2: The Large Chamber (Tapestry Room)

This room, adjoining the Main Vestibule, was used for official receptions. A year and a half after the construction of the palace had started, in the autumn of 1711 a house-warming party was held in this room. Later many weddings of noble statesmen were celebrated here. The interior has been restored according to the designs reflecting the first stage of the palace's construction (before 1717). A unique fragment of the flat ceiling made of wood and brick (1710) is shown in the room. The Large Chamber is adorned with a rare series of five tapestries of French manufacture (1677) representing subjects from the life of King Perseus of Macedonia. Two walnut wardrobes from Danzig are decorated with marble busts (Italy, the late 17th and 18th centuries). In the centre of the chamber stands a table covered with a Persian carpet. On the table is a silver wine cistern, above it hangs a brass church-chandelier (both were made in Amsterdam in the first third of the 18th century). Of special note here is a Roman rostral column as well as a curio - the "Foot of a Colossus".