National Geographic: Treasures from the Past Page #5

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Doors were broken away.

Paintings were on the floor, cut to pieces.

That's one thing.

The other thing is that there were

land mines hidden everywhere,

and the palace itself

was set to blow up.

Beneath it was a series of

one-ton bombs wired together

to go up in a single blast.

It's a miracle that the first

soldiers to enter the palace gates

after the German retreat

discovered this system and disarmed it.

The park around the palace

was dug up everywhere

with trenches and gun emplacements.

And in the middle lay the

charred hulk of the palace.

The palace decorations were strewn

about the park in pieces.

Sculpture marms, head, torsos

lay all about.

The picture was so terrible

and depressing

that one's first impression was

that resurrecting it would be impossible.

On the other hand,

people could not reconcile themselves

to blotting out a page of history,

the glorious history

of these monuments.

And so we decided

to undertake the restoration.

Pieces of the ruined palaces were

scattered everywhere,

hastily hidden before the siege.

From fields, from secret vaults,

from the hands of retreating Nazis,

even from the Neva River,

the missing pieces were returned.

Restoration could now begin.

A painter and engineer,

Kedrinsky directed work

at the Catherine Palace.

We long to re-create these monuments,

he said at the time,

but do we have the guts to do it?

Under his direction,

scores of artists and craftsmen

began to rebuild the palace.

Today Alexander Kedrinsky works with

a new generation of artisans

who use original architectural drawings

and prewar photographs

that miraculously survived

the destruction.

From an old black-and-white

photograph,

a painted ceiling comes to life.

The design is rendered in color,

and figures are drawn to scale

by artists trained in period

styles and techniques.

Designs are modified and approved

before the painting begins.

For hours at a time they

reach overhead.

Standing so close to the ceiling,

these artists are unable

to see the entire painting at once.

Skill and planning guide them

where their eyes cannot.

After three years of work,

the ceiling is almost finished.

Parts of a statue were retrieved

from the palace grounds.

From these shattered limbs

a body is reformed.

A wood carver creates anew

what fire and shrapnel destroyed.

With clay, he models a missing twin

that he will later replicate in wood.

On the statue's chest,

a fracture is mended,

and a wound is healed.

Once again,

carvings are adorned with gold.

Though each leaf weighs

almost nothing,

nearly 20 pounds of gold were needed

to refurbish the Great Hall.

Guided into place by human breath

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