace - known as Konstantinovsky Palace in honor of Grand Duke Konstantine Nikolayevich, the second son of Emperor Nicholas I - has a bit of a checkered history. Unlike the other palaces, it was never an official imperial residence. Peter the Great commissioned its construction in 1716, and the foundations were completed in 1720. In 1722, Peter gave the unfinished palace to his daughter as a gift. Work continued at various points during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in some cases to repair fire damage. In 1797 the palace was given to Grand Duke Konstantine Pavlovich, the second son of Emperor Paul I. Upon his death in 1831, the palace passed to his nephew Konstantine Nikolayevich, who made it his summer residence in 1844. It passed to his descendants when he died in 1892, until the palace was nationalized with the Russian Revolution in 1917 and began to fall into disrepair.
It turns out that the recent history of Konstantinovsky Palace is a bit different than the other suburban palaces. The palace was very heavily damaged by the Nazis during the Siege of Leningrad (as were all the other suburban palaces, save for Lomonosov). Unlike the other palaces, restoration work did not begin shortly after the war's end. It was not until 2003 when Vladimir Putin decided that it should be rebuilt and restored did any work commence. It is now the only one of the suburban palaces that has been completely restored.
Konstantinovsky Palace - part of what is referred to as the National Congress Palace complex - is actively used as a government building, and serves as Vladimir Putin's official residence whenever he visits St. Petersburg. It has been the site of various official events during the last 15 years: the G8 summit in 2006, the G20 summit in 2013, and the preliminary draw in 2015 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup football tournament, for example. This is why advanced ticketing is required to visit the palace - so that visitors can be certain that Putin is not in residence at the time, and that there are no other official events scheduled for that day.
I had a bit of trouble figuring out how exactly to visit Konstantinovsky Palace. Transportation was not the issue; I had previously verified which buses and marshrutka would take me there. However, as an official government building, the palace is not open to individual tourists. In addition to already having a ticket, you must be a member of an organized tour group. The palace's web site has very limited information, and I was unable to turn up any information about English-language excursions via a more general web search. I've been on Russian-language guided tours at several other places (notably, the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Facility), and that's not really a barrier to me. However, any tour packages I could find online all seemed to be too expensive and too touristy (I do not need to be driven to a Russian restaurant for an authentic meal after the tour, for example).
I eventually recalled that I have been walking past (and completely ignoring) excursion company sales booths along Nevsky Prospekt in front of the Gostiny Dvor shopping arcade. One evening in November after work on the way home from the Metro station, I stopped at five of these booths and inquired (in Russian) about the availability, cost, and schedule for tours to Konstantinovsky Palace. None had a weekend tour available, so I was thwarted in my first attempt. Not to be deterred, I checked again several weeks later. This time, I had success at the third booth, which offered tours on the upcoming Saturday and Sunday on the first weekend in December. So, I purchased a ticket for the Saturday afternoon tour.
The tour group consisted of approximately 15 people. We met in front of Gostiny Dvor at the appointed time and boarded a large tour bus. Our guide explained what sights we were passing on the approximately 45-minute drive to Strelna. I had already been to virtually every neighborhood and significant destination along our route, so I probably could have narrated the drive myself (though, not in Russian). Upon arrival, we had a brief wait for the start of our tour - likely designed to generate some sales at the gift shop. We then had to pass through a security checkpoint to enter the palace grounds, and walked past the extensive gardens (only open for tours during the summer).
As expected, the palace itself is very impressive. A second tour guide took us around the courtyards and then through the main palace rooms. Everyone in the group other than me was a local, so our guide's explanation of the history of the palace, its restoration, and current uses were entirely in Russian. In addition to my basic language proficiency, I had done quite a bit of research prior to the tour so I mostly knew what I was looking at. It was exciting to see the meeting rooms where world leaders have discussed global politics, the pool table where Putin has challenged other presidents to a friendly game, and the dining table where he takes his meals when living in St. Petersburg. Our tour concluded after approximately 90 minutes, and we walked back to meet our original guide and board the bus. The traffic was a bit worse in the evening, so the drive back to the city center took a bit longer. Our tour concluded just under five hours after our departure.
This was my least-favorite of the suburban palaces, simply because the sense of history is the weakest here and it is the least museum-like. It seemed a bit sterile to me and was not packed to the gills with art, antiques, and gilding like the other palaces. Nevertheless, I'm glad I visited this palace and participated in my only official excursion group during my stay in Russia. It was nice to complete the full set of suburban palace visits and to tour "Putin's Palace" which alone among its peers has an active use in modern Russian life - and to explore the palace with only 15 other visitors in the building, rather than the hundreds or thousands of other tourists that cram themselves into the more famous palaces in St. Petersburg's suburbs.
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