A new palace near St. Petersburg opens to visitors after restoration

ST.PETERSBURG, September 15 (Itar-Tass) An enfilade of gala rooms
opened in the Grand Menshikov Palace in Oranienbaum, a suburb of St.
Petersburg, after years of restoration. The opening ceremony took place on
September 10 when the Oranienbaum estate marked its 300th anniversary. It
was attended by Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev, and St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko.
Poltavchenko described the opening of the gala rooms as an event
of national significance. "Oranienbaum was a place where Peter the First
and Catherine the Great as well as many other prominent figures in Russian
history decided the future of Russia and created a great country called
the Russian Empire. Today, after years of painstaking restoration efforts,
this gem of St. Petersburg and Russia has been revived," Poltavchenko
emphasized.
The Palace's interior features genuine objects dating back to the
era of Peter the Great, the spears and uniforms of the Preobrazhenskiy
regiment and the 18th-century furniture that was stored in the reserves of
the Peterhof museums.
Restoration specialists studied archive materials to reproduce
the colors and tissue that were used in the interior decoration.
Elena Kalnitskaya, the general director of the Oranienbaum
museum, said that only the first stage of restoration works had been
completed and that new museum facilities would open in 2013,2014 and 2015.