Historical Pilgrimage | Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site

28.05.2023

Page with the Mezhen steamer from Nikolai Vinogradov's 'House of Romanov Tercentenary Celebrations in Kostroma Province 19-20 May 1913', 1914Page with the Mezhen steamer from Nikolai Vinogradov's 'House of Romanov Tercentenary Celebrations in Kostroma Province 19-20 May 1913', 1914 Michael I of Russia in an illustration from Nikolai Vinogradov's 'House of Romanov Tercentenary Celebrations in Kostroma Province 19-20 May 1913', 1914

Michael I of Russia in an illustration from Nikolai Vinogradov's 'House of Romanov Tercentenary Celebrations in Kostroma Province 19-20 May 1913', 1914Michael I of Russia in an illustration from Nikolai Vinogradov's 'House of Romanov Tercentenary Celebrations in Kostroma Province 19-20 May 1913', 1914

House of Romanov Tercentenary medal, designed by M.A. Skudnov, 1913House of Romanov Tercentenary medal, designed by M.A. Skudnov, 1913 The Most August Family. Postcard of 1912

The Most August Family. Postcard of 1912The Most August Family. Postcard of 1912

On 28 (O.S. 15) May 1913, Emperor Nicholas II and his family went on a trip to visit several Russian cities as part of the massive 'House of Romanov Tercentenary' celebrations in Russia that year.

According to Nicholas' diary, after a 6pm parting prayer service at the Alexander Palace, he "at 7pm left Tsarskoe Selo with a whole family heading through Gatchina to Tosno and further to Moscow."

The imperial train went to Vladimir, Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod, where the emperor and family transferred to a steamer named 'Mezhen' to go up the Volga river to Kostroma and Yaroslavl. In the latter, the emperor attended a gala opening of the first railway bridge over the Volga connecting northern Russia with Moscow.

Then the imperial train arrived in Rostov on 4 June, and after a stop at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (the most important Russian monastery) in Sergiyev Posad, they were back in Moscow on 6 June, when Nicholas II lit the icon-lambs at the burial site of Michael I of Russia, the first tsar of the House of Romanov, in the Cathedral of the Archangel at the Moscow Kremlin.