TSARSKOYE SELO, Catherine Palace Interior

A visit to Catherine Palace begins by climbing the magnificent Gala Staircase and culminates in the rooms designed by Rastrelli along the so-called Golden Enfilade. The most spectacular is the Great Hall, or Hall of Light, which measures 860 square meters and occupies the entire width of the building. The large windows, offering incomparable views, illuminate the extensive gilded stucco work that adorns the walls and the entire ceiling, covered by a monumental fresco entitled the Triumph of Russia. It is said that more than a thousand candles were lit during celebrations held here.

Among the many wonderful rooms, make sure you don’t miss the Portrait Hall, with portraits of the tsarinas Catherine I, Elizabeth, and Catherine the Great, and the Paintings Gallery, in which almost every inch of space on the walls is covered by paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The greatest masterpiece, however, is the unparalleled Amber Room. To create this extraordinary room, Rastrelli used amber mosaic panels that at the beginning of the 18th century adorned the private study of Frederick I of Prussia, and were donated to Peter the Great in 1716....