Day 4: Faberge Museum

After breakfast I finished packing and left my case at reception. I had arranged to meet up with a few members of the group for lunch before we left St Petersburg. That gave me a couple of hours to visit the Faberge Museum. Housed in the recently restored Shuvalov Palace, the exhibition features 9 rare Faberge eggs from the 50 that were  presented as Easter gifts by the last two Russian Tzars to their mothers and wives. They are from the Russian Billionaire, Victor Veksekberg's extensive collection of Russian art. He paid $100 million dollars for them from the American newspaper magnate Malcolm Forbes in 2004. Entrance to the blue room where the eggs are displayed was via this sumptuous entrance hall and staircase.

The blue room with its blue silk and silver patterned walls, gilded moulding and marble fireplace makes the perfect setting for these precious Faberge eggs.

 This is the Hen Egg, the first egg in the Emperor series. It was a gift from Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovna for Easter 1885. Each egg had a surprise inside.

The Order of St George egg. Gift from the Emperor Nicholas II to his mother dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, for Easter 1916

Bay Tree Egg (with key). Gift from the Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter of 1911

The House of Faberge, founded in 1842 in St Petersburg, manufactured a wide range of items, from unique pieces made by order of the Russian Royal family, European monarchs and Eastern rulers, to mass produced goods such as jewellery, silver utensils and gemstone carving utensils. The peak of the creative work of Carl Faberge who headed the business in 1872 is considered to be the Easter eggs with surprises inside, made to the order of the last Romanovs - the Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II. It took a year's worth of work to make each egg.

Egg Clock of the Duchess Marlborough 1902

Resurrection Egg with its surprise.

 Coronation Egg. Gift from Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter of 1897.

 Copy of the carriage made by G. Stein

Coronation tobacco box c.1896

Not sure of this egg's name.

Rose Bud Egg. Gift from Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1895.

Heart shaped frame with three miniatures. The egg from which this surprise came has been lost. It was a gift from Nicholas II to his mother, dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Easter 1897

Lilies-of -the-Valley Egg. Gift from the Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter 1898.

The Hen Egg: Gift from A.F. Kelch to his wife V.P. Kelch for Easter of 1898

Cockerel Egg Clock: Gift from Nicholas II to his mother the dowager Empress Mari Feodorovna for the Easter of 1900

Fifteenth Anniversary Egg. Gift from Emperor Nicholas II to his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna 1911

Also in the museum were many other things like these tobacco boxes, mainly from the House of Faberge.

 Presentation tobacco box with portrait of  Emperor Nicholas II

 Cigarette cases and tobacco boxes.

 Frame with portrait of Queen Mary of England.

Elephant's head cane handle

The House of Faberge made small pieces of artistic jewellery which served no practical purposes other than being expensive souvenirs.

 This gold and enamel armchair shaped bonbonniere is also from the House of Faberge. It is tiny so not sure where the bonbons were kept!

 Belt buckles made from gold, silver, diamonds, pearls,  gilding and enamelling.

They even made desktop bell pushes.

Although not a large museum I spent a long time there gazing at these masterpieces of Russian art work. I rushed back to meet the others for lunch. There were six of us altogether but we were all served our food at different times with two of the group having to wait an hour for their food.  We were soon to realise that when we went for a meal as a group we never actually ate together as the food was just served when each dish was ready. I have never come across this before. It took so long for us all to be served that we were nearly late back which is unacceptable when travelling in a group. However, we were fine and collected our luggage in time to get the minibus to our next destination of Sortavala  which was 200km north. I had thoroughly enjoyed my stay in St Petersburg and felt that this was probably going to be the highlight of the trip.


The drive was not great as it took 6 hours with lots of traffic and construction work delaying us.

Knowing we were going to be late our guide pre ordered food for us but that didn't seem to make any difference as once again we were served individually with some waiting an hour longer than others for their meal.

The hotel overlooks a large lake. They had live music on inside and outside the restaurant. The singers were less than 30 m from one another and seemed to be competing with each other. It was much cooler here than St Petersburg and much lighter. It was 11pm when I took these photos of the lake.