by the news, he had to travel abroad to recuperate. Grand Duke Paul was on a trip to Italy with his brother Sergei when their father Alexander II was assassinated on 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881. Paul's eldest surviving brother, Alexander III, ascended to the Russian throne. Since childhood, Paul was very attached to his brother Sergei, their closeness remaining even after Sergei's engagement and later marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864–1918). Paul accompanied the couple to England to meet Elisabeth's British grandmother, Queen Victoria, who was favorably impressed by Paul. After Sergei's marriage, Paul moved in with his brother and his new sister-in-law, who also became very close to him. The trio shared the same household for some time, and they made a trip together to Jerusalem in 1888. Grand Duke Paul suffered from weak lungs and spent periods abroad to recuperate. On medical advice, he visited Greece in 1887. First marriage During his visits to Greece, in the family atmosphere of his first cousin Queen Olga of Greece, Grand Duke Paul grew closer with Olga's eldest daughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. Alexandra's father, King George I of Greece, was a brother of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, Paul's sister-in-law. During the silver wedding anniversary of King George and Queen Olga, Paul asked for Alexandra's hand and he was accepted. Alexandra had come to Russia several times during visits to her maternal relatives. She was lively and mischievous, while he was reserved. Their engagement was announced on 10 November 1888. The wedding took place on in St. Petersburg, at the chapel of the Winter Palace. Grand Duke Paul was 29 years old and his wife ten years younger. Paul settled with his wife in his own palace in St. Petersburg on the English Embankment, No. 68. The mansion was located behind the Church of the Annunciation and faced the Corps de la Marine in the very center of Saint Petersburg. It was built in the Florentine renaissance revival style by the architect Alexander Krakau between 1859 and 1862 for Baron Alexander von Stieglitz, a prominent financier and the first Governor of the Bank of Russia. After Stieglitz's death in 1884, the mansion was inherited by his adopted daughter, Nadezhda Polovtsova. She sold the property to the Treasury in 1887, and Grand Duke Paul bought it the same year. In 1889, he had the architect