The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (Part 3) A Night at The Palace

IMAGINE

You are a invited to a ball at the Winter Palace. Your carriage arrives at the main gates of the Winter Palace. 

Gates to the Winter Palace. The gilded emblems of Imperial Russia, torn down in 1917, are now fully restored.

You are admitted through the gates into the Inner Court. 

You arrive at the main entrance where you are greeted and shuffled into the Jordan Gallery.

You make your way along the Jordon Gallery until you get to the Jordon Staircase

Once you have reached the top of the great Jordon Staircase you are standing outside the doors which swing open to all you into the Great Antechamber.

The Great Ante-Chamber, the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, by Konstantin Ukhtomsky (1861)

You make your way though the Great Antechamber into The Nicholas Hall 

The Nicholas Hall, by Konstantin Ukhtomsky (1879)

Theatre students reenact a ball in the Nicholas Hall in 2001

If you were higher up on the chain of importance you got to make your way through the Nicholas Hall into the Concert Hall where only the highest members of the court were allowed to wait for the Tzar and Tzarina to make their entrance. 

The Concert Hall in the Winter Palace 

The Concert Hall in the Winter Palace 

The Concert Hall, the Winter Palace, St Petersburg. Looking towards the doors of The Nicholas Hall. This room, closest to the private apartments was reserved for the court's elite. Watercolor by Alexander K

The main door the Czar and Czarina would enter through is behind the brown case. This door lead into the Arabian Room.

If you were high enough to get all the way to the Concert Hall you would stand with your gaze on a white center door where the Czar and Imperial Family would enter. This door is now currently covered by the brown case (you see above). Once the Czar and Imperial family entered then the Ball would begin. This is the furthest MOST people ever got in the Winter Palace. Everything past these doors were the private apartments of the Imperial Family and only the closest Family and people were permitted past this point.