Medieval Times: life and clothes of a Russian Tsarina

The life of Russian tsarinas was strictly regulated. They led a so-called ‘tower-chamber lifestyle’ and from the outside it might seem that their interests were confined exclusively to the birth of royal heirs and pilgrimage to monasteries and churches.

In fact, on the contrary: life was thriving within the walls of the Tsarina’s Tower: receptions of boyar wives and petitioners, festive receptions of the Tsar and the Patriarch, birthday feasts. The Tsarina managed the Prikaz (or the ministry) of her Workshop Chamber. Only the Tsarina could do gold embroidery. Tsarinas were also engaged in charity, daily multiple prayers for health and well-being of the monarch, as well as for his luck in state affairs and military campaigns, the upbringing of royal children. Tsarina’s sons and daughters who lived together in her chambers until the age of 5.

In the Tsarina’s Workshop Chamber, craftswomen sewed and decorated dresses for the Tsar and for the all women of the royal family. At the same time, the royal owners of Kolomenskoe and their courtiers remained faithful to the national aristocratic clothes, which had practically not changed for centuries. The clothes of a Russian Tsarina were of particular interest. She wore the multi-layered dresses; each of them had its own name and its own distinctive features. This gown created the image of a full-figured and statuesque woman capable of giving birth to healthy heirs to the Tsar and the Russian land.