Summer palace in the summer garden Rastrelli. Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna: description, characteristics and history

The reign of Elizabeth I was marked by a new stage in the development of architecture in the state, the emergence of the Elizabethan (Russian) Baroque. Built under the guidance of the chief architect Empress R.F. Bartolomeo's architectural monuments had a clear European influence, however, they were characterized by Russian scope and monumentality. One of these masterpieces was the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg, which, in style, lightness of architectural forms and richness of decoration, was compared with the French royal palace at Versailles.

Geographical location and architectural features of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth

We can get an idea of what the Summer Palace of Elizabeth looked like from paintings and engravings, as well as the memoirs of contemporaries. The imperial residence was located on the site between the street. Italian, Ekaterininsky canal, Moika and Fontanka rivers. The palace was built in the 3rd Summer Garden, where the Mikhailovsky (also known as Engineering) Castle is located today.

According to the project, the palace provided for the presence of two facades overlooking the Moika (main) and in the direction of Nevsky Prospekt. In front of the main entrance to the building, a regularly operating park was laid out with trees and figured flower beds, benches and fountains. Visitors entered the courtyard through a wrought-iron gate.

The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli had a second name - the Wooden Palace. Only the basement and walls of the first floor were made of stone, the second floor was completely made of wood. The pink and gray exterior walls looked elegant and light. Inside the room was decorated with rich stucco with gilding, sculptures and a large number of mirrors. The luxurious and elegant palace included more than 160 rooms, including a hall for ceremonial receptions and galleries.

Favorite residence of Elizabeth Petrovna

The entire court of Elizabeth I moved to the Summer Palace from Winter Palace as soon as warmer: in April - May. The move was arranged solemnly, with a cannon salute and an orchestra, accompanied by a guards regiment. The return to the winter residence at the end of September was no less pompous.

Elizabeth loved her Summer Palace. It regularly hosted official receptions and balls. The future Emperor Paul I was born here.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth: the history of construction

The idea of erecting a summer imperial residence appeared during the reign of Anna Leopoldovna, regent under the young Ivan VI, to whom the throne passed after Anna Ioannovna. The architect began to develop drawings at the end of 1740, and in July 1741 construction work began. In the same year, a coup took place and Elizaveta Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter the Great, came to power. The new empress approved the continuation of the construction of the palace and the work was carried out from 1741 to 1744. Historically, the construction was carried out not exactly according to the project. So, at the direction of Elizabeth through the river. Moika, a covered gallery was built for the transition from the palace to the 2nd Summer Garden.

After the death of Elizabeth I, the palace remained an imperial residence, festive events were held here at the end of the seven-year war with Prussia, and Catherine II received official congratulations on her coronation from foreign ambassadors, although she spent most of her time in Tsarskoye Selo. By decree of Paul I, the Summer Palace was destroyed in 1797 (officially - due to dilapidation), and in its place the modern Mikhailovsky Castle, known to us, was built, which became the residence of the emperor.

With the coming to power in Russia of Emperor Peter I, a grandiose era of transformations began in the state, which became the impetus for changes in urban planning and architecture.

Catherine's "Golden Mansions"

In 1703 the Emperor founded new town- St. Petersburg, and already 9 years later, the construction of a small house for Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the wife of the monarch, begins. It was located on the southern bank of the Moika and was a small house with a turret, which ended with a gilded spire. The building was named "Golden Mansions". Subsequently, this area was called Tsaritsyn Lug and became part of the Summer Garden - a large royal estate. Exotic fruits were grown on its territory for the Empress: pineapples and bananas.

A few years after the construction, it was decided to build a grandiose palace that would crown the tetrahedral dome, but the plan was not realized.

Failed construction

In 1730-1740. in power was Empress Anna Ioannovna, who a few years before her death instructed the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build a palace on Tsaritsyn Meadow, and this should have been done as soon as possible. However, the death of the empress did not allow the architect to proceed with the execution of her order. Her successor, Anna Leopoldovna, also wanted to build her own palace on this site, the construction was entrusted to the same Rastrelli. In February 1741, the architect prepared the necessary drawings, but it was not possible to present them to the empress: in March, a coup d'état was carried out, and Empress Elizaveta Petrovna came to power.

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli

Created the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli - the greatest architect of the 18th century. He came from an Italian aristocratic family and held the title of count. His father was the sculptor Carlo Rastrelli, who worked for a long time at the court of the French Sun King Louis, and after the death of the latter he was invited by the Russian emperor to Russia.

Bartolomeo with early years was attracted by his father to work on various projects, went to study in Europe. The first documented work of Rastrelli in Russia was the three-story palace of Dmitry Kantemir, built in the style of Petrine baroque.

In the 1730s, Rastrelli was engaged in the construction of the Rundale Palace and the palace in Mitau, which he was building on the orders of the Duke of Courland. It was on the recommendation of Biron of Courland that Rastrelli became the court architect.

Architectural style of Rastrelli

Bartolomeo created a unique style in architecture. So, he began to use semi-circular window endings on the facades, and he usually assembled semi-columns in pairs and bundles. External columns usually did not play a constructive role, but were intended only for decoration. His palaces were characterized by huge ceremonial halls, covering the entire depth of the floor, and when designing interiors, he tried to avoid curved lines. All his buildings are characterized by screaming power, grandeur and solemnity, even pomposity. Rastrelli abandoned the strip foundations traditional for that time, preferring platforms made of brick and stone based on piles, which, in turn, made it possible to partially redistribute the loads, and this was very important for the weak soils of St. Petersburg.

Creations of the great architect

The great architect, in addition to the Rundale and Mitava palaces, built such buildings that became attractions:

Great Peterhof Palace.
Andrew's Church in Kyiv.
Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
Vorontsov Palace.
Hermitage.
Winter Palace.
Royal Palace in Kyiv, etc.

Lost buildings of the architect

Some of his buildings on this moment lost:

Kantemir Palace.
Throne room on the Yauza.
Winter Palace of Anna Ioannovna.
Winter Kremlin Palace.
Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna.
Travel Srednerogatsky Palace.

The history of the construction of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna

The exact date of laying the foundation of the palace has not been preserved. According to one version, during the laying of the foundation in July 1941, Anna Leopoldovna was present with her husband, Prince Anton Ulrich, according to another, the laying took place a month earlier. However, the spouses were not destined to live in the new palace.

Rastrelli received an order to complete the begun palace from Tsesarevna Elizaveta Petrovna, who became Empress. The construction was completed in 1743 - it was the first palace of the empress, built personally for her, and the empress liked it so much that she doubled the salary of the architect - up to 2500 rubles a year.

The Empress used the summer residence from May to September every year, she devoted this time to her rest, almost not doing important state affairs. In 1754, it was here that Grand Duke Pavel, the son of Ekaterina Alekseevna, was born, and here Elizaveta Petrovna staged celebrations on the occasion of the end of the seven-year war and the conclusion of peace with Prussia. Then the empress began to visit the palace less and less, spending more time in Tsarskoye Selo, and the palace gradually began to deteriorate.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna: description

The architecture of the Summer Palace is such that it is simply impossible not to notice that the author of the project was impressed by the French Versailles. The building is characterized by the closedness of the ensemble of the front yard in front of the palace, traditional for the Baroque. Detailed Description the brainchild of Rastrelli did not remain, but some memories of the imperial estate were found.

So, the summer residence of Elizabeth Petrovna consisted of 160 apartments, there were both the personal chambers of the queen, and numerous halls, galleries and even a church. In order to get to the territory of the palace, it was necessary to go through wide openwork gates made of lattices, crowned with gilded eagles. According to the architect, “everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as well as the new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built at the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded.”

The building had two facades. The main one was facing the Moika, flower beds and neat trees were placed in front of it, which turned this territory into a park. The second facade was turned towards Nevsky Prospekt, where, on the orders of Bartolomeo, a wide road was laid, along which there were numerous greenhouses with flowers and trees.

The first floor of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was made of stone, but the second was completely wooden. The building is designed in pink tones, and the basement rooms are in gray. The ground floor was faced with green granite. Inside the palace, all rooms were decorated with Bohemian mirrors, marble sculptures and paintings by famous artists. The Hermitage was built at the level of the first floor, where paintings of religious and biblical content were kept, some of which have survived to this day.

In the main building there was the Great ceremonial hall, at the western wall of which the royal throne was located. In order to get to the Throne Room, it was necessary to pass a series of living rooms and a huge front staircase, decorated with gilded carvings. The throne room struck with its grandeur, which was further emphasized by the cunning arrangement of candelabra and chandeliers, which created the impression of a two-light volume. Several curly staircases also led to the Throne Hall from the side of the garden, each of which was supplemented by ramps. The imperial chambers were located in the eastern wing of the palace, and the courtiers lived in the western wing. Each of the rooms of the palace was lavishly decorated with various statues and vases. The facade of the building was crowned with numerous balustrades.

palace park

The entire territory of the palace complex was surrounded by a decorative park. The garden also had magnificent fountains, and the park itself was a complex labyrinth of green spaces. On the territory of the complex, Rastrelli created three unusual fountain pools of complex outlines. Small gazebos and benches were equipped throughout the park, and carousels, swings and slides were located in the center. Also, according to the architect's idea, two artificial trapezoid semicircular ponds were created, which, by the way, have survived to this day.

Subsequent changes

Francesco Rastrelli continued to work on the summer residence of the Empress for many years. So, he was engaged in decorating the walls with figured architraves, atlantes and lion masks, 9 years after the completion of construction, he added a new gallery hall from the northeast side of the palace. Such constant changes only pleased the Empress, while the owner the architectural integrity of the building was of little interest. The main thing is that new buildings are as luxurious as possible.

In 1745, by order of the Empress, a covered gallery was built to move from the palace to the Summer Garden, its walls were generously decorated with art paintings. In 1747, the architect created a terrace with a fountain in the center, located on the same level as the Hermitage pavilion. Around the perimeter, it was fenced with a gilded lattice.

A little later, a church appears on the territory of the summer palace, which expands the palace complex from the Fontanka side, and bay windows appear on the facade from the western side.

On the territory of the palace, Rastrelli also built water towers with aqueducts, which were also generously decorated with paintings.

Catherine period

The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg became the site of the triumph of Catherine II. It was here that she arranged an official reception for foreign diplomats after her accession to the throne, and here she learned about the death of Peter III. Not living in the residence, Catherine bestowed it first on Grigory Orlov, then Grigory Potemkin.

In 1777, a flood occurred, which greatly damaged the already dilapidated palace. No one began to restore the damaged water cannon, and the aqueduct was dismantled.

The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna was demolished in 1797 by order of Emperor Paul I. A few weeks after his accession to the throne, he ordered the construction of a new impregnable castle-fortress on the site of the already dilapidated building, since the emperor did not want to live in the Winter Palace at all. There is a legend according to which the archangel Michael appeared to one of the guard soldiers, who ordered that the tsar be told about the need to build a church on the site of the palace, which became part of the Mikhailovsky Castle complex. That is how the Mikhailovsky Castle grew up on the site of the Elizabethan summer residence in 1800. The decoration of the summer residence of Elizabeth was neatly folded and taken to other royal estates.

How to get to the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna? Unfortunately, it didn't survive. On the site of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna (address: St. Petersburg, Sadovaya Street, 2), the Mikhailovsky, or Engineering Castle, is currently located. In order to get to the castle, it is enough to use the metro, you need to get off at the Nevsky Prospekt or Gostiny Dvor station.

And, of course, the symbol of the Summer Garden and one of the symbols of St. Petersburg is the fence overlooking the Neva embankment, built in 1770-1784 by the architect Yu.M. Felton. But few people know that in this very place once stood Summer Palace of Anna Ioannovna, which surprised contemporaries with its splendor.

Embankment of the Neva at the Summer Garden. It was here that the Summer Palace of Anna Ioannovna once stood.

The history of the construction of the palace of Anna Ioannovna

Initially, under Empress Catherine I, a “Hall for Glorious Celebrations” was built here, which was a wooden gallery and a hall with 11 windows along the facade. On May 21, 1725, the wedding of Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna (1708-1728) with the Duke of Holstein (Karl Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, 1700-1738) took place there. From this marriage was born Karl Peter Ulrich, the future Russian Emperor Peter III (1728-1762).

In 1731, by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1693-1740, reigned 1730-1740), the "Hall" was broken, and in just 6 weeks in 1732 a luxurious wooden palace. Its architect was Francesco Rastrelli, and his father, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, also took part in the work. On June 1, 1732, the Empress solemnly entered the new Summer Palace. For the following years, she lived here from the beginning of May to the end of September.

Empress Anna Ioannovna, from an engraving by I. Sokolov, 1740

The palace was a one-story, elongated building. The central part of the façade was singled out, slopes to the Neva departed from the side wings. Along the roof was a balustrade, decorated with carvings and sculptures. Frequent windows were mirrored - a rarity for that time; through them one could see the interior decoration. The palace had 28 rooms, 10 of which were occupied by Biron. When Anna Ioannovna lived in the Summer Palace, four yachts were moored on the Neva, which gave fireworks during festivities and feasts.

Drawings of the Summer Palace of Anna Ioannovna, made by F.-B. Rastrelli

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The mysterious death of the Empress

The Empress died in the Summer Palace, and the farewell ceremony was also held here. Her death was preceded by strange events. On October 5 (16), 1740, during lunch with Biron, Anna Ioannovna lost consciousness. Doctors declared the disease fatal. M.I. Pylyaev in the book “Old Petersburg”, referring to the lady-in-waiting Bludov, writes the following (grammar and punctuation are preserved):

A few days before the death of Anna Ioannovna, the guard stood in the room, near the throne room, the sentry was at the open doors. The empress had already retired to the inner chambers; it was past midnight, and the officer sat down to take a nap. Suddenly, the sentry calls for guard duty, the soldiers lined up, the officer took out his sword to salute. Everyone sees - the Empress walks up and down the throne room, bowing her head thoughtfully, not paying attention to anyone. The whole platoon stands in anticipation, but, finally, the strangeness of a night walk through the throne room begins to confuse everyone. The officer, seeing that the empress does not want to leave the hall, finally decides to go the other way and ask if anyone knows the intentions of the empress. Here he meets Biron and reports to him. “It can’t be,” Biron says: “I’m from the empress now, she went into the bedroom to go to bed. “Look for yourself, she's in the throne room. Biron goes and sees her too. “It’s something wrong, it’s either a conspiracy or a deceit to act on the soldiers,” he says, runs to the empress and persuades her to come out in order to expose the impostor in the eyes of the guard, who uses some resemblance to her to fool people. The Empress decides to go out, as she was in a puddermantle. Biron goes with her. They see a woman, strikingly similar to the Empress, who is not in the least embarrassed. - Daring! - says Biron, and calls the whole guard; the soldiers and all those present see "two Anna Ioannovnas", of which the real and the ghost could be distinguished only by the outfit and by the fact that she came with Biron. The Empress, after standing for a moment in amazement, comes up to her, saying: “Who are you? Why did you come? Without answering a word, the ghost backs away, without taking his eyes off the empress, to the throne, ascends to it, and on the steps, turning his eyes once again to the empress, disappears. The Empress turns to Biron and says: This is my death, and goes to her room.

There are many unknowns in this story. Even as a child, Anna Ioannovna, a certain holy fool predicted that she would die after she saw her reflection without a mirror. In 1721, during a feast on the occasion of the proclamation of Peter I as emperor, the cracker announced that the women of the royal house would face death in a female guise. One could believe in mysticism, but ... The next day after the death of Anna Ioannovna, near the Green Bridge near the Moika River, a woman's corpse was found, strikingly similar to the late Empress. Was she the same ghost?

According to the will of Anna Ioannovna, signed the day after the appearance of the double, the throne passed to the 10-month-old John Antonovich, under whom Biron was regent. However, he did not have long to rule. On the night of November 8, Biron was arrested by Minich and exiled to. The baby emperor was taken from the Summer Palace to the Winter Palace, and from there to Shlisselburg.

The further fate of the palace

In 1748, already in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, the Summer Palace was dismantled and moved to Yekaterinhof, serving as building material for two outbuildings that expanded the main palace. And after the revolution, in 1926, after several fires, the Ekateringof Palace was completely dismantled. So the Summer Palace of Anna Ioannovna ceased to exist.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna- the unpreserved imperial residence in St. Petersburg, built by B.F. Rastrelli in 1741-1744 on the site where the Mikhailovsky (Engineering) Castle is now located. Demolished in 1797

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✪ Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna.

✪ Elizabeth's Wooden Summer Palace

✪ "Tsarskoe Selo Elizabeth Petrovna"

✪ Winter Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna

✪ Winter Palace of Peter I

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Construction history

Even then, the idea appeared to close the alley of the Summer Garden opposite the Karpiev Pond with a palace building. This is evidenced by the project - years, preserved in the archives. Possible author J. B. Leblon. It depicts a small nine-axis palace, the elevated center of which is completed with a tetrahedral dome. Wide one-story galleries cover the court d'honneur with a magnificent figured parterre, facing the Moika. Behind there is a garden with numerous bosquets of various shapes. Fruit plantings have been preserved on the territory of the current Mikhailovsky Garden. However, things did not go further than plans.

However, while the construction was underway, a coup took place, and Elizaveta Petrovna became the mistress of the building. By the year, the palace, wooden on stone cellars, was roughly finished. The architect, in the description of the buildings he created, spoke of him like this:

“This building had more than 160 apartments, including the church, hall and galleries. Everything was adorned with mirrors and rich sculptures, as was the new garden, adorned with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built at ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded.

Despite the location in the city, the building is designed according to the manor scheme. The plan was created under the clear influence of Versailles, which is especially noticeable from the side of the court d'honneur: the successively narrowing spaces enhanced the effect of the baroque perspective of the courtyard, fenced off from the access road by a lattice of magnificent drawings with state emblems. One-story outbuildings along the perimeter of the cour d'honneur emphasize the isolation of the ensemble, traditional for the Baroque. The rather flat decor of light pink facades (mezzanine pilasters with Corinthian capitals and rusticated stone plinth blades corresponding to them, figured window frames) was compensated by a rich play of volumes. Complicated in plan, strongly developed side wings included courtyards with small flower stalls. Lush entrance porticos led to stair volumes, as always with Rastrelli, displaced from the central axis. From front staircase a series of living rooms, decorated with gilded carvings, led to the most representative hall of the palace - the Throne Room. Its double-height volume accentuated the center of the building. Outside, curly staircases led to it, complemented by ramps from the side of the garden. Completed the appearance of the palace, giving it baroque splendor, numerous statues and vases on the pediments and balustrades crowning the building. Rastrelli decorated the space up to the Moika with flower stalls with three fountain pools of complex outlines.

As often happened with the creations of an architect, over time, a logical and harmonious initial plan changes to suit momentary requirements. In 1744, for the transition of the Empress to the 2nd Summer Garden through the Moika, he built a one-story covered gallery, decorated with paintings hung on the walls. Here, near the northwestern risalit, he creates a terrace hanging garden at the mezzanine level with the Hermitage pavilion and a fountain in the center of the stalls. Along the contour, it is fenced with a magnificent gilded trellis, they arrange multi-march gatherings in the garden. Later, a palace church was added to the northeastern risalit, expanding it with an additional row of rooms from the side of the Fontanka. Bay windows appear on the western façade.

On the territory adjacent to the palace, a decorative park was laid out with a huge complex green labyrinth, bosquets, trellis arbors and two trapezoidal ponds with semicircular ledges (which have survived to this day, they acquired a free outline during the reconstruction of the park under the Grand Duke's residence). About his work in the park in 1745, Rastrelli reports:

“On the banks of the Moika, in a new garden, I built a large building of baths with a round salon and a fountain in several jets, with front rooms for relaxation.”

In the center of the park there were swings, slides, carousels. The device of the latter is unusual: revolving benches were placed around a large tree, and a gazebo was hidden in the crown, into which they climbed a spiral staircase.

Another building located in the immediate vicinity of the northeastern corner of the palace is associated with the name of the architect: the water supply system for the fountains of the Summer Garden, made in the 1720s. no longer gave sufficient pressure, and did not correspond to the brilliance and grandeur of the imperial residence. In the mid 1740s. Rastrelli builds water towers with an aqueduct across the Fontanka. The technically complex, purely utilitarian wooden building was decorated with palatial luxury: the wall painting imitated magnificent baroque modeling.

Despite the fact that the palace was the grand imperial residence, there was no direct communication with the Nevsky Prospekt: the road, which ran among unpresentable random buildings (glaciers, greenhouses, workshops and the Elephant Yard stood on the banks of the Fontanka) turned onto Italianskaya Street, and only bypassing the palace and I. Shuvalov, built by Savva Chevakinsky, the crews through Malaya Sadovaya got to the central transport artery of the city. A direct connection will appear only in the next century thanks to the work of C. Rossi.

Elizaveta Petrovna was very fond of the Summer Palace. In late April - early May (as the weather allowed), the solemn transfer of the Empress from the winter residence was formalized with a magnificent ceremonial with the participation of the court, the orchestra, regiments of the guard under the artillery salute of the cannon at the Winter Palace and the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty. At the same time, the imperial yachts, which stood in the roadstead opposite Apraksin's house, sailed to the Summer Garden. On the way back, the queen set off in the last days of September with the same ceremonies.

In Pokrovsky, in her youth, the daughter of Peter 1 Elizabeth lived. Removed from the court by Anna Ioannovna, she built a newfangled palace in the estate, indulged in carefree amusements here, arranging holidays with friends, forcing the Pokrov peasants to dance on them. The Moscow historian and writer I. K. Kondratiev writes that “being by nature a cheerful character, the princess participated here in festive round dances composed of Intercession girls and young women, dressing in their beautiful costume: in a colored satin sundress and kokoshnik, or in brocade a kiku with pearl fragments and a braid, or just like a girl, weaving their Yaroslavl ribbon into a tubular braid ... Since then, one must think, they sang the song:

In the village, the village of Pokrovsky,
In the middle of the big street
Played out, danced
Red girl soul."

Although after her accession to the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna did not forget Pokrovskoye, dear to her heart, she ordered the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to make the palace even more magnificent - but still she doesn’t go there so often anymore.

The village calms down, but sometimes holidays were still held here: visitors had fun on the carousels and swings, and sleighs or carriages rolled down from a huge, almost 400 meters long rolling hill. This mountain was purposely made for the arrival of Catherine II in 1763, but even in her absence, she allowed "rolling in summer and winter to the nobility and merchants, and to every rank of people, except for the vile ones." Visitors were also waiting for "a tavern with food, tea, check-lady, coffee, Gdansk and French vodka, grape drink, half a beer and mead." Approximately from the second half of the XVIII century. the village becomes an ordinary suburb of the city, and then a part of it, in which the intensive construction of factories and plants begins.
Well, now in order.

st. Gastello 44. The former Pokrovsky Palace of the "beautiful Elizabeth" has a long and largely unexplained history. It is known that here on the shore big pond there were wooden mansions intended for the stay of the royal family. So, in 1713, Princess Maria Alekseevna, later the future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, lived in them together with her relatives Skavronsky and Gendrikov. It is possible that in the mid-1730s stone chambers were built instead of wooden mansions, architect. M.G. Zemtsov.

In the great Moscow fire in May 1737, the palace burned down completely.
In 1742 - 1743. it was rebuilt into an elegant baroque palace designed by the architect F.B. Rastrelli.

Catherine did not like the palace and almost never visited it even in the beginning. It fell into disrepair in the 19th century.
The palace survived until the 70s. 19th century
At that time, it was given to the Pokrovskaya community of sisters of mercy, and the architect A.P. Popov rebuilt it into a sister building in the spirit of elegant architectural decoration of the 17th century.
In Soviet times, the palace was one large communal apartment, where 4 nuns lived out their lives in semi-basement cells by the grace of God.
In the 1970s, the palace was restored and given to the State Research Institute for Restoration (GOSNIR), which still occupies it.
The palace in plan is similar to the letter "Sh"

Its central part is richly decorated

On both sides there are porches in the old Russian style.

richly decorated windows

In the mezzanine of the central part there was a house church, today we take its head, which is still without a cross, for a belvedere.

The palace stands on a hillock, in front of it was a small kurdener, which descended to a pond, which was formed from the dammed Rybinka River, which flowed into the Yauza not far from the palace. A beautiful wooden bridge was laid from the palace to the middle of the pond, where there was an island and a wooden Resurrection Church.
Now, on the site of the pond and all this beauty, a residential building in the Stalinist Empire style has been built, Rybinka was enclosed in a pipe ... and the palace is shaking from the trains that pass right in front of it along the Kurskaya line railway, which was built by the industrialist P. von Derviz.

But about him, or rather about his traces in Pokrovskaya-Rubtsovo, there will be the next post.