The first documented dog of the Russian tsar was a great Dane-like dog named Tyrant, owned by Peter I. The tsar, amazed by the impressive size of the stud, bought Tyrant as an adult. He brought his second wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna, an Italian Greyhound named Lizette from London. Both dogs were embalmed after death and their taxidermized remains can still be seen in the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg.

However, Empress Catherine II introduced another tradition of putting royal pets to rest — burial in a special cemetery. The first one such site appeared in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, within the summer residence of the Empress. In Catherine Park, behind the Turkish Bath Pavilion, there were marble slabs dedicated to her beloved Italian Greyhounds Zemira, Sir Thomas Anderson and Duchesse. Several such tombstones have survived to our time but why the dog Thomas earned was “knighted” with the title of “Sir” remains a mystery.

The second cemetery for animals, strangely referred to as the Pensioner Cemetery, appeared under Nicholas I in the 1830s, also in Tsarskoye Selo next to the equally strangely named Pensioner Stable. The horses of the Emperor’s Own saddle that died of old age were buried at this location. Massive granite slabs were placed over the graves, which indicated the nickname and time of service of the horses to the emperor. There are more than 120 graves in this cemetery.

The wife of Nicholas I, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, set up another cemetery in Tsarskoye Selo for her dogs. It was arranged in Alexander Park, not far from the Imperial couple’s summer residence, the Alexander Palace, on Detsky Island, in the middle of a pond and its own kindergarten. Granite pyramids were erected over the graves of beloved dogs, designed by Adam Menelas, one of the leading architects of the Nikolayev era. Emperor Nicholas II later buried his beloved dogs there.