I'll start from the very beginning. The famous Amber Room is located in the Catherine Palace, located in the city of Pushkin, a suburb of St. Petersburg. On one side of the Catherine Palace there is a very picturesque park of the same name, next to it is the building of the Pushkin Lyceum, on the other side there is the Alexander Park with the palace of the same name in it (the Alexander Palace is closed for restoration). In general, there is something to see in Pushkin, it may be worth taking even a few days to inspect Pushkin, it’s simply not realistic to master everything in one day.
All tourists for the most part are eager to see the Amber Room. To do this, you need to purchase tickets for the entrance to the Catherine Park and the Catherine Palace. There is no super queue for tickets to enter the park (adults 150 rubles / children under 16 free of charge, free for everyone in winter), everything is more or less decent there, tickets are issued with a plan of the park. But for tickets to the palace for independent travelers, the queues are simply huge.
Amber room in all its glory (photo from official website)
The fact is that the Catherine Palace is included in the must-see objects for most tourists from Russia and around the world. The park and the palace in the high tourist season are simply crowded with visitors from different parts of the world, a lot organized groups who enjoy the right to pass without a queue. The best way to avoid queues and crowds is to come to St. Petersburg during the low tourist season.
In the high tourist season, according to rough estimates, there is a queue 700 meters long, it does not fit in one frame entirely, people estimate the queue from 1 to 4 hours, depending on luck. As you probably have already noticed from the photo below, the queue stands in the very sun, there is absolutely nowhere to hide. If you are going to stand there, be sure to take umbrellas, they will save you from both heat and rain.
The queue is not the biggest problem. The fact is that in the palace itself there are also a lot of people and for inspection independent travelers they offer only 8 rooms, I show more to groups.
The queue at the Catherine Palace 06/07/2017, weekday If anyone has forgotten, let me remind you that the famous Amber Room was made in Prussia in 1709, then the Prussian King Frederick I presented it to Peter I, and only in 1770, after some completions and changes, the Amber Room took its place of honor in the chambers of the Catherine Palace. During the Second World War, the Amber Room disappeared without a trace, perhaps it was the story with its search and numerous investigations that made it so popular. What you can now see in the Catherine Palace is a well-restored copy.
And so consider all the ways to see the masterpiece.
Buy an organized tour to Pushkin with a visit to the Catherine Palace
If you have already arrived in St. Petersburg during the high tourist season, it would be most profitable to buy from Sputnik8 or see a ticket for this excursion on. Organized groups get out of line and are shown more than independent tourists. In the high tourist season, it is worth taking care of booking a tour at least a week before the intended trip. Be careful when buying excursions to Pushkin on the streets of St. Petersburg. Cases of cheating tourists have become more frequent. The point is that not all travel companies— the organizers of excursions to Pushkin have agreements with the Tsarskoe Selo Museum-Reserve. If there are no such agreements, then people who have bought such an excursion go to stand in a general queue. Read the comments to this article, there were noted those who got into this unpleasant situation. Using the links above, you will definitely buy a tour with a licensed agency. I haven't checked other vendors.
If you are unlucky with the weather, then you can choose a tour. On this tour, you will see two whole palaces and quite a bit of parks around these palaces, in bad weather, what you need. Pavlovsk is much less overloaded with tourists than Pushkin and is very close by.
Catherine Palace in Pushkin Buy an e-ticket to the Catherine Palace
If you are only thinking about a trip to St. Petersburg during the high tourist season, then it makes sense to take a closer look at buying an e-ticket on the official website of the Tsarskoe Selo Museum of the Reserve (change the number, then you will see tickets to Catherine's Park and the Palace). You need to do this at least a month before your trip, tickets fly away quickly.
But there is one problem here. The thing is, you can't buy online. concession tickets. And all tax residents of the Russian Federation are entitled to the benefit. By and large, these are all citizens of the Russian Federation and all businessmen with foreign citizenship, but a business registered in the Russian Federation. If you intend to go to the Catherine Palace with children, then buying tickets via the Internet will lead to a serious overpayment.
- A ticket for adult tax residents of the Russian Federation at the box office costs 700 rubles.
- Pensioners of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus at the box office 350 rubles.
- For all other categories at the box office 1000 rubles.
- Children under 16 free of charge
- An electronic ticket costs 1500 rubles. without benefits for children and pensioners
The total overpayment for a purchase on the Internet for an adult citizen of the Russian Federation will be 1500-700-120=680 rubles. To be honest, our museum workers outdid the greedy Italians, they do not take more than 4 € for buying a ticket on the Internet and the right not to stand in line.
A printed voucher without a queue at the box office of the Catherine Palace must be exchanged for a ticket to enter the exposition.
Excursion service is already included in the price of any ticket, both purchased at the box office for 700 rubles, and purchased online for 1500 rubles.
How to go to Pushkin on your own
If you think that the above methods are not for you, then I will tell you the best way to get to Pushkin and buy tickets at the palace box office at a reduced price. In this case, no one will be able to save you from queues, but those who are warned and mentally prepared are already in a more pleasant position.
DO NOT GO TO PUSHKIN ON A WEEKEND DURING THE HIGH SEASON. There will be even more people at the expense of the local population. Arrive early on a weekday, tickets go on sale at 12-00. Until this happy moment, you can put the person in charge from your company in line, and the rest of you can take a walk in the park.
You can get to the city of Pushkin both by minibuses and by train.
By train from Vitebsk railway station(Metro station Pushkinskaya) only 30 minutes drive to Tsarskoye Selo station (round-trip ticket costs 108 rubles / 54 rubles preferential). The train is beneficial in that it will allow you not to stand in traffic jams. But the Catherine Park itself is 2.3 km from railway station Pushkin, so it would be wise to use minibuses No. 370, 378, 371, 382, 373, 545 from the station to the palaces to save energy. You can walk on foot, but you should use a navigator or a map of the area, there are no signs in the city of Pushkin designed for pedestrians at all.
On minibuses from St. Petersburg you can drive from the metro stations:
- From the metro station "Moskovskaya" in St. Petersburg:
Shuttle taxi No. 286, 287, 342, 347 and 545 to the State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo"; - From the metro stations "Zvezdnaya" or "Kupchino" in St. Petersburg:
Bus number 186 to the State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo". - From the metro station "Kupchino" in St. Petersburg:
On minibuses K-545a, K-286, K-287, and K-347a.
All these three stations are located on the blue line one after another "Moskovskaya", "Star", "Kupchino" - the final station, goes to the surface. It is logical to go to it if you have already gone down the subway.
Minibus to the Kupchino metro collects passengers Minibuses are beneficial in that they will bring you directly to the palace, you won’t need to change anywhere else and you won’t need to go. Bus number 186 is beneficial for those who have a monthly ticket for public transport in St. Petersburg, in this case, travel will not require an additional fee, but the bus will travel longer than dashing minibuses.
In total, I have already seen the Amber Room several times, because I live in St. Petersburg and my relative worked as a guide in the Catherine Palace. At first, my parents took me to the Catherine Palace, then we went on a guided tour from the school, then I already took my daughter there. And I will obviously be showing my son a masterpiece autumn holidays, because standing in such a queue in the sun is not an attraction for the local population. The son was taken on an excursion from the school, but the excursion program included only a visit to the Lyceum.
The Tsarskoye Selo railway station suffers from a lack of normal signs. We are local people and did not immediately orient ourselves, foreign tourists there is no way to understand anything. Repairs are underway, the passage to the electric trains following to St. Petersburg through a car crossing bypassing the station, the platform is wooden, the signs are only in Russian, printed on A4 sheets and pasted on the station door. In general, a disgrace, as always, they closed the main entrance to the station and forced everyone to use the back door. Through the crossing, many run under the red color. There is not much security there.
The only sign in Russian and English is pasted on the Soyuzpechat kiosk, obviously this is a personal initiative of the kiosk, tortured by tourists. Since nothing is understood, people begin to ask how it is in our opinion.
Then Russian Railways, in my opinion, overdoes it with control, access to the platforms is only through the turnstiles using the barcodes on the tickets, the ticket inspector will definitely check the tickets on the train, the exit from the station again through the turnstiles using the barcodes on the tickets. This creates a huge crowd at the exit. More than half of the train passengers get off at the Tsarskoye Selo station, and all of them must pass through 4 turnstiles. It was on a weekday, on the weekend there must have been a terrible crush.
On the face of a clear lobbying of the interests of the tour. firms organizing excursions, alas, this is so. The local administration cannot even put normal signs for pedestrians around the city. The city of Pushkin itself is very green, Pushkin is a city of parks and a city of monuments. A lot of old houses are associated with the names of famous poets and artists. And finally, I will show you some photos of the city of Pushkin outside the famous parks.
Flower arrangement in Pushkin Understand one thing - in July there will be no queues, so just evaluate the importance of visiting this particular place for you and decide whether to buy online tickets or just come and stand in line. The Catherine Palace and the Hermitage are two of the most problematic places to visit in the summer, alas...
in July there will be no queues, so just evaluate the importance of visiting this particular place for you and decide whether to buy Internet tickets or just come and stand in line.
I appreciate the importance of visiting the Catherine Palace as the maximum))) No matter what, we will definitely visit it)))
And how long do people stand in line (in July) to get into the Catherine Palace?
If you arrive at the opening (by 9-10 o’clock), can you buy tickets to the palace right away? Or only at 12 o'clock they start selling them for individuals?!
Or do they sell tickets right away, but they only open at 12 o'clock?
On tickets, the time of entry into the palace is not indicated (as, for example, in the Alhambra)?
I don’t fully understand about online tickets - let’s say I bought them, exchanged vouchers for tickets at the right box office from 12 to 16h(as indicated in the instructions on the site). And in same time many people on the waiting list-individuals come with purchased tickets. How will they "merge" the waiting list and those who bought tickets via the Internet?! Or are there preferences for Internet ticket holders and let them pass ahead?
The Catherine Palace and the Hermitage are the two most problematic places to visit in the summer with us, alas
Aleksey, can I ask about the Hermitage again (forgive me, guys, if I’m asking a question in the wrong topic) - I planned a visit to the Hermitage on the free first Thursday of July, will there be a long queue for entry? How early you need to get there (we can, sooo early - we won’t reorganize after the flight yet and will live according to our home time). Or is it better NOT to come on a free day?
Is there a limit on the number of visitors to the Hermitage (for example, they can block the entrance and not let more people in)?
Last year I called to find out about Internet tickets to Ekaterininsky. After all, there is a queue outside in order to enter the palace and there, inside, to buy entrance tickets, as in the Hermitage. The time of entry is not indicated - we bought it and immediately went. At this time (from 12 to 14 and from 16 to closing) groups are formed in the same place, inside - just 20 people gathered, a guide comes up, the group receives individual headphones tuned to the transmitter of this guide and they go. The next group is recruited - the same. So those who get inside from the other side of the palace, with Internet tickets, simply join any group. There it is organized by the stream, but since the stream is huge, be prepared for the fact that the tour will be very limited - the Great Hall, one of the enfilades and the Amber Room - almost a run. How long to stand in line is completely unknown. But, if you arrive at 10 and stand in line of individuals, then for 2 hours you will just stand and wait for 12 when they start letting you in. But closer to the entrance. Previously, there was a mess there because of the so-called "gray" groups from small TFs who do not conclude an agreement with the palace for a special passage. Therefore, they put one or two people in line, and then another 40 people joined them, who supposedly "stood, but moved away." This terribly unnerved the queue, it came to fights, and now, it seems, security is following this.
Visiting the Hermitage on a free day in July promises long queues. But, since the wardrobe does not limit, the queue moves quite quickly. Despite the fact that admission on this day is free, you still need to stand at the ticket office to get a free ticket. Such an order. There are no such strong restrictions as during the work of the wardrobe (when it is full, you have to stand and wait for people to start leaving), although, of course, they will regulate the flow.
During his visits to St. Petersburg, he went to Pushkin on his own 2 times and never got inside the palace (I don’t remember the queues or closed). I decided this time to go organized with a tour. I booked an excursion for Monday April 13 on the resource recommended by Alexey http://excurspb.ru/bus/buspri/130-pushpavl.html
Explain - the price includes tickets to the palaces or not and it may be worth buying directly at the tour desk of a particular company, because. it is not clear with which company we will go, will the guide be normal?
natalochka-an By the way, entrance to the Hermitage storerooms, even on a free day, is paid for, as usual, without benefits.
Melanie on health.
kapur about tickets, of course, you need to ask in the company with which you are going. You will have a guide on the highway, in the palace - your own. Since it is not the season yet, it seems to me that you can go yourself - there should not be people. Yes, and the tour in the palace should be more, because. there is no "flow" that in summer. I remember that a few years ago we went exactly on these days - mid-April, it was completely free (of course, on a weekday).
Please note that there are a lot of interesting things - the Lyceum and the Alexander Palace and the Feodorovsky Town and the Military Chamber. I don't know if the White Tower will be open. Look at https://www.otzyv.ru/read.php?id=179318
Alexey, thank you very much!
Can I try you again (don’t judge strictly - we’re going to your city from afar, so I want to get everywhere, and I don’t waste precious time in queues stupidly, well, I also want to save money))).
Maybe it makes sense to arrive early and first buy a ticket to Ekater.park and walk there until 12 o'clock? And then go to the palace.
Are tickets for the park sold to individuals in the morning or also after 12 o'clock?
And to the pavilions (the Hermitage is interested) how much can single tourists get into)))
How long does it take to visit the park itself?
I understand that everyone different time required ... we plan to walk along the lake (without bypassing it entirely), take a walk to the Chinese village and go to the Alexander Palace (slowly, but not "hovering" near each sculpture) - will we meet in 2 hours?
natalochka-an
Can I try you again
It's possible, but it doesn't hurt!
Buying a ticket to the park is not a problem at any time - there are several entrances both at the palace itself and next to the Hermitage and the Hermitage Kitchen (such a brick building). Come in and take a walk. But, when you come to the palace by 12, there will be a long queue, mind you. The schedule of the Hermitage in the park must be viewed on the website - it may differ, for example, on weekends from other objects. The park itself can take half a day - there is where to walk. Look at the films "18/14" about lyceum students - there are shootings in the park. If you go to the Chinese Village, then first go around everything that is interesting in the Catherine Park, and then go to Aleksandrovsky. There, after all, there is also the Creaky Arbor and Whims and the Cross and Chinese bridges, and the distances are decent. So 2 hours is nothing. But, at the arch of the Lyceum, you can take a special tourist train that will take you through the park and most interesting places. By the way, the Chinese village is a private territory, everything is fenced there - just look from behind the fence. Read
https://www.otzyv.ru/read.php?id=96478
https://www.otzyv.ru/read.php?id=80529
It is simply impossible to say about the Hermitage, which is Winter, believe me.
About the Hermitage (which Winter Palace) - how long before the opening is it better to come up so that you don’t stay long and get in for sure?
You're not going for one day, are you? Come sometime in the morning - just look and evaluate, and then plan the time of entry.
About the Hermitage (which is the Winter Palace) - how long before the opening is it better to come up so that you don’t stand long and get there for sure?
My opinion is that just in the morning, especially much earlier than the opening, there is no need to go.
It will be the same waste of time in the queue.
After all, many tend to come just early, thinking so to gain with the queue, but this is how the queue is recruited.
If you go later, in the afternoon, then there should be no queues (but in this case you won’t get into the storerooms: but you can go to the Hermitage 2 times, especially if 1 of them is on a free day).
In the summer there is no binding to the wardrobe, so throughput Museum above, the queue after the morning should resolve.
We are talking about visiting on a free Thursday, but I do this with almost all objects - do not break in the morning when most of them go.
do not break in the morning when the majority is coming.
And my years of experience bus tours and visits to various museums and objects in them speaks of the opposite - they always came first in the morning and rejoiced when they saw crowds of thirsty but loving sleep at the exit :).
You're not going for one day, are you? Come sometime in the morning - just look and evaluate, and then plan the time of entry.
Of course, we are not going for one day ... But still there are few days (((
The free entry on Thursday falls on our 2nd day in St. Petersburg (July 2nd).
The first day I planned a little in the other direction (Russian Museum, Summer Garden + everything nearby), and this day will be difficult for us (we will arrive from Moscow early in the morning by train - I think it will not be possible to sleep well, besides, the first days we will not have time to adjust to this time zone). In general, I'm not sure that on July 1 we will be able to go and look at the line at the Hermitage.
go later, in the afternoon, then there should be no queues (but in this case you won’t get into the storerooms: but you can go to the Hermitage 2 times, especially if 1 of them is on a free day).
Good advice! Thank you Bella! But in the first days we will wake up very early and at 20 o'clock we will already "fall" to sleep, so it is better for us to visit all the museums in the first half of the day. Well, or postpone the trip to the Hermitage for a few days, when we are already acclimatizing ...
Again, then you will not be able to get into the free day)))
And we also want to get into the pantry - and you need to take tickets there in the morning.
Alexey, I just read your reviews on the "suburbs" (I captured Pavlovsk and two reviews on Oranienbaum) - now I also want to go there)))
And in the Catherine Palace, most likely, we will buy tickets online so as not to push in the queues. Then early in the morning we will walk around the Park, visit the Lyceum, then we will go to change vouchers - and to the palace. And there, suddenly it will turn out on the same day - to go to Pavlovsk ... I looked on the site, they write about the online ticket: "A visit to the park is possible only after visiting the palace."
To come to St. Petersburg and not visit Tsarskoye Selo is a mess! Decent tourists don't behave like that. My Italians were decent tourists, but unlucky: they did not get a quota for visiting the Catherine Palace as organized tourists. This meant that they were not destined to come to the museum at the appointed time and see the sights without a long push in line. So they went with me as "wild" tourists. This doomed them to a long, at least two hours, standing at the box office for tickets.
Features of the organization of the work of the Museum of Tsarskoye Selo (Catherine's Palace). This year the museum switched to new methods of work. Reservations are opened for travel companies at 00.00 on the 20th of the previous month, and travel companies that know the exact dates and the number of tourists doomed to visit Tsarskoye Selo try to book places for themselves. After 5 minutes, all free places for travel companies are over. Those who didn’t get a seat hope that three days before the scheduled visit, someone will return - it’s no secret that large companies book places “for the future”, just in case and immediately big blocks. And they sometimes overestimate the number of prospective tourists. Then, in three days, free places are formed, which managers guard on the Internet in the hope of grabbing. Another important point: during the official work of the museum from 10 o'clock, tickets for "wild" tourists begin to sell from 12 o'clock. From 10 a.m. to 12 a.m., travel companies that have booked and bought places enter. From 12 to 16 ticket offices for unorganized visitors are open, from 16 to 18 - travel agencies and unorganized visitors pass again, if there are few travel agencies. I note that since this year the museum has turned its face to the "non-organizers": the time for buying tickets at the box office has increased by 2 hours, because last year they were selling tickets according to the schedule: 12.00 - 14.00 and 16.00 to 17.00.
As I said, my tourists were not lucky in any way: they could not book a quota, there were no extra places for three days. And on June 27 we went to the queue in Tsarskoye Selo. We arrived at 10 am. There were few people in front of the entrance:
But pay attention to the empty seats in the queue. Since Bloch knows some of the peculiarities of forming a queue at museums that are in great demand, she went to clarify - how many people exactly are in front of us. It turned out - about 150. As you understand, there is a queue - there is business: standing in this queue and taking seats. The lady stated that her group was walking in the park. Yep, we know! The group will appear at 11.50 and without painful waiting in the sun will enter the palace. Two strong guys also took the queue, as further events will show - for our Chinese friends who work safely in St. Petersburg without any licenses. Strong guys, anticipating my questions, assertively say: "Where does it say in our Constitution that we cannot take a queue?" Indeed, the Constitution does not say anything about the impossibility to take a queue (neither for free, nor for money). The guide has only one problem: how to explain to his tourists, who have stood for more than two hours in the sun, why 150 "chosen ones" arrive 10 minutes before the opening and, proudly passing the sweaty tired line, come up and stand at the very beginning?
A lady with 100 people "walking in the park".
Strong guys who know the Constitution (in red and dark T-shirts).
We waited for the people who took their places behind us, I showed them my tourists - that they exist, and they are here, got acquainted with the accomplices of standing in line, and I let my sheep into the meadows, on the fresh grass, take a walk in the park. Flea is a waiter in line with experience, so she came to the combat position prepared (there are two bottles of water in the bag, looking ahead, I will say that they were all drunk within three hours).
An hour later, at 11:00 a.m., the line looked like this:
Half an hour later, at 11.30, this:
Finally, we approached the cherished milestone, guys, Moscow is not behind us! Queue:
Of course, 100 tourists walked past us, walking in the park (they only came from the side of the gate, not the park), 20 minutes before entering the palace. The Chinese generally stood at the head of the queue at 11.55. A strong uncle, the guard of the museum, gently pushed them aside, but only so that 100 people from the "lady with an umbrella" calmly entered the palace. But to my tourists-children, the uncle guard was not so affectionate.
I'm telling. From the photos you can see that we are standing in the sun. After 11.30 the queue was packed very tightly, because. those 100 people came to the "lady with an umbrella." It was painful to stand, and we sent our two Italian children to sit in the shade on a bench near the entrance. The front of the queue is fenced off with barriers to give the queue an artistically straight and slender appearance, as well as to protect against entry into the queue of elements wishing to enter without a queue.
When we finally got to the finish line, these kids just had to come up to us from the side, where there was a small passage. But the strict guard uncle did his job perfectly! Having missed a large group of Chinese from the same side shortly before, he now became very principled. And he thundered in a commanding voice that he would not let anyone in here, and that the children should make their way through the entire line to us, and it was impossible to do this with a density of flow. I explain to him that these are our children, here we are - tourists, and we have a certain love of children, which does not allow us to force children to stand for an hour squeezed among people and under scorching sun. The guard uncle did his job very well (of course, with two children it is very easy to be principled - this is not a Chinese group accompanied by two strong guys who know the Constitution!): "And if your children come in here, then everyone else in line will be outraged ", - the guard uncle said judiciously (that is, he expressed exactly the thoughts that owned me and the tourists at the sight of almost 200 people going to the front of the queue a little earlier). Two Italian children against 200 tourists who passed 15 minutes earlier! The whole queue standing next to us said that they knew the children, and they were standing here ... But the guard uncle did not give up a single inch.
Dear Directorate of Tsarskoe Selo, please declare to the guard who was on duty at the entrance from the side of the park on June 27 at 12.00, sovereign gratitude! After 200 people were let through to their places, he performed his duties very conscientiously and did not let two younger schoolchildren into their parents, who stood in a stuffy queue! His work is worthy of every encouragement!
Our children, it's good that they are children, eventually climbed over the fence and reunited with their families. Then everything was fine: 2 hours of purgatory in the sun in the queue was compensated by an hour in the paradise of the palace, the tourists left, as they say in the most banal reviews, "tired but happy."
Why this story? Does Bloch really hope that order will be restored in the queue? No way! The business is well established and functions excellently. This is just advice for those who are going to Tsarskoe Selo: take a high chair, an umbrella, a fan and sunscreen with you. And, do not forget to take sedatives: novopassitis or persen. And - have a good visit to Tsarskoye Selo!
“COMPARED TO TSARSKOYE Selo, EVERYTHING ELSE IS FLOWERS!”
The Amber Room is a tourist Mecca. With the start of the high season, millions of guests flock to Tsarskoe Selo to see with their own eyes the miracle of restoration with mysterious story. The originals of the precious panels disappeared without a trace after the Great Patriotic War, and since then have been shrouded in secrets and mysteries. But tourists are satisfied with the restored version.
Kilometer-long queues stand at the box office of the museum-reserve from morning until late evening. And travel agencies call the Catherine Palace their main headache.
Tsarskoye Selo has entered into an agreement for the passage of organized groups with a limited number of travel agencies. Those who are not included in the list of lucky ones are forced to repurchase tickets. At the same time, the price increases one and a half times: from 700 to 1300 rubles at best, - says Olga, an employee of the city travel agency. - But it's still half the trouble. If we have a group of one hundred people, no one can give so many tickets - we have to get them from different places. Literally collect bit by bit!
When the long-awaited tickets are finally found, the second test strip begins. It's called "stand in line".
The queue to the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo!. Queue
Recently in Tsarskoye Selo they are not allowed to queue in advance. They say: you have tickets for 15:00, so come at 15:00, - Olga sighs. - And our tourists have trains at six or seven o'clock in the evening. It turns out a comical situation: they stand in line for two hours in order to bypass the entire museum in twenty minutes and run to the station. Some refuse. They say that they do not need beauty at this price. Compared with Tsarskoye Selo everything else is just flowers.
QUOTAS OUTSIDE THE LAW, BUT "SAVE THE POSITION"
Back in April, Smolny admitted that the museum administration had outlawed quotas. They have no right to restrict visits to cultural property. Vice Governor Igor Albin instructed the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Monuments (KGIOP) to force the leadership to abandon such measures. But all summer long, travel agencies continued to be divided into "chosen ones" who were lucky, and all the rest who had to arrange a "rat race" for tickets to the Catherine Palace.
We have no right to give any warnings regarding the organization of tourist flows. We decide how we receive tourists, - says Olga Taratynova, director of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve.
According to her, the quotas were “a good thing” and saved the situation in the face of a huge tourist flow, which the palace simply cannot cope with.
Olga Taratynova on quotas for the Catherine Palace
Their goal was to somehow distribute the visit. Small travel agencies had small quotas, large - large, - said Taratynova.
However, from next year, restrictions were promised to be lifted. True, the management of Tsarskoye Selo predicts that this will only worsen the situation.
We will cancel the quota next year out of self-preservation. It is an occasion for disputes and reproaches in our direction. We decided that it would be better to let the tourism business self-regulate. But this will lead to the most severe speculation and the buying of our tickets, the director warns.
"Sorry for Grandmother from Samara"
Now the Catherine Palace can only accept 900 people per hour - and this is the main problem, for which, alas, there is no solution. If even more guests are allowed in, it could become a tragedy for the exhibits.
We monitor the humidity in the rooms, and every year we note an increase. After the end of the high season, fat deposits appear on porcelain and furniture, they have to be cleaned. Despite slippers with double protection, floors suffer greatly. Not all rooms have ventilation and in summer the temperature on the upper floors rises to +29 degrees, Taratynova lists.
In European museums, in such situations, they introduce electronic recording via the Internet, but in Russian reality, such a system will hit hard, first of all, compatriot tourists who come not with firms, but on their own.
Imagine, a grandmother came to us from Samara. She did not know about the electronic recording, she does not even have the Internet. I feel sorry for her,” the leader admits.
In general, whatever one may say, there are only two ways out of the situation: if you want to see the Amber Room, you will have to be patient. Or visit Tsarskoye Selo in late autumn, winter, or spring - when there are not so many tourists.
Our founders ask us to constantly increase attendance, and we will do it, but not at the expense of the Catherine Palace, - Olga Taratynova firmly believes.
NUMBER
1.3 million tourists visited Tsarskoye Selo from May to October. This is 68 thousand visitors more than last year.
