How the first PET cemetery appeared in Tsarist Russia (PHOTOS)

The first documented dog of a Russian tsar was a Great Dane-like dog named ‘Tiran’, who belonged to Peter the Great. The tsar, impressed by the dog's size, purchased ‘Tigran’ as an adult. He brought an Italian greyhound named ‘Lisette’ from London for his second wife Catherine Alexeyevna. Both dogs were embalmed after their deaths; their stuffed mounts can still be seen in the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg.

However, Empress Catherine II introduced a different tradition for the burial of her pets – burial in a special cemetery. The first such cemetery was established on the Tsarskoye Selo Estate near St. Petersburg, the empress' summer residence. In Catherine Park, behind the Turkish Bath pavilion, were marble slabs with dedications to his beloved Italian greyhounds ‘Zemira’, ‘Sir Thomas Anderson’ and ‘Duchesse’. Several of these tombstones have survived to this day.

A second animal cemetery, ‘Pensioners' Cemetery’, was established under Nicholas I in the 1830s, also in Tsarskoye Selo, next to the Pensioners' Stables. Horses belonging to the Imperial Saddle that died of old age were buried there. Massive granite slabs were installed over the graves, inscribed with the horses' names and the period they served the emperor. This cemetery contains over 120 graves.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Nicholas I's wife, established yet another cemetery in Tsarskoye Selo for her dogs. It was located in Alexander Park, not far from the imperial couple's summer residence, the Alexander Palace, on Children's Island, in the middle of the pond of the Private Garden. Granite pyramids, designed by Adam Menelaws, one of the leading architects of the Nicholas era, were erected over the graves of beloved dogs. Emperor Nicholas II later also buried his beloved dogs there.