An oak tree from Tsarskoe Selo now grows in downtown St Petersburg.
A sapling of the pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) was brought from Tsarskoe Selo and placed firmly in the soil at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, a world-famous school of classical ballet.
Planted by Director Olga Taratynova of Tsarskoe Selo and Rector Nikolay Tsiskaridze of the Vaganova Academy in the courtyard of the historic building, the young tree is a descendant of an oak planted on the orders of Emperor Nicholas I by the Alexander Palace in the first half of the nineteenth century. Its acorns were gathered during the Heir's Oak action held by our museum back in October 2011. It took fifteen years for the old oak's "descendant" to become a sapling ready to grow outside.
The planting site is deeply symbolic as Nicholas I was a great admirer of ballet. He actively influenced the development of the Imperial Theatre School, now the Vaganova Academy. The imperial family attended the exams and performances at the school theatre. The emperor personally inspected the institution, keen to improve the students' living and training conditions.
A day earlier, another oak sapling was planted by Nikolay Tsiskaridze in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoe Selo.
