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The Alexander Palace. St. Theodore’s Church. St. Seraphim Sarov’s Chapel, the Private Place of Prayer and Worship of Nicholas II and his Family.

Whether you are a Tsar or a noble person, or a peasant. In times of sorrow, need, sufferings we become as little children before the heavenly thrown, heaven knows not rank, status, position or wealth. It only knows what is in your heart: are you humble or are you charitable, are you caring, do you live an exemplary life that others may follow.Heaven does not listen to one who is selfish, arrogant or greedy.

2007. We happened to visit the Alexander Palace just out of interest and curiosity. The architectural design of the Palace, made by the Italian architect G. Quarenghi (1744-1817) in 1792 resulted in the construction four years later. Look at the photo-tour.Alexander Palace Interios To-day

alexandras-collection-of-iconsAt that time there was hosted the Exhibition “The Tsar Cross”, showing the last days of Nicholas II and his family in the living quarters which belong to the right wing of the building. Looking at the Bedchamber of the Empress where her modest metallic bed stood and above the whole wall was covered with icons which she collected for her life, I understood Janko’s passion for collecting the icons. Look at two photos, to the right Janko,s collection in our home, and to the left Alexandra Fyodorovna’s jankos-icon-collectioncollection.

The highlight of our trip to Tsarskoye Selo came about quite by accident. We decided to go for a walk because we heard the bells of a Church in the distance, we were told that it is St. Theodore’s Church, it was special to the royal family. When we walked along this country pass, it was as if taken back in time. On our way we noticed what it seemed to be an ancient wall town called “gorod”, to our surprise we learned that it was not an ancient city but an administrative center for Tsarskoye Selo built at the beginning of XX century as was the Church of St. Theodore. Look at the photo-tour in the St. Theodore Church.                         St. Theodore  Church

jankos-alexander-palaceUpon entering the Church the service was taking place. We stayed to pray. While we were there a certain woman kept staring at us. Since I was curious as to why she was gazing at us I asked Valentina to approach her. When Val spoke to her in Russian and introduced us to her, her face was lit up and she began to smile and speak to us. She told us about the history of this Church and renovations that had been taken place. After a while when the service was completed she told us that she wanted to show us something special. It was an underground church under St. Theodore’s , the private place of prayer and worship of Nicholas II and his family, and it was called St. Seraphim Sarov’s  Chapel.

We went there. It was a small room without windows, lit by natural candle light, in the middle was the iconostas with many icons, it had a feeling of solemnity and peace which was needed by Nicholas and his family in those times of WWI turmoil. Listen to the song.The Romanov’s Good-bye

4 Comments

  1. А мне нравится этот блог, только авторам надо помнить , что посетители разные бывают. Короче учитывайте возростной ценс посетителей.

  2. Дорогие друзья,
    Благодарю за внимание в моей работе. Спасибо за критический комментарий. Учтём в дальнейшей работе.
    С уважением
    Валентина

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