The Anteroom (Turkish Room)

The Anteroom was the first room on the side of the stairs leading to the Church premises on the floor below and then to the entrance to the southern building of the palace from Sadovaya Street. The ceiling was originally painted; twenty-four paintings in gilded frames were hung on the walls. There were also “five straw chairs, which are used in the garden.” In 1872, when the Museum of Antiquities was organized in the palace, twelve marble plaques with Turkish inscriptions and ornaments were installed in the walls of the Anteroom, previously taken from the walls of the Varna Fortress on September 29, 1828. These were the military trophies of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, a participant in the Russian-Turkish war of 1827–1828. Initially, they were located in the Winter Palace, but by 1840 the plaques were transported to Pavlovsk and installed in the Aviary Pavilion. In 1957, upon opening the first restored halls after the war, marble plaques damaged during the war were covered, and tablets with materials about the restoration of Pavlovsk were placed on the walls. Currently, marble boards, restored in the early 2000s by the sculptor V. I. Soldatova, adorn the walls of the Anteroom as before.