Livadia Palace Chapel

The Livadia Palace was the summer retreat of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II and his family. It was also the location of the Yalta Conference in 1945, at which world leaders - including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin - discussed post-World War II reorganization.

The neo-Byzantine style Church of the Erection of the Cross was built adjacent to the original palace by Russian court architect Ippolit Antonovich Monighetti 1864-66. It is the only building left from Monighetti's initial construction.

A painted icon of the exaltation of the cross was ruined by rain from a leaky roof, but Alexander Popov made a copy that Salviati used to create the mosaic replica, which is still located in the chapel.

Undated archival photo of the chapel's interior.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Guide, 2008. 132.
Podvalov on Wikimedia Commons
Wikipedia
Cornucopia
Rest Crimea
About Ukraine
Courier Crimea
sarahelizabethii on Photobucket
Maricharkina