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30.04.2021

23rd April 2021 saw the Lyons Hall of the Catherine Palace unveiled after the final stage of restoration. The opening ceremony was attended by Ms Olga Lyubimova, Russia's Minister of Culture, who praised the great results achieved by restorers thanks to financial support from Russian business community, which made the revival of the 240-year old interior possible right before the high season at the Museum. Visiting the Lyons Hall is currently possible only on Palace Tour 2

One of Catherine II's private rooms and a favourite state room of Empress Maria Alexandrovna (wife of Alexander II), the Lyons Hall is back to its full grandeur after almost two years of the final stage of restoration carried out by over a hundred craftsmen. Stone cutters, sculptors, gilders, chasers and moulders from the Tsarskoselskaya Amber Workshop (who revived the Amber Room and the Agate Rooms) re-created two large corner fireplaces, lapis-lazuli window portals, bronze-framed mirrors, lapis-lazuli mirror tables, and fine wood doors with marquetry decoration.

The Museum self-financed the restoration of the priceless authentic parquet floor made of amaranth, rosewood, oak, maple and other types of wood, with mother-of-pearl insets. Ten craftsmen worked on this masterpiece of decorative and applied art for 547 days.

A spectacular aesthetic highlight is created by the lapis-lazuli, marble and gilt-bronze fireplaces with oval mirrors, twelve putto figures and four candelabra. Three marble putti survived the war, the others were remade using fifteen surviving fragments.

Designed back in 1983, the Lyons Hall Restoration Project was launched in 2005, updated in 2006-2007, then suspended, and resumed in 2017 thanks to support from the TransSoyuz Charitable Foundation and later from PAO Gazprom and the French ENGIE Foundation.

Earlier on the Lyons Hall's restoration