For what purpose was the winter palace built? Where is the Winter Palace located? The Winter Palace becomes the Winter Palace

Panorama of the Winter Palace

Winter Palace in St. Petersburg - formerly the main imperial palace Russia, located at the address: Palace Square, 2 / Palace Embankment, 38. The current building of the palace (the fifth) was built in 1754-1762 by the Italian architect B. F. Rastrelli in the style of magnificent Elizabethan Baroque with elements of French Rococo in the interiors. Since Soviet times, the main exhibition of the State Hermitage has been housed within the walls of the palace.

From the end of construction in 1762 to 1904, it was used as the official winter residence of the Russian emperors. In 1904, Nicholas II moved his permanent residence to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. From October 1915 to November 1917, a hospital named after Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich operated in the palace. From July to November 1917, the palace housed the Provisional Government. In January 1920, the State Museum of the Revolution was opened in the palace, sharing the building with the State Hermitage until 1941.

The Winter Palace and Palace Square form a beautiful architectural ensemble modern city and are one of the main objects of domestic and international tourism.
In total, during the period 1711–1764, five winter palaces were built in the city. Initially, Peter I settled in a hastily built building in 1703 not far from Peter and Paul Fortress one-story house.

First Winter Palace – Wedding Chambers of Peter I

In 1712, the stone Wedding Chambers of Peter I were built. This palace was a gift from the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, for the wedding of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna.

The Second Winter Palace - the palace of Peter I at the Winter Canal

In 1716, the architect Georg Mattarnovi, by order of the Tsar, began building a new Winter Palace, on the corner of the Neva and the Winter Canal (which was then called the “Winter House Canal”). In 1720, Peter I and his entire family moved from summer residence in winter. In 1725, Peter died in this palace.

Third Winter Palace - Anna Ioannovna's Palace

Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna considered the Winter Palace too small and in 1731 entrusted its reconstruction to F.B. Rastrelli, who offered her his own project for the reconstruction of the Winter Palace. According to his project, it was necessary to purchase the buildings that stood at that time in the place occupied the current palace, houses that belonged to Count Apraksin, the Maritime Academy, Raguzinsky and Chernyshev. Anna Ioannovna approved the project, the houses were bought up, demolished, and construction began in the spring of 1732. The facades of this palace were facing the Neva, the Admiralty and the “meadow side”, that is, the palace square. In 1735, construction of the palace was completed, and Anna Ioannovna moved to live there. The four-story building included about 70 state rooms, more than 100 bedrooms, a gallery, a theater, a large chapel, many staircases, service and guard rooms, as well as rooms for the palace chancellery. Almost immediately, the palace began to be rebuilt; an extension began along the meadow side of technical buildings, sheds and stables.

Here on July 2, 1739, Princess Anna Leopoldovna's engagement to Prince Anton-Ulrich took place. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the young Emperor Ivan Antonovich was brought here, who stayed here until November 25, 1741, when Elizaveta Petrovna took power into her own hands. Under Elizabeth, the addition of office premises to the palace continued, as a result, by 1750 it “presented a motley, dirty appearance, unworthy of the place it occupied and the very strangeness of the imperial palace, with one wing adjacent to the Admiralty, and the other on the opposite side, to the dilapidated chambers of Raguzinsky, not could be pleasing to the empress.” On January 1, 1752, the Empress decided to expand the Winter Palace, after which the neighboring areas of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky were purchased. At the new location, Rastrelli added new buildings. According to the project he drew up, these buildings were to be attached to existing ones and be decorated 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 decides to build the entire building anew; the new project was signed by Elizaveta Petrovna on June 16 (June 27), 1754:

“In St. Petersburg, our Winter Palace is not only for receiving foreign ministers and performing ceremonies at the Court on special days, due to the greatness of our imperial dignity, but also for accommodating us with the necessary servants and things, it cannot be satisfied, for which we We intend to rebuild our Winter Palace with a large space in length, width and height, for which the reconstruction, according to the estimate, will require up to 900,000 rubles, which amount, allocated for two years, is impossible to take from our salt money. We order our Senate to find it for us too. imagine from what income such an amount of 430 or 450 thousand rubles per year can be taken for that business, counting from the beginning of this year 1754 and the next year 1755, and that this be done immediately, so as not to miss the current winter route for preparing supplies for that building "

Fourth (temporary) Winter Palace

It was built in 1755. It was built by Rastrelli on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the river embankment. Sinks. It was dismantled in 1762.

Fifth (existing) Winter Palace

From 1754 to 1762, construction took place on the current palace building, which at that time became the tallest residential building in St. Petersburg. The building included about 1,500 rooms. total area the palace is about 60,000 m². Elizaveta Petrovna did not live to see the completion of construction; Peter III took over the work on April 6, 1762. By this time, the decoration of the facades was completed, but many of the interior spaces were not yet ready. In the summer of 1762, Peter III was overthrown from the throne, and construction of the Winter Palace was completed under Catherine II.

First of all, the Empress removed Rastrelli from his work. The interior decoration of the palace was carried out by the architects Yu. M. Felten, J. B. Vallin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi under the direction of Betsky.

Initially, the color of the palace had yellow shades, like those of Versailles and Schönbrunn

In the mid-19th century, red shades appeared in the color of the palace.

According to the original layout of the palace, made by Rastrelli, the largest state rooms were located on the 2nd floor and overlooked the Neva. According to the architect’s plan, the path to the huge “Throne” hall (which occupied the entire space of the north-western wing) began from the east - from the “Jordan” or, as it was previously called, “Ambassador” staircase and ran through a suite of five outer halls ( Of these, the three middle halls later formed the current Nicholas Hall). Rastrelli placed the palace theater “Opera House” in the southwestern wing. Kitchens and other services occupied the north-eastern wing, and in the south-eastern part there was a gallery between the living quarters and the “Big Church” built in the eastern courtyard.

In 1763, the Empress moved her chambers to the south-eastern part of the palace; under her rooms she ordered the chambers of her favorite G. G. Orlov to be placed (in 1764-1766, the Southern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage would be built for Orlov, connected to Catherine’s chambers by a gallery on the arch ). In the northwestern risalit, the “Throne Hall” was equipped, and a waiting room appeared in front of it - the “White Hall”. A dining room was located behind the White Hall. The “Bright Study” was adjacent to it. The dining room was followed by the “Grand Bedchamber,” which a year later became the “Diamond Chamber.” In addition, the Empress ordered a library, an office, a boudoir, two bedrooms and a restroom to be equipped for herself.

M. Zichy. A ball in the Concert Hall of the Winter Palace during the official visit of Shah Nasir ad-Din in May 1873

In 1764, Catherine II was transferred from Berlin 317 valuable paintings with a total value of 183 thousand thalers from the private collection of paintings by Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (1710-1775) in settlement of his debt to Prince Vladimir Sergeevich Dolgorukov. Of these 317 paintings (it is generally accepted that there were only 225), mainly from the Dutch-Flemish school of the first half of the 17th century, transferred to Russia in 1764 and marking the beginning of the Hermitage collections, at least 96 paintings survive here today. The paintings were placed in secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name “Hermitage” (place of solitude); from 1767 to 1775 a special building was built for them east of the palace. In the 1780-1790s, work on finishing the palace interiors was continued by I. E. Starov and G. Quarenghi.

In 1783, by decree of Catherine, the palace theater was demolished.

In the 1790s, by decree of Catherine II, who considered it inappropriate for the public to enter the Hermitage through her own chambers, a gallery-bridge with the Winter Palace - the “Apollo Hall” - was created, through which visitors could bypass the royal apartments. At the same time, Quarenghi erected the new “Throne (St. George)” hall, opened in 1795. The old throne room was converted into a series of rooms provided for chambers for the newly married Grand Duke Alexander. A “Marble Gallery” (of three halls) was also created.

In 1826, according to the design of K. I. Rossi, a Military Gallery was built in front of St. George’s Hall, which housed 330 portraits of generals who took part in the War of 1812, painted by D. Doe over almost 10 years. In the early 1830s, in the eastern building of the palace, O. Montferrand designed the “Field Marshal’s”, “Peter’s” and “Armorial” halls.

After the fire of 1837, when all the interiors were destroyed, restoration work in the Winter Palace was led by architects V. P. Stasov, A. P. Bryullov and A. E. Staubert.

The modern three-story building has the shape of a square of 4 wings with an internal courtyard and facades facing the Neva, the Admiralty and Palace Square. The magnificent decoration of the facades and premises gives the building a sense of splendor. The main facade, facing Palace Square, is cut through by the arch of the main passage, which was created by Rastrelli after his work on the renovation of the palace in Strelna, probably under the influence of the magnificent architectural design of Michetti (whose forerunner was Leblon). Differently composed facades, strong protrusions of risalits, accentuation of stepped corners, changing rhythm of columns (by changing the intervals between columns, Rastrelli either collects them into bunches or exposes the plane of the wall) create an impression of restlessness, unforgettable solemnity and splendor.

Hermitage Museum. Winter Palace

Hermitage Museum. Tour of the museum.

The Hermitage is not only the greatest art museum, but also the main imperial residence for many years. Today I propose to examine the interiors of the palace, including those that served the royal family.

The palace, first of all, is a Baroque masterpiece by the famous Rastrelli..

In front of it is the main square of the city - Dvortsovaya

For a long time, this was the main flagpole of the country.

The roof of the palace is filled with numerous sculptures and vases

In addition to the Winter Palace, the museum includes several buildings. There is even a covered passage over the canal - to the Hermitage Theater.

The arch is thrown across the Winter Canal.

The courtyard facades are not inferior to the front ones

First of all, from the entrance we find ourselves on the main staircase, called the Jordan.

It got its name from the feast of Epiphany, when a religious procession descended along it to the Neva to plunge into the wormwood - Jordan

Originally built by Rastrelli, the staircase burned down in 1837 and was restored by the architect Stasov.

The staircase ceiling looks great as a backdrop for fresh flowers.

In general, when walking around the Hermitage, you need to constantly look up.

Absolutely everywhere the vaults are covered with different, but always magnificent, ornaments.

Throwing back our heads, we quietly reached the White Hall.

It was created by A.P. Bryullov for the wedding of the future Emperor Alexander II in 1841 on the site of three living rooms..

The loggias are located in the New Hermitage building, not far from the main staircase.

The new Hermitage was built in 1842-1852 according to the design of the German architect Leon Klenze.

Next we will examine a number of rooms in the Old Hermitage, decorated with 19th-century interiors.

The unfinished rooms display furniture, carpets, paintings, etc.

But the window frames and many of the glasses in them are original, dating back to Tsarist times...

The interiors are decorated in different styles.

Strict classic..

Lush Baroque

Imperial style of Alexander I.

Gothic.

The Winter Palace is a masterpiece of Russian Baroque. Part 1. Architecture

Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (Palace Square, 2 / Palace Embankment, 38)

The Winter Palace is a former imperial palace, currently part of the Main Palace. museum complex State Hermitage.

The monumental and elegant Winter Palace, commissioned by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-1762, is a striking monument to the Baroque style. The building is a brilliant example of the synthesis of architecture and decorative plastics. All its facades are decorated with a two-tier colonnade. Forming a complex rhythm of verticals, the columns rush upward, and this movement is picked up by numerous statues and vases on the roof.

The abundance of stucco decorations - fancy cornices and window frames, mascarons, cartouches and rocailles, torn pediments - creates a rich play of light and shadow, giving the appearance of the building a special splendor. Is an object cultural heritage federal significance and object world heritage UNESCO as part of the historical center of St. Petersburg

The Winter Palace and Palace Square form a beautiful architectural ensemble of the modern city and are one of the main objects of domestic and international tourism.

Story

In total, during the period 1711–1764, five winter palaces were built in the city. Initially, Peter I settled in a one-story house, built hastily in 1703, not far from the Peter and Paul Fortress.

First Palace - Wedding Chambers

Peter the Great owned the site between the Neva and Millionnaya Street (on the site of the current Hermitage Theater). In 1708, here, in the depths of the site, a wooden “Winter House” was built - a small two-story house with a high porch and a tiled roof. In 1712, the stone Wedding Chambers of Peter I were built. This palace was a gift from the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, for the wedding of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna.

The Second Winter Palace - the palace of Peter I at the Winter Canal

In 1716, the architect Georg Mattarnovi, by order of the Tsar, began building a new Winter Palace, on the corner of the Neva and the Winter Canal (which was then called the “Winter House Canal”). In 1720, Peter I and his entire family moved from their summer residence to their winter residence. In 1725, Peter died in this palace.

Third Palace - Anna Ioannovna's Palace

The facades of this palace were facing the Neva, the Admiralty and the “meadow side”, that is, the palace square. In 1735, construction of the palace was completed, and Anna Ioannovna moved to live there. The four-story building included about 70 state rooms, more than 100 bedrooms, a gallery, a theater, a large chapel, many staircases, service and guard rooms, as well as rooms for the palace chancellery. Almost immediately the palace began to be rebuilt; an extension began along the meadow side of technical buildings, sheds and stables[

Anna and Anton-Ulrich

Fourth (temporary) Winter Palace
It was built in 1755. It was built by Rastrelli on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the river embankment. Sinks. Was dismantled in 1762

Fifth Winter Palace
From 1754 to 1762, construction took place on the existing palace building, which at that time became the tallest residential building in St. Petersburg. The building included about 1,500 rooms. The total area of the palace is about 60,000 sq.m. Elizaveta Petrovna did not live to see the completion of construction; Peter III took over the work on April 6, 1762. By this time, the decoration of the facades was completed, but many of the interior spaces were not yet ready. In the summer of 1762, Peter III was overthrown from the throne, and construction of the Winter Palace was completed under Catherine II.

Initially, the color of the palace had yellow shades, like those of Versailles and Schönbrunn

In the mid-19th century, red shades appeared in the color of the palace.

On January 1, 1752, the Empress decided to expand the Winter Palace, after which the neighboring areas of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky were purchased. At the new location, Rastrelli added new buildings. According to the project he drew up, these buildings were to be attached to existing ones and be decorated 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 decides to build the entire building anew; the new project was signed by Elizaveta Petrovna on June 16 (June 27), 1754

Rastrelli placed the palace theater “Opera House” in the southwestern wing. Kitchens and other services occupied the north-eastern wing, and in the south-eastern part there was a gallery between the living quarters and the “Big Church” built in the eastern courtyard.

In 1763, the Empress moved her chambers to the southwestern part of the palace; under her rooms, she ordered the chambers of her favorite G. G. Orlov to be placed (in 1764-1766, the Southern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage would be built for Orlov, connected to Catherine’s chambers by a gallery on the arch ).

In the northwestern risalit, the “Throne Hall” was equipped, and a waiting room appeared in front of it - the “White Hall”. A dining room was located behind the White Hall. The “Bright Study” was adjacent to it. The dining room was followed by the “Grand Bedchamber,” which a year later became the “Diamond Chamber.”

In addition, the Empress ordered a library, an office, a boudoir, two bedrooms and a restroom to be equipped for herself. In the restroom, the empress built a toilet seat from the throne of one of her lovers, the Polish king Poniatowski. In 1764, in Berlin, through agents, Catherine acquired a collection of 225 works by Dutch and Flemish artists from the merchant I. Gotzkovsky. The paintings were placed in secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name “Hermitage” (place of solitude); from 1767 to 1775 a special building was built for them east of the palace.

In the 1780-1790s, work on finishing the palace interiors was continued by I. E. Starov and G. Quarenghi.

In 1783, by decree of Catherine, the palace theater was demolished.
In the 1790s, by decree of Catherine II, who considered it inappropriate for the public to enter the Hermitage through her own chambers, a gallery-bridge with the Winter Palace - the “Apollo Hall” - was created, through which visitors could bypass the royal apartments. At the same time, Quarenghi erected the new “Throne (St. George)” hall, opened in 1795. The old throne room was converted into a series of rooms provided for chambers for the newly married Grand Duke Alexander. A “Marble Gallery” (of three halls) was also created.

After the fire of 1837, when all the interiors were destroyed, restoration work in the Winter Palace was led by architects V. P. Stasov, A. P. Bryullov and A. E. Staubert.

Historical events

On April 7 (according to another version - April 11), 1762, on Easter, the ceremony of consecrating the palace took place, and the next day the imperial court moved into it.

K. J. Vernet. Fire in the Winter Palace

On December 29, 1837, there was a fire in the Winter Palace. They could not put it out for three days; all this time, the property taken out of the palace was piled up around the Alexander Column. Restoration work required enormous efforts, but the palace was revived in two years. The work was supervised by V.P. Stasov, who used new floor and roof structures.

Women's shock battalion defending the Winter Palace from the Bolshevik rebellion.

On February 5, 1880, Narodnaya Volya member S.N. Khalturin carried out an explosion in the Winter Palace with the aim of killing Alexander II, while eleven guard soldiers were killed and fifty-six were wounded, but neither the emperor nor his family members were injured.

On January 9, 1905, during a procession of columns of workers to the Winter Palace, a peaceful workers' demonstration was shot, which served as the beginning of the Revolution of 1905-1907. In August 1914, after the outbreak of the Second Patriotic (First World) War, some of the cultural property from the palace, including the Jewelry Gallery, was taken to Moscow, however Art Gallery remained in place.

In mid-October 1915, a military hospital named after Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was located in the palace. The halls of the Nevsky and Great Enfilades, as well as the Picket and Alexander Halls were allocated for hospital wards. During the revolution of February 1917, the palace was occupied by troops who went over to the side of the rebels.

Since July 1917, the palace became the residence of the Provisional Government, which announced the nationalization of the royal palaces and formed an artistic and historical commission to accept the values of the Winter Palace. In September, part of the art collection was evacuated to Moscow.

On the night of October 25–26 (November 7–8), 1917, during the days of the October Revolution, the Red Guard, revolutionary soldiers and sailors surrounded the palace, which was guarded by a garrison of cadets and a women’s battalion, totaling 2.7 thousand people. The palace was fired upon by the cannons of the Peter and Paul Fortress. By 2 hours 10 minutes. On the night of October 26 (November 8), the palace was stormed and the Provisional Government was arrested. In cinema, the storming of the Winter Palace was depicted as a battle. In fact, it was almost bloodless - the defenders of the palace offered almost no resistance.

On October 30 (November 12), 1917, People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky declared the Winter Palace and the Hermitage state museums. For several months, the People's Commissariat for Education was located in the rooms on the first floor of the palace. Cinematic screenings, concerts, lectures, and meetings began to be held in the main halls. In 1919, the first exhibitions of paintings from paintings remaining in Petrograd after the revolution, as well as the exhibition “Funeral Cult of Ancient Egypt,” opened in the palace.

Workers of the Kirov plant and young sailors on the bridge. Defenders of Leningrad during the siege. Siege of Leningrad Russia, Leningrad region
On June 22, 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, twelve bomb shelters were equipped in the basements of the palace, in which about two thousand people permanently lived until 1942. Part of the non-evacuated museum collection of the Hermitage, cultural values from suburban palaces and various institutions of Leningrad were hidden in the palace.

During the war, the palace buildings were damaged by Wehrmacht artillery fire and Luftwaffe bombing; a total of seventeen artillery shells and two aerial bombs hit them. The Small Throne (Peter's) Hall was damaged, part of the Armorial Hall and the ceiling of the Rastrelli Gallery were destroyed, and the Jordan Staircase was damaged. On November 7, 1944, the palace was partially opened to the public. The restoration of the halls and facades of the palace continued for many years after the war.

Architecture

Facade facing the Neva
The modern three-story building has the shape of a square of 4 wings with an internal courtyard and facades facing the Neva, the Admiralty and Palace Square. The magnificent decoration of the facades and premises gives the building a sense of splendor. The main facade, facing Palace Square, is cut through by the arch of the main passage, which was created by Rastrelli after his work on the renovation of the palace in Strelna, probably under the influence of the magnificent architectural design of Michetti (whose forerunner was Leblon). Differently composed facades, strong protrusions of risalits, accentuation of stepped corners, changing rhythm of columns (by changing the intervals between columns, Rastrelli either collects them into bunches or exposes the plane of the wall) create an impression of restlessness, unforgettable solemnity and splendor.

Clock mechanism of the Winter Palace clock

The palace building has 1084 rooms, 1945 windows, 117 staircases (including secret ones). The length of the facade from the Neva side is 137 meters, from the Admiralty side - 106 meters, height 23.5 meters. In 1844, Nicholas I issued a decree prohibiting the construction of civil buildings in St. Petersburg higher than the height of the Winter Palace. They had to be built at least one fathom less.

Despite the reconstruction and many innovations, the basic planning scheme of the palace retained the ideas of F.-B. Rastrelli. The palace buildings are formed around the internal Great Courtyard. In the northwestern and southwestern wings, on the site of the Throne Hall and the Opera House, light courtyards were created, around which enfilades of residential chambers were formed.

Adjacent to the Winter Palace from the east is the Small Hermitage, built along the Black Passage. The buildings of the St. George's Hall, the Great Church, the south-eastern and north-eastern wings of the palace open into this passage; the space is divided into a system of courtyards and depressions: “Small” and “Big Church” courtyards (from the Great Church located here, founded back in 1763), “Church” and “Garage” (from the garage located here) depressions, “Kitchen yard” .

Design features

The three-story building of the palace has a semi-basement floor and numerous mezzanine floors, some of the main halls on the second floor are double-story. The brickwork of the walls with lime mortar is very massive, the interfloor ceilings are made both in the form of brick vaults and along beams. The massive cornice of the palace is built on a stone foundation, which is supported by iron clamps passing through the brickwork of the outer walls, preserved from the time of Rastrelli.

The entire rafter system and all the ceilings above the halls in the 18th century were made of wood (the ceilings were insulated with felt and canvas, the rafters were tarred). There were no firewalls in the attics before the fire. During the restoration of the palace, iron structures began to play a major role. Such a massive use of iron in construction was unusual in world practice. Engineer M. E. Clark developed triangular trusses - “roofing trusses” - to support the roof of the Winter Palace, and “blown elliptical beams” to cover the palace halls.

The covering of the St. George's Hall became one of the first examples of the use of rolled steel in domestic construction. In 1887, under the leadership of the architect Gornostaev, some deformed structures were updated and old structures were strengthened. Most of them still regularly serve in Zimny.

When constructing the floors between the nearest beams, microvaults were made from hollow pottery pots in lime mortar. Below in the halls a metal ceiling was fixed or plastered.

In the 1840s, the building was equipped with a unique heating system using Ammos stoves, which were located in the basements, and heated clean air entered the premises through heat ducts (later a water-air system would be created on this basis). Much attention in late XIX 19th century began to pay attention to the ventilation system. Sewage accumulated in a collector built by Rastrelli, which discharged sewage into the Neva. After the reconstruction of the embankment, this collector was sealed and the Winter Palace “became itself” for some time. In 1886, the Winter Palace was electrified.

The rafters above the Great Throne Room.

Brace supporting the cornice

I-beam elliptical beam

Pottery pots in the palace vaults

The facades and roof of the palace changed the color scheme several times. The original color had a very light warm ocher color, highlighting the order system and plastic decoration with white lime paint.
In the second half of the 1850s - 1860s, under Emperor Alexander II, the color of the palace facades changed. The ocher becomes more dense. The order system and plastic decor are not painted with an additional color, but acquire a very light tonal highlight. In fact, the facades are perceived as monochrome.

Clearing historical paint

In the 1880s, under Emperor Alexander III, the facades were painted in two tones: a dense ocher expression with the addition of red pigment and a weaker terracotta tonality. With the accession of Nicholas II in 1897, the emperor approved the project of painting the facades of the Winter Palace in the coloring of the “new fence of the Own Garden” - red sandstone without any tonal highlighting of the columns and decor.

Winter Palace. Coloring of the second half of the 18th century. B.F. Rastrelli

Winter Palace. Painting at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries.

All the buildings on Palace Square - the headquarters of the Guards Corps and the General Staff - were painted in the same color, which, according to the architects of that period, contributed to the unity of perception of the ensemble. In 2011, during the restoration of the Hermitage garage for painting it

Winter Palace. Painting of the first quarter of the 20th century.

The terracotta-brick color of the palace remained until the end of the 1920s, after which experiments began and the search for a new color scheme began. In 1927, an attempt was made to paint it gray, in 1928-1930. - in a brown-gray color scheme, and the copper sculpture on the roof - in black.

Winter Palace. Coloring 1880s - 1890s.

In 1934, the first attempt was made to paint the palace with orange oil paint highlighting the order system with white paint, but oil paint had a negative impact on the stone, plaster and stucco decoration. In 1940, a decision was made to remove oil paint from the façade.

Winter Palace.Current painting

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, for camouflage purposes, the palace was painted with reversible adhesive gray paint.
Since the 1960s, when painting facades, instead of lime paints, synthetic dyes began to be used, which negatively affect stucco decoration, plaster and natural stone. In 1976, on the recommendation of the All-Union Central Research Laboratory, a decision was made to clear the surface of the sculptures from the paint coating to form a natural layer of patina, which at that time was considered a natural protection against aggressive environmental influences. Currently, the surface of copper is protected with a special paint composition containing a copper corrosion inhibitor.

Over sixty-five years, the public and city authorities have developed a certain stereotype in the perception of the color scheme of the palace, however, according to the Hermitage researchers, the currently existing color scheme of the facades does not correspond to the artistic image of the palace, and therefore it is proposed to recreate the color scheme of the facades as close as possible to the volumetric-spatial composition of the palace created by Bartolomeo Rastrelli.

The sculptures and vases installed above the cornice along the entire perimeter of the building add elegance and splendor to the silhouette of the building. They were originally carved from stone and replaced by metal ones in 1892-1902 (sculptors M.P. Popov, D.I. Jensen). The “opened” composition of the Winter Palace is a kind of Russian reworking of the type of closed palace building with a courtyard, common in the architecture of Western Europe.

To be continued

This grandiose building, located in St. Petersburg, like all the architectural creations of the city, is distinguished by its sophistication combined with pomp and pomp. Winter Palace St. Petersburg serves as a center for art and tourism Russian Federation, its great attraction. This building has a centuries-old mysterious story, shrouded in legends and myths. The splendor of the palace enchants and makes you travel back to the distant times of emperors, balls and social life of that time. Architectural solutions, used during construction, amaze with their magnificence. The design went through a number of changes, it was reincarnated several times and came in its final form in our time. This creation is located on Palace Square, uniting with it into a single whole and recreating a grandiose landscape.

Winter Palace: description of the building

The style in which the building is made is Elizabethan Baroque. Since Soviet times, this room has housed the main exhibition of the State Hermitage. Throughout its history, the Winter Palace has been the residence of Russian emperors.

Many tourists took photos of the winter palace as a souvenir. This extraordinary beauty is mesmerizing. The palace is gorgeous both outside and inside. More on this later.

History of the Grand Palace

Back in 1712, during the reign of Peter I, land It was forbidden to give it to ordinary people. Such land zones were intended for upper-class sailors. Peter took this plot for himself.

At first, a wooden, ordinary house was built. Closer to the cold weather, a ditch was dug in front of the front of the house, which was called the Winter. This is where the name of the palace later came from.

Over the years, Peter appointed many famous architects to work on the reconstruction and improvement of the house. So, from a wooden one it turned into a stone palace.

In 1735, the eminent architect Francesco Rastrelli got down to business. He suggested that Anna Ioanovna, who was in power, buy nearby plots of land with houses and carry out a total reconstruction. This is how the current Winter Palace was built, which after some time acquired a slightly different appearance.

With the coming to power of Elizabeth Petrovna, the Winter Palace became different, the one that contemporaries can see. In her opinion, the palace did not meet the requirements necessary for the residence of the empress. Rastrelli created a new project.

The great architect made his creation truly magnificent in a short period of time. The best craftsmen and 4 thousand workers were involved. Francesco Rastrelli individually worked out every detail of the palace, which were not similar to each other.

Palace architecture

The architecture of the Winter Palace is striking in its versatility. The height of the building is emphasized by two-tier columns. The Baroque style itself is an example of pomp and richness.

This building has 3 floors, a courtyard, a square plan, consisting of 4 wings. The facades of the palace face the Neva River, Palace Square and the Admiralty.

The facades are decorated very elegantly, the main one is cut through by an arch. Solemnity and splendor are created by Rastrelli’s unusual architectural solutions: projections of risalits, uneven distribution of columns, varied layout of facades, accents on the stepped corners of the building.

The Winter Palace consists of 1084 different rooms with a total of 1945 windows. There are 117 staircases. For world practice of that time, this building was unusual in that it was constructed using great amount metal

The color scheme of the palace is such that it corresponds to sandy shades. This move was conceived by the architect Rastrelli. Local authorities, after all sorts of color choices, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to recreate the color scheme that was thought out and executed by Rastrelli.

Winter Palace from the inside

Unfortunately, that original splendor created by the great architect, in modern times No. The reason for this was a fire in 1837. Only load-bearing walls and semi-columns on the ground floor could be preserved, in contrast to the decoration of all the halls.

The Winter Palace has the following halls:

Field Marshals' Hall (it is decorated with portraits of 6 field marshals; according to tradition, the 7th niche is empty);
Jordan Gallery (made in the Russian Baroque style, named after the religious procession from the Great Church of the Winter Palace through this room);
Petrovsky/Small Throne Hall (dedicated to the memory of Peter I);
The Armorial Hall (after a fire, it was restored by V.P. Stasov in the style of Russian late classicism, it was intended for receiving gentlemen, has the coats of arms of Russian provinces);
St. George/Great Throne Hall (located is the white marble bas-relief “St. George the Victorious Slaying the Dragon”);
Military gallery (dedicated to the war with Napoleon and the victory over him);
Picket/New Hall (dedicated to the history of the Russian army);
Large church (a belfry with 5 bells was built, made in the Baroque style);
Chambers of Empress Maria Alexandrovna (consist of the Golden Living Room, Dance Hall, Blue Bedroom, Boudoir, Crimson Study);
Alexander Hall (currently houses a collection of silver of Western European origin);
Antechambers of the Neva Front Enfilade (consists of a concert hall, Antechamber, Nikolaevsky Hall);
White dining room (features a variety of interiors, designed in the Rococo style);
Malachite living room (125 pounds of malachite were used for decoration, the entire living room is framed in it).

Conclusion

The Winter Palace has always been and will be a symbol of the greatness of the Russian state. This is an unshakable leader among world-class tourist sites. For the sake of such historical beauty, many stunned tourists put the Winter Palace with its enchanting summer garden , broken on the banks of the Neva.

The Winter Palace is the largest palace building in St. Petersburg. Its dimensions and magnificent decoration make it possible to rightfully classify it as one of 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 all of Europe. With its enormity, its architecture, it depicts a powerful people who have so recently entered the midst of educated nations, and with its internal splendor it reminds of the inexhaustible life that boils in the interior of Russia... The Winter Palace for us is a representative of everything domestic, Russian, ours,” - this is what 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, construction was permitted only to naval officials. Peter I took advantage of this right, being a shipwright 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, by order of the future emperor, a canal was dug in front of the side facade of the palace, named (after the palace) the Winter Canal.

In 1711, especially for the wedding of Peter I and Catherine, the architect Georg Mattarnovi, on the orders of the Tsar, began rebuilding wooden palace in stone. During the work, the architect Mattarnovi was removed from work 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 a 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 own 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 Maritime Academy, Raguzinsky and Chernyshev. Anna Ioanovna approved the project, the houses were bought up, demolished, and work began to boil. In 1735, construction of the palace was completed, and the Empress moved to live there. Here, on July 2, 1739, Princess Anna Leopoldovna's engagement to Prince Anton-Urich took place. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the young Emperor Ivan 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 remodel the imperial residence to her taste. On January 1, 1752, she decided to expand the Winter Palace, after which the neighboring areas of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky were purchased. At the new location, Rastrelli added new buildings. According to the project he drew up, these buildings were to be attached to existing ones and be decorated 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. New project- the next building of the Winter Palace - Elizabeth Petrovna signed on June 16, 1754.

Construction lasted eight long years, which coincided with the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and the short reign of Peter III.

The story of Peter III’s arrival at the palace is interesting. After Elizabeth’s death, 15 thousand dresses, many thousands of shoes and stockings remained in her wardrobe, and only six silver rubles were left in the state treasury. Peter III, who replaced Elizabeth on the throne, wished to immediately move into his new residence. But Palace Square was cluttered with piles of bricks, boards, logs, barrels of lime and similar construction debris. The capricious disposition of the new sovereign was known, and the Chief of Police found a way out: in St. Petersburg it was announced that all ordinary people had the right to take whatever they wanted on Palace Square. A contemporary (A. Bolotov) writes in his memoirs that almost all of St. Petersburg with wheelbarrows, carts, and some with sleighs (despite the proximity of Easter!) came running to Palace Square. Clouds of sand and dust rose above her. The inhabitants grabbed everything: boards, bricks, clay, lime, and barrels... By evening the square was completely cleared. Nothing interfered with the ceremonial 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 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 the chambers of her favorite G. G. Orlov to be placed.

On the side of Palace Square, the Throne Hall was equipped, and a waiting room appeared in front of it - the White Hall. A dining room was located behind the White Hall. The Bright Office was adjacent to it. The dining room was followed by the State Bedchamber, which a year later became the Diamond Chamber. In addition, the Empress ordered a library, an office, a boudoir, two bedrooms and a restroom to be equipped 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 acquired a collection of 225 works by Dutch and Flemish artists from the merchant I. Gotzkovsky. Most of the paintings were placed in secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name “Hermitage” (“place of solitude”).

The fourth, currently existing palace built by Elizabeth 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 intended to erect an equestrian statue of Peter I.

The facades of the palace are divided into two tiers by an entablature. They are decorated with columns of the Ionic and Composite orders. 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 the platbands, 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, which is exceptional in its pomp and splendor.

The southern facade is cut through by three entrance arches, which emphasizes its importance as the main one. The entrance arches lead to the front courtyard, where the central 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,” located in an enfilade, behind them was a huge Throne Hall, and in the southwestern part was the palace theater.

Despite the fact that the Winter Palace was completed in 1762, work on decorating the interior was still underway for a long time. These works were entrusted to the best Russian architects Yu. M. Felten, J. B. Ballen-Delamot and A. Rinaldi.

In the 1780-1790s, work on remodeling the interior decoration of the palace was continued by I. E. Starov and G. Quarenghi. 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.

Throughout the lower floor there were galleries with arches. Galleries connected all parts of the palace. The premises on the sides of the galleries were of a service nature. There were storerooms, a guardhouse, and palace employees lived here.

The state 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 upper floor mainly housed the apartments of the courtiers.

The palace was also subject to destruction. For example, on December 17-19, 1837, there was a strong fire that completely destroyed the beautiful decoration of the Winter Palace, of which only a charred skeleton remained. They could not put out the flames for three days; all this time, the property taken from the palace was piled up around the Alexander Column. As a result of the disaster, the interiors of Rastrelli, Quarenghi, Montferrand, and Rossi were destroyed. Restoration work began 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 reached us in their original form.

On February 5, 1880, Narodnaya Volya member S.N. Khalturin, with the aim of assassinating Alexander II, carried out an explosion in the Winter Palace. In this case, eight guard soldiers were killed and forty-five were wounded, but neither the emperor nor his family members were injured.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the interior design was constantly changing and adding 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 updated 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 special ceremonies were held in the Winter Palace. With the accession of Nicholas II to the throne in 1894, the imperial family returned to the palace.

The most significant changes in the history of the Winter Palace occurred in 1917, along with the Bolsheviks coming to power. A lot of valuables were stolen and damaged by sailors and workers while the palace was under their control. The former chambers of Alexander III were damaged by a direct hit from a shell fired from a cannon at the Peter and Paul Fortress. Only a few days later, the Soviet government declared the Winter Palace and the Hermitage state museums and took the buildings under protection. Soon, valuable palace property and Hermitage collections 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 tasked with placing guards to protect the Winter Palace, decided to familiarize himself with the placement 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 by this name the garden was known to St. Petersburg residents). An inquisitive Red Guard found out the history of this post. It turned out that once Tsarina Catherine II, going out to the Razvodnaya platform in the morning, saw a sprouted flower there. To prevent it from being trampled by soldiers and passers-by, 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 to keep 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 any flower, no Queen Catherine, or even the Divorce Platform.

In 1918, part of the premises of the Winter Palace was given over to the Museum of the Revolution, which entailed the reconstruction of their interiors. The Romanov Gallery, which contained portraits of sovereigns and members of the House of Romanov, was completely liquidated. Many of the palace's chambers were occupied by a reception center for prisoners of war, a children's colony, a headquarters for organizing mass celebrations, etc. The Armorial Hall was used for theatrical performances, and the Nicholas 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 works of painting and sculpture were used to decorate the mansions and apartments of party, Soviet and military leaders, holiday homes of officials and members of their families. Since 1922, the premises of the Winter Palace began to gradually be transferred to the Hermitage.

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, many of the Hermitage’s valuables were urgently evacuated, some of them were hidden in the basements. To prevent fires in the museum buildings, the windows were bricked or shuttered. In some rooms, the parquet floors were covered with a layer of sand.

The Winter Palace was a major target. A large number of bombs and shells exploded near it, and several hit the building itself. Thus, on December 29, 1941, a shell crashed into the southern wing of the Winter Palace, overlooking the kitchen courtyard, damaging the iron rafters and roofing over an area of three hundred square meters, and destroying the fire-fighting water supply installation located in the attic. An attic vault covering 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 restoration workshops took part. In the summer of 1942, the roof was covered in places where it had been damaged by shells, the formwork was partially repaired, broken skylights or iron sheets were installed, the destroyed metal rafters were replaced with temporary wooden ones, and the plumbing system was repaired.

On May 12, 1943, a bomb hit the Winter Palace building, partially destroying the roof over the St. George's Hall and metal rafter structures, and damaging the brickwork of the walls in the storeroom of the Department of the History of Russian Culture. In the summer of 1943, despite the shelling, they continued to seal the roof, ceilings, and skylights with tarred plywood. On January 2, 1944, another shell hit the Armorial Hall, severely damaging the decoration 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 museum buildings. Restoration work required enormous efforts and lasted 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 artistic and urban planning terms, it belongs to the highest achievements of Russian architecture. All the halls of this palace ensemble, built over many years, is occupied by the State Hermitage Museum - the largest museum in the world, with huge collections of works of art.

In the appearance of the Winter Palace, which was created, as the decree on its construction stated, “for the united glory of all Russia,” in its elegant, festive appearance, 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, became the capital of the Russian Empire, with all the character of the surrounding urban landscape, which continues 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 Winter itself. The square was formed in 1754 during the construction of the Winter Palace according to the design of V. Rastrelli. An important role in its formation was played by K. I. Rossi, who in 1819-1829 created the General Staff building and the Ministry building and connected them into a single whole with a magnificent Arc de Triomphe. The Alexander Column took its place in the ensemble of Palace Square 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 ensemble of Palace Square is completed by the building of the Headquarters of the Guards Corps, created in 1837-1843 by the architect A.P. Bryullov.

The palace was conceived and built in the form of a closed quadrangle, with a vast courtyard. The Winter Palace is quite large and clearly stands out from the surrounding houses.

Countless white columns either gather in groups (especially picturesque and expressive at the corners of the building), then thin out and part, revealing windows framed by platbands with lion masks and cupids' heads. There are dozens of decorative vases and statues on the balustrade. The corners of the building are bordered by columns and pilasters.

Each facade of the Winter Palace is made in its own way. The northern facade, facing the Neva, stretches like a more or less even wall, without noticeable protrusions. The southern façade, facing Palace Square and having seven divisions, is the main one. Its center is cut through by three entrance arches. Is there a front yard behind them? where in the middle of the northern building there used to be the main entrance to the palace. Of the side facades, the most interesting is the western one, facing the Admiralty and the square on which Rastrelli intended to place the equestrian statue of Peter I cast by his father. Each casing 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 on the facades were made on site.

The Winter Palace was always painted in bright colors. The original coloring of the palace was pink and yellow, as illustrated by drawings from the 18th - first quarter of the 19th centuries.

Of the interior spaces of the palace created by Rastrelli, the Jordan Staircase and part of the Great Church have retained their Baroque appearance. The main staircase is located in the northeast corner of the building. You can see on it various parts decor - columns, mirrors, statues, intricate gilded stucco, a huge lampshade created by Italian painters. The staircase, divided into two ceremonial flights, led to the main, Northern enfilade, which consisted of five large halls, behind which in the northwestern risalit there was a huge Throne Hall, and in the southwestern part - the palace Theater.

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 secondly in the name of the Savior, the Image Not Made by Hands (1763). Its walls are decorated with stucco - an elegant floral pattern. The three-tier iconostasis is decorated with icons and picturesque panels depicting biblical scenes. The Evangelists on the ceiling vaults were later painted by F.A. Bruni. Now nothing reminds of the former purpose of the church hall, destroyed in the 1920s, except for the golden dome and the large picturesque ceiling by F. Fontebasso, depicting the Resurrection of Christ.

White Hall

It was created by A.P. Bryullov on the site of a number of premises that had three semi-circular windows along the facade in the center, and three rectangular windows on the sides. This circumstance gave the architect the idea of dividing the room into three compartments and highlighting the middle one with particularly luxurious treatment. The hall is separated from the side parts by arches on projecting pylons, decorated with pilasters, and the central window and the opposite door are emphasized by Corinthian columns, above which are placed four statues - female figures personifying the arts. The hall is covered with semi-circular vaults. The wall opposite the central windows is designed with an arcature and above each semicircle there are pairs of 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 decorated with caissons and stucco molding 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 moldings with grotesque ornaments is introduced. Above the pilasters there is a wide frieze with figures of children engaged in music and dancing, hunting and fishing, harvest and winemaking, or playing at sailing and war. This combination of architectural elements of different scales and overloading the hall with ornaments are characteristic of the classicism of the 1830s, but the white color gives the hall integrity.

St. George's Hall and Military Gallery

Experts call the St. George, or Great Throne Hall, created according to Quarenghi’s design, the most perfect interior. In order to create the St. George's Hall, a special building had to be added to the center of the eastern facade of the palace. In the design of this room, which enriched 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 famous architects also took part in the design of the palace interiors. In 1826, according to the design of K.I. Rossi, a Military Gallery was built in front of St. George's 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 painted 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 the work began, many were no longer alive, some portraits were painted from 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 the vaults supported by arches. The arches rested on groups of double columns that stood against the longitudinal walls. Portraits were arranged in five rows on 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. Doe. 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 its sides there is an image of the Prussian King Frederick William III, also painted 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's Hall, then on its sides you can see portraits of Field Marshals M.I. Kutuzov and M.B. Barclay de Tolly by Doe.

In the 1830s, A. S. Pushkin often visited the gallery. He immortalized it in the poem “Commander,” dedicated to Barclay de Tolly:

The Russian Tsar has a chamber in his palace:
She is not rich in gold or velvet;
But from top to bottom, all the way around,
With your brush free and wide
It was painted by a quick-eyed artist.
There are no rural nymphs or virgin Madonnas here,
No fauns with cups, no full-breasted wives,
No dancing, no hunting, but all cloaks and swords,
Yes, faces full of military courage.
The artist placed the crowd in a crowd
Here are the leaders of our people's forces,
Covered with the glory of a wonderful campaign
AND eternal memory twelfth year.

The fire of 1837 did not spare the gallery, however, fortunately, all the portraits were carried 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 hall's composition were changed. Stasov extended the gallery by 12 meters. A balcony was placed above the wide crowning cornice for passage to the choirs of adjacent halls, for which purpose arches resting on columns were eliminated, rhythmically breaking the too long vault into parts.

After the Great Patriotic War, the gallery was restored, and four additional portraits of palace grenadiers, veterans who served in the campaign of 1812-1814 as ordinary soldiers, were placed in it. These works were also carried out by J. Doe.

Petrovsky Hall

Peter's Hall is also known as the Small Throne Room. Decorated with particular 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 in later finishing is related to the treatment of the walls. Previously, the panels on the side walls were divided by one pilaster, now there are two of them. 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 mounted in diagonal directions.

The hall is dedicated to the memory of Peter I. The crossed Latin monograms of Peter, double-headed eagles and crowns are included in the motifs of the stucco ornament of the capitals of the columns and pilasters, the frieze on the walls, in 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 is the figure of Peter I (artists - B. Medici and P. Scotti).

In 1754, on the left bank of the Neva near the Admiralty, according to the design of F. B. Rastrelli, construction began on the Winter Palace, which is still the most important building both in the panorama of the Neva and in the ensemble of the city’s main Palace Square, modern look which took shape by the middle of the 19th century.
The Winter Palace is one of the outstanding Baroque monuments. According to the architect, he built it “for a single All-Russian glory.”
The new building replaced the palace complex, in the reconstruction of which Rastrelli also took part. When creating a new palace, the architect primarily proceeded from the fact that the building was to become the dominant feature central region capital Cities.
In the architecture of the Winter Palace, the compositional scheme of a block house, first used in the construction of the Stroganov Palace, was developed. Four huge corner massive volumes, which housed the main rooms (the Throne Room, the theater, the main staircase and the church), are connected by gallery buildings (with a suite of main halls on the second floor), forming a cruciform front courtyard in the center.
The facades of the building are divided into two horizontal zones. The lower one consists of the ground and first floors, united by columns of the Ionic order, above which is placed a tier of columns of a more magnificent composite order, which emphasizes the greater importance of the two upper floors. The rhythm of the columns changes all the time: they are either gathered in bunches at the corners, or evenly segment the walls, or are grouped in different combinations, emphasizing the middle parts of the risalits. Decorative vases and statues installed on the roof balustrade complicate the silhouette of the building. Initially they were made of Pudost stone by Russian craftsmen. The currently existing hollow statues made of stamped copper were made in 1892 according to the models of M.P. Popov.
An important role in the decorative design of the facades is played by whimsically curving cornices and window frames of various shapes, of which there are about two thousand in the palace. There are numerous options for platbands decorated with lion masks, angel heads, fancy curls, and pediments of different designs. Since some of the stucco work was done by hand, the master sculptors added something of their own to the interpretation of each sample. Therefore, it was hardly possible to find two identical window frames. The impression of festivity created by the architecture of the majestic palace is enhanced by the intense coloring of sections of the walls free from decoration, the bright whiteness of the columns and the gilding of some stucco details.
Realizing that the Winter Palace, which occupied a colossal site, would be clearly visible from all sides and from different distances, Rastrelli designed each of its facades taking into account the specific environment. The northern façade, facing the Neva, has been given a calm, solemn character. Like the buildings of Peter the Great’s time that once stood nearby, the palace here has no strong protrusions. From a distance it resembles a two-tiered colonnade. The southern facade, equal in length, which was previously separated from the urban development by a vast green meadow, on the contrary, is strongly dissected. In it, the dynamics of plastic forms increases towards the center, highlighted by a wide, richly decorated risalit with three arches of the main entrance. The two side risalits are inferior to it in size and are not pushed forward so much. The western and eastern facades are similar in composition: they are flanked by powerful projections - the entrances were located between them.
As indicated, the main entrance to the palace was from the side of a huge meadow. Having passed under the arches, passing the front courtyard, eminent persons found themselves under the high arches of that part of the palace that faces the Neva, and headed towards the luxurious Jordan Staircase. It is still located in the northeastern building. Her ceremonial marches led to the main northern enfilade, which consisted of five spacious rooms, the so-called anti-chambers, from which they entered the Great Throne Hall, located in the northwestern risalit.
In the southern direction from the main staircase stretches another chain of main halls - the Great Enfilade, to which the church adjoins from the southeast. Its decoration, which has survived to this day, was not much different from the decor of other halls of the palace. The magnificent ceiling was painted by the artist F. Fontebasso, who also created the ceiling of the main staircase. A masterfully executed, molded, elegantly designed light floral ornament, covered with gilding, decorates the walls. In the past, only the presence of an iconostasis indicated the purpose of the room.
In addition to the main halls, there were living quarters on the second floor. The first floor was allocated for utility and service premises. Most of the upper floor was occupied by courtiers' apartments.
The construction of a huge palace was expensive, required a colossal amount of materials and a huge number of craftsmen of various specialties, and therefore could not move quickly. By 1762, when Catherine II became the owner of the palace, the facade work was completed, but most of the rooms were not finished. The Empress removed Rastrelli from supervising the work, since the architect's creative style did not meet new tastes. The architects Yu. M. Felten, J.-B. were involved in the decoration of the interiors. Vallin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi, who worked in a style called classicism. In the 1780-1790s, many rooms located in the northern and western parts of the palace were decorated according to the designs of I. E. Starov and D. Quarenghi. Some parts of the building have undergone redevelopment. On the site of the throne room and theater, Staroye created living quarters located around lighted courtyards. Quarenghi designed the Neva Enfilade by combining the three middle antichambers into a huge hall, the perspective of which was organized by the rhythm of two symmetrical rows of columns. The anti-chamber, originally adjacent to the throne room, was converted into Concert hall.
Quarenghi created a new, grandiose Throne Hall, for which a special building was added to the center of the eastern facade of the palace. Colored marble and gilded bronze were widely used in the decoration of this hall, called St. George's.
People were also involved in the work in the palace major architects first half of the 19th century. In 1826, according to the design of K. I. Rossi, a Military Gallery was built near the Throne Hall, which became a kind of monument to the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. Numerous portraits of war participants decorating its walls were painted by the English artist D. Dow. The same theme was reflected in the decoration of the Alexander Hall, carried out according to the drawings of A.P. Bryullov in 1839.
O. Montferrand was engaged in reconstruction in the eastern building of the palace, where he designed the Field Marshal's, Peter's and Armorial halls.
On December 17, 1837, a fire broke out in the Winter Palace, as a result of which only charred walls remained of Rastrelli’s creation. True, the works of art that decorated the premises, furniture and other valuable property were saved.
They were able to restore the palace in a very short term- in just two years. The work went on day and night. They were led by architects V.P. Stasov and A.P. Bryullov. Some interiors, such as the main Jordan Staircase, the Concert Hall, and the church, were restored, while others received a new design, which was later partially replaced.
In the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, some rooms were remodeled in accordance with the tastes of the changing owners. It was during this period that the stylistic unity of interiors was broken by the appearance of rooms decorated in different architectural styles. Projects that were distinguished by their breadth of concept, rigor, grandeur and bright individuality were no longer created; compositions appear that are overloaded with crushed parts. Such are, for example, the preserved interiors on the half of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, made according to the drawings of G. A. Bosse (Red Boudoir), V. A. Schreiber (Golden Living Room), or the library of Nicholas II (author A. F. Krasovsky).
At the same time, changes were made to the appearance of the palace. The proportions of the western facade were greatly distorted due to the raising of the ground by more than a meter to create the garden. In 1901, a fence was created around it according to the drawings of R. F. Meltzer. Heavy cast iron links were mounted on a high plinth made of polished red granite. Previously, using the same architect’s templates, overloaded grilles for entrance arches and entrance ramps were made.
In the 1900s, the owners' interest in the palace faded. Frightened by the rapid growth of the revolutionary movement, Nicholas II left the capital's residence in 1904 and settled in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo. From this time on, the Winter Palace became only a place for official receptions and ceremonies. The Romanovs' fears were not in vain. The people's patience was overflowing. The number of strikes and demonstrations in the capital grew every day. The tsarist government brutally dealt with their participants. On January 9, 1905, a peaceful demonstration of workers was shot at the walls of the palace. After the February bourgeois revolution, the Winter Palace housed the Provisional Government. On the night of October 25-26, 1917, detachments of revolutionary sailors, soldiers and St. Petersburg workers, led by the Bolshevik Party led by V.I. Lenin, stormed Zimny.
Nowadays the Winter Palace is the most important part of the world-famous museum complex of the State Hermitage.

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