Here are some pictures I took of Tsaritsyno. The pictures were taken on Thursday, June 3, 1999. Tsaritsyno was built for Catherine the Great as a summer estate near Moscow (Moscow has since expanded to encompass it). When the main palace was almost completed, she ordered it destroyed and another built by a different architect. When that was almost complete, a war broke out and funding for the project was diverted elsewhere. The main palace is in ruins, but some of the other buildings are functional, and the area is used as a public park.
This is the Patterned Bridge, which is the first structure you encounter when you go to Tsaritsyno going the most common way. My friend Sarah, who I was visiting, is in the foreground.
Here's part of the Great Palace, which as you can see has fallen into disrepair.
The Opera House, which is still used.
At the time Tsaritsyno was designed, it was common for estates to include fake, prefabricated ruins. Here they are. I don't think it's visible in this picture, but some of the old stones have fallen away and you can see the brick underneath.
Onward to the St. Petersberg pictures