The State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo" (St. Petersburg, Pushkin) hosted the grand opening of the interiors of the Zubovsky wing of the Catherine Palace after a large-scale restoration. The project was implemented with the support of Gazprom.
Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Olga Taratynova, Director of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve, took part in the event.
The Zubovsky wing was built at the end of the 18th century by architect Yuri Felten. It housed the private chambers of Empress Catherine II — eight halls designed by architects Charles Cameron and Giacomo Quarenghi. During the Great Patriotic War, the interiors of these halls were lost.
To achieve absolute conformity to the original, it took multi-stage scientific research, a thorough study of archival documents and five years of painstaking work by St. Petersburg restorers. The work, including sculpting, gilding, woodcarving, painting and casting, was carried out by 200 specialists. 474 square meters were recreated to decorate the halls. m of parquet, more than 1 thousand square meters of glass were made.
In addition, thanks to the cooperation of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve and Gazprom's Friends of St. Petersburg project, a series of thematic workshops on painting and plaster were held during the restoration. The participants were given a unique opportunity to see the progress of the work with their own eyes and learn the secrets of mastery from real professionals.
The halls of Catherine II's private chambers in the Zubovsky wing will be available to visitors from December 25, 2024.
The interior filling of the wing will continue. In particular, authentic Chinese lacquer panels were previously used in the design of the Chinese Hall, the largest in terms of area. Currently, in China, they are being recreated in specialized workshops that own traditional equipment. The work is carried out with the support of Gazprom.
"Gazprom and Tsarskoye Selo have a long-term, very fruitful cooperation. Over the years, Tsarskoye Selo and I have implemented many projects. Some of them, of course, should definitely be mentioned again today. This is a recreation of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the Catherine Palace. This is the Amber Room. This is the Lyon Hall. These are the world's masterpieces that adorn the golden suite of the Catherine Palace.
And today we present a new large-scale work that lasted for five years. We are returning the interiors of Catherine II's private chambers in the Zubovsky wing to the Catherine Palace," said Alexey Miller.
"This is impossible," they thought for almost eight decades about the revival of Catherine II's private rooms. And today we are very close to realizing the dream of several generations of museum workers and millions of residents of our country — the restoration of the interiors of the Catherine Palace after the destruction of the Great Patriotic War, which can be called an outstanding artistic phenomenon. Behind this epochal event, an unprecedented restoration epic, is the work of hundreds of people, primarily museum staff and restorers. Our special thanks go to Gazprom for their consistent, thoughtful, sensitive and responsible support. Catherine II wrote about her private rooms that "everyone runs to look at them, because they have never seen anything like this before." And today we can safely say that you will not see this anywhere in the world," Olga Taratynova said.
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