Who painted the winter palace. Imperial mansions: the history of the Winter Palace
Empress Elizabeth, wishing to surpass the luxury of the palaces of European monarchs, ordered the chief architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build a grandiose building in the center of St. Petersburg. In 1754, the project of the Winter Palace, designed in a magnificent baroque style, was approved. Later, some changes were made to it, bringing Baroque liberties closer to the strict standards of classicism. Large-scale construction was not completed during the reign of Elizabeth, and only Catherine II became the first sovereign mistress of the Winter Palace. Under her, work continued on the arrangement of the interior. So, the Great Throne Hall, known as St. George's, was decorated. Since 1764, Catherine began to collect a collection of paintings from the Hermitage and commission architects to build additional buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Winter Palace. In the future, they will be united by a system of transitions into a palace complex.
Under Nicholas I, work on the interiors of the Winter Palace was continued. In 1837, due to a malfunction of the chimney, a terrible fire broke out in the building, which destroyed the historical decoration of the halls - the projects of Quarenghi, Rossi, Montferrand. In addition, it was necessary to equip the southwestern wing of the second floor with chambers for the heir to the throne, Alexander II, who was about to marry. Most of the works of this period were made by Vasily Stasov and Alexander Bryulov.
In 1904, under Nicholas II, the Winter Palace ceded the right to be called the imperial residence to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. The building continued to be used for museum purposes. With the outbreak of the First World War, part of the collections was taken to Moscow, and the spacious halls were given over to hospitals. After the February Revolution, the Winter Palace became the meeting place of the Provisional Government. It was here, in the Small Dining Room on the second floor, that his ministers were arrested during the October Revolution. A week later, all collections were declared state property and the Winter Palace officially became part of the Hermitage museum complex. During World War II, all collections were evacuated to the Urals. Since the autumn of 1945, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg has been receiving visitors as usual. Archaeological collections, works of artists and sculptors, works of arts and crafts of Asian countries, England and France are now stored here.
Facade facing the Neva
Architectural features of the building
By the time Rastrelli received the order, he had already erected two Winter Palaces in St. Petersburg, but their size and decoration of the halls did not correspond to the high status of the imperial residence. The new building, at the request of Elizabeth, was distinguished by the height of the ceilings and the splendor of the decoration characteristic of the Baroque - stucco, sculptures, gilding, draperies from expensive fabrics. The facade of the Winter Palace was decorated with two tiers of snow-white columns with gold stucco. The distances between the columns are different - so the architect, skillfully using the play of light and shadow, created a complex rhythmic pattern. Places on the roof were occupied by patinated antique statues, vases, symbols of Russian statehood were also erected here. By the way, greenish-blue facades have become only in our time. Historically, the walls were yellowish sand, later they were painted in richer yellows and browns.
Dimensions of the Winter Palace
Elizabeth insisted that the height of the Winter Palace should be 22 m, an unprecedented size for St. Petersburg. As a result, the building exceeded the set bar by another 1.5 m. The facade facing the Neva was extended by 210 m, the Admiralty side was slightly shorter - 175 m. Subsequently, Nicholas I made sure that there were no competitors to the palace in the capital, limiting the height of new buildings.
In total, there were more than 1,000 rooms in the Winter Palace - for official ceremonies, for storing collections, the private quarters of the emperor and the heirs to the throne and their retinue, and a huge number of utility rooms to serve the needs of the people living here.
Tours of the Winter Palace
It is extremely difficult to see all the halls of the Winter Palace at one time, so tourists should think over routes in advance. On the ground floor, archeological collections collected from all over the former Soviet Union are presented. From an architectural point of view, the apartments of the daughters of Nicholas I, located in the wing overlooking the Neva, are interesting. On the second floor there are halls that have become the hallmark of the Winter Palace: Throne, Bolshoi, Petrovsky - and private rooms of members of the imperial family, in which objects of Western European art are exhibited. The third floor is dedicated to Asia.
First floor halls
The lower floor is not as popular among visitors as the second, however, even here, each hall contains unique exhibits obtained by archaeologists.
Private quarters of the emperor's daughters
The former apartments of the daughters of Nicholas I in the Winter Palace were given over to the archaeological collection. In the hall there are finds from the Paleolithic era, in the bright Gothic living room with lancet arches and medieval plant reliefs - Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The decor of the "Living Room with Cupids" appeared in the 50s of the XIX century. The architect Stackenschneider did not stint on fat-cheeked cupids: babies with wings hid in the arches, reliefs with their images adorned the ceiling. Now these scenery houses a collection of antiquities from the Bronze Age. In the study of Olga Nikolaevna, the future Queen of Württemberg, the architect acted much more delicately: thin golden curves in the upper part of the ceiling vaults set off Bronze Age artifacts. Nearby are simple rooms without decor, given over to Scythian archaeological collections of weapons, ceramics, and jewelry.
Guardhouse premises
From the “female” wing, the Kutuzovsky corridor with modest columns leads the guests of the Winter Palace past the former guardhouse, now given over to the halls of art of the peoples of Altai and other regions of Siberia. The world's oldest pile carpet, woven in the 4th-3rd centuries, is stored here. BC e. In the middle, the corridor leads to the vestibule of the Saltykovsky entrance, designed in the same style, from which doors lead to the halls of ancient Altai and Tuvan art, nomadic tribes of Southern Siberia.
Collection of Central Asian and Caucasian Antiquities
The Kutuzovsky corridor leads visitors to the southwestern wing, dedicated to the art of Central Asia of the pre-Islamic period. Buddhist shrines, fragments of wall paintings, fabrics, household items, silver, stone statues, decorative elements of buildings from Sogdiana and Khorezm are collected here. At the other end of the wing there are halls dedicated to the culture of the Caucasus. The artifacts left over from the state of Urartu are of the greatest value. They were found under the guidance of academician Boris Piotrovsky, the former director of the museum, the father of the current one, Mikhail Piotrovsky. Nearby, perfectly preserved precious fabrics from the Ossetian Moshcheva Balka, an important Caucasian point of the Silk Road, are exhibited. Dagestan halls showcase fine bronze cauldrons, weapons and copper thread embroidery made in the 19th century. Volga Bulgaria, the state of the "Golden Horde" on the territory of the modern Volga region, is represented in the Winter Palace with silver and gold jewelry and weapons, painted underglaze ceramics. In the Transcaucasian halls one can see Georgian medieval weapons, objects of religious worship, Armenian book miniatures and fragments of architectural structures.
Middle East and North Africa
In the opposite wing is the Hall of Culture of Palmyra, an ancient Syrian city whose ruins were severely damaged during the recent hostilities in that country. In the collection of the Hermitage there are funerary stelae, customs documentation carved on stone. In the hall of Mesopotamia, you can see authentic cuneiform tablets from Assyria and Babylon. The vaulted Egyptian Hall, converted in 1940 from the Main Canteen of the Winter Palace, is located in front of the passage to the building of the Small Hermitage. Among the masterpieces of the collection is a stone statue of King Amenechmet III, created almost 4,000 years ago.
Second floor of the Winter Palace
The northeast wing of the second floor is temporarily closed - its collections have moved to the General Staff building. Next to it is the Grand Throne, or St. George's Hall of the Winter Palace, designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and remodeled after the fire by Vasily Stasov. Carrara marble, a unique parquet made of 16 types of wood, an abundance of columns with bronze gilding, mirrors and powerful lamps are designed to draw attention to the throne standing on a dais, ordered in England for the Empress Anna Ioannovna. The huge room turns into the relatively small Apollo Hall, which connects the Winter Palace with the Small Hermitage.
Military gallery of the Winter Palace
Large front suite
You can get to the Throne Room through the Military Gallery of 1812, which contains the works of George Dow and the artists of his studio - more than 300 portraits of Russian generals, participants in the Napoleonic Wars. The gallery was designed by the architect Carlo Rossi. On the other side of the gallery is a suite of state rooms. The Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace, designed by Stasov, contains the symbols of the Russian provinces and solid stone bowls made of aventurine. The Petrovsky, or Small Throne Room, conceived by Montferrand and restored by Stasov, is dedicated to Peter I. Its walls are decorated with burgundy Lyon velvet embroidered with gold, the ceiling is covered with gold reliefs. The throne was commissioned for the imperial family at the end of the 18th century. The White Field Marshal's Hall houses Western European porcelain and sculpture.
A. Ladurner. The Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace. 1834
Neva enfilade
The anteroom is the first in a series of ceremonial rooms overlooking the Neva. Its main attraction - a French rotunda with 8 malachite columns supporting a gilded bronze dome - was placed here in the middle of the last century. Through the Anteroom opens the entrance to the largest room of the Winter Palace - the Nicholas Hall, with Corinthian columns and a monochrome painting of the ceiling. It does not have a permanent exhibition, only temporary exhibitions are organized. On the opposite side of the Nicholas Hall is the snow-white Concert Hall with paired Corinthian columns and antique reliefs. Adjacent to the Neva Enfilade is the Romanov Portrait Gallery, which contains portraits of members of the imperial family, starting with Peter I.
Part of the northwestern wing is temporarily closed, including the Arapsky Hall with Greek decor that served as a dining room. The Rotunda is waiting for guests - a spacious round hall with rectangular and round Corinthian columns, a simple circular balcony in the second tier, a ceiling with recesses-caissons decorated with reliefs. Particularly effective is the floor with circular inlays of valuable wood species. The small halls leading from the Neva Enfilade to the apartments of the heir to the throne, overlooking the Dark Corridor, were given over to objects of art of the 18th century.
Private quarters of the emperor and empress
Emperor Nicholas I did not spare money for interiors, so each room of private quarters is a real masterpiece of design art. Alexandra Fedorovna's malachite living room is decorated with emerald green vases, columns, and a fireplace. The richly ornamented floor and carved ceiling are in perfect harmony with the exhibition - objects of arts and crafts. Nearby is the Small Dining Room, decorated in the Rococo style. Gambs furniture, the best craftsman of this era, was chosen for the Empress's study. Sketches of furniture for the adjacent room were made by the architect Carlo Rossi. The emperor's smoking room impresses with its oriental splendor and bright colors. Not many halls are associated with the name of Nicholas II in the Winter Palace - the last emperor preferred other residences. His library has been preserved with high windows in the English Gothic style and a carved fireplace, imitating a medieval book depository.
Interiors of Russian houses in the Winter Palace
In the imperial wing, rooms are equipped that reproduce the interiors of urban wealthy houses of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The neo-Russian style is represented by pieces of furniture from the 1900s with fabulous folk motifs. In the former Adjutantskaya there is an original ash suite in the Art Nouveau style. The austere neoclassical interior is enlivened by a bright portrait of Princess Yusupova. The "second" rococo of the middle of the 19th century is no less magnificent than the samples of a hundred years ago. The “Pompeian dining room” with Gambs furniture refers the viewer to archaeological finds. The Gothic office is decorated with furniture from the Golitsyn-Stroganov estate, reproducing the forms of the European knightly Middle Ages - carved backs and armrests of chairs, gloomy wood tones. Boudoir - the former dressing room of Alexandra Feodorovna with brightly painted furniture of the 40-50s. XIX century. The living room of the manor house with white columns demonstrates a strict classic interior.
The chambers of the future Emperor Alexander II and his wife
In the southwestern part of the second floor of the Winter Palace are the chambers of Alexander II, equipped in those days when he was the heir to the throne and was preparing for the wedding. From an architectural point of view, the rooms occupied by the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna are noteworthy: the Green Dining Room with lush rococo decor, the White Hall with many reliefs and sculptures, the Golden Living Room with complex stucco ornamentation, parquet and jasper fireplace, the Crimson Cabinet with textile wallpaper, the Blue bedroom with golden columns.
Collection of Western European Art
In the wing of the heir to the throne and in the enfilade dedicated to the victory in the war of 1812, paintings and works of decorative and applied art from Great Britain and France are kept: works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Watteau, Boucher, Grez, Fragonard, Lorrain, the famous bust of Voltaire, made by Houdon. The southeast wing houses the Alexander Hall, designed in noble white and blue tones, combining elements of Gothic and classicism with a collection of silver items. Next to it is the Great Church, designed by Rastrelli in the Baroque style. The picket hall, where the palace guard was bred, is temporarily closed.
Third floor
The functioning halls on the third floor of the Winter Palace are dedicated to the Islamic art of the Middle East, Byzantium, the state of the Huns, India, China, and Japan. Among the most valuable exhibits are finds from the Cave of 1000 Buddhas, ancient Chinese furniture and ceramics, Buddhist relics, treasures of Tibet.
Information for tourists
How to get there
The official address of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg: Palace Square, 2. The nearest metro station is Admiralteyskaya, from which you need to walk a little more than 100 meters to the north. The bus stop "Palace Embankment" is located to the west of Zimny. Inside the palace there are lifts for wheelchair users and elevators. You must enter the museum through the main turnstile.
Ticket prices and opening hours
A visit to the entire Hermitage complex, including the Winter Palace, costs 600 rubles, on the first Thursday of the month you can go for free. If you want to visit only the Winter Palace, then a ticket for 300 rubles will suffice. Tickets are recommended to be purchased in advance via the Internet, so as not to stand in line at the box office or at the terminal. This can be done on the official website www.hermitagemuseum.org. Children and students, Russian pensioners are a privileged category, receiving free tickets. The day off is Monday, access to tourists is open from 10:30 to 18:00, on Wednesday and Friday - until 21:00. The Winter Palace is closed on New Year's Eve and May 9th.
St. Petersburg is the northern capital of vast Russia, accustomed to surprise us with its special individuality, originality of tastes and ambition. Hundreds of magnificent sights annually attract the views of many tourists and indigenous people. One of them is the Winter Palace, which is an invaluable monument of history and architecture of the past.
Description
Like many buildings, the building is distinguished by pomp, successfully combined with the special style and handwriting of the author, which we will talk about later. The St. Petersburg Winter Palace is a cultural heritage of Russia, one of the main attractions of the country, which contains interesting historical events and facts. There are many legends and myths around the Palace, some of which can be fully justified by historical facts.
Thanks to the splendor of the building, being next to it or inside it, you can fully experience the imperial spirit and features several centuries ago. You can also enjoy magnificent architectural solutions, which to this day are considered the standard of beauty and sophistication. The design of the Winter Palace has changed more than once over these centuries, so we can observe the building not in its original form, which, however, does not make it less significant and worthy of attention, since all the main features conceived by the author of the project, Francesco Rastrelli, were carefully preserved and transferred by architects of different times. This majestic building is located on the Palace Square of the northern city and perfectly reunites with the surrounding landscape.
The history of the creation and development of the palace
The construction is made in the style called Since the times of the USSR, its territory has been equipped for the main part. In earlier times, the Winter Palace has always been the main residence of the emperors of Russia. To fully experience the greatness of this place, you need to turn to the history of its creation.
Under the government of Peter I, in 1712, according to the law, it was impossible to give land at the disposal of ordinary people. Such territories were reserved for sailors belonging to the upper class of society. The site on which the Winter Palace is located today was taken under the control of Peter I himself.
From the very beginning, the emperor built a small and cozy house here, near which a small ditch was dug closer to winter and which was given the name Winter. Actually, the further name of the palace came from this.
For many years, the Russian emperor convened various architects to reconstruct his house, and now, years later, the structure turned from an ordinary wooden house into a large stone palace.
And who built the Winter Palace? In 1735, Francesco Rastrelli was appointed the chief architect working on the building, who had the idea of buying out neighboring land plots and expanding the structure of the palace, which he told Anna Ioannovna, the ruler of Russia at that time, about.
The task assigned to the architect
It was this architect who created the image of the Winter Palace that we are all used to seeing. However, it is worth remembering that some features of the building have changed over time, but still the main ideas and works of Francesco Rastrelli have remained unchanged to this day.
The Winter Palace acquired its modern look with the advent of Elizabeth Petrovna to the imperial throne. As the ruler considered, the building does not look like a Palace worthy of Russian emperors staying in it. Therefore, a task appeared for Rastrelli - to modernize the structure and design of the structure, which is why it acquired a new look.
During the construction of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the hands of 4 thousand workers were used, many of the masters of whom Rastrelli personally invited to cooperate. Each detail, which differs from other elements of the structure, was personally thought out by the great architect and successfully implemented.
About the architecture of the building
The architectural component of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg is truly multifaceted. The great height of the structure is emphasized by weighty double columns. The chosen baroque style in itself brings notes of pomp and aristocracy. According to the plan, the Palace occupies a territory in the form of a square, which includes 4 outbuildings. The building itself is three-story, the doors of which open onto the courtyard.
The main facade of the palace is cut through by an arch, the other sides of the building are made in an exquisite style, which is expressed in Rastrelli's unique sense of taste and his unusual decisions, which can be traced everywhere. These include the extraordinary layout of the facades, differences in the design of the facades, noticeable risalite ledges, uneven construction of the columns, and the author’s special emphasis on the stepped corners of the building attracts attention.
The Winter Palace, the photo of which is presented to your attention in the article, has 1084 rooms, where in total there are 1945 window structures. According to the plan, there are 117 stairs in it. Also unusual and memorable facts include the fact that at that time it was a building with a very large, by European standards, amount of metal in the structures.
The color of the building is not uniform and is made mainly in sandy shades, which are Rastrelli's personal decision. After several reconstructions, the color scheme of the palace changed, but today the authorities of St. Petersburg have come to the conclusion that the best solution is to recreate the appearance of the palace exactly in the version that was originally conceived by the great architect.
A few words about the architect
Francesco Rastrelli was born in the capital of France in 1700. His father was a talented Italian sculptor who had no difficulty in recognizing his son as a future skilled architect. After graduating in 1716, he and his father came to live in Russia.
Until 1722, Francesco worked only as an assistant to his father, but by 1722 he was ripe for the start of an independent career, which at first did not develop very well in a country that was very inhospitable to him. Rastrelli Jr. spent 8 years traveling around Europe, where he did not work most of the time, but received new knowledge in Germany, Italy, France and other countries. By 1730, he had formed his own vision of the Baroque style, which was reflected in his most ambitious project - the Winter Palace.
The architect has repeatedly worked on the creation and reconstruction of buildings in Russia. His main work fell on the period from 1732 to 1755.
Exclusive facts about the Winter Palace
The building is the richest building in St. Petersburg, and the value of its exhibits still cannot be accurately calculated. The Winter Palace has many secrets and interesting stories, of which the following can be distinguished:
- During the war with the German invaders, the color of the palace was red. The current white and green color of the building was acquired only after the war in 1946.
- At the end of construction work, so much construction waste had accumulated in the square in front of the Palace that it could take whole weeks to clean it up. However, the king came up with an interesting idea: he allowed absolutely anyone to take any thing from these building materials left after work. The area in front of the building was cleared as soon as possible.
Fire
In 1837, all the efforts of Francesco Rastrelli and other architects practically came to naught. A terrible event happened: a considerable fire broke out in the palace due to a malfunction of the chimney, and 2 companies of specialists were called to extinguish it. For 30 hours, firefighters tried to reduce the flames by blocking windows and other openings with bricks, but this did not bring any result. The fire subsided only a day after the start of the fire, incinerating almost all the beauty of the structure. From the former palace, only walls and columns remained, which were singed under high temperatures.
Restoration work
Restoration work was started immediately and lasted 3 years. Unfortunately, the masters of that time did not have any drawings from the first buildings, so they had to turn on improvisation and come up with a new style literally on the go. As a result, the “seventh version” of the palace appeared with a predominance of light green and white shades and gilding inside.
Along with the new look, electrification also came to the palace. The largest power plant in all of Europe (considered as such for 15 years) was installed on the 2nd floor and provided electricity to the entire building.
Not only the fire knocked on the doors of the Winter Palace with bad news. So, this building at one time survived the assault, and the attempt on Alexander II, and numerous bombings of the Great Patriotic War.
For modern tourists
Today, you can walk through the halls of the Winter Palace by ordering one of the many excursions, individual or in a group. The doors of the museum are open to visitors from 10:00 to 18:00 and are closed only on Monday - an official day off.
You can buy tickets for a tour of the Winter Palace directly at the museum's box office, or by ordering them from a tour operator. They are not always available due to the high popularity of the building, especially during the tourist season. Therefore, it is better to buy tickets in advance.
"Winter Palace? - Where is the Hermitage? - Are the Hermitage and the Winter Palace one and the same? Is the Hermitage the name of the museum located in the Winter Palace? - such questions can often be heard from both Russian and foreign tourists. To figure out what's what, let's start the story about the most famous building of St. Petersburg from afar, from the moment the city was founded on the Neva ...
First Winter Palaces
For those who know the history of St. Petersburg, it is not a secret that initially Peter I did not plan the construction of the city center on Admiralteysky Island. The first buildings of St. Petersburg were erected on Petersburg Island, around the current Trinity Square. Then, the tsar hatched plans to build a city center in Kronstadt, on Vasilyevsky Island, but not on the left bank of the Neva. The emergence of the current historical center was facilitated by chance, or rather royal passion. Peter I liked to work as a hatchet. And not only personally cut off the heads of the disgruntled, but also build ships.
After the founding of the Main Admiralty in 1705-1706, the sovereign builder of St. Petersburg faced a problem well known to many inhabitants of our sleeping areas. It was difficult and long to get from Petersburg Island to the Admiralty, even taking into account the absence of traffic jams at that time. So the sovereign wished to have housing near the place of work. In 1708, on the site between the Neva and the current Millionnaya Street, a wooden two-story "Winter House" was built for Peter. This building was located on the site of the current Hermitage Theater, and it is considered to be the first Winter Palace.
Now Peter has the opportunity to run to the shipyard every morning. Soon around the royal
chambers, houses of the sovereign's servants and hangers-on appeared, and the "industrial outskirts" suddenly became the political and aristocratic center of St. Petersburg.
In 1712, the "Winter House" was expanded by adding the so-called "Wedding Chambers" to it, but Peter Alekseevich, who settled down in a new place, began to think about a more representative residence. In 1716, according to the project of the architect Georg Mattarnovi, the construction of a new Winter Palace began, located on the site of the previous building. In the future, the researchers noted the successful choice of a place for the main royal residence: “... the palace is located so that most of the city, the fortress, the house of Prince Menshikov and, in particular, the open sea is visible from it”
The construction of Peter's Winter Palace was completed in 1723. This event was celebrated with a solemn feast, but Peter I did not live long in the new building. On January 28, 1725, the emperor died in the Great Hall of the Winter Palace from the effects of untreated gonorrhea.
Second Winter Palace of Peter I
After the death of Peter, his widow, Catherine I, lived in the Winter Palace for some time. Under Anna Ioannovna, the court settled in the neighboring mansion of Apraksin, located on the site of the current Winter Palace. Petrovsky "Winter House" was used by various palace services, and then was abandoned. Under Catherine II, the building of the Hermitage Theater was built in its place.
In the 1970s-1980s, Leningrad scientists discovered to their surprise that many elements of the Petrovsky Winter Palace have survived to this day. The architect Giacomo Quarneghi, who erected the theater building, used the walls and load-bearing structures of the old building, thanks to which today we can see the premises where Peter I spent the last two years of his life. Today they have been partially restored and tours are held in them.
Under Empress Anna Ioannovna, on the site of the houses of Apraksin, Chernyshev, Raguzinsky and the Naval Academy, the construction of a new Winter Palace, the third in a row, began. Work continued from 1732 to 1735. The new four-story building had about 70 ceremonial halls, more than 100 bedrooms, a theater, a chapel, an office, service and guard rooms.
Winter Palace of Anna Ioannovna
In the future, this Winter Palace was rebuilt and completed more than once, until Empress Elizaveta Petrovna discovered that the palace began to resemble not a front residence, designed to demonstrate the power of the Russian state, but a chicken coop. The appearance of the building was spoiled by countless stables, technical outbuildings and sheds, built mainly from the side of the Admiralteysky Meadow (the current Palace Square). The question arose again of rebuilding the palace, but then it turned out that it would be easier to demolish the old building and build a new palace in its place. The corresponding decree was signed by Elizaveta Petrovna on June 16, 1754:
“Because in St. Petersburg, our Winter Palace is not only for the reception of foreign ministers and the departure at the Court on the appointed days of festive rites, in the greatness of our imperial dignity, but also to accommodate us with the necessary servants and things cannot be satisfied, for which we they set out to rebuild our Winter Palace with a large space in length, width and height, for which the restructuring, according to the estimate, will require up to 900,000 rubles, which amount, spread over two years, it is impossible to take from our salt money. For this, we order our Senate to find and present to us from what income it is possible to take such an amount of 430 or 450 thousand rubles a year for that matter, counting from the beginning of this 1754 and the next 1755, and that this should be done immediately, so as not to miss the current winter way to prepare supplies for that building ... "
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, (1750-1760s)
Palace construction
The construction of the new Winter Palace was supervised by the court architect of Elizabeth Petrovna Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The architect understood that he was given a task of great political importance and began to zealously justify the high trust placed in him, because the palace was being built "for the united glory of all Russia."
According to the plan of the master, the Winter Palace was supposed to be a huge quadrangle with a courtyard. The facade and interiors were designed in the Baroque style, the unsurpassed master of which was Russterley. Each of the facades of the palace was individual. The main facade was considered to be the South, facing the Palace Square. He was the most magnificent. In its center were three arches leading to the front yard. The facade overlooking the Neva resembled an endless colonnade. The western facade also had a grand appearance, overlooking Razvodnaya Square, where Rasterly planned to erect a monument to Peter I, the work of his father, Carlo Bartolomeo.
Inside the Winter Palace, according to the Rasterly project, it was supposed to arrange 1050 front and living rooms with an area of 46 thousand square meters, 1945 windows, 1786 doors, 117 stairs, 329 chimneys.
The Winter Palace was conceived as the architectural dominant of the center of St. Petersburg and the tallest secular building in the city. Prior to the decree of Nicholas I, the construction of buildings higher than the Winter Palace in the center of the Northern capital was prohibited. The whole system of external decoration, columns installed in two rows, statues, was designed to emphasize the huge (four-story!) height of the building.
About four thousand people worked on the construction of the Winter Palace, including the best craftsmen from all over Russia. The territory of the current Palace Square and the Alexander Garden was covered with huts in which workers lived. The yard also had to change its place of residence. For him, Rastrelli built a temporary wooden Winter Palace, located on the site of the modern Chicherin house, at the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the Moika River.
Elizaveta Petrovna really wanted to move to a new residence as soon as possible, but this did not happen. On January 25, 1761, the Empress died. And on April 6, 1762, the court moved to the Winter Palace built by Rasterli. The legend says that after the completion of the work, the Palace Square was a garbage dump. The cunning police general of St. Petersburg, Baron N.A. Korf proposed to announce through the heralds that every citizen is free to take everything he needs from the place of the former construction site. The next day, in front of the Winter Palace, it was possible to iron clothes ... Poor Petersburgers even stole heaps of lime.
The Winter Palace becomes the Winter Palace
Before the fresh lime that covered the walls of the Winter Palace had dried, they began to rebuild the building. The new Empress Catherine II, who ascended the throne after the short but memorable reign of Peter III, was not a fan of the Baroque. Rastrelli was forced to resign and leave St. Petersburg, and a new team of architects was invited to rebuild the Winter Palace: Yu.M. Felten, J.B. Vallin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi.
The interiors of the palace conceived by Rastrelli were almost completely destroyed. Today, only the magnificent Jordan Stairs have survived from them, along which thousands of tourists pass every day, going to inspect the treasures of the State Hermitage. In place of the old Throne Hall and the theater, a new Neva enfilade arose, which included the Anteroom, the Bolshoi and the Concert Halls.
The true decoration of the palace was the Great Throne or St. George Hall created by Giacomo Quarnegi. Its central object was a large throne made by P. Azhi. Colored marble and gilded bronze were used to decorate the interior of this main front hall of the Winter Palace.
Under Catherine II, the Winter Palace became the center of the social and cultural life of Northern Palmyra, a venue for pompous court festivities and balls.
The Englishman W. Cox, who attended a ball in the Winter Palace in 1778, described what he saw in the following words: “The wealth and splendor of the Russian court surpass the most pretentious descriptions. Traces of ancient Asian splendor are mixed with European sophistication..., the brilliance of court attire and an abundance of precious stones leave behind the splendor of other European states.” About eight thousand people attended the ball. True, this crowd of nobles, wealthy merchants and respected artisans did not mix with the aristocrats who danced behind the low barrier that separated the courtiers from other guests.
Work on the design of the Winter Palace continued in subsequent reigns. With the exception of Paul I, who preferred the Mikhailovsky Castle to the Winter Palace, each emperor sought to add something of his own to the decoration of the main palace of the Russian Empire.
Particularly large-scale work was carried out after 1812, when it became necessary to demonstrate to the whole world the new status of Russia - the winner of Napoleon, the leader of united Europe in the struggle for the bright ideals of consecrated absolutism.
Military gallery of the Winter Palace. G.G. Chernetsov
In 1826, Karl Rossi arranged a Military Gallery in front of the St. George Hall, the walls of which were decorated with 330 portraits of generals who participated in the Patriotic War of 1812. The paintings for this room were painted by the English artist D. Dow. It was to her that A.S. Pushkin dedicated his lines:
The Russian tsar has a chamber in his halls:
She is not rich in gold, not in velvet ...
Crowd close artist placed
Here the chiefs of our people's forces,
Covered with the glory of a wonderful campaign
And the eternal memory of the twelfth year.
Auguste Montferan also took part in the reconstruction of the Winter Palace. He built the staircase of the empress' entrance, decorating it with high reliefs, statues and columns, decorated the Field Marshal's, Petrovsky's and Armorial Halls. V.A. Zhukovsky enthusiastically wrote to the royal residence:
“The Winter Palace as a building, as a royal dwelling, perhaps, did not have anything like it in the whole of Europe. With its vastness, with its architecture, it depicted a powerful people that had so recently entered the environment of educated nations, and with its inner splendor it reminded of that inexhaustible life that boils in the interior of Russia ... The Winter Palace was for us the representative of everything domestic, Russian, ours ... "
But what about the Hermitage?
A tourist who has visited the suburbs of St. Petersburg will easily find that Pushkin and Peterhof have their own “Hermitage”. This word translated from French means "Secluded corner". Nobles and kings of the 18th century liked to set up secluded pavilions in their gardens and parks for intimate pastime. And Catherine II arranged her "secluded corner" right in the center of St. Petersburg.
For this purpose, in 1764-1775, a building was added to the Winter Palace, which is known today as the Small Hermitage. In it, Catherine II spent time with a select audience in an informal setting. Outsiders were not allowed into the Hermitage. Even the tables in this room were laid in advance, after which the servants left the "secluded corner" and left.
On the whole, the atmosphere of the Hermitage was reminiscent of modern corporate parties. Formally, the guests left their ranks and conventions at the door. Those who spoke nonsense had to drink a glass of cold water or read a page from Tredyakovsky's Telemachiad.
In order for evenings in the Hermitage to become a cultural pastime, Catherine II decided to decorate the premises with a proper collection of paintings. The Hermitage collection began in 1764, when the German merchant Gotskovsky gave Russia his collection of 225 paintings as a debt. The Empress also ordered that all valuable works of art that appeared at auctions be bought abroad.
Works by Rubens and Van Dyck were bought in England. Russian ambassador in Paris, Count D.A. Golitsyn, thanks to his connections with D. Diderot and other representatives of French culture, was able to acquire such world-famous masterpieces as Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, two Danae by Titian and Rembrandt, Rubens' Bacchus, Giorgione's Judith, etc.
By the end of the reign of Catherine II, the Hermitage collection of paintings amounted to four thousand canvases. The Small Hermitage no longer contained all the masterpieces. For the collection had to build a special building called the Old Hermitage.
The Hermitage received not only paintings. Catherine's agents also bought engravings, drawings, ancient antiquities, works of arts and crafts, ancient coins, weapons, medals and books.
The tradition of replenishing the Hermitage collection continued into the 19th century. Under Alexander I, paintings by Rembrandt and Rubens "Descent from the Cross", "Potter's Farm", paintings by Claude Lorrain, "A Glass of Lemonade" by Terborch and "Breakfast" by Metsu were acquired. During this period, the Hermitage was gradually transformed from a personal collection of paintings by the emperor into a museum. True, it was by no means a public gallery. To visit the Hermitage, you need to take a special pass signed by the head of the court office. Even A.S. Pushkin received such a document only thanks to the patronage of the educator of the royal children V.A. Zhukovsky.
Interiors of the New Hermitage on a watercolor by K. Ukhtomsky, 1856
An important turning point in the "democratization" of access to the Hermitage was the construction of the New Hermitage building, which was completed in 1856. It was the first purpose-built museum building in Russia. Already in 1852, the exposition of the New Hermitage received its first visitors, and in 1866 access to the museum became open and ... free. The cost of tickets was compensated by the Ministry of the Imperial Court. Of course, only “European-style” dressed people were allowed inside, which in itself closed access for representatives of the poor strata of society.
After the revolution, the Hermitage Museum received valuable acquisitions, but at the same time suffered serious losses. Values expropriated from private collections of Russian aristocrats and industrialists were brought to the main museum of the country. At the same time, in the late 1920s, some of the Hermitage paintings were sold abroad to finance industrialization. And the collection of paintings of Russian painting was transferred to the Russian Museum.
In the 1920s, the concepts of the Hermitage and the Winter Palace gradually became a single whole, since the museum received almost all the premises of the former royal residence to house its expositions.
After the Great Patriotic War, the collections and storerooms of the Hermitage were replenished with trophy works of art taken out of Germany as compensation for the masterpieces destroyed by the Nazi troops in Russia.
The legend of the gunsmith Tarasyuk
There are many interesting tales about the Winter Palace. The most banal of them are stories about the ghosts of Peter I, Nicholas I and Nicholas II, who regularly walk through the night halls of the Hermitage. There are legends about the underground passages of the Hermitage, which lead either to the Manege or to the Marble Palace.
Of all these legends, only one story is distinguished by its original content and dramatic plot. Allegedly in the early 80s, the First Secretary of the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU Grigory Romanov, a fierce enemy of the freedom-loving intelligentsia, decided to celebrate his daughter's wedding in the Tauride Palace. For this, the satrap demanded that the leadership of the Hermitage give him Catherine II's ceremonial service for one hundred and forty-four persons. The director of the Hermitage, Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky, said that the service could only be taken over his corpse, but when the KGB leadership said that this could be arranged in principle, Boris Borisovich went home and told the sick.
Employees of the city committee went to the Hermitage for a service, and only one person stood in their way. It was an employee of the museum Tarasyuk. Dressed in medieval armor, he picked up a sword and menacingly moved towards the uninvited guests. The cowardly agents of tyranny retreated in panic, but then one extremely sad event happened for all honest museologists. Just at this time, at night, vicious dogs were released into the halls of the Hermitage. Tarasyuk was an expert on weapons, but the armor he wore was designed for riding. When the scientist was already triumphant, the vicious dogs dug into his most vulnerable spot, unprotected by armor... Tarasyuk lost his courage, and the jubilant city committee took away the service.
The further fate of the masterpiece was sad. When they shouted “Bitter!” at the wedding, the partocrats began to beat the precious dishes on the floor ... However, Romanov did not get away with it. Because of this story, he was not made General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, instead of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Tarasyuk was fired from the Hermitage and went to Israel, where his traces were lost.
Fire in the Winter Palace K.Zh. Vernet
From fire to war
A symbolic milestone in the history of the Winter Palace was the catastrophic fire of 1837. Later, the cause of the fire was said to be "a vent left unsealed during the last alteration of the large Field Marshal's Hall"; the air vent "was located in the chimney, held between the choirs and the wooden vault of the hall of Peter the Great, located side by side with the Field Marshal's, and adjoined very close to the boards of the rear partition. On the day of the accident, it was thrown out of the chimney, after which the flame communicated through this air vent to the boards of the choirs and the vault of the hall of Peter the Great; he was provided with plentiful food in this place by wooden partitions; on them the fire passed to the rafters. These huge rafters and supports, dried for 80 years in hot air under an iron roof incandescent heat in summer, ignited instantly.
The smell of smoke was noticed on the morning of December 17, but since no one could find the source of the fire for a long time, the necessary measures were postponed until the evening. By that time, the internal ceilings of the Winter Palace were already burning with might and main, and when the firemen broke down the walls, the flame burst out ...
The Winter Palace burned for three days. During this time, all of its interiors burned out. It was one of the largest fires in the history of St. Petersburg. The glow from the fire was visible for several kilometers from the city. Only the heroic efforts of the soldiers and servants managed to save almost the entire palace furnishings and paintings. They were taken out into the street and stacked at the Alexander Column.
Immediately after the disaster, repair work began in the Winter Palace, led by architects V.P. Stasov and A.P. Bryullov. Emperor Nicholas I ordered them to "restore to their original form" all the interiors of the palace. We note right away that the architects did an excellent job with the responsible government task. The appearance of the former Winter Palace was revived in just two years.
In some halls, with the consent of the sovereign, changes were nevertheless made. So the Stasov Armorial Hall was enlarged to a thousand square meters and seriously changed its decoration.
After this repair, the ceremonial interiors of the Winter Palace have survived to this day without significant changes. This truth cannot be said about the living quarters of the palace. Only the Alexander and White halls, the stairs of the entrance of "Her Imperial Majesty", the Rotunda, the Arapsky and Malachite halls have survived to us in the form in which A.P. conceived them. Bryullov. Other living rooms of the palace were repeatedly rebuilt in accordance with the tastes of their owners. Of course, one cannot speak of any artistic unity here, although the interiors of some private chambers are very interesting in themselves. Among them, it is worth noting the "Red Boudoir" of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the "Golden Living Room" created by V.A. Schreiber and the personal library of Nicholas II (author A.F. Krasovsky).
Until the revolution, the Winter Palace continued to function as a platform for the most important political events of Tsarist Russia. Receptions of foreign ambassadors, solemn balls, receptions of loyal subjects of delegations, opening ceremonies of the State Duma were held here. In a difficult or solemn moment, crowds of loyal subjects rushed to this building. On January 9, 1905, columns of St. Petersburg workers moved to the Winter Palace, to the tsar, asking for mercy and intercession. Unfortunately, the dialogue between the authorities and the people did not work out that day ... But on August 1, 1914, a column of patriotic intelligentsia nevertheless reached Palace Square and fell to its knees in front of the adored monarch, who appeared on the balcony of the Winter Palace.
In the 19th century, once a year, the doors of the Winter Palace were thrown open for the residents of the capital. On January 1, a New Year's masquerade was held in it. Moreover, not only nobles could come to the royal house, but also “merchants, philistines, shopkeepers, artisans of all kinds, even simple bearded peasants and serfs, decently dressed. All this crowded and pushed along with the first ranks of the court, representatives of diplomacy and high society. Dressed up ladies, in diamonds and pearls, military and civilian star-bearers, and interspersed with tailcoats, frock coats and caftans. The sovereign and the royal family, with a large retinue, walking from one hall to another, sometimes with difficulty could pass through the crowd. For many, this was a wonderful opportunity to refresh themselves: “In the halls there were many sideboards with gold and silver dishes, with all kinds of soft drinks, excellent wines, beer, honey, kvass, with an abundance of all kinds of food from the most refined to the most common ... The crowd around the sideboards replaced by a crowd as they emptied and refilled. At such annual holidays, sometimes from 25 to 30 thousand people came to the Winter Palace. Foreigners could not marvel at the order and decency of the crowd, and the credulity of the sovereign towards his subjects, who crowded around him with love, devotion and a sense of complacency for 5 or 6 hours. Not the slightest etiquette was observed here, at the same time, no one abused proximity to the royal person.
But as a royal residence, the Winter Palace was used less and less. It turned out that in the new historical realities, the huge building does not meet safety requirements well. And not just fire fighting. On February 5, 1880, Stepan Khalturin, a Narodnaya Volya member, carrying 30 kilograms of dynamite into the Winter Palace, set off an explosion under the dining room where Emperor Alexander II was supposed to dine. The sovereign was miraculously unharmed. 11 soldiers of the Finnish Life Guards Regiment were killed.
After the Narodnaya Volya nevertheless killed Alexander II in 1881, the new tsar, Alexander III, preferred to live in the safe Gatchina, and visit the Winter Palace on a rotational basis. Only when Nicholas II ascended the throne, the august family again returned to the banks of the Neva. True, after the start of the 1905 revolution, the Winter Palace looked more like a fortified camp. In addition to the tsar, some key figures of the regime also lived in it - for example, Prime Minister Stolypin. Only there they could feel safe. Nicholas II himself, following the example of his father, spent more and more time in Pushkin's Alexander Palace.
With the outbreak of the First World War, life in the Winter Palace underwent new changes. The imperial family appeared in the old walls less and less. In 1915, a number of palace halls were assigned to the hospital.
Winter Palace in the 20th century
After the February Revolution of 1917, the Extraordinary Commission of the Provisional Government to investigate the crimes of tsarism worked for some time in the premises of the Winter Palace, and from the summer of 1917, the Provisional Government itself "moved" into the former royal chambers. Newspapers wrote malicious articles about A.F. Kerensky blissful in the bed of Nicholas II. All palace valuables and collections of the Hermitage were sent to Moscow and hidden in the building of the Historical Museum.
On the night of October 25-26, 1917, the Winter Palace became the scene of historical events. The forces of the military revolutionary committee, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, after a series of short skirmishes, seized the former royal residence and arrested the ministers of the Provisional Government. The tabloid press was filled with chilling articles about the destruction of palace interiors by wild crowds of workers and peasants and the sad fate of the female shock battalion, whose fighters were in for a fate worse than death. True, it should be noted that the scientific literature does not confirm this information.
Three days after the arrest of the Provisional Government, the new Soviet authorities took the Winter Palace under protection as a cultural monument. However, at first it was used for a variety of purposes. The Museum of the Revolution, and the reception center for prisoners of war of the old army, and the headquarters for arranging mass celebrations, and even a cinema, operated in a huge building. Only from 1922 did all the premises of the Winter Palace begin to be gradually transferred to the Hermitage.
At the same time, work began on the redevelopment of the former living and service rooms of the Hermitage. On the first floor, the Rastrelli Gallery was restored, instead of 65 rooms of the maid of honor, 17 original rooms were recreated.
Vegetable gardens on the territory of the Winter Palace during the blockade
During the Great Patriotic War, the Winter Palace was seriously damaged. German bombs and shells damaged the Jordan Stairs, the Small Throne (Petrovsky) Hall, and the Armorial Hall. The restoration of these objects took a long time after the war. The most valuable exhibits were evacuated to Sverdlovsk. In the courtyard of the Winter Palace, a vegetable garden was laid out where vegetables were grown.
In subsequent decades, the Winter Palace-Hermitage became one of the largest museums in the world. It houses up to three million unique works of art. Every year the Winter Palace is visited by millions of tourists and Petersburgers.
6The Winter Palace is the largest palace building in St. Petersburg. Its dimensions and magnificent decoration make it possible to classify it with full right among the most striking monuments of the St. Petersburg baroque. “The Winter Palace as a building, as a royal dwelling, perhaps has nothing like it in the whole of Europe. With its vastness, with its architecture, it depicts a powerful people that has so recently entered the environment of educated nations, and with its inner splendor it reminds of that inexhaustible life that boils in the interior of Russia ... The Winter Palace for us is a representative of everything domestic, Russian, ours, ” - this is how V. A. Zhukovsky wrote about the Winter Palace. The history of this architectural monument is rich in turbulent historical events.
At the beginning of the 18th century, in the place where the Winter Palace now stands, only naval officials were allowed to build. Peter I took advantage of this right, being a ship's master under the name of Peter Alekseev, and in 1708 he built a small house in the Dutch style for himself and his family. Ten years later, on the orders of the future emperor, a canal was dug in front of the side facade of the palace, called (after the palace) the Winter Canal.
In 1711, specifically for the wedding of Peter I and Catherine, the architect Georg Mattarnovi, by order of the tsar, set about rebuilding the wooden palace into a stone one. In the process, the architect Mattarnovi was removed from business and the construction was headed by Domenico Trezzini, an Italian architect of Swiss origin. In 1720, Peter I and his entire family moved from their summer residence to their winter residence. In 1723, the Senate was transferred to the Winter Palace. And in January 1725, Peter I died here (in the room on the first floor behind the current second window, counting from the Neva).
Subsequently, Empress Anna Ioannovna considered the Winter Palace too small and in 1731 entrusted its reconstruction to F. B. Rastrelli, who offered her his project for the reconstruction of the Winter Palace. According to his project, it was necessary to purchase the houses that stood at that time on the site occupied by the current palace and belonged to Count Apraksin, the Naval Academy, Raguzinsky and Chernyshev. Anna Ioanovna approved the project, the houses were bought up, demolished, and the work began to boil. In 1735, the construction of the palace was completed, and the empress moved into it to live. Here, on July 2, 1739, Princess Anna Leopoldovna was betrothed to Prince Anton-Urich. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the young emperor John Antonovich was brought here, who stayed here until November 25, 1741, when Elizaveta Petrovna took power into her own hands.
Elizaveta Petrovna also wished to remake the imperial residence to her taste. On January 1, 1752, she decided to expand the Winter Palace, after which the neighboring plots of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky were bought out. At the new location, Rastrelli built new buildings. According to the project he drew up, these buildings were to be attached to the existing ones and be decorated with them in the same style. In December 1752, the Empress wished to increase the height of the Winter Palace from 14 to 22 meters. Rastrelli was forced to redo the design of the building, after which he decided to build it in a new location. But Elizaveta Petrovna refused to move the new Winter Palace. As a result, the architect decided to rebuild the entire building. The new project - the next building of the Winter Palace - was signed by Elizaveta Petrovna on June 16, 1754.
Construction lasted eight long years, which fell on the decline of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and the short reign of Peter III.
The story of the arrival at the palace of Peter III is curious. After the death of Elizabeth, 15 thousand dresses, many thousands of shoes and stockings remained in her wardrobe, and only six silver rubles turned out to be in the state treasury. Peter III, who replaced Elizabeth on the throne, wished to immediately move into his new residence. But the Palace Square was cluttered with piles of bricks, boards, logs, barrels of lime and similar building debris. The capricious temper of the new sovereign was known, and the chief police chief found a way out: it was announced in St. Petersburg that all the townsfolk have the right to take whatever they please on Palace Square. A contemporary (A. Bolotov) writes in his memoirs that almost all of St. Petersburg with wheelbarrows, wagons, and some with sledges (despite the proximity of Easter!) ran to Palace Square. Clouds of sand and dust rose above her. The townsfolk grabbed everything: boards, bricks, clay, lime, and barrels... By evening, the area was completely cleared. Nothing interfered with the solemn entry of Peter III into the Winter Palace.
In the summer of 1762, Peter III was overthrown from the throne. The construction of the Winter Palace was already completed under Catherine II. In the autumn of 1763, the empress returned from Moscow to St. Petersburg after the coronation celebrations and became the sovereign mistress of the new palace.
First of all, Catherine removed Rastrelli from work, and Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy, the illegitimate son of Field Marshal Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy and personal secretary of Catherine II, became the manager at the construction site. The empress moved the chambers to the southwestern part of the palace, under her rooms she ordered to place the chambers of her favorite G. G. Orlov.
From the side of the Palace Square, the Throne Hall was equipped, in front of it a waiting room appeared - the White Hall. A dining room was placed behind the White Hall. The Light Room adjoined it. The dining room was followed by the Front Bedchamber, which a year later became the Diamond Chamber. In addition, the Empress ordered to equip a library, an office, a boudoir, two bedrooms and a lavatory for herself. Under Catherine, a winter garden and the Romanov Gallery were also built in the Winter Palace. At the same time, the formation of St. George's Hall was completed. In 1764, in Berlin, through agents, Catherine purchased a collection of 225 works by Dutch and Flemish artists from the merchant I. Gotskovsky. Most of the paintings were placed in secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name "Hermitage" ("place of solitude").
Built by Elizabeth, the fourth, now existing palace was conceived and implemented in the form of a closed quadrangle with a vast courtyard. Its facades face the Neva, towards the Admiralty and the square, in the center of which F. B. Rastrelli planned to place an equestrian statue of Peter I.
The facades of the palace are divided by the entablature into two tiers. They are decorated with Ionic and Composite columns. The columns of the upper tier unite the second, front, and third floors.
The complex rhythm of the columns, the richness and variety of forms of architraves, the abundance of stucco details, the many decorative vases and statues located above the parapet and above the numerous pediments create the decorative decoration of the building, exceptional in its splendor and magnificence.
The southern facade is cut through by three entrance arches, which emphasizes its importance as the main one. The entrance arches lead to the main courtyard, where the main entrance to the palace was located in the center of the northern building.
The main Jordan Staircase is located in the northeast corner of the building. On the second floor along the northern facade there were five large halls, the so-called "anti-chambers", enfilade, behind them - a huge Throne Hall, and in the southwestern part - the palace theater.
Despite the fact that the Winter Palace was completed in 1762, for a long time, work was still being done on the interior decoration. These works were entrusted to the best Russian architects Yu. M. Felten, J. B. Ballin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi.
In the 1780s-1790s, I.E. Starov and G. Quarenghi continued the work on altering the interior decoration of the palace. In general, the palace was remodeled and rebuilt an incredible number of times. Each new architect tried to bring something of his own, sometimes destroying what had already been built.
Galleries with arches ran along the entire lower floor. Galleries connected all parts of the palace. The rooms on the sides of the galleries were of a service nature. There were pantries, a guardroom, employees of the palace lived.
The ceremonial halls and living quarters of members of the imperial family were located on the second floor and were built in the Russian Baroque style - huge halls flooded with light, double rows of large windows and mirrors, lush rococo decor. The apartments of the courtiers were mainly located on the upper floor.
The palace was also destroyed. For example, on December 17-19, 1837, there was a strong fire that completely destroyed the beautiful decoration of the Winter Palace, from which only a charred skeleton remained. They could not extinguish the flame for three days, all this time the property taken out of the palace was piled around the Alexander Column. As a result of the disaster, the interiors of Rastrelli, Quarenghi, Montferrand, Rossi were lost. Restoration work started immediately and lasted two years. They were led by architects V.P. Stasov and A.P. Bryullov. According to the order of Nicholas I, the palace was to be restored the same as it was before the fire. However, not everything was so easy to do, for example, only some interiors, created or restored after the fire of 1837 by A.P. Bryullov, have come down to us in their original form.
On February 5, 1880, S. N. Khalturin, a Narodnaya Volya member, made an explosion in the Winter Palace in order to assassinate Alexander II. At the same time, eight soldiers from the guard were killed and forty-five wounded, but neither the emperor nor members of his family were injured.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the interior design was constantly changing and replenished with new elements. These, in particular, are the interiors of the chambers of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II, created according to the designs of G. A. Bosse (Red Boudoir) and V. A. Schreiber (Golden Living Room), as well as the library of Nicholas II (author A. F. Krasovsky). Among the renovated interiors, the most interesting was the decoration of the Nicholas Hall, which contained a large equestrian portrait of Emperor Nicholas I by the artist F. Kruger.
For a long time the Winter Palace was the residence of Russian emperors. After the assassination of Alexander II by terrorists, Emperor Alexander III moved his residence to Gatchina. From that moment on, only especially solemn ceremonies were held in the Winter Palace. With the accession to the throne of Nicholas II in 1894, the imperial family returned to the palace again.
The most significant changes in the history of the Winter Palace took place in 1917, along with the coming of the Bolsheviks to power. A lot of valuables were stolen and damaged by sailors and workers while the palace was under their control. A direct hit by a shell fired from a cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress damaged the former quarters of Alexander III. Only a few days later, the Soviet government declared the Winter Palace and the Hermitage to be state museums and took the buildings under protection. Soon the valuable property of the palace and the collections of the Hermitage were sent to Moscow and hidden in the Kremlin and in the building of the Historical Museum.
An interesting story is connected with the October Revolution in the Winter Palace: after the storming of the palace, the Red Guard, who was instructed to set up guards to guard the Winter Palace, decided to get acquainted with the arrangement of guards in pre-revolutionary times. He was surprised to learn that one of the posts had long been located on an unremarkable alley of the palace garden (the royal family called it "Own" and under this name the garden was known to Petersburgers). An inquisitive Red Guard figured out the history of this post. It turned out that somehow Tsarina Catherine II, having gone out in the morning to the Adjustable platform, saw a sprouted flower there. So that soldiers and passersby would not trample it, Catherine, returning from a walk, ordered a guard to be placed at the flower. And when the flower withered, the queen forgot to cancel her order about the stay of the guard at this place. And since then, for about a hundred and fifty years, a guard stood at this place, although there was no longer a flower, no Empress Catherine, or even a Adjustable platform.
In 1918, part of the premises of the Winter Palace was given over to the Museum of the Revolution, which led to the reorganization of their interiors. The Romanov Gallery was completely liquidated, in which there were portraits of sovereigns and members of the Romanov dynasty. Many chambers of the palace were occupied by a reception center for prisoners of war, a children's colony, a headquarters for arranging mass celebrations, etc. The armorial hall was used for theatrical performances, the Nikolaevsky hall was converted into a cinema. In addition, congresses and conferences of various public organizations were repeatedly held in the halls of the palace.
When the Hermitage and Palace collections returned from Moscow to Petrograd at the end of 1920, there was simply no place for many of them. As a result, hundreds of paintings and sculptures were used to decorate the mansions and apartments of party, Soviet and military leaders, holiday homes for officials and their families. Since 1922, the premises of the Winter Palace began to be gradually transferred to the Hermitage.
In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, many valuables of the Hermitage were urgently evacuated, some of them were hidden in the cellars. To prevent fires in the museum buildings, the windows were bricked up or closed with shutters. In some rooms, the parquets were covered with a layer of sand.
The Winter Palace was a big target. A large number of bombs and shells exploded near him, and several hit the building itself. So, on December 29, 1941, a shell crashed into the southern wing of the Winter Palace overlooking the kitchen yard, damaging the iron rafters and roofing over an area of three hundred square meters, destroying the fire-fighting water supply installation located in the attic. The attic vaulted ceiling with an area of about six square meters was broken through. Another shell that hit the podium in front of the Winter Palace damaged the water main.
Despite the difficult conditions that existed in the besieged city, on May 4, 1942, the Leningrad City Executive Committee ordered construction trust No. 16 to carry out priority restoration work in the Hermitage, in which emergency repair workshops took part. In the summer of 1942, they blocked the roof in places where it was damaged by shells, partially repaired the formwork, installed broken skylights or iron sheets, replaced the destroyed metal rafters with temporary wooden ones, and repaired the plumbing system.
On May 12, 1943, a bomb hit the building of the Winter Palace, partially destroying the roof over the St. George Hall and metal truss structures, and damaging the brickwork of the wall in the pantry of the Department of the History of Russian Culture. In the summer of 1943, despite the shelling, they continued to seal the roof and ceilings with tarred plywood, skylights. On January 2, 1944, another shell hit the Armorial Hall, severely damaging the finish and destroying two ceilings. The shell also pierced the ceiling of the Nicholas Hall. But already in August 1944, the Soviet government decided to restore all the buildings of the museum. Restoration work required huge efforts and stretched out for many years. But, despite all the losses, the Winter Palace remains an outstanding monument of baroque architecture.
Today, the Winter Palace, together with the buildings of the Small, Large and New Hermitages and the Hermitage Theater, forms a single palace complex, which has few equals in world architecture. In terms of art and town planning, it belongs to the highest achievements of Russian architecture. All the halls of this palace ensemble, built over many years, are occupied by the State Hermitage Museum - the largest museum in the world, which has huge collections of works of art.
In the guise of the Winter Palace, created, as the decree on its construction, was created "for the united glory of all Russia", in its elegant, festive form, in the magnificent decoration of its facades, the artistic and compositional concept of the architect Rastrelli is revealed - a deep architectural connection with the city on the Neva, which became the capital of the Russian Empire, with all the character of the surrounding urban landscape, preserved to this day.
Palace Square
Any tour of the Winter Palace begins on Palace Square. It has its own history, which is no less interesting than the history of the Winter Palace itself. The square was formed in 1754 during the construction of the Winter Palace designed by V. Rastrelli. An important role in its formation was played by K. I. Rossi, who in 1819-1829 created the building of the General Staff and the building of the Ministry and connected them into a single whole with a magnificent Arc de Triomphe. The Alexander Column took its place in the Palace Square ensemble in 1830-1834, in honor of the victory in the War of 1812. It is noteworthy that V. Rastrelli intended to place a monument to Peter I in the center of the square. The building of the Headquarters of the Guards Corps, created in 1837-1843 by architect A.P. Bryullov, completes the Palace Square ensemble.
The palace was conceived and built in the form of a closed quadrangle, with a vast courtyard. The Winter Palace is rather large and clearly stands out from the surrounding houses.
Countless white columns now gather in groups (especially picturesque and expressive at the corners of the building), then thin out and part, opening windows framed with platbands with lion masks and cupids' heads. There are dozens of decorative vases and statues on the balustrade. The corners of the building are lined with columns and pilasters.
Each facade of the Winter Palace is made in its own way. The northern façade, facing the Neva, stretches like a more or less even wall, without noticeable ledges. The southern façade, overlooking the Palace Square and having seven articulations, is the main one. Its center is cut by three entrance arches. Behind them is the front yard? where in the middle of the northern building used to be the main entrance to the palace. Of the side facades, the western one is more interesting, facing the Admiralty and the square, on which Rastrelli planned to place the equestrian statue of Peter I cast by his father. Each architraves decorating the palace is unique. This is due to the fact that the mass, consisting of a mixture of crushed bricks and lime mortar, was cut and processed by hand. All stucco decorations of the facades were made on the spot.
The Winter Palace was always painted in bright colors. The original color of the palace was pink-yellow, as evidenced by the drawings of the 18th - the first quarter of the 19th century.
From the interior of the palace, created by Rastrelli, the Jordan Staircase and partly the Great Church have preserved the baroque appearance. The front staircase is located in the northeast corner of the building. On it you can see various details of the decor - columns, mirrors, statues, intricate gilded stucco, a huge ceiling created by Italian painters. Divided into two solemn marches, the stairs led to the main, Northern enfilade, which consisted of five large halls, behind which there was a huge Throne Hall in the northwestern risalit, and the Palace Theater in the southwestern part.
The Great Church, located in the southeast corner of the building, also deserves special attention. Initially, the church was consecrated in honor of the Resurrection of Christ (1762) and again - in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands (1763). Its walls are decorated with stucco - an elegant pattern of floral ornament. The three-tiered iconostasis is decorated with icons and picturesque panels depicting biblical scenes. Evangelists on the vaults of the ceiling were later painted by F.A. Bruni. Now nothing reminds of the former purpose of the church hall, ruined in the 1920s, except for the golden dome and the large pictorial ceiling by F. Fonte-basso, depicting the Resurrection of Christ.
white hall
It was created by A.P. Bryullov on the site of a number of rooms that had three semicircular windows along the facade in the center, and three rectangular windows on the sides. This circumstance led the architect to the idea of dividing the room into three compartments and highlighting the middle one with especially magnificent processing. The hall is separated from the side parts by arches on protruding pylons, decorated with pilasters, and the central window and the opposite door are underlined by Corinthian columns, above which are placed four statues - female figures, personifying the arts. The hall is covered with semicircular vaults. The wall against the central windows is designed with an arcade and above each semicircle there are pairwise bas-relief figures of Juno and Jupiter, Diana and Apollo, Ceres and Mercury and other deities of Olympus.
The vault and all parts of the ceiling above the cornice are finished with stuccoed caissons in the same late classical style rich in decorative elements.
The side compartments are decorated in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Here, under the common crowning cornice, a second smaller order with Tuscan pilasters, covered with small molding with a grotesque ornament, is introduced. Above the pilasters there is a wide frieze with figures of children engaged in music and dancing, hunting and fishing, harvesting and winemaking, or playing seafaring and war. Such a combination of architectural elements of different scales and overloading the hall with ornaments are typical of the classicism of the 1830s, but the white color gives the hall integrity.
Georgievsky Hall and Military Gallery
Experts call the Georgievsky, or the Great Throne Room, designed by Quarenghi, the most perfect interior. In order to create the St. George Hall, a special building had to be attached to the center of the eastern facade of the palace. In the design of this room, which enriched the front suite, colored marble and gilded bronze were used. At the end of it, on a dais, there used to be a large throne, made by the master P. Azhi. Other well-known architects also participated in the design of palace interiors. In 1826, according to the project of K. I. Rossi, the Military Gallery was built in front of the St. George Hall.
The military gallery is a kind of monument to the heroic military past of the Russian people. It contains 332 portraits of generals, participants in the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaign of 1813-1814. The portraits were made by the famous English artist J. Dow with the participation of Russian painters A.V. Polyakov and V. A. Golike. Most of the portraits were made from life, but since in 1819, when work began, many were no longer alive, some portraits were painted according to earlier, surviving images. The gallery occupies a place of honor in the palace and is directly adjacent to the St. George's Hall. The architect K. I. Rossi, who built it, destroyed the six small rooms that previously existed here. The gallery was illuminated through glazed openings in vaults supported by arches. The arches rested on groups of twin columns that stood against the longitudinal walls. Portraits were arranged in five rows on the plane of the walls in simple gilded frames. On one of the end walls, under a canopy, was placed an equestrian portrait of Alexander I by J. Dow. After the fire of 1837, it was replaced by the same portrait by F. Kruger, it is his painting that is in the hall today, on the sides of it there is an image of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, also executed by Kruger, and a portrait of the Austrian Emperor Franz I by P. Kraft. If you look at the door leading to the St. George Hall, then on its sides you can see portraits of Field Marshals M. I. Kutuzov and M. B. Barclay de Tolly by Dow.
In the 1830s, A. S. Pushkin often visited the gallery. He immortalized her in the poem "The Commander", dedicated to Barclay de Tolly:
The Russian tsar has a chamber in his halls:
She is not rich in gold, not in velvet;
But from top to bottom, in full length, around,
With my brush free and wide
It was painted by a quick-eyed artist.
There are no country nymphs, no virgin madonnas,
No fauns with bowls, no full-breasted wives,
No dancing, no hunting, but all the raincoats and swords,
Yes, faces full of martial courage.
Crowd close artist placed
Here the chiefs of our people's forces,
Covered with the glory of a wonderful campaign
And the eternal memory of the twelfth year.
The fire of 1837 did not spare the gallery, however, fortunately, all the portraits were taken out by soldiers of the guards regiments.
V. P. Stasov, who restored the gallery, basically retained its former character: he repeated the treatment of the walls with double Corinthian columns, left the same arrangement of portraits, and retained the color scheme. But some details of the composition of the hall have been changed. Stasov lengthened the gallery by 12 meters. A balcony was placed above the wide crowning cornice for passage to the choirs of adjacent halls, for which the arches were eliminated, which rested on columns that rhythmically broke the too long vault into parts.
After the Great Patriotic War, the gallery was restored, and four portraits of the palace grenadiers, veterans who passed the company of 1812-1814 as ordinary soldiers, were additionally placed in it. These works are also done by J. Doe.
Petrovsky Hall
Petrovsky Hall is also known as the Small Throne Room. Decorated with special splendor in the spirit of late classicism, it was created in 1833 by the architect A. A. Montferrand. After the fire, the hall was restored by V.P. Stasov, and its original appearance was preserved almost unchanged. The main difference of the later decoration is related to the processing of the walls. Previously, the panels on the side walls were divided by one pilaster, now they are placed in two. There was no border around each panel, a large double-headed eagle in the center, and on the scarlet velvet upholstery, bronze gilded double-headed eagles of the same size were fixed in diagonal directions.
The hall is dedicated to the memory of Peter I. The crossed Latin monograms of Peter the Great, double-headed eagles and crowns are included in the motifs of the stucco ornamentation of the capitals of columns and pilasters, the frieze on the walls, the painting of the ceiling and the decoration of the entire hall. On two walls there are images of the Battle of Poltava and the Battle of Lesnaya, in the center of the compositions - the figure of Peter I (artists - B. Medici and P. Scotty).
At the same time, this is already the sixth residence of Russian emperors in the Northern capital, and the history of the Winter Palaces began under Peter the Great, 50 years before the appearance of a magnificent building on Palace Square.
In 1711, on the banks of the Neva, the architect Domenico Trezzini built a small house for Peter, consisting of a central portal and two side wings, it was a “little house of Dutch architecture” for the shipbuilder Peter Alekseev, as the tsar called himself.
The building was two-story with a high porch, a tiled roof, and the only thing that adorned it were pilasters (protrusions) in the corners and architraves on the windows. This building was often called the Wedding Chambers, since the built house was a gift from the Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Menshikov for the wedding of Peter and Catherine. It was here that the wedding feast took place, and the legend that has come down to us confirms this.
According to legend, 12 years after the wedding, when Peter found out about the betrayal of his wife, he led her to the mirror of the hall where the wedding was celebrated, and said: “This Venetian glass mirror is made of simple materials, but it can turn into its former insignificance.” Then he hit the mirror with his cane. The former servant and laundress Marta Skavronskaya understood the hint, but was not at a loss and asked: “Has your house become more beautiful now?”
Second Winter Palace for Peter
The first house of Peter, overlooking the canal, turned out to be cramped and in 1716 the architect Georg Mattarnovi created a project for a new home for the royal family. The emperor himself chose a place for it - closer to the Neva, from where a beautiful view of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and the expanses of the Neva opens. The house, built by the autumn of 1723, had a grand appearance, its facades and halls were magnificently decorated.
It should be noted that Peter was an advanced person and all the technical innovations that appeared in Europe were implemented in his house. The palace had central heating and flood sewage, hot and cold water was supplied through lead pipes. Only 12 batmen served the king, moreover, he chose them according to their intelligence and quickness, and if they deserved, he brought them out to the people.
The Winter Palace of Peter I, where the founder of St. Petersburg lived and died, is a unique monument of the early 18th century, which you can visit with a guided tour or on your own. The entrance to the museum is located at 32 Palace Embankment. Administratively it belongs to the Hermitage Museum. Among other things, there is a wax figure of Peter, made by Carlo Rastrelli, and dressed in an authentic costume and shoes, and on his head you can see the king's real hair.
During the Persian campaign in 1722, it was hot and Peter cut his hair, from which he made a wig. It was used by Rastrelli for the wax person of the king.
Third Winter Palace
After the death of Peter the Great, Catherine I ordered Trezzini to expand the palace along Millionnaya Street and thus the building took the form of a huge square.
Fourth Winter Palace for Anna Ioannovna
Anna Ioannovna, who ascended the throne, ordered Francesco Rastrelli to build a new palace for her. For the construction, a place was also chosen on the left side of the Neva, on the site of the Apraksin Admiralty House. The building, built in 1733 - 1735, was spacious, it had 70 rooms and a theater, but the layout of the premises was confusing and inconvenient.
Temporary Winter Palace for Elizabeth Petrovna
Having ascended the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna considered that the old building did not correspond to her status and ordered Rastrelli to prepare a project for a new palace. At the time of construction, a beautiful wooden building was erected, consisting of 100 rooms, on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the Moika River Embankment. In this house, in 1761, Elizaveta Petrovna died, and the building, which had stood for 10 years, was dismantled after the death of the empress.
Sixth Winter Palace
The Winter Palace was under construction from 1754 to 1762, but Elizaveta Petrovna died without seeing it completed. The monumental building on the Neva embankment was erected in the Baroque style, with an abundance of columns and decorative stucco details. It was the last and most grandiose creation of Rastrelli.
Interior decoration was completed under Peter III, and when he was overthrown, Catherine II, who seized power, removed Rastrelli from work, giving him leave.
The architect left for a year in Italy, but the situation did not change upon his return. Rastrelli was the most prominent representative of the baroque style, which at that time had gone out of fashion. He was not given important tasks, he had no customers left, and soon he was dismissed "in the argument of old age and poor health" with the appointment of a pension of a thousand rubles a year.
Interestingly, the architect worked for 46 years under many emperors, but only PeterIIIfor his faithful service he was awarded the rank of Major General and the Order of St. Anne.
For more than 100 years in St. Petersburg it was forbidden to build houses higher than the Winter Palace. In order to increase the number of floors, but not to break the law, cunning builders found a way out - they made a visor and built on top of 1-2 floors of attics, the construction of which was not prohibited by law.
A fire that happened in 1837 damaged the interiors created by the great masters Rastrelli and Quarenghi, Rossi and Moferan. It took two years to restore the building.
We are accustomed to the light green tone of the facades of the building, but meanwhile, before the First World War, the building was painted in red-brick color.
One of the legends explains this curiosity by the fact that German Emperor Wilhelm sent a whole train of red lead wagons to Russia to paint ships, but the officials rejected the paint and decided to paint the facades of the city with it, and the Winter Palace became the first victim of this idea.
The Winter Palace on Palace Square is the sixth and last residence of the representatives of the Romanov family. It was he who was taken by storm during the October Revolution in 1917, although, according to historians, this is a myth and there was no storm. After all, one can hardly call the Aurora blank shots by storm, after which the armed men broke into the palace without loss, and the main concern of the women's battalion and the cadets defending the building was to prevent the theft of valuables.
