The last of the Tsars: a guide to the legacy of the Romanovs
Russia’s 21st-century oligarchs have nothing on their imperial predecessors. Take a tour of the Romanov legacy.
Russia’s 21st-century oligarchs have nothing on their imperial predecessors. With assets of about $400 billion in today’s money, were he alive now the last tsar, Nicholas II, would be worth more than all of contemporary Russia’s top 20 billionaires combined. Among his many extravagances were the largest super yacht the world had yet seen, dozens of diamond-encrusted Faberge eggs, and 6m-long, ermine-trimmed robes.
Those years of giddy excess came to a halt in the cellar of a house in Yekaterinburg 100 years ago, when the Bolsheviks executed Nicholas and most of his family. It was a grim ending to an astonishing 300-year dynasty that had been consolidated at the end of the 17th century by Peter the Great, glamorised by Catherine the Great in the 18th century and finally doomed by the inability of the 19th-century tsars to adapt to a changing world. But the Romanov empire had held sway over one sixth of the Earth’s surface and the tsars left behind them an astonishing legacy, from the entire city of St Petersburg to the treasures of the Kremlin, the Mariinsky and Bolshoi ballets, and one of the world’s greatest art collections.
In chronological order, here is a visitor’s guide to the legacy of the Romanovs.
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IPATIEV MONASTERY, KOSTROMA
Following false accusations of treason, the Romanovs were exiled to remote corners of Russia. They eventually found sanctuary inside the walls of the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, one of the ancient towns of the country’s Golden Ring. It was here in 1613 that Mikhail, the first Romanov tsar, received the news he had been made Russia’s monarch;
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ASSUMPTION CATHEDRAL, MOSCOW
From Mikhail in 1613 to Nicholas II in 1896, the coronations of all Russia’s Romanov monarchs took place under the five gold domes of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow’s Kremlin. The cathedral is also the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church and home to some of the most precious icons and frescoes in the country. Tickets to the Kremlin Museums include entry to all the complex’s churches;
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PETER THE GREAT’S CABIN, ST PETERSBURG
The most ambitious of all the Romanovs, Peter the Great founded the city that was named after him on a windswept swamp. The first building was a small log hut. Constructed in just three days in 1703, it marks the foundation of Russia’s new imperial city. Today protected from the elements by a brick pavilion, the cabin is open to the public and forms part of the Russian Museum;
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THE AMBER ROOM, TSARSKOYE SELO
The Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, just south of St Petersburg, was the Romanov summer residence and its showpiece is Peter the Great’s famous Amber Room. The chamber constructed entirely from amber panels and gold leaf was given to the tsar by the King of Prussia in 1716. What you see is a reconstruction that took 24 years to complete as the first panels were looted by the Germans during World War II;
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PETERHOF PALACE
Completed in 1725, this was another summer estate that was built for Peter outside St Petersburg. It is famous for its 144 fountains, some shooting out jets almost 20m high;
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KUNSTKAMERA MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG
The bizarre collection of the Kunstkamera, Russia’s first museum, features everything from preserved giants to Siberian shaman drums. The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography was built in 1727, two years after his death, to house his cabinet of curiosities, including the skeleton of his manservant and the head of his mistress’s brother;
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HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG
The Romanov succession after Peter the Great became extraordinarily complicated until Catherine the Great became Empress of Russia in 1762 after a coup d’etat against her husband, Peter III. Her greatest legacy is her art collection, which began in 1764 with a purchase of 255 paintings. The Hermitage Museum, housed in Catherine’s Winter Palace in St Petersburg, now houses those and more than a million other paintings and artefacts. Skip the ticket office queues by booking online;
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BOLSHOI THEATRE, MOSCOW
In 1776, Catherine the Great granted Prince Urusov the privilege of opening his own theatre for dances, operas, masquerades and all forms of entertainment; this would mark the foundation of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. The neoclassical building in which the Bolshoi is now housed is home to one the world’s greatest opera and ballet companies. Tickets can be purchased online but plan ahead as they often sell out weeks in advance;
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HERMITAGE THEATRE, ST PETERSBURG
Located in the Winter Palace, this theatre was commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1783. It is much smaller than the Mariinsky, St Petersburg’s main opera and ballet stage, but hosts regular performances and is a great place to get a taste of the golden age of Russian ballet;
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KREMLIN ARMOURY MUSEUM, MOSCOW
Constructed in 1851, this is one of Moscow’s oldest museums. The dazzling imperial treasures inside its chambers range from Tsar Mikhail’s coronation sceptre to an exquisite ivory egg designed by Faberge in 1913 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. Jewel-encrusted portraits of the 18 Romanov tsars adorn the egg, which opens to reveal a rotating globe showing the empire controlled by Russia under the Romanovs;
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CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR ON SPILLED BLOOD, ST PETERSBURG
Organised opposition to the absolute power of the Romanovs grew during the 19th century, culminating in the assassination of Alexander II. Ironically, he was a reformer and moderniser, but he was killed by an assassin’s bomb in 1881. The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, with golden cupolas and topaz mosaics, was built right on the spot where the bomb went off;
eng.cathedral.ru/spasa_na_krovi.
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YUSUPOV PALACE, ST PETERSBURG
The palace where the “unkillable” Rasputin finally met his end in December 1916 still attracts curious visitors. The neoclassical Yusupov Palace now incorporates a museum dedicated to telling the story of how an illiterate Siberian peasant rose to the highest echelons of the Russian royal court;
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WINTER PALACE, ST PETERSBURG
The last official residence of the tsars, the Winter Palace played witness to the final days of Russia’s monarchy. The storming of the palace in 1917 marked the beginning of the October Revolution. Behind the green and white baroque facade, visitors can explore 1500 rooms and 117 staircases. Entry is included in the price of a ticket for the Hermitage Museum;
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GRAND KREMLIN PALACE, MOSCOW
The 700-room Grand Kremlin Palace, the Moscow residence of the Romanovs, contains within its walls several smaller palaces, nine churches and an eclectic mix of Russian, Asian and Italian architectural styles. The magnificent yellow and green building was chosen by Lenin as his new seat of government when the Bolsheviks took power in 1918. Today it houses the office of President Vladimir Putin and can be visited only as part of special guided tours;
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CHURCH ON THE BLOOD, YEKATERINBURG
This is where the dynasty met its end in 1918. The church was built on the site of Ipatiev House, where the last Romanovs were shot. Yekaterinburg, east of the Urals, holds an annual three-day commemoration of the Romanovs. About 60,000 people usually parade through the city’s streets; this year numbers were greater, marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Emperor Nicholas II and his family;
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CATHEDRAL OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, ST PETERSBURG
The cathedral, on Hare Island, houses the tombs of the Romanovs, and in 1998 the bodies of Nicholas and his family were finally laid to rest alongside their ancestors;
saint-petersburg.com/cathedrals.
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IN THE KNOW
If visiting London, The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution is at the Science Museum until March 24; the exhibition shows X-rays of the remains of Nicholas II and his family, extracts from their personal diaries and jewellery found at the scene of their murder and examines the role of forensic science in solving the mysteries surrounding the end of the Romanovs. The exhibition Russia: Royalty & the Romanovs is at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until April 28.