A home for a Tsar

Alexander III was still more enthusiastic on the hunt than his father had been: it was his principle passtime, and he took his own children with him from an early age, rising before dawn to follow tracks through the snow.  In 1888 the whole of Białowieża Forest became his personal property, and he intended to go there regularly for the sport, maintaining the forest very carefully and restocking it from sources around Europe when necessary.  In 1889, therefore, he commissioned architect Count Nicholas de Rochefort to design a new residence more suited to the demands of the Imperial Court than the old wooden pavilion.  The architect selected the spot called Oak Hill, a small mound to the north of the pavilion, marked by four ancient trees - it was in fact the site of the orginal lodge. This hill was the one also known as the "Batarejka" for its role in fending off rebel Polish troops, so the location of the Tsar's palace had a dual symbolism, intended or not. 

The estate stood at the western edge of the village of Białowieża.  A station before its southern entrance enabled the imperial family to progress almost unseen from train to palace. Crossing a covered wooden bridge, they would pass between languid lakes along a curved drive, through stretches of pine, evergreen, and birch trees, and between banks of fragrant summer roses, to the depths of the estate, where the trees parted to reveal Oak Hill and the eclectic romanticism of the new lodge dominating the landscape.

Nicholas de Rochefort had designed a striking, multi-storeyed building, the monotonous length of its red brick façade relieved by horizontal bands of yellow bricks, gray stone window lintels, and alternating projections and inset bays. 

Rochefort's own sketch of the palace from the rustic lake side

Resting on a stone terrace with semi-circular steps, below,

the lodge was crowned with deeply-overhanging carved wooden cornices resting on curved brackets that in turn supported tall, steeply-pitched metal roofs dotted with gables and peaked dormer windows; above, gilded wrought iron railings followed the intricate roofline, further adding to the building’s height.  Loggias and overhanging wooden balconies angled out from wings and gables, and two tall, spidery towers thrust themselves upward from the eastern and western ends of the main building; the taller, circular one on the southwestern side of the lodge, rose to an open wooden gallery on the fourth floor, from which the Emperor and his guests could view the rolling preserve, beneath a tall, steep conical roof topped with a gilded double-headed eagle, and with a Polish bison, the official insignia of Grodno Province.

The driveway on the northern side led to an immense porte cochère, resting on stone piers adorned with sweeping carved wooden brackets.  Double doors of oak, embellished with inlays of polished, blackened iron adorned with red copper, opened to the Hall, spanning the width of the lodge; a large staircase of maple and birch ascended to a columned gallery that circled above.  Enormous plate glass windows and French doors overlooked the southern terrace, with its wide, semi-circular sweep of steps descending to the park.  

The grand northern entrance, with porte cochere and the game laid out for inspection before it

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