“The Emperor crowned himself, the Metropolitan handing him the crown”, recalled the Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden of this historic day in 1896, which would become the last coronation ever in Russia.

“Then the Empress left her place and knelt before him”, Baroness Buxhoeveden continued, “the Emperor took off his crown and touched her forehead with it. Then he took a smaller crown and with the utmost gentleness put it on her head. Her ladies fixed it on. The Emperor kissed her, took her hand as she rose, and both went to their places on their thrones”.

As Lady-in-Waiting to the newly crowned Empress, Buxhoeveden was an unrivalled witness to the most intimate preparations and thoughts of the imperial couple before, during and after the coronation.

The Romanovs had gone to great lengths to facilitate and entertain representatives from all the royal and imperial families from across Europe arriving in Moscow for this special day.

“The Imperial Russian court had put a house at our disposal, carriages, servants, military guard and every luxury characteristic of Russian lavishness”, remembered the future Queen Marie of Romania.

“Several gentlemen had been attached to us and last, but not least, as in a real fairy-story, I had a young page to hold my train, to carry my cloak, to stand behind my chair during the great banquets, gala-representations or parades”.

With the crowning complete, Princess Catherine Radziwill remembered how “festivity upon festivity followed each other in quick succession after the ceremony, and for days one lived in a whirl of gaiety with scarcely time to think…”

This menu is from that evening’s banquet in the Alexander Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace. The diplomatic set along with the Moscow authorities and other participants in the Coronation were joined by the Tsar and Tsarina along with city’s Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.

The menu included saddle of wild goat and the famous and prized Gatchina Trout caught in the stream running through the Tsar’s own Gatchina estates south of Saint Petersburg.

The menu is decorated with the twin imperial monograms of Tsar Nicholas II (the Cyrillic H II) and Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna (A) along with views of the Kremlin in Moscow, Kiev and Nizhny Novgorod. On the right of the menu is the Romanov Griffin which appeared on the original Boyar family arms.