I Just wanted to share with you one of the many wonders we found on our trip to Russia. We visited this ‘Narnian Winter Palace’ as I would call it. Because that’s really all you could call it, it was monstrous, it was imaginative and it was like nothing else I have ever seen on earth. This place was potentially the size of Manhattan’s entire city park devoted to a 17th century rebuilt residence of Catherine the second. She was a ‘balshoy’ woman, or a ‘oching balshoy sheshana’, ( very large woman in poorly written Russian ). And she seemed to live life to the fullest; they say she took on many lovers and she has some pretty out there rumors/legends about her exploits. Apparently her husband was a bit of a nut and liked Prussia a bit too much, so for the Country’s sake so she ended up ruling. And according to history’s account she ruled well and helped create a more modernized regional form of government, basically making the country more efficient and self governable. That all said you only need to know that she lived in a world many people could only dream of. And this place is a representation of that, but for sure this was a place where people came to party, enjoy themselves, and relax. And today it seems the same, but it holds a piece of Russia’s past, and it’s one hell of a park now where kids sledded, parents and families ice skated, and in general just walked around and enjoyed the open land. Also this place during the summer I am told is transferred into a sunbather’s resort where floral displays are everywhere and where artists love to draw, such as my wife did when she was going to college in Moscow several years ago.

A video of the courtyard from someone else visiting the palace in the summer:

So we arrived at the ‘residence’s gates’ and we walked a good half mile to a mile to reach her palace on a cold but not bitter for Moscow winter day. And along the way it lightly snowed, setting a scene that was enchanting, open, royal yet very mysterious. I couldn’t help but ask myself how did this go untouched for so long in a city where everything seemed to be converted in the past 100 years.  But it was also a place of awe, and extreme. And of course I arrived there with friends with a bit of a hang over so I wasn’t so sure what I was in for but this wasn’t it. I heard about St. Peters-berg’s wonders but I expected a ruins of an old fort like I had seen in Colomne an old town to the north of the city that’s old walls have since crumbled. It’s interesting but the old history of Russia was so violent that from an outsiders perspective the environment was every bit as hostile as it’s past.  But it was out of this world, there was a man-made lake 15-ice rinks maybe 30 ice rinks long that was being used for skating. It looked like something I saw in the Putkin museum’s gallery of an old Moscow but I thought maybe they were exaggerating a bit. No, this was extreme, it looked like water used to run through the hillside and fell over a waterfall and fed the lake area naturally, and that would explain the large bridges. But now it was man made, there was no waterfall clearly and it was very interesting. I found old paintings inside the home to corroborate this. So we crossed a magnificent old restored red bridge. Red stood for royalty so I am guessing the brick was all red due to this but.. regardless the bridge was shaped like a cathedral with 3 spires and and filled with holes in each spire’s base for what could have been for canons I guess? or maybe just there for looks. And we walked up behind the front entrance, seeing the residence set back by the trees and walls around it. We saw the old cathedral and heard about how the locals sunbathed out here in the summer, and it was hard to imagine. Mainly because it was at least -10F and snowing.

So we shook off the cold and entered the central part of the courtyard by the palace. And as if transplanted to the present day there was a glass museum entrance none to different than an Apple store in Manhattan. And we went underground to a giant area made for buying tickets having coffee/tea, selling trinkets,  and taking off your coats so you could get into the museum and explore. And we were led into the old rebuilt home upstairs that was completely restored or nearly completely. They say that projects in Moscow cost obscenely large amount and this one in particular could only go so far, so they had to make cut backs so some of the rooms weren’t quite as fancy as the winter palace is in St. Petersburg. But it was very impressive.

The Palace had fell into disrepair maybe a hundred years ago or more, it was a 300 year old structure.  It was gutted prior maybe by fire an earth quake or bombings because 15 years ago or so the building was missing all of it’s roof, and interior. Homeless lived in this ginormous 4-5 football field sized home, although that’s hard to imagine because I don’t know how long you could survive without a good heating system in the kind of cold we experienced.

But apart from what I saw this place was party central for the elite, generals, admirals, and royalty.  According to the drawings it was also defensively placed with several missing towers, and gates to the residence on a hill. We entered to one room that I have to mention about it was bigger than many people’s home’s and it was covered from walls to ceiling in all 5 sides ( except the wooden floor ) with gold ornate statues and textures. Additional buildings were made just for cooks, and those were huge, stables must have been at the center of the courtyard where museum entrance was found, and all of it was lit up like a star-trek star-ship at night.  It was quite something… There was a lot of cool things about this place and many of them were outside but that one central ballroom really was enjoyable to see. Wealth beyond man’s dreams, that room probably was filled with enough gold to fill a treasury. Now after going through this place for 3 hours we finally departed into the night sky.. and this is why this place to me is really Narnia. At night with the snow slightly falling through the forest the lamps looked like they came straight out of the film. This was just a perfect movie set for a film. And that was one of my afternoon’s in Moskva, I wish the video camera was on-hand that day but I found a ton of pictures unfortunately they’re from the summer but they give you an idea to the immensity of this place. If your visiting check this out, and the Balshoi Theater for sure.

I did find a few pictures, and videos from other people and collected them for you here to see a bit of what I saw.

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