By
Rebecca Gibson |
Crystal Cruises is to offer a new, exclusive ‘Special Visit to the Private Fabergé Museum’ shorex to passengers travelling on Crystal Symphony’s ten-night cruises to St Petersburg, Russia.
Offered on four itineraries departing from Sweden and Denmark on 24 June, 4 and 28 July and 7 August, the shorex is part of the line’s Boutique Adventures programme. Participating guests will be given rare access to the areas of St Petersburg’s Fabergé Museum that are not open to the public, including exhibits about the Romanovs – Russia’s last tsarist family – and more than 4,000 antique pieces of Russian decorative arts.
“Nothing epitomises the grandeur of Russian luxury like its spectacular palaces, decorative arts and Fabergé eggs,” said Philip Ordever, vice president of international sales and marketing. “This new Boutique Adventure offers guests not only an exceptionally rare encounter with some of the world’s most prized works of art, but also allows them to truly sense the lavish lives of the Russian nobility that walked the very halls they explore.”
Guided by the museum curator, guests will have the opportunity to visit the 18th-century Shuvalov Palace to look at Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg’s private collection of silver, religious ornaments, paintings and imperial Fabergé, which includes 15 of the world’s remaining 50 eggs elaborately designed by Carl Fabergé. Nine of these eggs belonged to the Romanovs and are considered to be the jeweller’s finest works. The
Tour participants will also have the chance to visit the White Column Hall, which was once the city’s largest ballroom; the Cream Hall; the Walnut Drawing Room, which showcases Boris Grigoriev’s original illustrations for Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov; and the private quarters of former palace owner Count Shuvalov.