Entrance to the marble palace. Russian Museum. Marble Palace. Life of the palace after construction

Marble Palace is located in the very center of St. Petersburg. Even by standards Northern capital, not lacking in the most beautiful buildings, this monumental structure stands out for its beauty and grandeur.

The Marble Palace is absolutely unique. This building became the only building in St. Petersburg, the facade of which is completely covered with natural marble. Marble was brought to the construction site from many countries around 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 enthroning the queen.

Previously, on the site of the palace there was a Postal Yard with a hotel where Peter I stayed several times. In 1769, the Italian architect A. Rinaldi demolished the Postal Yard building and began construction of the Marble Palace. The building project was developed with the participation of the empress.

300 people worked on the construction site every day. Ekaterina regularly appeared at construction sites, recognizing and encouraging the most skilled builders.

Architecturally, the Marble Palace is an example of early classicism, one of the most striking in Russia. Colored marble, used in large quantities when facing the palace, emphasizes its monumentality and luxury.

The years have no power over the building - it has been preserved exactly in the same form as it first appeared before the eyes of St. Petersburg residents after the scaffolding was removed. Rinaldi ordered the upper floors to be faced with grayish marble, the lower floors with pink.

The empress took an active part in the development of the interior interiors of the palace. Due to the fact that the palace was being built for Count Grigory Orlov, the queen ordered the architect to make the interior decoration austere and masculine. The chambers of the palace are distinguished by restraint and grandeur.

In the Oryol Hall there are busts, statues and bas-reliefs of representatives of the count dynasty. In the Assembly 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, since 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 classic paintings and contemporary artists, press conferences and master classes.

Video:

The Marble Palace in St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Its main feature is that the craftsmen used more than 30 different types of marble when constructing the building. Some of the varieties of marble used were quarried nearby in the same city. Other types of material were imported from afar, from Italy itself. The Marble Palace was built in the 18th century, and was the first building constructed from such expensive and beautiful materials.

A little about history

The construction of the Marble Palace took 17 years. This beautiful architectural structure was presented by Empress Catherine the Great to Count Grigory Orlov as a reward for special military services to the Fatherland. How it looks, look at the photos and videos in the article. The lengthy construction of the Palace did not allow Grigory Orlov to wait for the gift. He died, and Catherine the Great subsequently bought her own gift from the count’s heirs and gave it to her grandson. Further, the Marble Palace located in St. Petersburg was passed from hand to hand, the architectural structure changed many owners. IN different times on the territory of this palace one could see a library, and the housing of the imperial family, and art gallery. There was a period when a prisoner, the leader of the Polish confederates, was kept here.

Reconstruction of the palace

In 1832, a reconstruction was carried out inside the building of the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, and this architectural structure acquired another floor, and in addition to it - a hall for balls, in which dinner parties were held, famous throughout St. Petersburg, look at the video and photo. At the time when Konstantin Romanov (son of Prince Nikolai Romanov) owned the Marble Palace, literary evenings, plays and performances on various topics were often held in the building. During the period of the October Revolution, various offices associated with the Ministry of Labor, created by the provisional government, were located in the building of the marble palace. The works of art collected in this Palace were then moved to the Hermitage.

Description

The interior decoration of the Marble Palace amazes visitors with its splendor. Every detail of the interior here is permeated with the spirit of courage and bravery. And indeed, this was originally the plan of Empress Catherine the Great. She wanted to show the courage, bravery and courage of the owner of the palace. In the palace halls there are various bas-reliefs and statues that recreate various heroic events that took place in the life of Count Grigory Orlov. The construction of this architectural object was headed by an architect from Italy, Antonio Rinaldi, and with him the construction was carried out by about four hundred other craftsmen. Empress Catherine even came to see how the construction was being carried out, and upon completion, she personally awarded the workers who took part in the creation of this architectural masterpiece.

The decoration of the first floor of the palace is made of gray marble, and the upper floors are decorated with beautiful pink marble. The inside of the halls is also decorated with marble, and one of them has a name similar to the name of the Palace - Marble. Its walls are lined with Karelian, Italian, Greek marble, as well as Baikal lapis lazuli.

Main staircase

The main staircase of this palace is decorated with grayish-silver marble, and the sculptural accompaniment of this staircase is represented by niches in which thematic sculptures are placed, personifying the day, morning, evening, night, spring and autumn equinox. Bas-reliefs, figures of eagles, trophies - all these elements are made of white marble and are the decor of the main staircase of the Marble Palace.

Now the Marble Palace receives visitors every day, despite reconstruction. Various thematic exhibitions are held inside the building. Visitors will be able to see paintings by foreign and domestic artists in this building. Get to architectural structure not difficult. The traveler will only need to drive to Millionnaya Street, 5. Entrance to the Marble Palace is paid, and its doors are open to visitors on all days except Tuesday. Discounts apply to families and excursion groups.

From the windows of the Marble Palace there is a beautiful and picturesque view of the Neva River. You can get here by metro, getting off at the Nevsky Prospekt station, or by minibus, getting off at the Suvorovskaya Ploshchad stop. Numbers minibus taxis– K76 and K46.

What can tourists see?

Now in the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, tourists can see many interesting compositions and exhibits. Many of them reflect the role of Russian art in the global context. On the territory of the palace there is a permanent exhibition about foreign artists in Russia during the 18th-19th centuries. By visiting it, you can find out useful information about the relationships between European and Russian artists. Another exhibition entitled “The Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum” allows us to trace how Russian art is developing in close connection with the artistic culture of the world.

One of the last owners of the Marble Palace was Konstantin Romanov, and in his chambers there is now an exhibition telling visitors about one of the poets of the Silver Age, Konstantin Romanov, who lived in this room. This exhibition is also worth visiting for everyone who came to the Marble Palace on an excursion.

Video


This is a short film that immerses you in the setting of the Marble Palace. After watching this video, you will have a clear idea of ​​what the Marble Palace, which is located in St. Petersburg, is like. You can also subscribe to our channel and see other sights of our vast Russia.

The creation of Antonio Rinaldi - the Marble Palace - a gift from Catherine II to her favorite Grigory Orlov for services to the Fatherland, in other words, for active participation in the palace coup of 1762, as a result of which Peter III was overthrown and Catherine ascended the throne.


According to legend, Catherine herself made a sketch of the palace, and Rinaldi, knowing this, highly appreciated her work and received permission for construction.



Construction took place from 1768 to 1785.
A marble chest with coins was laid in the foundation of the building.

The Marble Palace got its name due to the abundance of marble decoration on both the facade and the interior.
32 types of marble were used for wall cladding alone.

Grigory Orlov never had time to use the gift, because he did not live to see the completion of construction.
Subsequently, Catherine bought the palace from the count's heirs for the treasury and granted it to her grandson Konstantin Pavlovich.
The Grand Duke settled in the palace only after his marriage to Princess Saxe-Saafeld-Coburg (in Orthodoxy Anna Fedorovna) in February 1796. Later, the empress evicted her grandson from the palace for bad behavior. Konstantin Pavlovich, who was 16 years old at the time of the wedding (his wife was 14), shot live rats from a cannon in the premises and mocked his wife.

And in the 19th – 20th centuries, the palace generally became the family home of the Grand Dukes of the Romanov dynasty from the Konstantinovich branch.
Someone was always visiting or simply living in the palace.
For example, in 1795-1796, the captive leader of the Polish confederates, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, lived here, who was freed by Paul I after the death of Catherine II.
In 1797-1798, the Marble Palace was occupied by the former Polish king Stanislav August Poniatowski. He lived here with his court of 167 people and 83 members of his retinue.
To receive the king and his entourage, part of the Marble Palace was rebuilt
V. Brenna.
Over the years of its existence, the palace was repeatedly rebuilt inside: first in Brennaya, for Poniatovsky, then A small enfilade was rebuilt by Voronikhin along the Neva and partially along Millionnaya.

Konstantin Pavlovich eventually returned to his residence, but then, becoming the governor of the Kingdom of Poland, he left St. Petersburg.
After his departure, the palace became the property of the court office, and apartments began to be rented out to court officials. And in 1832, after examining the palace, it was declared unsafe and major repairs began.

The next restructuring took place already in 1845, under Konstantin Nikolaevich, and it was carried out by the brother of the painter Karl Bryullov - Alexander.
I won't go into technical details.

After Konstantin Nikolaevich, the palace was owned by his son, Konstantin Konstantinovich, known in literature under the pseudonym K.R. After his death in 1915, the widow left the palace.

During the First World War, the palace housed a hospital for wounded officers.

After the February Revolution, the Ministry of Labor of the Provisional Government was located in the ground floor of the Marble Palace.
After October 1917, the building was nationalized. Most of the art collections were transferred to the State Hermitage.

At first, the People's Commissariat of Labor worked here. After the government moved to Moscow in 1918, the palace housed the office of the authorized People's Commissariat of Education, the Administration of Palace Museums, the Academy of the History of Material Culture (in 1919-1936), the Society of Sociology and Theory of Art, and the Central Bureau of Local History.

After the liquidation of the Academy, the Marble Palace was transferred to the Leningrad branch of the Central Museum of V. I. Lenin. The building was rebuilt for museum purposes according to the design of N. E. Lansere and D. A. Vasiliev.
The Main Staircase and the Marble Hall were preserved.

In some rooms the artistic decoration was preserved. The museum opened on November 8, 1937. On January 22, 1940, an armored car was installed at the entrance, from which Lenin spoke on the day of his arrival in Petrograd, April 3, 1917. In 1983, it was restored and placed again in front of the Marble Palace on April 15 of the same year.

In 1992, the Marble Palace was transferred to the Russian Museum. V.I. Lenin's armored car was sent to the Artillery Museum.

And now, actually, the photo.
At the entrance to the palace, in front of the main staircase, there is a bas-relief depicting the chief architect - Antonio Rinaldi


The main staircase is decorated with sculptures by F. Shubin “Night”, “Morning”, “Day”, “Evening”, “Autumn and Spring Equinox”


Door from Rinaldi's time in an art gallery

Lamp above the main staircase

The most beautiful of the palace halls is the Marble Hall, the walls of which are lined with Ural, Karelian, Greek, Italian marble and Baikal lapis lazuli.


Ceiling lamp


Chandelier made of domestic crystal


Stacked parquet


Almost all the doors in the palace remained from the time of Rinaldi, they were just tidied up a little

Bas-relief on the wall and fireplace

Next to the Marble Hall there are premises where the Lenin Museum used to be. Since the intricate bourgeois tricks interfered with the correct perception of the image of the leader, all the architectural excesses, as well as the walls made of artificial marble, were painted over, as if preserved. Today's restorers simply clear away the paint on the ceiling, revealing the gilding,


and on the walls - three-color artificial marble is well preserved under the paint

This is the White (dance) hall. A banquet was supposed to take place here on this day.


Stucco molding above the entrance to the hall


The lighting in all rooms is dim. As the guide explained, they don’t currently produce the usual 100-candle light bulbs, only energy-saving ones, which look ridiculous in antique lamps, so they buy weak ones, but suitable in design.

Fireplace with mirror - original

Winter Garden

On the site of the Winter Garden there used to be Hanging Garden under open air, created by Antonio Rinaldi. In 1846, the architecture of the hall was completely changed by Alexander Bryullov, who reconstructed part of the palace premises on the eve of the wedding of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna.

The hall was covered with a coffered ceiling supported by 2 cast-iron columns, and was closed on the south side by a glass wall. Instead of apple and cherry trees, exotic plants were planted in the greenhouse garden, marble sculptures were installed among the greenery, and a fountain was installed in the center. The garden was connected to the Flower Garden by three open arched openings.

During the period when the building was occupied by the Lenin Museum, the hall ceased to be a garden: the fountain and decorative greenery were removed, a monument to Ilyich was placed near the glass doors, and paintings of revolutionary content were hung on the walls. After the exhibition was closed, the room was not used. Restoration began in 2005.
During the restoration work, a fountain, 4 floor lamps made of uranium glass with gilded bronze and a large three-leaf glazed door leading to the Royal Room were recreated. From the collection of the Russian Museum, two sculptures are installed in the hall - “Neapolitan fisherman playing the mandolin” (A. Bok, 1862) and “Cupid releasing a moth” (M. Popov, 1872).
Coffered ceiling


Floor lamps


Fountain

Sculptures by M. Popov and A. Bok

The very doors near which Ilyich showed off

Immediately behind the Winter Garden is the Royal Room,


in which the floor made of inlaid parquet from Rinaldi's time has been preserved.

Then we went out into the street and through an arch framed by niches with sculptures,

past the Italian courtyard, the view of which opens from the Winter Garden,


went to the personal chambers of Konstantin Konstantinovich and his wife, Elizaveta Mavrikievna, née Elizaveta Augusta Maria Agnes of Saxe-Altenburg.

About K.R. himself I need to write separately, he is such an interesting and versatile person. He is a poet, translator, playwright, an outstanding figure of Russian culture, president of the Academy of Sciences, one of the founders of the Pushkin House
He and his wife had 9 children. The children's rooms in the palace were decorated like a fairy-tale tower. Unfortunately, they have not been preserved in their original form.
But the personal chambers of the prince and princess were of no interest to the subsequent owners of the palace, so the interior of the male half was completely preserved.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to film there, I only managed to grab parts of the hallway, decorated in Russian style, trimmed with wood,

Table - original

ceiling in the library

and Walnut Cabinet.


Photo of the library itself, the Gothic music room and personal account took the Grand Duke



It was possible to film in Elizaveta Mavrikievna’s chambers, but, in fact, there was nothing:


this is the former matrimonial bedroom


Very beautiful hall, I don’t remember the purpose


Actually, this is where the excursion ended.
We went out into the courtyard to the long-suffering monument to Alexander III, which replaced Ilyich’s equally long-suffering armored car.


This monument by Paolo Trubetskoy was originally installed in 1909 on Znamenskaya Square (now Vosstaniya Square).
The location of the monument is associated with the merits of Alexander III as the founder of the Siberian railway from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

For the figure of the horseman, Trubetskoy was posed by the sergeant-major of the palace department P. Pustov, who has a great resemblance to the emperor. For the horse's figure, a Percheron breed was chosen - heavy and massive, to match the figure of the emperor.

The monument caused a mixed reaction from the public - from delight to sharp rejection.
Nicholas II himself, according to Alexander Benois, expressed the desire to “send the monument to Siberia.” There was a legend in the city according to which the monument to Alexander III was supposed to be erected in Ural mountains, on the border of Europe and Asia, which is why it was created so massive and heavy. It was assumed that the monument would be viewed from the windows of a speeding train, from a great distance, so that the massiveness of the statue would not be so noticeable.
Paolo Trubetskoy himself spoke uniquely about the monument. When asked what idea was embedded in this monument, he laughed it off: “I don’t do politics. I depicted one animal on another.”
Poems quickly spread throughout the city:
There is a chest of drawers on the square,
There's a hippopotamus on the chest of drawers,
There's a fool on a hippopotamus,
On the back is a hat.
In 1937, under the pretext of reconstructing Vosstaniya Square and laying tram tracks On Nevsky Prospekt, the monument was put into storage.
In 1939 it was transferred to the State Russian Museum, and the monument was moved to Mikhailovsky Garden.
And in 1994, the monument was erected near the Marble Palace.

 

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