Service Wings and Postwar Reuse
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
Listen
Transcript
After the Second World War, the palace lost its elite function. Soviet troops used parts of the complex, while other sections served as a social-care home. Decades of institutional use altered rooms and finishes, but also meant that the huge building remained occupied rather than simply abandoned.
Restoration beginning late in the twentieth century had to decide which layers to reveal, reconstruct or preserve. That process is important because “restoring a palace” sounds simpler than it is. You cannot rewind a building. Conservators work with surviving fabric, documentation and choices about which historical periods visitors should be able to read.