Император Николай II и Александровский дворец / Emperor Nicholas II & Alexander Palace

Within the Imperial retreat of the great palace of Tsarskoe Selo, near St. Petersburg, is Alexander Palace, the residence of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II and his family.

The graceful Neoclassical building was commissioned by Catherine the Great for her favourite grandson, the future emperor Alexander I of Russia and was built between 1792-1796 by the renowned Italian architect, Giacomo Quarenghi. Upon becoming Tsar, Alexander gave the palace to his brother, the future Nicholas I as a summer retreat. From this time onwards it became the summer residence of the heir to the throne.
Following the Bloody Sunday demonstration in 1905, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra made the palace their permanent family residence as they considered St. Petersburg, too "political". The Tsar had the palace wired for electricity and installed a telephone system.
Through the years of war and revolution, the walls of the palace sheltered the Imperial Family, isolating them from the turbulent outside world. When he abdicated the throne in March 1917, he was held under house arrest and confined to a few rooms of the palace under the gaze of armed guards until being sent into exile with the rest of his family.

The palace was then converted into a museum, remaining so until the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941. The Nazis converted the building into an SS hospital. Upon their retreat, the palace suffered heavy damage due to shell fire and abuse from the German soldiers.
After the war, the building was first handed over to the Russian Navy and subsequently became an orphanage.
Today a few of the interior rooms have been restored and once again turned into a museum.......

Видео Император Николай II и Александровский дворец / Emperor Nicholas II & Alexander Palace канала Nigel Fowler Sutton