ROMANOV FAMILY: PIERRE GILLIARD’S CAMERA
Recently a very special camera was brought over from Switzerland to Tsarskoe Selo. This camera was donated to the Tsarskoe Selo Museum by the descendants of Pierre Gilliard, the tutor of Tsar Nicholas II’s children, who once purchased it in St Petersburg.
Gillard used this camera to take many photographs of the Romanov family.
The camera went with him when after the Russian revolution Gilliard followed the Romanov family into exile to Siberia.
The tutor was no longer allowed to see the imperial family once they were moved to the Urals, and he left Russia and returned to Switzerland shortly after.
Recently Gilliard’s descendants came to St Petersburg especially to donate the camera to the museum.
The camera will be put on exhibit at the Alexander Palace – the last imperial residence of the Romanov family – when it reopens… 
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