Dedicated to the memory of his friend Tsar Alexander I, Frederick William III built this group of wooden houses between 1826 and 1827 in the style of a Russian village. Lenné was commissioned to build 13 houses surrounded by gardens and arranged in the shape of a St Andrew’s cross. The houses were granted by the king to singers of a Russian military choir residing at court and could only be passed on from father to son. The Alexandrowka museum tells the story of this unusual colony.