Publication of a book on “Wedding Ceremonies in Russia in the Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century. In Secular Society and at Court”

The exhibition “Wedding Ceremonies in Russia in the Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century. In Secular Society and at Court” currently running in the Small Church of the Winter Palace is devoted to one of the most important events in a person’s life. Weddings were considered not only family, but also public occasions, and so were required to conform to a certain set of socially accepted rules. The nuptial process consisted chiefly of the wedding service – the holy sacrament of the joining of two people in the image of the union between Christ and His Church, without which a legitimate marriage was not possible.

Exhibits from the stocks of the State Hermitage make it possible to see objects that many years ago would have accompanied couples in the happiest period of their lives. All these splendid examples of figurative and applied art that belonged to members of the Russian nobility and the imperial court are of great historical and cultural interest.

The book is aimed at a very broad readership and can be purchased from the museum’s book kiosks.