Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich was raised by his grandmother, Catherine the Great. In 1793, when he married at the age of 15, Catherine II gifted him the nearby Alexander Palace where he lived. When his father, Paul I, was killed in 1801, Alexander I became Emperor of All Russia until 1825. His legacy is defeating Napoleon’s army during the French invasion of Russia in 1812. Alexander I preferred to conduct formal meetings with certain audiences at Tsarskoe Selo (Catherine Palace). So, in 1817, he commissioned Vasily Stasov to design this State Study. It is also called the Marble study because the walls and columns have a pink marble veneer. The impressive room with friezes and paintings of Cupid was destroyed by fire a few years later and again during the German occupation in World War II. Restoration was finished in 1974.
