During their reign, the Romanovs accumulated countless treasures, many of them priceless today. Perhaps a point to start out with, could be with the treasures in Peter the Great's era, as it is Peter the Great, who ushered Russia into its era of greatness.
The most visually noticeable area of the riches of Russia's tsars can be found in St. Petersburg itself. St. Petersburg was built on a large scale, meant to display the riches and glory of the tsars. Immense buildings of beautiful architecture flank wide, broad streets. It wasn't too long before St. Petersburg became the not only the center of Russia's commerce and government, but also Russia's center of fashionable and intellectual life. As Marvin Lyons puts it,
"The focus of the city and its life was the Imperial court and the elaborate formality which surrounded it. ... The Tsar, either in the Winter Palace within the city, or at Tsarskoe Selo, a short train ride away, set the tone for the whole of Society. ... Thus, if the streets were dull and empty, the great palaces set a standard of incomparable splendour behind doors closed except to the select and invited few." (Lyons, 35)[Home] [Intellectual Life] [Peasant Life]
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