Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo: Blue, Gold, and the Lost Amber Room

Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo (now the city of Pushkin) is 25km south of St. Petersburg and is, by a reasonable measure, the most extravagant building in Russia. The 300-metre-long Baroque facade is painted bright turquoise-blue and white with gilded ornament applied in such quantity that restoring it after World War II required importing Italian craftsmen and took decades. Empress Elizabeth commissioned the current building in 1752 to designs by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the Savoy-born architect who also built the Winter Palace. The interiors were later reworked by Scottish architect Charles Cameron under Catherine the Great, whose more restrained classical taste pulled against Rastrelli’s exuberance in ways that produced some of the finest interiors in 18th-century Europe.

The palace was stripped and severely damaged during the German occupation of Pushkin (1941-1944). The Amber Room, the gilded and amber-panelled chamber that had been the most celebrated interior in Russia, was disassembled and removed by German forces in 1941. It has never been recovered. Its whereabouts are unknown and have been the subject of numerous investigations and hoaxes over the decades. A full reconstruction using historical photographs, drawings, and surviving fragments was completed in 2003. What visitors see today is the reconstruction.

The Visit

The palace is open daily except Tuesday. Online booking is advisable regardless of nationality to avoid queues; the palace attracts significant visitor numbers and walk-up availability on popular days is limited.

The Great Hall (also called the Light Gallery) is 47 metres long with 10 pairs of gilded caryatids supporting the ceiling and amber-coloured glass windows creating warm interior light. Overwhelming is an accurate description. This is the room you arrive at first and the one that tells you what the palace is going to be.

The Amber Room reconstruction takes about 30 minutes to see properly. The panels are original materials (over 6 tonnes of amber, backed with foil for reflectivity) recreated from historical documentation by Russian and German craftsmen working together after the Cold War. It is smaller than many visitors expect: a room rather than a chamber. The density of worked amber covering every surface from floor to ceiling is unlike anything else.

Catherine’s private apartments, redesigned by Cameron in the 1780s, are the aesthetically more satisfying spaces for visitors who find the main state rooms overwhelming. Wedgwood blue decoration, understated proportions, rooms that feel designed for actual use rather than ceremonial display.

The Park

Catherine Park surrounding the palace covers 567 hectares with formal French garden sections near the palace and an English-style landscape garden extending to a large lake further out. The Hermitage, a small banqueting pavilion, and the Marble Bridge over the canal are worth locating. Allow 2 hours in the park after the palace. The park is at its best in spring when the lime allees are in leaf and the fountains are running.

The Alexander Palace, a more modest neoclassical building 15 minutes’ walk through the park, was the preferred residence of Nicholas II and Alexandra. It was recently restored and reopened as a museum focused on the last Romanovs. The contrast between the ceremonial excess of Catherine Palace and the relatively human scale of what the last Tsar actually chose to live in makes the combination of both buildings into something more revealing than either alone.

Getting There from St. Petersburg

The most convenient route is the suburban train from Vitebsky Station to Detskoe Selo station (about 35 minutes). Marshrutka (minibus) K-286 from Moskovskaya metro station connects directly to the palace gates. From Detskoe Selo station, it’s a 15-minute walk or short taxi to the palace entrance.

From St. Petersburg city centre, the full day trip takes travel plus palace interior (2 hours minimum) plus park (2 hours) plus lunch: comfortably 7-8 hours. Café Admiralty in the park serves adequate Russian lunch food (borscht, pelmeni, salads) for a reasonable price: not outstanding, but the setting is appropriate and there’s nothing better immediately nearby.

A Note on Access

Travel restrictions and access conditions for Western visitors to Russia have changed substantially since 2022. Before planning a visit, verify current visa requirements, flight availability, and payment access (international banking cards remain restricted in Russia). Visitors from several countries have found the practical logistics of independent travel to Russia significantly more complex than they were previously. Check current conditions from your country’s foreign ministry before booking.