Apartments of the Romanov tsars at Terem Palace in the Moscow Kremlin, 1989 (photo)

Apartments of the Romanov tsars at Terem Palace in the Moscow Kremlin. The wall and structure date from 1625 built by Mikhail Romanov. These apartments are on the 4th floor and were originally the tsar's apartments. This was the first building to be built in the "row of rooms" style. Previously all rooms connected to a hall. First room was used for receiving ambassadors, second room was used for nobles meeting in a kind of parliament, third room was throne room, fourth room was bedroom. Of the original decoration, almost nothing remains. In the 1830s, all the walls were redesigned by academician Feodor Solntsev, in what he imagined they might have been in the 17th century. The carved stone floor and stove tiles are 19th century. Nothing in these rooms is original except, perhaps, the shapes of the rooms. After they were redesigned they were never again used as a residence. Photo by Cary Sol Wolinsky