page_title: Coronation of the Russian monarch
section_title: The coronation banquet
hierarchical_section_title: Coronation of the Russian monarch / After the service / The coronation banquet
caption_attribution_description: Fireworks /Feuerwerk (Chromolithographie)
context_page_description: Coronations in Russia involved a highly developed religious ceremony in which the Emperor of Russia was crowned and invested with regalia, then anointed with chrism and formally blessed by the church to commence his reign. Although rulers of Muscovy had been crowned prior to the reign of Ivan III, their coronation rituals assumed overt Byzantine overtones as the result of the influence of Ivan's wife Sophia Paleologue, and the imperial ambitions of his grandson, Ivan IV. The modern coronation, introducing "Western European-style" elements, replaced the previous "crowning" ceremony and was first used for Catherine I in 1724. Since czarist Russia claimed to be the "Third Rome" and the replacement of Byzantium as the true Christian state, the Russian rite was designed to link its rulers and prerogatives to those of the so-called "Second Rome".
  While months or even years could pass between the initial accession of the sovereign and the performance of this ritual, church policy held that the monarch must be anointed and crowned according to the Orthodox rite to have a successful tenure.
context_section_description: The Tsar's coronation banquet was held on the evening of his coronation, in the Granovitaya Palata, council chamber of Muscovite rulers.  The walls were adorned with frescoes, and a special table was set for the Tsar and his consort, who dined alone while being served by high-ranking members of the court.  Foreign ambassadors were admitted one at a time, and the new sovereign drank a toast with each in turn.
  Foreign princes (no foreign rulers were ever invited to a Russian coronation, but foreign princes attended as representatives of their own monarchs) were seated in an upper gallery or Tainik, as only Russians could take part in the banquet itself.
  According to biographer Robert K. Massie, the following items were served at Nicholas II's coronation dinner in 1896:
  Borsch and pepper-pot soup,
  Turnovers filled with meat,
  Steamed fish,
  Whole spring lamb,
  Pheasants in cream sauce,
  Asparagus and Salad,
  Sweet fruits in wine,
  Ice cream.
caption: Fireworks following Alexander II's coronation in 1856
exif: {}