From 14 November the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo can be visited on a new combined ticket, «Дворец трёх императриц» — the Palace of Three Empresses. It covers three museum routes, the tour runs in a group of up to 10, and it starts in the Zubovsky Wing, once Catherine's private apartments.
The palace stops being one long ceremonial enfilade. Three routes are three chapters of one story: the residence was built up under different rulers, each leaving a layer.
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What the ticket includes
One ticket, three routes, a guide. The small group is the point: you hear the guide, you see the detail, you can ask without raising a hand across a hall. Walk the routes in the order the museum suggests — they are meant to follow each other.
Check the programme length, bag rules and how to buy before you travel: these shift with the season, so use the museum's website.
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Three routes instead of one enfilade
Where the main flow moves fast, these routes let you stop: parquet, ceilings, the fabric on the walls. They also need pacing — take a break between parts, sit down, step outside.
Author, licence, Wikimedia Commons
Starting at the Zubovsky Wing
The route opens in the Zubovsky Wing, Catherine's private apartments. It is a logical start: private rooms explain how the residence lived when nobody was being received. After them the state halls read as a stage rather than the whole house. Arrive for the start of the session — in a group of 10, a late entrance is noticeable.
Author, licence, Wikimedia Commons
