Cold as ice, I'm Jason Horton, I'm Rebecca Leib, and this is Ghost Town.

Ice installations are a long-standing Russian tradition.

They were built as fortresses for the training of soldiers and for the entertainment of civilians.

In the winter of 1739, with record cold temperatures, the Empress Anna Ivanovna ordered

Alexis Tetsychev, sorry about the pronunciation, a court functionary to construct an 80-foot

long, 33-foot high, 23-feet deep, beautiful ice palace.

The palace itself and the surrounding festivities were part of Russia's victory over the Ottoman

Empire and would represent Russian patriotism and power, and also Anna Ivanovna's own particular

brand of sadism.

But first, let's get into a little bit about Ivanovna, the Russian Empress, that is kind of

forgotten, she reigned for 10 years, and they were memorable, but painful.

Born in 1693, Anna was the daughter of Tsar, Ivan V, a useless man who was really only there

for ceremony. Peter the Great, Anna's uncle, and Kozar performed most of the real Tsar jobs.

Anna grew up with a traditional Russian royal upbringing for a girl.

No education, she was barely literate. She was also, according to texts, not pretty.

The author, Thomas Carlyle, once cruelly described her cheeks as Westphalian ham. She was mean,

she had terrible manners, but still, in royal tradition, she was married off to Frederick William,

the Duke of Corland, now part of Latvia. And Anna was really into it. She was actually really

happy to be married. She loved him authentically for all intensive purposes, what I saw,

the wedding was beautiful. She was dressed in the finest and the ceremony ended with a display

of beautiful fireworks. But two days after the couple's marriage, Anna's uncle, Tsar Peter the Great,

staged a wedding of two dwarves as a cruel parody of Anna's. This description, again,

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