The Earth Story

Original caption:

The Malachite Room

The old Winter Palace of the Russian Czars is now the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, and retains some of the wonderful fittings built during their reign. The Malachite Room was originally designed by Alexander Briullov in the late 1830s as a drawing room for the wife of Nicholas 1, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The later Romanov brides were dressed there before appearing at their weddings. It was used after the revolution for meetings by Kerensky's Provisional Government, so these walls probably have some interesting tales to tell. The Bolsheviks arrested the government during their coup in the adjoining private dining room.

Sixteen marble columns, fireplaces and some fittings were all carved from two colours of malachite from the Ural mountains were designed into the room, creating a lovely mixture of green and gold.

For a post on the giant malachite vases also in the Hermitage see http://tinyurl.com/mf3ku35.

Loz

Image credit: Nathan Messer.

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_1_62.html http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/hermitage-museum/state-rooms/