packed separately, with diagrams on how to put them back together. One piece of each set of furniture was saved, and the others left behind. The Roman and Greek antiquities were too heavy and delicate to move, so they were taken to the basements, placed as close together as possible, and then hidden by a brick wall. By the third week of August thirteen thousand objects, plus all the documentation, had been packed and sent away. Some crates were sent to Gorky, others to Sarapul, and the last group, on 20 August 1941, went to Leningrad, where the crates were stored in the basement of St Isaac's Cathedral. The last shipment included the chandelier from the Italian Hall and the jasper vases from the Greek Hall. On 30 August, the last rail link from Leningrad to Moscow was cut, and the city was under blockade. By 28 August, the Germans were fifty kilometers from Pavlovsk. A Soviet division headquarters was located in one wing of the palace. As the Germans approached, the park and palace came under bombardment. The museum staff began to bury the statues which were too heavy to evacuate. They calculated that the Germans would not dig deeper than one meter eighty centimeters, so they buried all the statues as deep as three meters. The statues of the Three Graces were buried three meters beneath the private garden of Maria Feodorovna. Their calculations were correct; the statues were still there after the war. On 16 September, the last soldiers left, and the Germans took over Pavlovsk Palace, still occupied by a group of elderly women guardians. The Germans occupied Pavlovsk palace for two and a half years. Officers were quartered in the salons on the first floor, and the ballroom was made into a garage for cars and motorcycles. Barracks were located in the north wing and a hospital in the south wing. German soldiers, Dutch soldiers and Spanish soldiers in special units of the German army occupied the buildings in the park. The sculpture and furniture that remained in the house and all the books of the Rossi Library were taken to Germany. The statue of Emperor Paul in the courtyard was used as a telephone pole. The Germans did not discover the antiquities hidden behind the brick wall in the basement. Pavlovsk was retaken on 24 January 1944. When the Soviet troops arrived, the palace