Passageway to the Imperial Suite
The door from the Choir Anteroom leads to the so-called "personal
chambers," whose windows look out on the Catherine Park.
These small rooms next to the Formal Enfilade of the Catherine
Palace created by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, were completed
in 1773 according to plans by the architect Vasily Neyelov for
Natalya Alexeevna (the first wife of Paul, the future Emperor
Paul I). The "dressing room" of Natalya Alexeevna was
a room with two windows that formerly occupied the space later
taken over by the present Painting and Sculpture rooms. The "Dressing
Room" was followed by Elizabeth's Bedchamber. In place of
the current Lady-of-the-Bedchamber Room was the "Dressing
Room Closet." After Paul's second marriage, to Maria Feodorovna,
the suite created by Vasily Neyelov seemed too modest, and Empress
Catherine II charged Charles Cameron with redecorating these rooms.
In 1779, Charles Cameron started to work, but several times he
was forced to re-do the interiors. The fire of 1820 destroyed
the furnishings in this suite. At the order of Emperor Alexander
I, the architect Vasily Stasov returned the suite to its former
state with slight modifications since some of the sketches by
Charles Cameron were missing. Once the rooms were restored, Maria
Feodorovna dwelled in them rarely. She always moved to the Pavlovsk
residence when the imperial court stayed at Tsarskoe Selo,. During
World War II, these rooms did not suffer as much as the other
interiors of the Catherine Palace, and, as a result, restoration
was undertaken in 1957, and the rooms were already open for viewing
in 1959. The passageway to the personal chambers is a small room
with no windows. It contains a large grandfather clock of late
18th-century German origin, a 19th century French bookcase, and
an 18th-century painting entitled "Still-Life with Tulips."
