Today, the interiors of the Zubov Wing in the Catherine Palace were unveiled in an opening ceremony after their ambitious restoration at the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site (Pushkin, St. Petersburg). The restoration project was implemented with support from Gazprom.
Taking part in the event were Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Olga Taratynova, Director of the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site.
The Zubov Wing was built in late 18th century to the design of the architect Yury Felten. The private apartments of Empress Catherine II, namely eight halls designed by the architects Charles Cameron and Giacomo Quarenghi, were located in the building. During the Great Patriotic War, the interiors of the halls were lost.
It required a multi-stage scientific research, scrupulous examination of archive documents and five years of thorough work of St. Petersburg restoration specialists to create the interiors that are absolutely identical to the original. A total of 200 specialists were engaged in the restoration works which included molding, gold coating, wood carving, painting, and casting. The interior finishing of the halls features 474 square meters of recreated parquet flooring and more than 1,000 square meters of newly manufactured glass.
In addition to that, the cooperation between the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site and Gazprom’s project Friends of St. Petersburg made it possible to hold a series of thematic master classes on painting and gypsum plaster works. The participants of the master classes were given a unique opportunity of watching the restoration process on-site and learn some tricks of the trade from true professionals.
The halls with the private apartments of Catherine II in the Zubov Wing will be open to the visitors starting from December 25, 2024.
The furnishing of the Zubov Wing’s interior spaces will continue. For instance, its largest room, the Chinese Hall, originally featured authentic Chinese lacquer panels. At present, those panels are being recreated in China at specialized workshops that master the traditional technique. The works are carried out with support from Gazprom.
“Gazprom and the Tsarskoe Selo Museum have been maintaining a very fruitful cooperation for many years. We have implemented a very large number of projects over the years of our joint work with the Museum. I think, some of these projects must be mentioned here today, such as the restoration of the Palace Chapel of the Resurrection at the Catherine Palace, the Amber Room, the Lyons Hall, and the masterpieces of international significance that grace the Golden Enfilade of the Catherine Palace.
And today, we unveil new results of our restoration efforts; it took five years to perform this large-scale work. We return to the Catherine Palace the interiors of the personal rooms of Catherine II in the Zubov Wing,” said Alexey Miller.
“’It is impossible,’ that is what was thought for almost 80 years about the recreation of Catherine II’s personal rooms. And today, we are about to make the dream of several generations of museum specialists and millions of Russian people come true: we are about to recreate such outstanding art phenomenon as the Catherine Palace’s interiors following the damage they suffered in the Great Patriotic War. At the basis of this milestone event, which is an unprecedented restoration saga, lies the work of thousands of people, first of all, museum employees and restoration specialists. We would like to express our special gratitude to Gazprom for its systematic, thoughtful, tactful, and responsible support. Catherine II wrote about her personal rooms, ‘Everyone hurries to come and see them, because nothing like that has been seen here.’ And today we can say with confidence: ‘You will never see anything like this in the world’,” said Olga Taratynova.
Background
The Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site is an outstanding monument of world architecture and landscape design of the 18th to early 20th centuries. The Great Palace of Tsarskoe Selo (the Catherine Palace), the centerpiece of the palace and garden complex, is an example of the Russian Baroque style.
In June 2021, the Agreement of Cooperation was signed between Gazprom and the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site for the preservation of cultural heritage and development of the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site.
Starting from 2016, the restoration of the Palace Chapel of the Resurrection at the Catherine Palace was in progress with support from Gazprom. In December 2021, the restoration works were completed. In 2018–2021, the works were performed to recreate the interiors of the Catherine Palace’s Lyons Hall that had been lost in the Great Patriotic War.
In 2019, the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site with support from Gazprom commenced the restoration project entitled “Catherine II. Personal Space” for the recreation of the interiors of the personal rooms of Catherine II in the Catherine Palace’s Zubov Wing.
The Friends of St. Petersburg comprehensive social project of Gazprom has been implemented since 2020. The project’s core mission is to facilitate the preservation of the cultural heritage and historical identity of St. Petersburg in today’s world.
