Peter's Home.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 66, 17 March 1894, Page 12 (Supplement)

Peter's Home.

Where the Czar of Russia Lived While at Zaandam. ;

Where He Went Disguised as a Workman to Learn Shipbuilding in the dotch yards.

The visit of a Russian fleet to the Mediterranean haa attracted much attention to the marine forces of Russia, and the beginnings of the Russian navy have thus an added interest at this time, although the circumstances of its romantic origin will always possess an inherent interest to lovers of the unusual and the picturesque. Every one knows how Peter the Great went to Holland to learn how ships were made, that he might creato a navy for his own country, and a visib to Zaandam is an exceedingly interesting experience. Zaandam —by some erroneously called Saardam, in allusion to the Czar—a town of some 13,000 inhabitants, ia situated ab the influx of bhe Zaan into the River V, about four milea from Amsterdam. It is a thriving place, inhabited chiefly by rich mill owners, whose windmills extend for miles along the bank of the River Zaan. It is thoroughly Dutch in appearance and typical of the style of these odd old towns.

The houses, which are surrounded by gardens, are mostly small, being built in one or two stories only. They are of brick or wood, and are all painted in bright colours, green and red predominating. The town ia built around the porb and has but one main street, following the lines of the harbour. Ib has, of course, many canals, The streets are paved with brick, and all is scrupulously ""clean. The buildings facing the river are chiefly sawmills, pumping btatiqns, or aro used for industries connected with navigation.

1 It was to this little town that in 1696 Czar Peter came, dressed, as the story goes, in the clobhes of a common workman, and engaged himself as a ship carpenter in the building yard of a certain Mynheer Kalf, under the name of Peter Michaelof. This tall young Russian workman—for he stood six and a half feet high—took a small house situated behind those on the main street, and approached through a narrow alley called the Koesteog and over a little bridge. Tho house ia a rude wooden structure, protected from the weather by a modern wooden casing, with a roof supported by pillars of brick. The house belongß bo the Czar of Russia, to whom it was presented a few years ago. Unfortunately fo;r tradition, modern historical critica allege that Peber remained here only a week, for be was unable to preserve his incognito, and being incessantly beset by crowds of inquisitive idlers he preferred to return to Amsterdam.

Be this as ib may, the house wai certainly inhabited by Peter for some time, and as 'Peter's Lodgment' ib has been known for nearly 200 years. This hut, a veritable fisher's hovel, made ot shipboards roughly joined, formed part of a larger house now destroyed, only the historical part being preserved by the caving referred to. The interior is divided into two small rooms, furnished with oldfashioned latticed windo\rs, and so low that one can touch the crossbeams which sapported the ceiling. In the first; chamber, which was used as a bedroom, stands in a corner a cabineb or cupboard, with large doors, containing a rough kind of mattress made of boards and used as a bed ; a long, nolidly-built table is placed to tho wall, and the rest of the furniture consists of three triangular-shaped rustic wooden chairs, constructed, we are told, by Peter himself. In the middle of this roam is a tall chimney-place, wibh a flab mantelpiece, ornamented with enamelled ti'ea and backed with an iron shield or fire-back. • ~: VIb !a said th&b Peter Michaelof cooked h!« meals in this aim pie fireplace, living just like an ordinary workman. On the second lintel is a slab of white marble, bearing the words 'Pietro Magno; Alexander,' in memory of the visit of the Emperor Alexander 1., who afterwards added another inscription, to the effect that ' nothing is small to a great man,' Another tablet recalls the visit, in April, 1839, of Alexander 11., the Czarewitch, the father of the present Czar.

The translation of the Russian verse which is inscribed therein is as follows: — ' Holy angels hovor over this humble dwelling. Bow down, 0 Czarewitch, for here was born tho greatness of Russia 1* Yet another marble slab records that in September, 1831, King William I. of Holland and bis Queen, VVilhelmina, visited this historic house.—' St. James's Budget.'