The burial ceremony of members of the royal family was strictly regulated. The preparation and conduct of all mourning events was in charge of the Sorrowful Commission created after the death of the monarchs.
The death and funeral of the royal couple
Russian Emperor Peter the Great died in the Winter Palace in January 1725 at the age of 52. The cause of death was called inflammation of the bladder, which turned into gangrene. The body of the emperor was exhibited in the mourning hall of the Winter Palace, so that everyone could say goodbye to him. The period of farewell lasted more than a month. Peter lay in a coffin in a brocade camisole with lace, boots with spurs, with a sword and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called on his chest. As a result, the corpse began to decompose, an unpleasant odor began to spread throughout the palace. The emperor’s body was embalmed and transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. However, only after 6 years the body of the emperor was buried in the Tsar’s tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, before that the coffin with an embalmed body was simply standing in the temporary chapel of the cathedral still under construction.
The wife of Peter I Catherine survived the spouse for only 2 years. The balls, entertainment, and revelry to which the Dowager Empress indulged in days and nights greatly undermined her health. Catherine died in May 1725 at the age of 43 years. If Peter I was rightfully born to rest in the Tsar’s tomb, his wife could not boast of a noble birth. Catherine I, nee Marta Skavronskaya, was born in a Baltic peasant family. She was captured by the Russian army during the Northern War. Peter was so fascinated by the captured peasant woman that he even married her and crowned her empress. The body of the empress, like her husband, was interred only in 1731 by order of Anna Ivanovna.
Royal tombs
In the pre-Petrine era, all members of the ruling dynasty in Russia were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. All Moscow princes and tsars, beginning from Ivan Kalita, rest there. During the reign of Peter I there was no specific burial place for royalty. Members of the imperial family were buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1715, the youngest daughter of Peter and Catherine Natalia died. The emperor ordered her to be buried in the cathedral of Peter and Paul, which at that time had not yet been completed. From this year, the Peter and Paul Cathedral became the new royal tomb.
Within the walls of the Peter and Paul Cathedral lie all the Russian tsars: from Peter I to Alexander III. Burials of Peter and his wife Catherine are located near the southern entrance to the cathedral. Their graves are small crypts that are located under a stone floor. In these crypts are metal arks with coffins. Above the graves are marble slabs decorated with inscriptions and golden crosses.
