Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

This museum occupies a neoclassical school building next to Catherine Palace in Pushkin, roughly 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Saint Petersburg. The restored rooms show classrooms with old blackboards, dormitories with wooden beds, and a historical library filled with bound books from the 19th century.

Tsar Alexander I founded the school in 1811 as an elite boarding institution for roughly 30 sons of the nobility, educated in a closed system with six years of full-time study. Poet Pushkin belonged to the first graduating class in 1817 and later wrote about his school years in several poems.

The name comes from the imperial summer residence where young aristocrats lived and studied in small shared rooms with narrow beds and simple wooden furniture. Visitors today see how students spent their daily routine between lessons and free time in these modest quarters.

Tours last about an hour and explain student life in the early 19th century through the furnished rooms. Entry is through 2 Sadovaya Street, where visitors can also obtain audio guides in several languages.

Students were not allowed to leave the grounds during the entire six years and lived in identical rooms measuring roughly 10 square feet (three square meters). Each room had a number instead of a name, and the door remained open day and night to make privacy impossible.