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Rooms of Alexandra

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Rooms of Nicholas II

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The Children's Floor

Rooms of the Right Wing

Palace Park

The Imperial Garage

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Imperial Dining

Plans, Maps and Churches

Imperial Yacht Standardt
Alexander Palace Time Machine
The home of the last tsar - Romanov and russion history
Plans, Maps and Churches - St. Sophia Cathedral
 
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Cameron's Chaste Neoclassical Masterpiece

 

St. Sophia Cathedral

The St. Sophia Cathedral was built by Scottish architect Charles Cameron in 1785 for Catherine the Great in the hamlet of Sophia on the far side of the Imperial Park. She built this church as a symbol of her "Greek Project". The church was named in honor of St. Sophia in Constantinople, which was the mother church of the Orthodox world. Since the middle of the fifteenth century the Byzantine cathedral had been used as a mosque by the Ottoman Sultans who had conquered the city on May 29, 1453.

It was Catherine's dream to liberate Constantinope from the Turks and restore the cross to the dome of St. Sophia. Later she went so far as to groom her second grandson Constantine - who was named for the founder of Constantinople - as the next Orthodox ruler to sit on the resurrected throne of Byzantium which she would restore by force of arms.

The spacious interior of the church was dominated by four massive granite columns with gilt bronze ionic capitals. After the revolution was church was incorporated into a military camp and was gutted. Today it has been returned to the church and it is currently being refurbished. The redecoration has not been in the original neoclassical style of Cameron. The military camp is still there and many of the people who attend liturgy are soldiers and their families.

There is now a very active church school attached to the cathedral. The evidence of bullets, shells and fire from World War II are still easy to observe in the scarred interior and exterior of the church.

Bob Atchison

Please send your comments on this page and the Time Machine to boba@pallasweb.com
 
Palace Zooms
Imperial Bedroom
Imperial Bedroom Portrait Hall
Portrait Hall Mauve Room
Mauve Room Maple Room
Maple Room Aleksey's Bedroom
Aleksey's Bedroom Nicholas's Study
Nicholas's Study Aleksey's Playroom
Aleksey's Playroom Formal Reception
Formal Reception Balcony View
Balcony View Aleksey- Balcony
Aleksey- Balcony Children-Mauve
Children-Mauve Nicholas's Bathroom
Nicholas's Bathroom Alexandra- Mauve
Alexandra- Mauve Nicholas's Reception
Nicholas's Reception Tsarskoe Selo Map
Tsarskoe Selo Map
 
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