How long is Buckingham Palace?

Buckingham Palace is the shortest existing royal residence. The Tower of London and Windsor Castle came into use in 1 1 century, the Holy Cross Palace in15th century, and the famous European buildings Hampton Palace and St James Palace in16th century.

Buckingham Palace in the early years was called Buckingham Palace, which was bought by George III in 1762 as the private residence of his queen. 1825, john nash, a famous designer, was entrusted by George IV to turn this building into a palace, so a large number of expansion projects and luxurious decoration projects were started, but the project was stopped five years later because of the death of George IV, and it was not completed until the early days of Queen Victoria's reign in 1840. Therefore, Buckingham Palace, as a royal palace, was officially started from the period of Queen Victoria. At this time, Buckingham Palace is still a building surrounded by three sides, with an open front hall, and the public can see Nash's spectacular porch and huge columns on the front of the palace. Queen Victoria expanded Buckingham Palace several times. 1847 added a wing, which was the early East Front Building. So Buckingham Palace was surrounded on all sides, and the original vestibule became an atrium. Buckingham Palace, which the public can see in the square now, is the east front building redesigned and renovated during the period of George V. The project was finally completed in 19 13. In other words, Buckingham Palace in the public view was finally built only a century ago.

1837, Queen Victoria lived in Buckingham Palace, then passed through Edward VII, George V and George VI, and now Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen has lived in Buckingham Palace since she succeeded to the throne in 1952. She is the monarch who has lived here the longest.

1992165438+10 In October, Windsor Castle caught fire, and the Queen decided to open Buckingham Palace in summer, and the income was used to prepare for the reconstruction of Windsor Castle. 1997 after the completion of the reconstruction project, the annual income will be used for the management and maintenance of the royal collection.

All visitors enter Buckingham Palace from the envoy's atrium. As the name implies, this is for foreign envoys and government officials to enter the palace. However, this is an early function, and now it is to let tourists enjoy the treatment as foreign envoys. Walking through the yard, I first came to a narrow concession passage. Both sides of this concession passage are covered with all kinds of sculptures. I walked on the narrow road in the middle, afraid to shake my body, but I couldn't damage the queen's property. At the end of the passage, you can see the whole square and the surrounding buildings. The square courtyard is directly opposite the main entrance, where the carriages of ambassadors and senior officials of various countries enter when holding official state activities; When various activities are held in the palace, the Queen's guests also enter the palace from here.

The lobby on the first floor is the place where the Queen welcomes the head of state in state affairs, where she introduces members of the royal family. There is no national activity now, and the hall is surrounded by red ropes, so I can only take a look in the aisle outside. There are a lot of marble columns, siding and sculptures in this hall. The red carpet, white walls and golden decorations make it look gorgeous. Imagine that when the Queen welcomes a country's dignitaries here, flowers are everywhere in the hall, attendants are wearing bright red canopies, golden uniforms and hats, and guards are wearing shiny armor and helmets with feathers. The scene must be spectacular.

Although I failed to step into the main hall, I actually stepped onto the grand staircase, from which all the guests of Buckingham Palace walked to the second floor. This is a circular staircase with symmetrical sides. The gilded bronze railing echoes the gilded gypsum on the wall, and the light shines from the glass ceiling of the roof, giving people a very bright feeling. The four walls of the stairs are beautifully embossed, and the middle is covered with oil paintings by royal family members. I walked on the stairs, thinking that if I were the queen's guest, I would come to a grand reception, and everything I could see next was full of expectations.

Walking up the stairs, the first thing you enter is a small room called the guard room. Of course, it was supposed to keep the guards on duty, but this room is too small to hold too many guards. It feels more like a transitional room. The marble statue of Queen Victoria is placed here, which shows her 18 years old, standing in front of the semi-circular back wall; The ceiling is also arc-shaped, covered with gilded gypsum decoration and glass lamps, and hung with a huge crystal chandelier. The small room is like the interior of a jewelry box, and its gorgeous feeling has stunned me. I can't imagine how luxurious the ceremony hall in the back will be.

As soon as I entered the next room, I was stunned by those bright green eyes. Green gold-plated smallpox, green and gold curtains and curtains, green seats with golden flowers, green decorative porcelain vases, red carpets and lattice gold pilasters, and huge oil paintings hanging on the walls. I have never seen such a gorgeous room. Here is one of the ceremony halls, called the Green Reception Hall, which is one of the places where the Queen receives guests.

Next, I came to the designer Nash's most proud room-the throne room. Nash is good at designing theaters, so he designed the throne of the king as a stage for dignitaries. There is no doubt that in such a big room, people's eyes will always be unconsciously attracted by the high platform of two thrones and the canopy on top. An arch in front separates the throne area from the main body of the whole room. There are two life-size angel sculptures on the arch, holding the initials representing George IV. In the main part of the room, the most attractive thing is the design of smallpox, which is decorated with countless gypsum: rosettes, leaves and garlands. The dome is also engraved with the coat of arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and Hanover, that is, the royal quarter coat of arms, and the patterns of the Guardian Medal and the Bath Medal are arranged above and below it.

Today's Queen Elizabeth II, when she was a princess, 1947 got married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Their wedding photos were taken standing on the platform where the throne was placed.

George IV likes to collect oil paintings, but the Carlton Palace where he lives doesn't have so many places for him to hang. So when building Buckingham Palace, Nash designed a huge gallery in the center of the palace. The length of the gallery is as long as the green reception hall and the audience room combined, and the natural light shines from the zenith, so that the paintings are fully illuminated and convenient for people to enjoy. Later, the works painted by Holban, Rembrandt, Rubens and canaletto all moved to this luxurious new house, but George IV himself was not blessed to live in Buckingham Palace. However, this room is not a museum. It is one of the main reception halls of Buckingham Palace, and can receive hundreds of guests at a time. People gathered here and were called to the ballroom, where the queen awarded prizes or titles to those who won honors.

Through the lounge behind the gallery, I came to a relatively small room. Of course, no matter how small it is, it is much bigger than our living room. This is called the silk tapestry room, which is used to connect the original main building room of the palace with the wing room later added for Queen Victoria. There used to be several huge tapestries hanging here, but now they have been moved to other places, but their names have been preserved.

Out of the silk tapestry room, I came to the extension of Buckingham Palace in Victorian era. First, we have to cross a long corridor, called the East Corridor. The other direction of the big staircase I just took is also connected with the East Gallery, so after entering Buckingham Palace from the main entrance, if you don't go to any ceremony hall, you can go directly to the East Gallery from the big staircase and then walk into the ballroom.

Queen Victoria decided to hold a social dance in the palace. In addition to a huge banquet hall, a banquet hall that provides tea and snacks for hundreds of guests is inevitable. So, next to the East Gallery, there is a ballroom. Now, this room is the exhibition hall for the Queen to visit countries all over the world. Here, you can see all kinds of gifts, historical photos, dresses and other exhibits that the Queen wore when she visited all continents. What impressed me most was those dresses, which were so luxurious.

The ballroom occupies the entire southern part of Buckingham Gong Er Building, with an area of over 600 square meters and a height of14m. This is the largest room in Buckingham Palace. Since 1856 was first used, it has been used to hold balls, memorial ceremonies and state banquets for foreign heads of state. I entered the ballroom from the entrance of the East Gallery. This small room is now used to show some TV films about national activities. I found a seat. One is to rest my tired feet, and the other is to watch the Queen's grace on TV. In a glass showcase here, there are also several jewels worn by the Queen, each of which is inlaid with countless gems and shines brightly; The central part of the ballroom was blocked by the red rope and could not be entered; On the other side of the banquet hall, surrounded by a magnificent Arc de Triomphe, there is a throne canopy and two thrones below the Arc de Triomphe; In a long row of glass cabinets in the room, various medals and ribbons are displayed, as well as the sword used by the queen to confer knighthood.

This side of the banquet hall is connected with the west corridor, which can take you into the state banquet hall. From here, all rooms in the west can see the Royal Garden. Many portraits of kings of past dynasties are hung on the wall of the State Banquet Hall, while dazzling gold patterns are on the ceiling, and all the decorations are mainly gold. One of the admirals is worth seeing. Apollo, the sun god, flew through the air in four horse-drawn chariots. The wheels of the chariots were a clock, which was very beautiful. There are several pieces of tableware on the dining table, all of which are silver-plated gold wares. There are statues of Queen Victoria's four favorite dogs on the central ornament in the middle of the table.

Now let's go back to the ceremony hall designed by Nash. Because the west side is close to the royal private suite, two large reception halls are designed. Far from the royal suite, which is adjacent to the state banquet hall, is the blue reception hall. Remember the green reception hall we saw in the east when we first came in? Change all those greens to blue, and this room is now. However, the green reception hall is made of gold pilaster, while the blue reception hall is made of artificial marble. The use of artificial marble is quite avant-garde in the palace decoration in the early19th century.

Through the blue reception hall, I entered a semi-circular room called the concert hall, which was occasionally used for private performances. In addition, the baptism of members of the royal family was also held here, and the Queen's three oldest children were also baptized here. It is said that the baptized water was brought from the Jordan River. The round dome of the room is very beautiful, and the artificial marble columns around it are also very eye-catching.

Ok, now I'm in the most important white reception hall, closest to the royal suite. In fact, in the northwest corner of this room, there is a secret door behind a cabinet. When the mirror above the cabinet is opened, the whole cabinet will move away, revealing a passage, and members of the royal family can walk directly into the hall from the private suite at the back. The reception hall is based on white, with pilaster design, inlaid with gold relief or sculpture on all sides, and the curtains and Weiman are also made of platinum brocade, which makes the whole room look atmospheric and noble.

At this point, the whole tour on the second floor is over. Go through a small waiting room and walk to the waiter stairs, which is another road from the first floor to the private room and ceremony hall. I'll go down to the first floor from here. At the bottom of the stairs, there is a life-size marble sculpture depicting Ares and Venus. This sculpture is a prelude to the long marble hall on the first floor.

The marble hall is just below the big gallery. It is also a long room, both sides of which are filled with masterpieces of marble sculptures by masters. But because the room is in the center of the first floor, there is almost no natural light. Appreciating sculpture is actually the same as appreciating painting, and it also needs to be done in the sun, so this marble hall has inherent shortcomings. Anyway, I am an amateur. As soon as the light shines, I already think these sculptures are too beautiful to be described in words.

Go out of the gate in the middle of the marble hall and come to the arched room. The concert hall should be upstairs. The main function of the Arched Room is now a meeting room for the Queen to receive guests alone, especially for diplomatic envoys who submit credentials. Sometimes, it can also be used as a banquet hall, and members of the royal family will eat at Christmas and some special celebrations. This is also the entrance to the Royal Garden. When I left this room, I left Buckingham Palace and entered the Royal Garden.