5: The Main Staircase. The Upper Vestibule

The Upper Vestibule in the centre of the first floor links all the state rooms in the building. Still left here from Peter I's time are two wrought-metal railings featuring the Tsar's monogram interlaced with Menshikov's. The pair of marble statues of boys are allegories of Asia and Africa by the sculptor Bartolomaus Eggers (1689). Flanking the central door are two silk and gold-thread panels made in the imperial workshops of China on the traditional motif known as "A Hundred Boys". One boy is shown riding a qilin - a sacred animal that symbolized philanthropy and also unification of the country and the power of the emperor. At the top is a floral border with pairs of phoenixes flying towards the centre marked by the sun and a peony bloom. These panels symbolically wished the emperor (the sun) and empress (the phoenix) many male children.