Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Kolomensky Palace)

The Kolomenskoye Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov is the central historical structure of the architectural and landscape complex of the State Museum-Reserve “Kolomenskoye”, located south of the center of Moscow, in the floodplain of the smooth bend of the Moscow River. The expositions of this palace-museum, housed in carefully recreated magnificent interiors of the XVII century, attract many guests of the capital. There are 23 rooms on five levels with a total area of 1775 m² available for viewing. In the evenings, the palace’s terems are spectacularly illuminated by hundreds of spotlights, reminiscent of the sets of Russian fairy tales.

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Video: Kolomna Palace

Contents

Highlights

The palace is a historical reconstruction of the lost tsar’s chambers, erected in the early 70s of the 17th century in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, and served as a country residence of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the father of Emperor Peter the Great. The interiors are decorated with both modern materials stylized to look like antiquity and authentic works of XVII-XVIII century masters, old icons, works of art, silver cups and earthenware, household items of that time. The masters who painted the walls and ceiling vaults were guided by the surviving drawings, drawings and paintings of Western European artists who accompanied embassies of their countries to Moscow and depicted the scenes of the tsar’s reception of guests in the Kolomna Palace. The restorers managed to get a lot of accurate details from the reports of diplomatic missions of the XVII century, found in the archives of European capitals. There is also a lot of imagination of the restorers, who, however, relied on a careful study of the palace interiors preserved in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

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Bearing structures and floors of the full-size imitation of the palace complex are cast from reinforced concrete and masked with wooden panels. The facades are made of natural logs concealing concrete supports. The hipped roofs of the palace terems are covered with flaked timber and painted green. The reconstructed chambers display authentic items from the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich: tapestries, services, weapons, jewelry, books, icons. The spirit of Moscow antiquity reigns here, the museum curators and guides dressed in the attire of boyars, riflemen and ladies of the court.

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The vast courtyard in front of the palace often serves as a place for festivals and holidays, fairs and festivities, and in the numerous buildings are held interesting workshops, unfold expositions of traveling exhibitions. Kolomna Palace is conveniently connected with all Moscow districts by subway and bus routes, there are parking lots for car tourists, souvenir stores, cafes, restaurants and a hotel.

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History of the Kolomenskoye Palace

The village of Kolomenskoye has long served Moscow rulers as a southern suburban residence. In the game-rich surrounding forests on the banks of the Moscow River there was a noble hunting. Back in the first half of the XVI century, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily III, there were already palace chalets here. They were ruined during the Time of Troubles, but then restored. Ancient chronicles report that Tsar Ivan the Terrible once organized in the Kolomna palace celebrations on the occasion of his name day.

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From chronicle sources we know that in 1640 Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich renovated the old buildings, and his successor, Alexei Mikhailovich, ordered to erect new wooden chambers in place of the dilapidated log buildings. The names of the Russian architects who led the construction work that lasted from 1666 to 1671 have come down to us. They were skillful carpenters Ivan Mikhailov and Semyon Petrov, both of whom came from the peasant class. A group of carvers sent by Patriarch Nikon from the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery worked on the decorations, and Bogdan Saltanov, the chief master of the Kremlin Armory, and Simon Fyodorovich Ushakov, a famous Moscow icon-painter, and his pupils were invited to paint the interiors. The talented craftsmen were provided with precious drapery fabrics, gold leaf, valuable wood, English tin for casting decorative details, and durable foreign paints. The decor created here reminded contemporaries of the interiors of the Teremny Palace of the Moscow Kremlin.

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The Kolomna Palace consisted of 26 separate terems (cells) and towers connected by a labyrinth of corridors and passages. The spires of the tallest buildings reached the height of a modern 10-story house. There were 270 chambers with a total area of 10,250 m², and sunlight penetrated into the rooms through 3000 windows decorated with carved shutters and platbands. In the evenings the rooms were illuminated by candles inserted in mica lanterns. Over time, the terems were enlarged with annexes, which housed various services and servants. As the heirs to the throne were born, separate chambers were built for them, connected by passages with the apartments of the tsar and tsarina.

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On the Sovereign’s court, surrounding the palace, led stone Front Gate, topped by an octagonal bell tower with a pointed hipped roof. On the third tier of the gate foreign masters arranged a clock mechanism with two dials. The arched entrance portal was guarded by figures of lions, a complex system of pipes and air valves reproduced the menacing roar of the beasts. The gates at the opposite end of the Sovereign’s court were called Spassky.

The Streltsy revolt that occurred at the beginning of Peter the Great’s reign prompted an inspection of the fortifications surrounding the residence. Sixteen garrison huts were built here to house a reinforced guard force and new artillery pieces were installed. When the capital of the Russian Empire moved to St. Petersburg, and the royal court left Moscow in 1703, moving to Northern Palmyra, the palace in Kolomenskoye fell into disrepair. For more than half a century, the wooden structures decayed without proper care. The rotted roofs exposed the beams of the supporting structures, the rafters collapsed over time, the staircases fell through. Only in 1762 Empress Catherine II sent court architect Ivan Michurin to Kolomenskoye. He made measurements of the teremes, drew up a detailed plan of the palace buildings and presented an estimate of expenses for its restoration. The Empress found the sum exorbitantly high and ordered to dismantle the century-old palaces, and in their place to lay out a park. In return, the Empress wished to build a new four-story stone palace nearby. This residence was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops in 1812.

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In 1825, the village of Kolomenskoye was decorated with a new summer palace, built for Emperor Alexander I. The Empire-style building served the royal family for more than 50 years, and then was dismantled in 1878. Before the demolition of the palace, the artist D. Smirnov made a wooden model of the palace, reproducing details of the facades. Today it is displayed in one of the museum’s showcases. The idea to recreate Alexei Mikhailovich’s palace in Kolomenskoye became established among the researchers of ancient Russian architecture in the late XIX – early XX centuries. Enthusiasts collected images of the palace, reproduced on engravings of contemporaries, descriptions of its interiors. However, it was not until 1923, when a museum was established in Kolomenskoye, that systematic archaeological research and archival studies began here.

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In the early 2000s, at the initiative of the museum staff, supported by members of the Moscow government, project work began to recreate the Kolomenskoye Palace and turn it into a bright tourist object of the capital. Since a beautiful grove of century-old trees grew on the place of the residence, the preserved foundations were only investigated here, and it was decided to recreate the palace complex on the bank of the Moskva River a little to the south, in the ancient village of Dyakovo, separated from Kolomenskoye by the Golosovoi ravine. The art-historical reconstruction of Alexei Mikhailovich’s palace was completed by the fall of 2010 and opened on Moscow Day.

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Walking around the Kolomna Palace

To the entrance to the palace there is a shady linden alley crossing the vast courtyard of the Sovereign. Passing the outbuildings, guests are directed to the Red Porch, decorated with a double-headed eagle, images of the Savior with angels and Our Lady of Kazan, which are decorated with imitations of semi-precious stones. The front entrance to the palace is marked by a painted double door. From the vestibule hay corridors lead to the chambers – the Dining Room, the Duma Room and the Throne Room. Behind them stretches the enfilades of the grand chambers of the autocrat, the bedchambers of members of the royal family and accompanying dignitaries.

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The most spacious palace hall is the Dining Chamber, where the appropriate furniture and decorations are reproduced, with a polychrome tile stove in the corner. Ornamental ceramic tiles are made according to the samples of furnace decoration found during excavations of the original palace. Here feasts were held on the occasion of great festivals. The vault of the palace is painted with celestial luminaries and zodiacal constellations “with true astronomical accuracy”, as stated in the surviving description of one of the foreign ambassadors who arrived at the court of the Moscow Tsar in 1675.

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The function of the boyar council meeting hall was performed by the Duma Chamber. The walls are upholstered with scarlet cloth and hung with icons. On the table opened an ancient manuscript book. This is the Cathedral Code of Alexei Mikhailovich, a set of laws of 1649, which were in force in the Russian Empire for about 200 years, until the first third of the XIX century.

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The front door of the Kolomna Palace swings open into the neighboring Throne Chamber, the throne room of the Tsar. On the elevation is set gilded sovereign throne, upholstered in red brocade and green morocco. The wall panels are covered with embossed leather with gilded ornaments and painted with scenes from the Old Testament. The ceiling plafonds are decorated with frescoes with New Testament scenes. Old engravings and paintings by Western European artists who had seen the original Throne Chamber with their own eyes served as models for the murals. Then there is a bedroom, bath, closet, armory.

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Richly decorated with paintings, silks and carpets chorums of the queen. The rooms are decorated with floral ornaments, images of birds, fairy-tale animals, heraldic animals. The throne room with the throne of the God-fearing tsarina is decorated with icons, in the neighboring room there is a home chapel. There is a special room for quiet needlework with samples of embroidered fabrics and accessories of the crowned goldsmith.

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In the chambers of the tsareviches the atmosphere of the Teachers’ Chamber is recreated. On the tables there are popular textbooks of the XVII century: “Primer” by Hieromonk Karion, who headed the Moscow printing court, “Grammar” by Archbishop Meletius Smotritsky, “Psalter” with commentaries and explanations by Simeon Polotsky, spiritual adviser to the children of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who was especially friendly with the inquisitive Tsarevich Peter. Among the books are “Synopsis” with selected texts of Russian chronicles, works on history and geography. There is also a small collection of soldiers’ medals.

If you leave the Sovereign’s Court through the gate facing the Moskva River, you will see the magnificent white stone Church of the Ascension of the Lord, erected in 1532. This beautiful church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are several other churches nearby.

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Among tourists and pilgrims known musical attraction of the museum-reserve “Kolomenskoye” – melodious shimmering bells of the church belfry in the name of St. George. The bells are rung from 13:30 to 15:30 from Wednesday to Sunday.

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Kolomna Palace is surrounded by other notable structures worthy of tourists’ attention. Among them is the cabin of Peter the Great, with a curious history of travel. This spacious log hut was cut down in 1702 and set up on an islet off the coast of the Northern Dvina, where the Tsar arrived with an inspection of the Novodvinsk fortress. Soon the log cabin, threatened by floods, was moved to the fortress. Local residents looked after the historic house until 1877, then it was sent to Arkhangelsk. In 1933, the historic house was dismantled and moved to the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve.

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It is worth seeing the wonderful collections gathered in the exhibition hall “Atrium”, telling about the high level of skill of Russian builders of the XIV-XIX centuries. Here are exhibited items created by skillful carvers, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths. In the showcases – elements of architectural ceramics and watered kiln tiles, fragments of interior decoration of lost public buildings and churches, forged decorations of facades, balconies and fences, wood and marble carvings.

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To the east of the Kolomna Palace, on a high pyramidal hill is an archaeological site “Dyakovo ancient settlement”. Here was discovered Finno-Ugric settlement, dated V-IV centuries B.C. The settlement was protected by a ring ditch and an earthen rampart with a wooden palisade. Judging by the finds in the alternating cultural layers, later Baltic tribes lived here, and from the 11th century Slavs settled on the hill. Life here died out in the XIII century, during the Mongol invasion of Russia.

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Practical information

The park area of the reserve is available for walks and external inspection of the Kolomna Palace daily from 07:00 to 00:00. The expositions of the palace premises are open for visits from 10:00 to 18:00, the ticket office closes at 17:00. The cost of a full entrance ticket to the palace for adults – 400 rubles, for children 7-18 years – 100 rubles.

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On the territory of the reserve you can ride in a horse-drawn carriage. The route begins from the entrance to the palace at the State Palace. Such an excursion lasts an hour and a half and includes a visit to a working blacksmith shop, stable and carriage yard, apiary. Excursions with an audio guide on electric cars and in the carriages of a stylized steam locomotive are offered.

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There are exciting quests for young visitors aged 12+. The games are downloaded to your smartphone or tablet. Access codes and quest tickets are sold at the ticket offices at the Sovereign’s Court and at the Spassky Gates, the cost is 600 rubles. Here the museum staff familiarize the kids with the rules of the game.

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Souvenirs

Souvenirs are sold in kiosks on the territory of the museum-reserve, they are located on Torgovaya Street, in the Strelets’ guardhouses, in the premises of the guards of the Spassky and Front Gates. You can buy guidebooks and maps of the Reserve at ticket offices. Beautifully published photo albums, books and colorful booklets, postcards, stylized costume jewelry, elements of ancient festive women’s clothing are popular. Young tourists are offered thematic coloring books, board games, adapted illustrated editions on the history of the Russian state in the XVII century.

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The Reserve’s signature products are ceramic dishes and large glass balls with prints of ancient engravings depicting the Kolomna Palace, the Church of the Ascension and other museum objects. Paintings can be selected to decorate the house, as well as forged decorative items made in the palace forge.

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Where to eat

The Trapeznaya restaurant is open in the museum complex. The institution is located in the Gosudar’s Court, in building No. 69. The interiors of the dining room are made in the old Moscow style. The menu features delicacies of old Russian cuisine: fish and meat solyanki, Lenten shchi, beet cholodniki, okroshki, borsch. First courses cost 335 rubles. The choice of main dishes cooked according to specialty recipes is no less wide. Try king-style cutlets made of pike fillet (Br395), roast in a clay pot (Br450), Pozharskie cutlets (Br385), pancakes with salmon (Br495). As a side dish, choose potatoes baked with spicy herbs or mashed into mashed potatoes, buckwheat porridge or “Guryevskaya” porridge, homemade noodles. Good appetizers are stuffed cabbage with mushrooms, cold cakes with grated horseradish, sauerkraut with apples, spicy pickles. Desserts and pastries are offered for 290-495 rubles (pancakes, cheesecakes, baked apples with honey, cranberries, currants). The list of drinks includes beer, mead, sbiten, as well as thick kissels, berry morses, fruit compotes and several varieties of tea. The restaurant is open daily from 10:00 to 22:00.

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Where to stay

Within a five-minute walk from the entrance to the Kolomensky Palace, on the territory of the museum-reserve, there is its own hotel “Kolomenskoye” 3*. The hotel has a guarded parking lot and a restaurant with democratic prices: the check for a hearty lunch will be about 400 rubles. The cost of accommodation in a double room – 2560-3712 rubles per day.

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How to get there

The Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich is located at 39 Andropov Avenue. It is most convenient to get here by metro. To avoid transfers, from the center of Moscow go from the station “Tverskaya” on the Zamoskvoretskaya line. The trip will take no more than half an hour, get off at “Kashirskaya”. There is an underground passage under Andropov Avenue. Kolomensky Palace is a five-minute walk to the northeast. You can also get here from the station “Kolomenskaya”, but you will have to walk along the avenue to the south for about twenty minutes.

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To get to the museum complex you can also take city buses № 219, 291, 299, 608, 820, your stop – “Prospekt Andropova”. At the metro station “Kashirskaya” buses № 263 and 901 stop.

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During the summer navigation on the Moskva River go motorboats. Not far from the Kolomensky Palace is a pier where pleasure boats stop. The cost of a mini-cruise from one of the piers in the center of the capital – from 149 rubles.

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