The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (Part 4) The Private Apartmnets

 

The piano nobile of the Winter Palace. The private apartments are shaded pink. Rooms are given their pre-1918 titles. 1: Malachite Drawing Room; 2: Empire Drawing Room; 3: Silver Drawing Room; 4: Sitting room; 5: Bedroom of Alexandra Feodorovna; 6: Boudoir; 7: Nicholas II's study; 8: Small Dining Room; 9: Library; 10: Billiard Room; 11: Tsar's Audience Room (next: Saltykov Staircase) 12: 14: Alexander II's study; 19: Bedroom of Maria Alexandrovna; 20: Crimson Boudoir; 21: Crimson cabinet; 22: Gold Drawing Room; 23: HM's Own Staircase; 25: Dining Room; 26: Schoolroom; 28: The Rotunda; 29: Chapel; 30: Arabian Hall; 31: Winter Garden; 32: White Hall

The last Tzar of Russia Nicholas II did not live full time at the Winter Palace. He and his wife the Empress Alexandra disliked the St. Petersburg social life that they were inclined to do preside over. They made their main home at the Alexander Palace at  Tsarskoye Selo which was about a 30 minute train trip south of St. Petersburg. They used the Private apartments we are about to go over only when they were required by duty to stay over night at the Winter Palace. 

1) The Malachite Drawing Room (See part 1)

The Malachite Room, the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, by Konstantin Ukhtomsky (1865)

2) Empire Drawing Room (See part 1) 

3) The Silver Drawing Room (See Part 1)

Photograph of the Silver Drawing Room in 1899 

4: Empress Alexandra's Study

The Study of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna

the Corner Drawing Room of Emperor Nicholas I, Mid of the 19th C Giclee Print by Konstantin Andreyevich Ukhtomsky

Used as a Drawing Room by Nicholas I

5) The Bedroom of Nicholas and Alexandra

6) Alexandra's Boudoir

7) Nicolas's Study & Cabinet

Emperor’s cabinet.

Study of Nicholas II

8) The Small Dining Room

9) The Gothic Library 

The Gothic library designed by Krasovsky for Nicholas II

The Gothic library designed by Krasovsky for Nicholas II...

Nicholas's Dressing room and bathroom off the Gothic Library 

the door of the Gothic Library into the Dressing Room

Dressing Room 2

stained-glass window facing into the small inner courtyard

from the door of the former dressing room into the valet’s room  and private study 

Photograph c1917 and today of the door to Nicholas’ Bathroom

10) Billiard Room

Hau’s watercolor (below) of Alexander II’s Billiard Room shows the Freiberg pool table on the right. Note the door to the Saltykov staircase in the upper right that is blocked by a cabinet.

Nicholas II's billiard room on the 2nd floor of the Winter Palace which was next to his Gothic Library.

The photo of the former billiard room show the excellent restoration work by the Hermitage.

The Billiards room as it appears today