Romanova, Marina Petrovna

Marina Petrovna was born on February 28 / March 11, 1892 in Nice .

In childhood, together with her parents, she lived for a long time abroad and in the Crimea . During the First World War, the young Grand Duchess followed her father, who was on the Caucasian front at the headquarters of his brother Nikolai Nikolayevich the Younger. In the years 1915-1916. she served as a sister of mercy in a military hospital.

In 1917, part of the Romanovs, by decision of the Provisional Government, was transferred to Crimea under house arrest. The estate of Dyulber, built in the spirit of the Moorish fortified palace based on personal sketches of father Marina Petrovna, was chosen as the place of detention; her childhood and youth passed here. In March 1918, on the battleship Marlboro, sent by King George V for the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna , Marina Petrovna, together with her parents and other relatives, would leave Russia forever.

At first they lived in Italy, then moved to the south of France, in Antibes. In 1927, the wedding of Marina Petrovna and Alexander Nikolayevich Golitsyn ( 1886 - 1974 ), the son of the former chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikolai Dmitrievich Golitsyn, took place there . The young family settled on the Mediterranean coast near the village of Le Brusque, near Toulon , in a house donated by the King of Italy Victor Emmanuel, who was a distant maternal relative of Marina Petrovna. An unusual house, consisting of an old cottage and a castle tower connected by a covered bridge, was called Bastide Galitzine (Golitsyn Fortress).

Near the house, Marina Petrovna erected an Orthodox chapel - she was fond of the history of architecture and collected ancient architectural elements in the vicinity, which she used in construction.

Nowadays, Bastide Galitzine is a local cultural center, where classical music concerts, Russian evenings are arranged. In addition to her passion for architecture, Marina Petrovna worked on an anthology of ancient Provencal ballads and Christmas carols called “Sacred Night” (“La Sainte nuit”). She personally illustrated and decorated the manuscript of this work. It is very rare now that the book “Tatar Crimean Legend” (“Légende tartare de Crimée”), published in Paris by the publishing house Honore Chapion in Paris in 1926, with four print-art prints using screen-printing technique, was published in Paris in 1926. The circulation of the book was only 126 copies. The magnificent bibliophile publication became a kind of memory of the beloved Crimea, its mountain landscapes and ancient legends.

In addition to art, Marina Petrovna was interested in science. She devoted much effort to developing a new television screen.

Died May 15, 1981 in Ci-Fors-les-Plages, Var department, France; buried in the Russian cemetery Kokad in Nice.

• Guilly d'Herbemont. Portrait of Marina Romanoff
• The book "Legends of the Crimean Tatars" on the PBA website (English)
• Marina Petrovna (inaccessible link)
• Pedigree of the Imperial House

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