In 1773, Catherine the Great commissioned architect Vasily Neyelov to design the Green Dining Room as part of the Highnesses’ Apartment for her son Paul. The room and fireplace were decorated with motifs from Greek and Roman antiquity by sculptor Ivan Martos. When Catherine II died of a stroke in 1796, Paul illegitimately claimed to be successor to the crown. His reign lasted less than five years before he was assassinated. Then his son, Alexander I, became emperor as his grandmother had specified in her unread will.
