The Palace of Alexander I is located on Grecheskaya Street. Emperor Alexander I died in this house on November 19, 1825. Until 1928, this building housed a museum dedicated to Alexander I. Now this house belongs to a children`s sanatorium, and it can only be seen from the outside. The city authorities need to think about recreating the museum so that a landmark so interesting to tourists reappears in Taganrog.
The house in the northern part of the Taganrog Cape was built in 1806. The name "palace" sounds too loud for it. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was called the Mayor`s House, since the local mayor, Peter Papkov, repaired it and sold it at his private profit to the city treasury. Later, he decided to arrange a reception house in it for distinguished guests who traveled through Taganrog to the Crimea.
Alexander I visited Taganrog for the first time in 1818 and he really liked it. The tsar`s wife, Elizabeth Alexandrovna, was ill with tuberculosis. Doctors advised her to change the damp climate of St. Petersburg to the Crimea. In 1825, the tsar and his wife went to the south, but not to the Crimea, but to Taganrog. The royal couple got some rest in the city. Here they led a modest lifestyle. Alexander I himself went to the bazaar for shopping, which surprised the locals.
In autumn, Prince Vorontsov persuaded Alexander I to visit him in the Crimea, where he built a wonderful Vorontsov Palace. In Sevastopol, the tsar caught a bad cold and decided to return to Taganrog. The disease progressed rapidly and on November 19, 1825, at the age of 47, the tsar died. Alexander Pushkin wrote on this occasion: "He spent his whole life on the road, and died in Taganrog."
Local doctors tried to embalm the tsar`s body, but they could not find the necessary materials in Taganrog for a long time. Confusion with the succession to the throne began in St. Petersburg, due to Constantine`s refusal to inherit the throne. Later, the Decembrist uprising began. The funeral of Alexander I faded into the background. The tsar`s body was in Taganrog for more than a month. When it was taken to St. Petersburg, the Empress remained in Taganrog due to poor health.
All this gave rise to many rumors that Emperor Alexander I did not die in Taganrog, but decided to become a wandering monk Fyodor Kuzmich. The debate about this has not subsided for a century. Fyodor Kuzmich`s grave is located in the Bogoroditse-Alekseevsky Monastery of Tomsk. However, it is now impossible to prove whether Fyodor Kuzmich was the "not dead" Emperor Alexander I.
