What you need to know about Catherine the Great's Chinese Palace
This palace is probably the most luxurious in the Oranienbaum palace and park ensemble in the town of Lomonosov near St. Petersburg.
It looks like a box with a secret: behind the laconic facade hides a regal splendor - halls decorated in the Chinese style. Art historian Alexandre Benois called Catherine II's personal residence a graceful, elegant trinket that one could not help but admire.
The Chinese palace was built by architect Antonio Rinaldi. The rooms were decorated in the then fashionable ‘chinoiserie’ style: a lot of gilding and stucco, smooth curves of frames, porcelain from the East and Europe, mirrors, Chinese and Japanese lacquer furniture. In order to decorate the empress'personal summer house, a trade caravan traveled to China several times. Catherine entertained her first guests there in 1768.
The main pearl of the palace is considered to be the Glass Bead Cabinet: its walls are decorated with a dozen panels embroidered with silk thread and glass beads. Butterflies and birds flutter across the sparkling background and the gilded frames resemble tree trunks. It’s as if one finds oneself not in a room, but in a magical forest. Catherine II loved the study for its "exuberant appearance" and met withhigh-ranking guests in it.
