St Petersburg Second Day, 6 of 8 -Yusupov Palace

The Yusupov Palace Tour: The Yusupov Palace was full of surprises.   At the end of one wing of the palace a red-carpeted marble staircase leads down into the Palace Theatre. As we descended down the stairs I assumed that we were entering a room with a low ceiling but to my surprise and ceiling of the theatre rose to the height of the hallway we had descended from.

In fact, the body of the theatre where the audience sit has two tiers of horse-shoe shaped ornate balconies above and around the floor seating area and this theatre layout reminded me of an early 19th century opera theatre. A sunken mini orchestra pit was set infront of the stage. The stage area was framed by a beautiful gilded border and filled with several rows of rich velvet stage curtains which hung from ceiling to the stage floor. 

The ceiling of the theatre has a beautifully painted fresco as its centre piece and soft lighting added to the atmosphere.

We sat in the luxurious seats , looking at all the richness of the theatre's decor and waited for the show to begin.

Sadly, there was no show even though the theatre frequently hosts ballet performances, ensemble evenings and orchestral concerts.

Bookings can be made on the Palace web cite on a regular basis.

The Rasputin Tour: The tour begins in the Palace Museum which has a with a photographic history of Tsar Nichollas II and his family and photographs of Rasputin. Our guide showed us documents related to the historical events and then we visited a series of rooms, set up in the cellar area where wax figures have been used in a recreation of what happened on the night of Rasputin's death.

The recreation was enlightening and the wax figures were very life-like. 

Here is a summary of what happened inside these palace walls.

On December 30, 1916 Prince Felix Yusupov and his fellow monarchist conspirators met to discuss their plans to kill  Rasputin, a  Russian mystic and self proclaimed holy man. Rasputin had befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II  and had gained considerable influence in helping desire to make political decisions in Russia. 

The conspirators saw Rasputin as an enemy of Russia in his role of mystic advisor to Tsar Nicholas II and a danger to the future of Russia. The conspirators invited Rasputin down into a small lavishly furnished cellar room in the palace and offered him red wine which had the laced with poison. 

However, the poison seemed not to effect Rasputin so he was shot in the chest. The conspirators left but when Yusupov returned  to the basement, rest Putin leapt up and attacked him. With some effort, Yusupov freed himself and fled upstairs and out into the courtyard.

Rasputin followed but was shot by another conspirator before collapsing in the snow. The conspirators shot more bullets into his body and then wrapped his body in a blanket, drove to a bridge and threw his body into the river.

In 1917, Nicolas II, the last tsar of Russia, abdicated from the throne following the February Revolution of 1917. His abdication ended the Romanov dynasty that had ruled Russia for over three hundred years. Nichollas II and his the family were placed under house arrest by the leaders of the rebellion, the Bolsheviks who took over the government. In April,1918 the family, some of their servants and their doctor were moved into a remote house in Yekaterinburg where they all spent the last 78 days of their lives. The Tsar and his family and those with him were executed, on July 17, 1918 by the revolutionaries. Civil war followed between Lenin's Red Bolshevik army and a loose group of monarchists, democratic socialists and capitalists White army in late 1917. It ended in 1923 with Lenin claiming the victory and establishing the Soviet Union.

It wasn't until July 1991 after the collapse of Communism that the bodies of five family members of Alexander II were exhumed. In 1989 following DNA tests the remains of the family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg in 1998. 

We visited that church yesterday and saw the special memorial section of the chapel where the family were re entombed. It is a special place honouring the last Tsar of Russia and his family.

After much deliberation the buried Tsar and his family were declared saints by the Russian Orthodox Church.