The Granovitaya Palata is a singular little building of a quadrangular or cubical form, hanging like a casket on the huge Bolshoi Dvorez. On the second story it contains nothing but the old coronation hall of the czars, and of the present emperor. The hall is low and vaulted, the arches uniting in the centre of the hall, where they rest upon a thick square column. The walls retain the crimson velvet hangings used at the coronation of the present emperor. The velvet is embroidered in gold, with eagles bearing thunderbolts and the initials of the emperor, placed alternately, and between every eagle and initial stands a golden candalebra. The throne is placed under a velvet canopy opposite the entrance, and over the windows are the armorial bearings of the different governments of Russia. The pillar in the middle is divided by circular stages, on which the regalia are displayed on the day of coronation. Here the emperor sits enthroned after the ceremony In the cathedral, adorned for the first time with all the insignia of his dignity, and dines in the midst of his nobles.
THE BOLSHOI AND MALOI DVOREZ.
Moscow, by a kind of political fiction, is still considered as a capital, as well as St. Petersburg. In the Kremlin every thing is kept in constant readiness for the reception of the emperor, as If it were his usual residence.
If we consider the position of Moscow In the very heart of Russia, how the stream of active and commercial life rolHng hither from the Black, Caspian, White, and Baltic seas, find their natural centre on the fair hills of tlie Moskwa ; how the whole acquires form and substance from this centre, and that the empire is in fact rather Moscovite than Russian, it will be evident that Moscow seems destined by Nature, as well as by History, to be the capital of Russia, and must one day again become so. The Russian emperors, to a certain extent, acknowledge this, by admitting the before-named fiction to continue. In ofiicial documents, Moscow Is always designated " Stolnitzct''' (chief city), and the Inhabitants call it " nasha drevnaya stolnitza!'' (our old capital) with evident satisfaction. " No foreigner can know what magic power these three words have over a Russian heaj-t," said Professor S. once to me, as we drove out of Moscow,
218 THE BOLSHOI AND MALOI DVOREZ.
and he took leave of iiis native city with tears in his eyes. He assured me that every Russian loved Moscow as much as he did, and yet more, and that even those who had never seen it, clung to the idea of the " holy city" with the same devotion as to "God and the Emperor." We may comprehend then how important a place for Russia that city must be, which, besides its 300,000 inhabitants, is also peculiarly the one to whicli many millions of loving eyes are directed.
The palaces built here by the Emperors Alexander and Nicholas upon the Kremlin are two in number : the Great and the Small palace. The former, built by the Emperor Alexander, is very lofty compared to the length of the facade, but the whole effect is good, when viewed from the base upwards. The interior is not very magnificent. The walls are of brick, the windows of ordinary glass ; the furniture is elegant, but not strikingly so ; the marble in the throne and audience chambers is only imitation, and the great looking-glasses are not single pieces. There is infinitely more splendour in the houses of many of the mighty emperor's subjects than here. Yet the palace is not without interest ; the exalted persons who have inhabited it during the twenty years of its existence are so few, that their chambers remain in the same state in which they left them ; and for every new illustrious guest new apartments are prepared. The servants who attend strangers to view the palace announce the foi-mer destination of each room. " This is the Stolovaya komnata (thi-one-room) of the Emperor Alexander : this is the vannaya komnata (bath room) of the Empress Maria Feodorovna, and so forth of e\ery successive imperial tenant. This is somewhat monotonous ; and the good people do not even vary the monotonous catalogue by a few personal anecdotes. The ser\'ants employed in Russian palaces are so often changed, that there is never united so much historical materiel in one person, as in some of our German princely abodes, for example, where an old gray -headed servant is often a living chronicle.