Marble Palace Museum. marble palace
marble palace is located in the very center of St. Petersburg. Even by the standards northern capital, not lacking in the most beautiful buildings, this monumental building stands out for its beauty and grandeur.
The Marble Palace is absolutely unique. This building was the only building in St. Petersburg, the facade of which is completely lined with natural marble. Marble was brought to the construction site from many countries of the world: a total of 32 varieties were used.
The palace was built at the behest of Empress Catherine II, who decided to make a generous gift to Count Grigory Orlov, who played a key role in the empress's enthronement.
Previously, on the site of the palace there was a Post Office Yard with a hotel, where Peter I repeatedly stayed. In 1769, the Italian architect A. Rinaldi demolished the Post Office building and started building the Marble Palace. The project of the building was developed with the participation of the Empress.
300 people worked daily at the construction site. Ekaterina regularly appeared at the construction site, noted and encouraged the most skilled builders.
Architecturally, the Marble Palace is an example of early classicism, one of the most striking in Russia. Colored marble, in large numbers used in the facing of the palace, emphasizes its monumentality and luxury.
Years have no power over the building - it has been preserved exactly in the form that first appeared before the eyes of St. Petersburg residents after the removal of scaffolding. Rinaldi ordered the upper floors to be lined with grayish marble, the lower - pink.
The empress took an active part in the development of the interiors of the palace. Due to the fact that the palace was built for Count Grigory Orlov, the queen ordered the architect to make the interior decoration masculinely strict. The chambers of the palace are distinguished by restraint and grandeur.
Busts, statues and bas-reliefs of representatives of the count's dynasty are installed in the Oryol Hall. In the Assembled Hall, the walls are covered with velvet and gold stucco. There are huge chandeliers on the ceiling. In the center of the main wall of the hall is a huge portrait of Catherine II.
Today the Marble Palace houses a branch of the Russian Museum. There are few permanent exhibitions in the palace, as it itself is a kind of museum attraction. In addition to the collection of weapons, tourists will be interested in the extensive Art Gallery, which includes over 200 paintings by famous artists from Western Europe. The Marble Palace regularly hosts exhibitions of classics of painting and contemporary artists, press conferences and master classes.
Video:
Marble Palace.
In the historical center of St. Petersburg on Palace embankment is amazing building– Marble Palace, a masterpiece of architecture of the 18th century, where for the first time natural stone – granite and marble – was so widely used in external and internal decoration.
For a quarter of a century, the building has been part of the structure, which in its halls launched activities to popularize modern visual arts, highlighting the role of creativity of compatriots in world culture.
History reference
In the time of Peter the Great, this place was the Post Office Yard. During a fire in 1737, a wooden two-story building completely burned down, and the resulting site was empty for a long time, until Catherine II ordered to build a palace here for her favorite Grigory Orlov. Filled with gratitude to the Orlov brothers, with the help of whom she ascended the Russian throne, the empress showed truly royal generosity, sparing no expense to create a beautiful palace, personally monitoring the progress of work and sketching.
The development of the project was entrusted to the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi, who also supervised the construction. To implement an unusual idea, marble of different shades and varieties was delivered from Italy, Greece, Russia, after which it required painstaking and lengthy processing. The construction, which dragged on for almost two decades, was completed only in 1785, after the death of Orlov.
Catherine II, having bought the palace from the heirs of the most serene prince, presented it to her grandson Konstantin, who settled in it 10 years later - only after his marriage. Soon the grandmother evicted her grandson for bad behavior: the 16-year-old owner of the house fired rats from a cannon right in the room, frightening his wife.
In 1797 the palace became the home of the last king of Poland and his retinue. Having lost power in his country, Stanislav II Augustus spent the last two years of his life here.
Konstantin Pavlovich returned to the palace again, having received the title of Tsarevich (heir) in 1799, and after his abdication, the palace went to the treasury.
Until the end of the imperial reign of the Romanovs, the residence belonged to two more grand dukes named Konstantin: the son of Nicholas I - Konstantin Nikolaevich (admiral and one of the authors of the peasant reform), and then his grandson - Konstantin Konstantinovich (president of the Academy of Sciences and poet of the Silver Age). Not surprisingly, the palace was officially renamed Konstantinovsky.
AT Soviet time there was a branch in the building Central Museum Lenin, and an armored car was installed in front of the eastern facade, similar to the one in which Ilyich spoke upon arrival in Petrograd. Later, the armored car was transferred to the artillery museum, and in 1994 the pedestal was occupied by the equestrian statue of Alexander III, made by Paolo Trubetskoy at the beginning of the 20th century - this largest and most monumental work of the famous Italian impressionist sculptor completed the ten-year period of his stay in Russia. Having caused conflicting assessments in society (many saw in it a caricature of the tsar), the monument was nevertheless installed on the square in front of the Moscow railway station, and since 1937 it has been kept in the storerooms of the Russian Museum. After the Marble Palace became a branch of the Russian Museum in 1992, and a new concept for its use was adopted - "Russian art in the context of the world", Trubetskoy's work was considered appropriate to include in the exhibition.
Building architecture
All facades of the building, made in the style of early classicism, are faced in the lower part with dark red granite. In the upper part, on a light gray granite background, Quaternary columns made of pink marble stand out, which alternate with window openings.
Facade of the Marble Palace from the side of the Neva embankment.
The gray marble window frames contrast with the white marble garlands placed between the rows of windows on the second and third floors. Around the perimeter of the attic there are vases made of gray dolomite. The design of the building, which has come down to us in its original form, is of great artistic value.
The main eastern facade is crowned with a tower with chimes. On both sides of it are figures symbolizing Generosity and Loyalty. The statues were made by the outstanding Russian master F.B. Shubin, more than 40 works of the sculptor adorn the interior of the palace.
As conceived by Antonio Rinaldi inside the building, the idea of stone facade decoration is continued by the main marble staircase, made in a restrained range of gray tones, strict and majestic at the same time. Its allegorical sculptural ensemble is unique, as it is the only work of its kind in St. Petersburg from the 18th century that has survived to this day. In the niches between the first and second floors there are four white marble statues - morning, afternoon, evening, night - representing the age categories: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. On the next floor, in rectangular niches, female and male figures symbolize the spring and autumn equinoxes. The entire ensemble is dedicated to Grigory Orlov and glorifies his exploits.
In the middle of the 19th century, the palace was overhauled and reconstructed under the guidance of the architect A. Bryullov. He created projects for new interiors of front and living quarters, applying different styles, using a variety of materials.
Exposition and attractions
On the ground floor of the main building of the Marble Palace there is a cloakroom, a ticket office and other auxiliary premises (by the way, we note that at the time of this writing, there was no cafe for visitors to the palace - keep this in mind if you are planning a long inspection).
ceremonial halls
The main halls and a significant part of the permanent exhibition are located on the second floor. The main room of the palace is the Marble Hall, which strikes with the splendor of decoration using Greek and Italian, Karelian and Ural marble different colors, as well as Baikal lapis lazuli.
Marble Hall.
Originally one-story, after the reconstruction of A. Bryullov, who increased the space by removing the ceilings, the hall became two-tiered. Light entering through two rows of windows reflects off the walls, creating an indescribable effect of the inner glow of the stone. The hall is decorated with numerous bas-reliefs, as well as the plafond "Cupid and Psyche".
The “Orlovsky” Hall, through which you need to go through to get to the aforementioned Marble Hall, enjoys great attention among visitors.
"Orlovsky" hall.
Luxurious stucco ceilings, rich painting of plafonds, complex pattern of type-setting parquet cause invariable admiration.
Ceiling in the "Orlovsky" hall of the Marble Palace.
The walls of the "Orlovsky" hall are also decorated with stucco and high reliefs.
High relief in the "Orlovsky" hall of the Marble Palace.
The main halls of the second floor - Lacquer and Chinese, Greek Gallery, Winter Garden and the Royal Living Room were restored in 2002-2010.
"Museum Ludwig in the Russian Museum"
Historical interiors have been restored only in a few halls of the palace - restoration work in other halls is still ongoing. Most of the rooms are a white cube, which is quite consistent with the paintings by Roy Lichtenstein, Ilya Kabakov or Igor Makarevich placed in it.
The work of Igor Makarevich.
In a simple frame, modern sculpture also looks advantageous, represented by the works of Claes Oldernburg, Grisha Bruskin, Vladimir Yankilevsky and other authors.
Vladimir Yankilevsky. "Triptych No. 14".
The museum owes the appearance of such works to collectors Irene and Peter Ludwig. In 1994, they donated part of their luxurious collection to the Russian Museum. A large sign at the entrance to the exposition contains a complete list of artists and sculptors whose works are exhibited: Warhol, Picasso, Burroughs, Beuys, Rauschenberg, Lüpertz, Wesselmann and many other equally famous names.
Tom Wesselman. "Steel Drawing".
Here, American pop art coexists with Russian impressionism, all conceivable and unthinkable genres of contemporary art are presented in several exhibition halls.
This is the only permanent exposition in Russia of works of the second half of the 20th century, which makes it possible to trace the trends in the development of Russian contemporary art and the place it occupies in the context of the world art.
Exhibition at the Ludwig Museum.
In addition, numerous other temporary exhibitions are dedicated to informal art, which are regularly held in the halls of the museum. Recall that the exposition "Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum" is also located on the second floor.
Collection of brothers Rzhevsky
Another permanent exhibition on the second floor of the Marble Palace is the collection of St. Petersburg collectors by the Rzhevsky brothers, also donated to the Russian Museum. Most the collections include paintings by venerable artists of the 18th – 20th centuries, among them: I.K. Aivazovsky, I.I. Mashkov, B.M. Kustodiev. In addition, there are graphics, sculpture, furniture and interior bronze, wonderful porcelain. Of particular interest are rare pieces of clocks included in the collection - floor, fireplace, travel. They were made by masters of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, they are distinguished by their sophisticated decor, unique mechanisms, battles with the performance of various melodies.
As for the main building of the Marble Palace, all the permanent exhibitions are listed above. Note that temporary exhibitions are regularly held on the third floor.
Exhibition "Konstantin Romanov- Poet of the Silver Age
The memorial exposition "Konstantin Romanov - Poet of the Silver Age" deserves special mention, located on the first floor of the left wing of the palace in the former chambers of the Grand Duke. They get here only as part of a thematic tour conducted by the staff of the palace.
One of the most prominent representatives of the era at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, K.K. Romanov, a public and statesman, considered music and poetry to be his main love. Versatile gifted, he wrote poems, plays, critical articles. His lyrics inspired the best composers, and Romanov himself wrote romances based on the verses of Russian classics. His translation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is considered one of the most successful, published in 1899, he was repeatedly reprinted.
The original interiors of the private apartments are perfectly preserved and immerse visitors in the atmosphere of the owner's aesthetic tastes. The study and music room are made of mahogany in the Gothic style, where each carved detail is unique. There are secret doors. A mysterious and mysterious atmosphere of solitude reigns here, which the author of lyrical lines so appreciated, hiding behind a laconic signature - “K. R."…
Where is it located and how to get there
The museum is located on the same line with winter palace(Hermitage) in front of the Field of Mars, in the area of the Trinity Bridge, at the address: Millionnaya Street, 5/1, which overlooks the southern facade of the building.
The nearest metro station is Nevsky Prospekt, but you need to walk ten minutes from it along the Griboyedov Canal embankment and then along the Field of Mars towards the Neva.
(function(w, d, n, s, t) ( w[n] = w[n] || ; w[n].push(function() ( Ya.Context.AdvManager.render(( blockId: "R-A -143470-6", renderTo: "yandex_rtb_R-A-143470-6", async: true )); )); t = d.getElementsByTagName("script"); s = d.createElement("script"); s .type = "text/javascript"; s.src = "//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.async = true; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); ))(this , this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks");
The Marble Palace is one of the most beautiful buildings in St. Petersburg. It completes the composition of the Palace Embankment, which begins at the Winter Palace. From a distance it seems that the palace seems to be growing out of the granite of the Neva. Gray-pink granite and marble walls echo the colors of the St. Petersburg sky.
Marble Palace, 19th century painting
In the era of Peter the Great, the Drinking House stood here. In 1714, a wooden building of the Post Office with a pier appeared on this site. In 1716, it was built on; on the second floor, Peter I held assemblies. The embankment in those days was called Pochtovaya. After a while, the Manege was built on the site of the Post Yard, which subsequently burned down.
On October 10, 1769, by order of Catherine the Great, the construction of a huge palace began. The architect was the famous Antonio Rinaldi. However, according to one of the Petersburg legends, the empress personally sketched a sketch of the future building. The sculptures were made by Fedot Ivanovich Shubin. The Italian master Antonio Valli, the Austrian I. Dunker and many other famous sculptors and painters also took part in the work. More than 100 masons worked daily at the construction site.
Catherine the Great gave her favorite another palace - also built according to the design of Antonio Rinaldi.
The palace was intended for the count Grigory Orlov(1734-1783) as a thank you for his active participation in the events of 1762. In 1773, in return, he presented his empress with a huge faceted diamond of 189.62 carats, which is now kept in the Diamond Fund in Moscow and bears the name "Orlov".
For a long 16 years the construction went on. In 1783, Count Orlov died without waiting for the completion of the work. In 1785, when the Marble Palace was ready, Catherine bought it from her heirs for 1.5 million rubles.
Monument to Alexander III in the courtyard of the Marble Palace
In the years 1780-1788, in the eastern part of the site, according to the project of the architect P.E. Egorov, the Service Building was built, where stables, an arena, a carriage house, hay sheds, etc. were located. On the second floor there were apartments for servants. The new building obscured the facade of the palace, facing the current Suvorov Square. A lattice was installed between the buildings, resembling a fence in its style.
In 1796, the Empress presented the Marble Palace to her 16-year-old grandson, the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Juliana-Henriette-Ulrika of Saxe-Saalfeld-Coburg, baptized Anna Feodorovna. However, soon Catherine was forced to take away the gift "for misbehavior" - the young prince shot live rats from a cannon in the corridor, and his 14-year-old wife was forced to hide in a vase.
In 1797-1798 the Marble Palace became the residence of the last Polish king. Stanislav Poniatowski(1732-1798). For him and his retinue, part of the halls was decorated by V. Brenna. Then work on the design of the palace was continued by A. Voronikhin.
After the death of Poniatowski, the palace again returned to the possession of Konstantin Pavlovich and belonged to him until his departure to Poland as the governor of the Kingdom of Poland. In the future, the palace was owned by the Court Office, renting out apartments to court officials who remade the interiors to their liking.
In 1832, Emperor Nicholas I presented the Marble Palace to his second son, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. By that time, the palace was dilapidated, and in 1843-49 its reconstruction began according to the project of the architect A.P. Bryullov. Bryullov saved appearance building and, in general, its layout. He designed a number of rooms in the style of Gothic, late Renaissance, Rococo and Classics. The Service building was built on, its facade is decorated with pilasters. Technical improvements appeared in the palace: air heating, "pneumatic stoves", a prototype of an elevator, machines for supplying water to the top.
After perestroika, the Marble Palace was named Konstantinovsky after its owner, although there was a palace with the same name in Strelna.
In 1888, the son of Konstantin Nikolayevich, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, highly educated person, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences and poet of the Silver Age. In his chambers on the first floor, the English Study, the Gothic and Musical Drawing Rooms, and the Lower Library were decorated. The palace became one of the centers cultural life Petersburg.
Marble Palace, pre-revolutionary photo
During the First World War, the palace premises were converted into a hospital for wounded officers. After the February Revolution, various services were located in the palace for a short time. In 1919-1936, the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture was located within the walls of the Marble Palace. Since 1937 - the Leningrad branch of the Central Museum of V.I. Lenin. Almost all halls on the second floor were rebuilt, the interiors were lost. Only the Main Staircase and the Marble Hall have retained their original decoration.
Marble Hall, photo from the Internet
In front of the main entrance, an armored car “The Enemy of Capital” was installed on a pedestal, from which V.I. Lenin spoke on the night of April 3-4, 1917 near the building of the Finland Station. In 1990, the armored car was dismantled, and in its place a marble Ford Mondeo was erected - a monument to the Age of the Motor.
In 1992, the dilapidated building of the Marble Palace was transferred to the Russian Museum, work began to restore the original layout and interiors. The Service Building houses the Northwestern Correspondence Technical University.
In 1994, on the site of a pedestal for an armored car, a equestrian statue of Emperor Alexander III. It was made in 1909 by the sculptor Paolo Trubetskoy and stood on Znamenskaya Square (now Uprising Square). After 1937, it was saved in one of the closed courtyards of the Russian Museum.
Transportation of the monument to Alexander III in November 1994, photo by Belenky
Exhibitions at the Marble Palace
Currently, the Marble Palace houses permanent exhibitions of the Russian Museum dedicated to Russian art of the 20th century:
♦ "Foreign artists in Russia XVIII-XIX centuries»,
♦ "Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum" - a gift from collectors Peter and Irena Ludwig: works by contemporary European, American and Russian artists,
♦ "Collection of St. Petersburg collectors of the Rzhevsky brothers",
♦ "Konstantin Romanov - the poet of the Silver Age".
In addition, exhibitions of works by contemporary Russian and foreign artists are held.
Facade of the Marble Palace from the Neva, photo from the Internet
External and internal decoration of the Marble Palace
The marble palace was built in the style of early classicism and is distinguished by the richness of the interior decoration, which was supposed to emphasize the strength and masculinity of its owner.
A combination of decorative stones of different colors and textures gives the palace a special expressiveness. 32 varieties of marble, granite, agate went to the exterior and interior decoration of the palace. White marble was brought from Italy - it was cheaper than transporting it from Siberia. Other varieties of marble were mined from the quarries of Karelia and Estonia, white marble for sculptures - from the islands of the Greek archipelago, agate - from the Urals. The copper roof was made in Sestroretsk and was of such high quality that it served without repair for about 150 years.
The basement floor is finished with pink granite, which is perfectly combined with the granite embankment of the Neva. The upper floors are tiled gray color. The portico is made of pink Tivdia marble.
Marble Palace from the Neva
The thickness of the walls of the palace is 1.5-2 meters. Overall Height buildings - 22 meters, the height of the Corinthian order of the upper floors - 12.5 meters.
The main facade of the palace faces the garden, where the Red Canal (later buried) used to pass, connecting the Neva with the Moika. Above the entrance to the palace is written: "The building of gratitude." Above is a tower with a clock, on the sides of which there are figures of Loyalty and Generosity by F.I.Shubin.
As conceived by Rinaldi, she continued the stone decoration of the facades of the palace. It is distinguished by restraint of design. The statues Morning, Day, Evening and Night symbolize childhood, youth, maturity and old age. Between the II and III floors there are sculptures of the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. On the ceiling is a panel by the German painter I. Krist “The Judgment of Paris”.
On the ground floor of the palace there were kitchens, a boiler room, other office premises, as well as Church of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The main staircase leads to the second floor, where there are suites of ceremonial halls: the Lacquer Hall, the Tsar's Living Room ("Assembled Hall"), the Gallery (Orlovsky Hall), the Chinese Hall and the Marble Hall. Behind them are the private quarters of Grigory Orlov.
Lacquer hall lined with wood. Its walls were decorated with wooden carved panels depicting the exploits of Alexander the Great (now kept in the State Hermitage Museum). Initially, the ceiling was decorated with a picturesque plafond by I.Kris "The Judgment of Paris", which was subsequently transferred to the Main Staircase.
"Assembled Hall" dedicated to Catherine the Great. The velvet of the walls is decorated with the monograms of the Empress. Under the carved canopy with a crown, there is a ceremonial portrait of the Empress, in front of which there is a pedestal with a vase decorated with military trophies.
Art Gallery located in the southeastern part of the palace. Here are 206 works, among which are paintings by Rembrandt, Titian, Raphael. The portrait room contained 91 portraits of all representatives of the Romanov dynasty and the ruling European monarchs of that time. In addition, there were equestrian portraits of the Orlov brothers.
Chinese hall It was decorated in a fashionable style at that time and served as a front dining room.
- the most luxurious room of the Marble Palace. According to the project of A. Rinaldi, it was single-height, it was rebuilt into a two-height by A. Bryullov. Its walls are finished with various types of marble and decorated with bas-reliefs, originally made for St. Isaac's Cathedral. The ceiling is decorated with a picturesque ceiling "Wedding of Cupid and Psyche" by S. Torelli.
The Marble Palace is the first architectural complex lined with natural stone. The creation of this masterpiece, one of the main attractions of St. Petersburg, goes back to the distant past, and is fraught with many interesting facts.
History
On the site where the marble Palace is now located, in 1706 the Drinking House was built, then from 1714 to 1716, a Postal Yard with a pier was built in this place according to the project of Domenico Trezzini. Initially, the Postal House was the Mazankov building, then, after the reconstruction, wooden two-story houses appeared. Here, Peter I often liked to hold ceremonial events. Currently, the Postal Embankment is called the Palace Embankment, and the Manege was built on the site of the Postal Yard, which later burned down.
Creation of the complex
The famous Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi built the Marble Palace from 1768 to 1785. The idea of creating a majestic architectural complex, belongs to Catherine II. Upon completion of construction, the Empress wanted to present the Palace to her favorite Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov. Such a generous gift was in gratitude for the courage and devotion in the events of 1762. It was this moment that became the key for Catherine II to be on the Russian throne. The count's response was the huge Persian diamond Nadirshah. Nowadays, the stone is known under the name "Orlov".
The first stone was laid in 1769. Every day, about 150 masons worked on the creation of the palace. Mikhail Ivanovich Mordvinov supervised the construction work, and Antonio Rinaldi and Pyotr Egorov carried out architectural supervision. The empress personally visited the construction site, and rewarded the best workers with coins.
Slabs of marble and granite were brought in 1768, and already in 1769 brick vaults and walls were erected. The processing of natural stone was carried out from 1770 to 1774. And the decoration with marble and granite was started in 1774. Antonio Rinaldi had an accident, after which he had to leave Russia and return to Italy.
Description of the palace
At the very entrance to the palace there is an inscription “Building of Gratitude”, a little higher is a turret with a clock, and next to it are two figures: on the right - Loyalty, on the left - Generosity.
A service building was built in the eastern part. There were stables, carriage houses, rooms for servants. In the western part there were premises for household needs.
At the Marble Palace main staircase decorated with statues: Morning, Day, Evening and Night. Each of them symbolizes the most precious thing that a person has at every stage of life. Morning is childhood, the most carefree time. The day is youth, the time when life begins. The evening is maturity, when a lot has already been lived, but there is still so much ahead. Night is old age, when everything is lived, and it remains only to enjoy the rest.
Climbing up to the second and third floors, you can see sculptures representing the spring equinox. All sculptures on the Main Staircase were created in honor of the valor, fortitude and courage of Grigory Orlov.
On the ground floor there were kitchens and boiler rooms. All office premises were equipped with all necessary mechanisms.
The second floor is of particular value. In its northern part is the Bolshaya Neva enfilade. This part of the palace can be accessed from the Main Staircase. Further, if you go through the Oval Passage, you can get into the Lacquer Hall. And if you walk through the Great Dining Room, you can see the heart of the palace - the Marble Hall. It is here that the famous "sacrifice" bas-reliefs are located; they were made for St. Isaac's Cathedral by Antonio Rinaldi. Next is the Orlovsky Hall, here you can see various expositions that tell about the valor and greatness of the Orlov brothers. After it is the Catherine's Hall, by visiting it you can find out the details of the life of the great empress. On the south side to the Catherine's Hall, there are the private quarters of Count Orlov.
The Art Gallery is located in the southeastern part of the palace. It presents about 206 masterpieces of painting. Here you can see the creations of such masters as Rembrandt, Poussin, Raphael and many others.
On the third floor there are living quarters, a library, living rooms, as well as a Chinese sofa.
The life of the palace after construction
Unfortunately, Count Grigory Orlov did not live to see the completion of the palace. He died on April 13, 1783. After the count died, Catherine bought the palace from his heirs, and gave it as a gift to her grandson Konstantin Pavlovich.
The palace was empty for about 10 years, but after his marriage, Konstantin Pavlovich decided to create a family nest on the territory of the Marble Palace. But he did not have long to enjoy Catherine's gift, as he was expelled on her own orders for bad behavior with his wife.
From 1795 to 1796, the captive Tadeusz Kosciuszko lived in the palace, he was the leader of the Polish confederates. After the death of Catherine, it was liberated by Paul I. From 1797 to 1798, the palace belonged to the former Polish king Stanislaw August Poniatowski. But in 1798, after his death, Konstantin Pavlovich returned to his palace.
Under Konstantin Pavlovich, an art gallery and a large library were opened on the territory of the palace. We can safely say that with his return the palace has found a new life.
In 1814, Konstantin Pavlovich was appointed governor of the Kingdom of Poland, and he had to leave St. Petersburg. After his departure, the palace passed to the Court Office.
On March 6, 1832, Nicholas I handed over the palace to his second son, Konstantin Nikolaevich. After the fire in the Winter Palace in 1837, silverware and a foreign library were stored here.
On August 20, 1845, it was decided to start rebuilding the Marble Palace. The restructuring project belonged to the architect Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov. It was decided to increase the ceiling of the palace by one floor. Then, next to the Front Office, open the library. And build a Great Hall to hold concerts and musical evenings. It was also planned to restore the Turkish and Greek baths. Everything that was planned was carried out as soon as possible, and already in 1849, on December 29, Konstantin Nikolayevich and his wife entered the palace.
After the death of Konstantin Nikolaevich, the palace passed to his son Konstantin Konstantinovich. From that moment on, concerts and literary evenings were often held here. There were no global changes under Konstantin Nikolaevich with the palace.
During the First World War, a hospital for wounded soldiers was located on the territory of the Palace complex. Despite the difficult situation, the widow of Konstantin Konstantinovich lived in the palace, but then she and her children had to move to Zherebtsov's house.
After the end of the war, the Ministry of Labor of the Provisional Government was placed on the territory of the palace. So that the precious collection of artworks would not be lost, it was moved to the Hermitage. At different times, various institutions were located here. So, for example, from 1919 to 1936 there was the Academy of the History of Material Culture, the Central Bureau of Local Lore.
After the academy was closed, the palace would be transferred to the Leningrad branch of the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Museum. According to the project of Nikolai Evgenievich Lansere, the complex was rebuilt. The main staircase was preserved, as well as the famous Marble Hall. The museum opened its doors to visitors in 1937 on November 8th. Currently, the palace hosts various exhibitions of both local and foreign artists.
According to some sources, it is known that Catherine herself made the first sketch of the palace.
A box with gold coins was walled up in the foundation of the palace.
According to legend, there is a secret door on the side of Marble Lane, allegedly Count Grigory Orlov and Ekaterina went on a date through it.
The first telephone appeared on the territory of the palace in 1883.
On the opening day of the museum in 1937, on November 8, an armored car was installed at the entrance, Lenin spoke from it on the day of his arrival in Petrograd. In 1992, the armored car was sent to the Artillery Museum.
The Marble Palace is one of the most beautiful in St. Petersburg. Life in it, however, did not bring happiness to any of its owners. Its walls remember thefts, and violence, and even shooting live rats from a cannon.
On the tour you will be told that the palace (on the site of the former Post Office, destroyed by a grandiose fire in 1737) was ordered to be built by Catherine II - it was a gift from the Empress Grigory Orlov, her associate and long-term favorite. Orlov was supposed to live on the same street as the Empress, very close to the Winter Palace. Writer and historian P.I. Sumarokov in his "Review of the reign and properties of Catherine the Great" mentions that the empress herself drafted the future palace; and she commissioned the court architect Antonio Rinaldi to implement it. The architect had to work hard to put into practice the plan outlined by the royal hand - it is believed that this is why the building has an irregular shape in terms of (it has no right angles). They spared no funds for the construction of the palace - Rinaldi was provided with a variety of types of stones: granite, agate, lapis lazuli and 32 types of marble from different parts of the world, with which the palace was decorated not only inside, but also outside.
By the way, where did the idea come from to decorate the facades of the palace with marble instead of plaster? Probably, this is due to the fact that it was during this period that marble began to be mined in Russia (until the middle of the 18th century, this material was exclusively imported, expensive and rarely used). The birthplace of the first Russian marble is the Karelian village of Tivdia. Beautiful pale pink Tivdia marble began to be delivered to St. Petersburg, it was used to decorate St. Isaac's Cathedral and other buildings; but it was this palace that was first decorated with marble on the outside. Unfortunately, marble tends to fade and collapse, especially under the influence of high humidity (and in St. Petersburg, as you know, it rains almost all the time), so now the palace does not look as spectacular as it did in the 18th century.
The marble quarry in Ruskeala is one of the places where Karelian marble is mined.
History of the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg
The palace for Grigory Orlov was under construction for 17 years. During this time, his affair with the Empress ended; public service also stopped - Orlov resigned for health reasons; and at a very respectable age of 43 for that time, Orlov unexpectedly got married. His wife was the 18-year-old maid of honor Ekaterina Zinovieva, who was his cousin. There were rumors in the world that Orlov was forced to marry, since the girl was pregnant; other contemporaries claimed that Orlov was insanely in love with his cousin. Be that as it may, the marriage was illegal - Orthodox Church prohibits marriages between close relatives. A scandal broke out, the Orlov case reached the Senate, which decided to divorce the spouses and imprison them in monasteries; but here Catherine II stood up for her former favorite and canceled the decision of the Senate, thereby showing truly royal magnanimity. True, the marriage was short-lived - Princess Orlova died at the age of 23 from consumption; and Orlov, after the death of his wife, went mad from grief and died two years later in his estate near Moscow. He never managed to live a day in his luxurious residence - by the time of his death, the interior decoration (also, of course, marble) had not yet been completed.
After the death of Orlov, Catherine II bought the palace to the treasury. Coincidentally, all subsequent owners of the palace bore the name Konstantin. First, the Empress gave it to her grandson, the six-year-old Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. The fate of this member of the Romanov family developed in a peculiar way. He could become an autocrat twice: after the conquest of the Ottoman Empire, Catherine II intended to make her second grandson the Byzantine emperor (which is why the boy received the name Constantine), but the Greek project was not implemented. Subsequently, Konstantin was supposed to take the Russian throne after the death of the childless Alexander I, but he himself refused this prospect.
Shooting rats from a cannon
Konstantin Pavlovich went to his father. He looked like Paul I outwardly - short, snub-nosed.
Like his father, he was fond of military affairs, and was also distinguished by an eccentric, eccentric character and unpredictable behavior. At the age of 16, he, like other grand dukes, entered into a dynastic marriage with a German princess (in Orthodoxy - Anna Feodorovna). The young couple settled in the Marble Palace, and this life could hardly be called happy. The maid of honor and memoirist Varvara Nikolaevna Golovina testifies: “Konstantin’s behavior, when he felt like a master in his own house, showed that he still needed strict supervision. By the way, some time after his marriage, he amused himself in the arena of the Marble Palace by shooting from a cannon loaded with live rats.<…>To the bad treatment that the Grand Duchess Anna had to endure from her husband from the first day of her marriage, his infidelity and self-will were also mixed. Konstantin made connections unworthy of his dignity, and gave dinners to actors and actresses in his chambers. At the same time, Konstantin was jealous of his wife even for his brother Alexander, did not let her go to balls, etc.
At the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, another story happened that tarnished Konstantin's reputation. The Grand Duke was carried away by the wife of the court jeweler, the Frenchwoman Madame Araujo, who did not respond to his courtship. Then she was brought by force to the Marble Palace, where Konstantin raped her, after which his drinking companions-guards did the same. From shock, Madame Araujo died the same day. The case was hushed up, but rumors about the participation of the emperor's brother in it quickly spread throughout St. Petersburg. Documentary evidence of this story does not exist, but given the personality of Constantine, it cannot be called incredible. The family life of the Grand Duke ended with the fact that Anna Feodorovna fled from her husband to Germany, which, however, the Grand Duke was not particularly upset about. After some time, the Synod issued a divorce.
Liberal not only in politics
In 1814, Konstantin Pavlovich became the governor of the Kingdom of Poland and left St. Petersburg forever. For some time, the palace did not have a permanent owner, until, finally, Nicholas I handed over the palace to his second son - who was also called Konstantin and who was also a very bright personality.
Konstantin Nikolaevich, a staunch liberal, was one of the major figures in the "epoch of reforms." He was one of the developers of the abolition of serfdom, one of the authors of the judicial reform, and a reformer of the fleet. However, he was a liberal not only in the public sphere, but also in family life. At first, his life with Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna developed happily, six children were born in marriage. But in adulthood, as often happens, the Grand Duke fell in love. His chosen one was the ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Anna Kuznetsova, for whom he rented a mansion on English Avenue. Konstantin Nikolaevich actually lived in two families, and he also had children from Kuznetsova. The “official” family of the Grand Duke continued to live in the Marble Palace.
Here one of the most serious scandals in the Romanov family happened. In the Marble Palace there was an icon presented to Alexandra Iosifovna by Nicholas I, in a frame made of precious stones. Once, several diamonds were missing from the salary. The investigation established that the eldest son of the Grand Duke, Nikolai, committed the theft. The parents were shocked. However, to arrange a trial of a member of the imperial family was unthinkable for the prestige of the dynasty; and in the end, Nikolai was declared insane and expelled from St. Petersburg.
sinful poet
The “jewel thief” was disinherited, so after the death of Konstantin Nikolaevich, the Marble Palace went to the next oldest son, Konstantin Konstantinovich.
On duty, he was a general and inspector of military educational institutions, and by vocation - a poet. He published under the transparent pseudonym "K.R." his poems, which were highly appreciated by his contemporaries (including P.I. Tchaikovsky, who wrote several romances based on his poems). The Grand Duke was in all respects an attractive personality - talented, intelligent, possessing a fine spiritual organization and deeply religious (in his youth he dreamed of becoming a monk); besides, he treated his wife well and had nine children. But from the surviving personal diaries of K.R. it is known that all his life he unsuccessfully tried to get rid of interest in male representatives. Although in that era, non-traditional orientation was no longer perceived as something out of the ordinary; but K.R. sincerely considered himself an unworthy sinner and was tormented by pangs of conscience all his life. The prince-poet died shortly before the revolution and did not know how tragically the story of the Romanov family ended and how his three sons (for whom Konstantin Konstantinovich once lovingly designed children's rooms in the Marble Palace) were in 1918 thrown alive into a mine near Alapaevsky …
In 1937, a branch of the Museum of V.I. Lenin. The creators of the museum did not stand on ceremony with historical interiors - the marble finish was dismantled, the murals were painted over, the sculptural decorations of the early 18th century were removed. And at the entrance to the palace, an armored car “Enemy of Capital” was installed - allegedly it was from him that V.I. Lenin spoke in April 1917; although many historians doubt that the armored car is the same.
From personal experience: For me, as for a Petersburger, the Marble Palace has always been a symbol of the rapid changes that our country was going through. A childhood memory, for some reason vividly cut into consciousness: a marble car standing in the yard. Few remember her now, but she was! The sculpture of Ha Shult appeared in 1992 and, of course, immediately received the nickname "friend of capital."
Marble "Mondeo Foundation" instead of Lenin's armored car - imagine how symbolic it was at that time! I also remember that someone suggested in Berlin to put a marble T-34 on this occasion. However, Ford didn't last long. Where he was put, I could not find out (another St. Petersburg mystery!), but Emperor Alexander III took his place. It is also symbolic - a return to the roots, reconciliation with the past. Now they are talking about the fact that it would be nice to return Alexander to his original place, to Vosstaniya Square. I wonder who will enter the yard after him? And will our country ever calm down?
That's all for today. Come to Petersburg!
Also, don't forget to check out the page dedicated to
