Winter Palace: wiki: Facts about Russia. Imperial mansions: history of the Winter Palace How old is the Winter Palace

Empress Elizabeth, wanting to surpass the luxury of the palaces of European monarchs, ordered chief architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build a grandiose building in the center of St. Petersburg. In 1754, the design of the Winter Palace, designed in a magnificent Baroque style, was approved. Later, some changes were made to it, bringing the baroque liberties closer to the strict standards of classicism. Large-scale construction was not completed during the reign of Elizabeth, and only Catherine II became the first sovereign mistress of the Winter Palace. During her tenure, work on the arrangement of the interior premises continued. Thus, the Great Throne Hall, known as St. George's, was decorated. Since 1764, Catherine began to collect a collection of paintings from the Hermitage and order architects to build additional buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Winter Palace. In the future, they will be united by a system of transitions into the palace complex.

Under Nicholas I, work on the interiors of the Winter Palace continued. In 1837, due to a faulty chimney, a terrible fire occurred in the building, destroying the historical decoration of the halls - designs by Quarenghi, Rossi, Montferrand. In addition, it was necessary to equip the southwestern wing of the second floor as chambers for the heir to the throne, Alexander II, who was about to get married. Most of the works of this period were carried out by Vasily Stasov and Alexander Bryullov.

In 1904, under Nicholas II, the Winter Palace ceded the right to be called the imperial residence to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. The building continued to be used for museum purposes. With the outbreak of the First World War, part of the collections was taken to Moscow, and the spacious halls were given over to hospitals. After the February Revolution, the Winter Palace became the meeting place of the Provisional Government. It was here, in the Small Dining Room on the second floor, that his ministers were arrested during the October Revolution. A week later, all collections were declared state property and the Winter Palace officially became part of the Hermitage museum complex. During World War II, all collections were evacuated to the Urals. Since the autumn of 1945, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg has been welcoming visitors as usual. Nowadays archaeological collections, works of artists and sculptors, works of decorative and applied art from Asia, England and France are stored here.

Architectural features of the building

By the time he received the order, Rastrelli had already erected two Winter Palaces in St. Petersburg, but their size and decoration of the halls did not correspond to the high status of the imperial residence. The new building, at the request of Elizabeth, was distinguished by the height of the ceilings and the splendor of decoration characteristic of the Baroque - stucco moldings, sculptures, gilding, draperies made of expensive fabrics. The facade of the Winter Palace was decorated with two tiers of snow-white columns with gold stucco. The distances between the columns are different - so the architect, skillfully using the play of light and shadow, created a complex rhythmic pattern. Places on the roof were occupied by patinated antique statues and vases, and symbols of Russian statehood were also installed here. By the way, the facades became greenish-blue only in our time. Historically, the walls were yellowish-sandy; later they were painted in richer yellow and brown tones.

Dimensions of the Winter Palace

Elizabeth insisted that the height of the Winter Palace should be 22 m, an unprecedented size for St. Petersburg. As a result, the building exceeded the set level by another 1.5 m. The facade facing the Neva is 210 m long, the Admiralty side is slightly shorter - 175 m. Subsequently, Nicholas I made sure that no competitors to the palace appeared in the capital, limiting the height of new buildings.

In total, the Winter Palace had more than 1000 rooms - for official ceremonies, for storing collections, personal chambers of the emperor and heirs to the throne and their retinue, and a huge number of utility rooms to serve the needs of the people living here.

Tours of the Winter Palace

It is extremely difficult to explore all the halls of the Winter Palace at one time, so tourists should think through their routes in advance. On the ground floor there are archaeological collections collected from all over the former Soviet Union. From an architectural point of view, the apartments of the daughters of Nicholas I, located in the wing overlooking the Neva, are interesting. On the second floor there are halls that have become the hallmark of the Winter Palace: Throne, Bolshoi, Petrovsky - and private rooms of members of the imperial family, in which objects of Western European art are exhibited. The third floor is dedicated to Asia.

Halls on the first floor

The lower floor is not as popular among visitors as the second, however, each room here also contains unique exhibits obtained by archaeologists.

Private quarters of the emperor's daughters

The former apartments of the daughters of Nicholas I in the Winter Palace are given over to the archaeological collection. In the entrance hall there are finds from the Paleolithic era, in the bright Gothic living room with pointed arches and medieval plant reliefs - Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. The decor of the “Living Room with Cupids” appeared in the 50s of the 19th century. The architect Stackenschneider did not skimp on the thick-cheeked cupids: babies with wings hid in the arches, reliefs with their images decorated the ceiling. Nowadays, these decorations house a collection of Bronze Age antiquities. In the study of Olga Nikolaevna, the future queen of Württemberg, the architect acted much more delicately: thin golden curves in the upper part of the ceiling vaults set off Bronze Age artifacts. Nearby there are simple rooms without decoration, given over to Scythian archaeological collections of weapons, ceramics, and jewelry.

Guardhouse premises

From the “women’s” wing, the Kutuzov corridor with modest columns leads guests of the Winter Palace past the former guardhouse, now given over to the halls of art of the peoples of Altai and other regions of Siberia. The world's oldest pile carpet, woven in the 4th-3rd centuries, is kept here. BC e. In the middle, the corridor opens into the lobby of the Saltykovsky entrance, designed in the same style, from which doors lead to the halls of ancient Altai and Tuvan art, nomadic tribes of Southern Siberia.

Collection of Central Asian and Caucasian antiquities

The Kutuzov Corridor leads visitors to the southwest wing, dedicated to the art of Central Asia from the pre-Islamic period. Buddhist shrines, fragments of wall paintings, fabrics, household items, silver, stone sculptures, and decorative elements of buildings from Sogdiana and Khorezm are collected here. At the other end of the wing there are rooms dedicated to the culture of the Caucasus. The most valuable are the artifacts remaining from the state of Urartu. They were found under the leadership of academician Boris Piotrovsky, the former director of the museum, the father of the current one, Mikhail Piotrovsky. Nearby are exhibited perfectly preserved precious fabrics from the Ossetian Moshchevaya Balka, an important Caucasian point on the Silk Road. The Dagestan halls display finely crafted bronze cauldrons, weapons and copper thread embroidery made in the 19th century. Volga Bulgaria, the state of the “Golden Horde” on the territory of the modern Volga region, is represented in the Winter Palace by silver and gold jewelry and weapons, and painted underglaze ceramics. In the Transcaucasian halls you can see Georgian medieval weapons, religious objects, Armenian book miniatures and fragments of architectural structures.

Middle East and North Africa

In the opposite wing is the cultural hall of Palmyra, an ancient Syrian city, the ruins of which were seriously damaged during recent military operations in that country. The Hermitage collection includes funeral steles, customs documentation carved on stone. In the Mesopotamia hall you can see authentic cuneiform tablets from Assyria and Babylon. The vaulted Egyptian Hall, converted in 1940 from the Main Buffet of the Winter Palace, is located in front of the transition to the Small Hermitage building. Among the masterpieces of the collection is a stone statue of King Amenehmet III, created almost 4,000 years ago.

Second floor of the Winter Palace

The northeast wing of the second floor is temporarily closed - its collections have moved to the General Staff building. Next to it is the Great Throne or St. George Hall of the Winter Palace, created according to the design of Giacomo Quarenghi and remodeled after the fire by Vasily Stasov. Carrara marble, a unique parquet made of 16 types of wood, an abundance of columns with bronze gilding, mirrors and powerful lamps are designed to draw attention to the throne standing on a dais, ordered in England for Empress Anna Ioannovna. The huge room opens into the relatively small Apollo Hall, which connects the Winter Palace with the Small Hermitage.

Large front suite

You can get to the Throne Room through the Military Gallery of 1812, containing works by George Dow and the artists of his workshop - more than 300 portraits of Russian generals who took part in the Napoleonic Wars. The designer of the gallery was the architect Carlo Rossi. On the other side of the gallery is a suite of state rooms. The Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace, created according to Stasov's design, contains symbols of Russian provinces and solid stone bowls made of aventurine. The Petrovsky, or Small Throne Room, conceived by Montferrand and restored by Stasov, is dedicated to Peter I. Its walls are decorated with burgundy Lyon velvet, embroidered with gold, and the ceiling is covered with gold reliefs. The throne was ordered for the imperial family at the end of the 18th century. The White Field Marshal's Hall houses Western European porcelain and sculpture.

Neva Enfilade

The antechamber is the first in a series of ceremonial rooms overlooking the Neva. Its main attraction - a French rotunda with 8 malachite columns supporting a bronze gilded dome - was erected here in the middle of the last century. Through the Antechamber there is an entrance to the largest room of the Winter Palace - the Nicholas Hall, with Corinthian columns and monochrome ceiling paintings. It does not have a permanent exhibition; only temporary exhibitions are organized. On the opposite side of the Nicholas Hall is the snow-white Concert Hall with paired Corinthian columns and antique reliefs. Adjacent to the Neva Enfilade is the Romanov Portrait Gallery, which contains portraits of members of the imperial family, starting with Peter I.

Part of the northwestern wing is temporarily closed, including the Arapsky Hall with Greek decor that served as a dining room. The Rotunda awaits guests - a spacious round hall with rectangular and round Corinthian columns, a simple circular balcony in the second tier, a ceiling with coffered recesses decorated with reliefs. The floor with circular inlays of precious wood is especially impressive. The small halls leading from the Neva Enfilade to the chambers of the heir to the throne, opening onto the Dark Corridor, are devoted to objects of art of the 18th century.

Private chambers of the Emperor and Empress

Emperor Nicholas I spared no expense on the interiors, so each room in his personal chambers is a real masterpiece of design art. Alexandra Fedorovna’s malachite living room is decorated with emerald green vases, columns, and a fireplace. The richly ornamented floor and carved ceiling are in perfect harmony with the exhibition of objects of decorative and applied art. Nearby is the Small Dining Room, decorated in Rococo style. Furniture from Gambs, the best master of this era, was chosen for the Empress’s office. Sketches of furniture for the adjacent hall were made by the architect Carlo Rossi. The emperor's smoking room amazes with its oriental splendor and bright colors. There are not many halls associated with the name of Nicholas II in the Winter Palace - the last emperor preferred other residences. His library has been preserved with high windows in the English Gothic style and a carved fireplace, imitating a medieval book depository.

Chambers of the future Emperor Alexander II and his wife

In the southwestern part of the second floor of the Winter Palace are the chambers of Alexander II, furnished at the time when he was the heir to the throne and was preparing for his wedding. Architecturally, the rooms occupied by the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna are noteworthy: the Green Dining Room with lush decor in the Rococo style, the White Hall with many reliefs and sculptures, the Golden Living Room with complex stucco ornaments, inlaid parquet and a jasper fireplace, the Crimson Study with textile wallpaper, the Blue bedroom with golden columns.

Collection of Western European Art

In the wing of the heir to the throne and in the enfilade dedicated to the victory in the War of 1812, paintings and works of decorative and applied art from Great Britain and France are kept: works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Watteau, Boucher, Greuze, Fragonard, Lorrain, the famous bust of Voltaire made by Houdon. In the southeast wing there is the Alexander Hall, designed in noble white and blue tones, combining elements of Gothic and classicism with a collection of silverware. Next to it is the Great Church, designed by Rastrelli in the Baroque style. The picket hall, where the palace guard was stationed, is temporarily closed.

Third floor

The functioning halls of the third floor in the Winter Palace are devoted to Islamic art of the Middle East, Byzantium, the state of the Huns, India, China, and Japan. Among the most valuable exhibits are finds from the “Cave of 1000 Buddhas,” ancient Chinese furniture and ceramics, Buddhist relics, and Tibetan treasures.

Tourist information

How to get there

The official address of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg: Palace Square, 2. The nearest metro station is Admiralteyskaya, from which you need to walk a little more than 100 m to the north. The Dvortsovaya Embankment bus stop is located west of Zimny. There are lifts for wheelchair users and elevators inside the palace. You must enter the museum through the main turnstile.

Ticket prices and opening hours

A visit to the entire Hermitage complex, including the Winter Palace, costs 600 rubles; on the first Thursday of the month you can go for free. If you want to visit only the Winter Palace, then a ticket for 300 rubles will be enough. It is recommended to purchase tickets in advance online to avoid queuing at the box office or terminal. This can be done on the official website www.hermitagemuseum.org. Children and students, Russian pensioners are a preferential category that receives free tickets. The day off is Monday, access to tourists is open from 10:30 to 18:00, on Wednesday and Friday - until 21:00. The Winter Palace is closed on New Year's Day and May 9.

Winter Palace on Palace Square - the former royal residence, a symbol of the Elizabethan Baroque architectural style, the largest palace in St. Petersburg. Since the first Soviet years, the most famous museum in Russia, the State Hermitage, has been operating here.

The first Winter Palaces. Winter Palace of Anna Ioannovna

On the site of the world-famous St. Petersburg Winter Palace, the first building appeared under Peter I. In June-July 1705, a wooden house of Admiral Fyodor Matveevich Apraksin was built in the northwestern corner of the site occupied by the current palace. It was designed by the architect Domenico Trezzini. The place was chosen by the admiral, among other things, because of the rules of the “fortification esplanade”. They required that the nearest building be located at a distance of at least 200 fathoms (1 fathom = approximately 2.1 meters) from the fortress, that is, from the Admiralty.

The house of the Olonets commandant I. Ya. Yakovlev, who from January 1705 supervised the construction of the shipyard and the preparation of supplies for it, was immediately attached to Apraksin’s house. On June 28, Meshchersky notified Yakovlev: " According to the drawing, your 13 closets were cut down side by side and placed on moss, the underside bridge was paved, the upper ceiling was paved"[Quoted from 5: p. 33].

Yakovlev died on January 22, 1707. The same time in many sources is indicated as the year of the appearance of the house of A.V. Kikin to the south of Apraksin’s house, who continued the work of Yakovlev. It can be assumed that Kikin occupied Yakovlev’s site. Apraksin's house, as the first one built on Palace Embankment, set its red line. Kikin's house marked the northern border of Admiralty Meadow (future Palace Square).

It is worth noting that Peter I and Catherine I did not live here. Peter's first Winter Palace was built on the site of house No. 32 on Palace Embankment, where the Hermitage Theater is now located. This building was rebuilt several times; the founder of St. Petersburg died in it.

Apraksin's house was rebuilt in stone in 1712. Soon he ceased to suit the admiral, who wanted to live in more luxurious surroundings. Construction that began in 1716 determined the new red line of the future Palace Embankment. It was moved closer to the river by about 50 meters. The famous architect Leblon, who arrived in St. Petersburg in November of the same year, agreed to design a two-story Apraksin palace “in the French style.” Due to his constant workload, Leblond was unable to complete this project. The construction plan was reworked by the architect Fyodor Vasiliev. At the same time, he added a third floor to the building and slightly redesigned its facade. At the same time, areas to the east of the admiral’s possession were allocated to S.V. Raguzinsky, P.I. Yaguzhinsky and Major General G. Chernyshev.

After Kikin’s execution, the Maritime Academy, founded in 1715, was located in his house. But since the premises received by the educational institution turned out to be cramped for it, in 1716 an additional mud hut building was added to the building. In April 1718, Apraksin indicated " the academic yard that was Kikina will be completed"[Quoted from: 5, p. 91].

The house of the Prosecutor General of the Senate P.I. Yaguzhinsky was built by order of Peter I at public expense. In June 1716, F. Vasiliev received a contract for its construction according to the design of the architect Mattarnovi. By the end of the construction season, he undertook to construct the building with the exception of plastering work, for which he received a deposit of 1,198 rubles. But by autumn the workers only managed to lay the foundations. Over the winter, the foundation of the house deteriorated so much that in June 1717 Vasiliev was ordered to redo everything. At the same time, the architect’s property was described, and in December Vasiliev was removed from work. From October 1718 to April 1720, he was kept in chains in the courtyard of the Office of City Affairs. The Yaguzhinsky Palace was completed by Mattarnovi, and after his death by N.F. Gerbel. Construction of the building was completed in 1721.

In 1725, the newlywed Duke of Holstein and the daughter of Peter I Anna temporarily lived in the Apraksin Palace. They were the first to occupy the “half” for high-ranking persons in these chambers. Kammer-junker Berchholtz, who was here, noted that he:

“the largest and most beautiful in all of St. Petersburg, moreover, it stands on the Bolshaya Neva and has a very pleasant location. The entire house is furnished superbly and in the latest fashion, so that the king could live decently in it...”

The last words of Berchholtz's quote turned out to be prophetic. In 1728, the admiral died. He bequeathed his property to his relatives. Apraksin was related to the Romanovs; he was the brother of Queen Martha, the second wife of his elder brother Peter I. Therefore, something should have gone to the young Emperor Peter II. The admiral bequeathed his St. Petersburg palace to him. However, Peter II never lived here, as he moved to Moscow.

With the accession of Empress Anna Ioannovna to the throne, St. Petersburg was returned to the capital status selected by Peter II. The new ruler needed to establish her residence here. The Winter Palace of Peter I did not satisfy Anna Ioannovna’s tastes and in 1731 she decided to settle in the Apraksin Palace. She first entrusted its reconstruction to Domenico Trezzini. Work began on December 27, 1731. For greater speed, the church and chambers began to be cut from logs. But soon Anna Ioannovna replaced Trezzini with another architect - Rastrelli. It was he who could satisfy the empress’s desire to live among splendor and luxury. Before the departure of the royal court from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Rastrelli provided a ready-made project, which was approved and began to be implemented on April 18, 1732.

The main architect of Anna Ioannovna's Winter House was not the famous Francesco Bartolomeo, but his father Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli. The son only helped his father, later taking credit for this work. This is indicated by the following message from Jacob Stehlin:

"Rastrelli, Cavaliero del Ordine di Salvador of the Pope, built a large wing to the house of Admiral Apraksin, as well as a large hall, gallery and court theater.
His son had to destroy everything and build a new winter palace on this site for Empress Elizabeth" [Quoted from 2, p. 329].

The house of the Maritime Academy (Kikin's house) was demolished for the new construction. This was necessary in order to arrange the main facade of the royal residence from the side of the Admiralty. From the Neva side, it could not be formalized due to the fact that the Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky plots located on the east had not yet been purchased. Their demolition, unlike the demolition of the Naval Academy building, would take more time.

On May 3, 1732, a decree was issued to allocate 200,000 rubles for the construction of the palace. On May 27, its foundation ceremony took place. Construction proceeded very quickly. By August 22, the brick walls were ready, and painting and painting work began in November. The artistic decoration of Anna Ioannovna's winter palace was carried out by Louis Caravaque, and the carpentry work was carried out by the Frenchman Jean Michel.

The new third Winter Palace was completely ready in 1735, although Anna Ioannovna spent the winter of 1733-1734 here. From then on, this building became the ceremonial imperial residence for 20 years, and Rastrelli in 1738 became the chief architect of the court of Her Imperial Majesty.

In the premises of the former Apraksin palace, Rastrelli designed the imperial chambers. The facade of this house was not touched, it was only brought under a common roof with the new building. The length of the façade on the Admiralty side was 185 meters. In the newly built end building there were two enfilades: the windows of the rooms of the first enfilade looked out onto the courtyard, the windows of the second looked out onto the shipyard. The largest room of the enfilade on the courtyard side was the Light Gallery. It was located in the central projection and had a length of 30, a width of 17 and a height of 7.5 meters. In the enfilade with windows overlooking the Admiralty there were rooms of equal size, named after the colors used in their design: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green Chambers. The most significant room of Anna Ioannovna’s Winter Palace was a huge one, with an area of ​​1000 square meters. m., Throne Hall. The Swedish scientist K.R. Berk, who lived in St. Petersburg in 1735-1737, wrote about him:

“The Great Hall is the most spacious I have ever seen, and is richly decorated with mirrors, artificial marble, as well as numerous gilded bas-reliefs and other decorations... The lampshade is covered with paintings on canvas - no doubt to speed up its creation, but it is unknown how long will it last? The painting was made by the court artist Caravaque, a narcissistic Frenchman who criticizes everything, and almost no one praises his work. The plot in the middle of the ceiling is the accession of Her Majesty to the throne, presenting it to Russia, which, on its knees, hands it over. her crown. The clergy and the kingdoms of Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia, as well as many Tatar and Kalmyk peoples who recognize the power of Russia, stand nearby, expressing their joy. On four large picturesque images located around this middle one and descending to the cornice, many deeds are presented. , capable of especially glorifying the reign of Anna Ioannovna, namely: the power of the empire, mercy towards criminals, high generosity and victory over enemies; on top, these words are also written [in addition to Latin] in Russian... Along all the edges of the ceiling painting there are many virtues carved in relief in stone. The throne, or seat of the imperial throne, is magnificent and raised several steps above the oak parquet floor. At the very top you can see the state emblem, and next to it lie Mars and Pallas. The sculpture in this and other places in the hall is nothing special, although the Swede who created it believes that he performed miracles; in any case, it is apparently better than others, for the creation of which, due to absurd haste, ship sculptors were actually used. However, the gilding here is much richer" [Quoted from: 5, m. 248, 249].

Anna Ioannovna's Winter Palace had its own theater, located in its southern part. It became the first court theater in Russia, designed in a European style. The hall was 27.5 meters long. There were 27 benches in the stalls, between which there were two passages. A large royal box was arranged in front of the middle benches. Along the perimeter of the hall there were 15 boxes decorated with light columns. Above them are two tiers, to which four staircases led. The decoration of the theater hall based on Rastrelli's drawing was done by the Italian Girolamo Bon. He also painted scenery and worked on theatrical machinery. The first rehearsal here took place on January 17, 1736, and the first performance three days later. During the performances, 40 soldiers were involved in moving the scenery. The theater's repertoire was determined personally by the empress.

In the Winter Palace of Anna Ioannovna, on July 2, 1739, the betrothal of Princess Anna Leopoldovna to Prince Anton-Ulrich took place. The young Emperor Ivan Antonovich was also brought here. He stayed here until November 25, 1741, when the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, took power into her own hands.

Elizaveta Petrovna wanted even greater luxury than her predecessor, and the next year she began to rebuild the imperial residence in her own way. Then she ordered to decorate for herself the rooms adjacent to the Light Gallery from the south. Next to her bedchamber were the “crimson cabinet” and the Amber cabinet, built in 1743-1744. Later, during the dismantling of the third Winter Palace, the amber panels will be transported to Tsarskoe Selo and will become part of the famous Amber Room. Since the dimensions of the cabinet were larger than the dimensions of the rooms where the panels were previously located (Royal Palace in Berlin, human chambers in the Summer Garden), Rastrelli placed 18 mirrors between them.

In 1745, the wedding of the heir to the throne, Peter Fedorovich, and Princess Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (the future Catherine II) was celebrated here. The design of this holiday was done by the architect Rastrelli.

For the growing needs of the empress, more and more premises were required. In 1746, because of this, Rastrelli added an additional building on the Admiralty side, the main façade of which faced south. It was two-story, with a wooden upper floor, and the side façade faced the canal near the Admiralty. That is, the Winter House has become even closer to the shipyard. A year later, a chapel, soap house and other chambers were added to this building. The main goal of the new premises, even a year before their appearance, was to place a secluded corner for intimate meetings in the Winter House of the Hermitage. Two enfilades here led to a corner hall, in which there was a lifting table for 15 people. Elizaveta Petrovna implemented this idea before Catherine II. Historian Yu. M. Ovsyannikov claims that the new building was necessary for the newlyweds Pyotr Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Winter Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna

After the New Year's reception on January 1, 1752, the Empress decided to expand the Winter Palace. For this purpose, the neighboring plots of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky along the Palace Embankment were purchased. Rastrelli was preparing not to demolish the mansions of the associates of Peter I, but to redecorate them in the same style as the entire building. But in February of the following year, a decree from Elizabeth Petrovna followed:

"...With a new house from the river and the courtyard, there will be a lot of demolition and the construction of two outbuildings with stone buildings, so that the chief architect de Rastrelli should compose a project and drawings and submit them for the highest H.I.V. approval..."

Thus, Elizaveta Petrovna decided to demolish the houses of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky and build new buildings in their place. And also build the southern and eastern buildings, enclosing the entire building in a square. Two thousand soldiers began construction work. They demolished houses on the embankment. At the same time, laying the foundations of the southern building - the main facade of the new Winter Palace - began from the side of Admiralty Meadow. The premises in Apraksin’s former house were also rebuilt. They even removed the roof here to raise the ceilings. The Light Gallery and the Antechamber have undergone changes, and the theater and state rooms have been expanded. And in December 1753, Elizaveta Petrovna wished to increase the height of the Winter Palace from 14 to 22 meters...

At the beginning of January, all construction work was stopped. Rastrelli presented the new drawings to the Empress on the 22nd. Rastrelli proposed building the Winter Palace in a new location. But Elizaveta Petrovna refused to move her winter ceremonial residence. As a result, the architect decided to build the entire building anew, using only the old walls in some places. The new project was approved by decree of Elizabeth Petrovna on June 16, 1754:

“In St. Petersburg, our Winter Palace is not only for receiving foreign ministers and for performing festive rites at the Court on established days according to the greatness of Our Imperial dignity, but also for accommodating Us with the necessary servants and things cannot be satisfied, for which We have intended This is Our Winter Palace with a large space in length, width and height; for which the reconstruction, according to the estimate, will require up to 990 thousand rubles, which amount, allocated for two years, is impossible to take from our salt money. We order Our Senate to find it. imagine from what income such an amount of 430 and 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 should be done immediately, so as not to miss the current winter route for preparing supplies for that building ".

On the same day, the “Office for the Construction of Her Imperial Majesty’s Winter House” was created to manage the construction, the head of which was Lieutenant General Vilim Vilimovich Fermor.

Initially, the Senate allocated 859,555 rubles 81 kopecks for the construction of the Winter Palace [ibid.]. They were found “from the lucrative tavern profits,” that is, from the profits received from the sale of vodka and wine. But this money was not enough. Therefore, on March 9, 1755, the Senate indicated:

"1) The rivers flowing into the Volkhov and the Ladoga Canal, as well as into the Neva River, Tosno, Miya and other rivers, along which anything can be obtained, should be given to the department of the chancellery from buildings for three years, so that no forests or I didn’t prepare wood or stone there for any other work other than that office;
2) send masons, carpenters, joiners, foundry workers and other craftsmen to St. Petersburg for construction;
3) send 3,000 soldiers for the same purpose" [Quoted from: 6, p. 121].

In order for the masters to come to St. Petersburg, each of them was given three rubles, regardless of the distance. But upon arrival in the capital, they traded with them in such a way that the craftsmen had to agree to the employer’s conditions, since it was difficult to return home.

In November 1755, the production of sculptures began for installation on the balustrade of the roof of the Winter Palace. Their sketches were made by Rastrelli, and the models for translation into stone were made by carver Johann Franz Duncker. The stone sculptures were made under the direction of the master Johann Antoni Zwenhof and, after his death, by the sculptor Josef Baumchen.

According to the calculations of the Office of Buildings, the fourth Winter Palace should have been erected in three years. The first two were allocated for the construction of walls, and the third for finishing the premises. The Empress planned a housewarming party for the fall of 1756, the Senate expected three years of construction.

After the project was approved, Rastrelli did not make significant changes to it, but made adjustments to the internal relationships of the premises. He located the main halls on the second floor of the corner projections. The Grand Staircase was designed from the northeast, the Throne Hall from the northwest, the church from the southeast, and the theater from the southwest. They were connected by the Neva, western and southern suites of rooms. The architect allocated the first floor for office space, the third for maids of honor and other servants. The apartments of the head of state were arranged in the south-eastern corner of the Winter Palace; it is best illuminated by the sun. The halls of the Neva Enfilade were intended for receiving ambassadors and ceremonies.

Along with the creation of the Winter Palace, Rastrelli intended to redesign the entire Admiralty Meadow and create a single architectural ensemble here. But this was not implemented.

Few builders of the Winter Palace found housing in neighboring settlements. Most built huts for themselves right on Admiralteysky Meadow. Thousands of serfs were involved in the construction of the palace. Seeing workers flooding St. Petersburg, sellers raised food prices. The building office was forced to prepare food for the builders right here on the construction site. The cost of food was deducted from the salary. At the same time, the poorest builders of the Winter Palace were given sheepskin coats and boots and given various benefits. It often turned out that after such a deduction the worker was even in debt to the employer. According to an eyewitness:

“Soon, from climate change, lack of healthy food and bad clothing, various diseases appeared... Difficulties were renewed, and sometimes in a worse form due to the fact that in 1756 many masons walked around the world for non-payment of their earned money and even, as then they said they were dying of hunger" [Cit. from: 2, p. 343].

After the appointment of V.V. Fermor as commander-in-chief of the Russian army in 1757, the post of construction manager was taken by the architect Yu.M. Felten.

Construction of the Winter Palace was delayed. In 1758, the Senate removed blacksmiths from the construction site, since there was no one to shackle the wheels of carts and cannons. At this time, Russia was at war with Prussia. There was a shortage of not only labor, but also finance.

“The situation of the workers... in 1759 presented a truly sad picture. The unrest continued throughout the construction period and began to subside only when some of the most important work ceased and several thousand people scattered to their own homes” [Cit. on 2, p. 344].

The main construction work was completed in the spring of 1761. Elizaveta Petrovna did not live to see the completion of construction; Peter III already took over the work. By this time, the decoration of the facades was completed, but many of the interior spaces were not yet ready. But the emperor was in a hurry. He entered the Winter Palace on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter) April 6, 1762. On the day of the move, Archbishop Dimitri consecrated the court cathedral church in the name of the Resurrection of the Lord, and a divine service took place.

Presumably, the architect S. I. Chevakinsky took part in the decoration of the chambers of Peter III and his wife. J. Shtelin noted:

“At this time, in the large hall of the new Winter Palace, more than 100 sculptors were engaged in carving doors, windows, panels and other work, which Messrs. Dunker, Stahlmeyer, Gille and others undertook to perform in harmony. For this they were given all the carvers from various Russian departments who were not They received salaries there for this, but should have received it from the named contractors. But these measures were still not enough, since they could not begin the most important decoration of the largest hall due to too many works that needed to be done inside this large building." [Cit. to 5, p. 308].

At the solemn ceremony of consecrating the building, the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was awarded the Holstein Order and received the rank of major general. The process of decorating the building continued until 1767. The construction of the royal residence cost 2,622,020 rubles 19 kopecks.

The first floor of the Winter Palace was occupied by large vaulted galleries with arches that pierced all parts of the building. On the sides of the galleries there were service rooms where the servants lived and the guards rested. Warehouses and utility rooms were also located here.

According to Rastrelli's idea, the main halls of the Winter Palace were located in its corner volumes, as well as in the northern (Neva) and eastern enfilades. The north-eastern risalit was given over to the front Ambassadorial (later renamed Jordan) staircase, from which an enfilade of five approximately equal-sized Antechambers led west along the Neva. Having walked along them, one could get to the Throne Room, which used almost the entire volume of the northwestern risalit. The southwestern volume of the building was occupied by the Palace Theater, and the southeastern volume by the Court Church. The southern and western enfilades were distributed as living rooms for the imperial family.

Peter III attached great importance to the design of the Throne Room. It remained in the same place where Anna Ioannovna’s Throne Hall was, but increased significantly in size and occupied the entire volume of the northwestern risalit. Its width remained equal to 28 meters, and its length increased from 34 to 49 meters. None of the currently existing halls in the city are of this size. The emperor ordered the construction of a library on the mezzanine of the Winter Palace, for which four large rooms and two rooms were allocated for the librarian, who was then State Councilor Shtelin.

Peter III's apartments were located closer to Palace Square and Millionnaya Street, his wife settled in rooms closer to the Admiralty. Below him, on the first floor, Peter III settled his favorite Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova.

The building included about 1,500 rooms. The perimeter of its facades was about two kilometers. The Winter Palace became the tallest building in St. Petersburg. From 1844 to 1905, a decree of Nicholas I was in effect in the city, limiting the height of private houses to one fathom below the eaves of the Winter Palace.

The cornice of the Winter Palace was decorated with 176 statues and vases. They were carved from Pudost limestone according to Rastrelli’s drawings by the German sculptor Baumchen. Later they were whitewashed.

From the side of the Palace Embankment, the Jordan entrance leads into the building, so named after the royal custom of leaving it on the feast of Epiphany to the ice hole cut opposite, in the Neva - “Jordan”.

There are three entrances to the palace from the southern facade. The one that is closer to the Admiralty - Her Imperial Majesty. From here there was the shortest path to the chambers of the empresses, as well as to the apartments of Paul I. Therefore, for some time it was called Pavlovsky, and before that - Theater, since it led to the home theater built by Catherine II. Closer to Millionnaya Street is the Commandant's Entrance, where the palace commandant's services were located. Rastrelli did not plan to close the passage to the courtyard with a gate. He remained free.

In the summer of 1762, Peter III was killed, the construction of the Winter Palace was completed under Catherine II. First of all, the empress removed Rastrelli from work, and Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy became the manager of the construction site. For Catherine II, the interior chambers of the palace were remodeled by the architect J. B. Vallin-Delamot. He knocked out some walls and put new ones in their place. The architect said about this: " I throw walls out the windows". At the same time, bay windows were created over the entrances of Her Imperial Majesty and the Commandant's, which were not in Rastrelli's project.

Especially for Catherine II, the palace temple was re-consecrated on July 12, 1763 by His Grace Gabriel in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands.

Almost immediately after her accession to the throne, Catherine II ordered to expand the space of the palace through the construction of a new neighboring building - the Small Hermitage. There is no entrance from the street; the Small Hermitage can only be accessed through the Winter Palace. In its halls the Empress housed her richest collection of paintings, sculptures and objects of applied art. Later, the Great Hermitage and the Hermitage Theater were added to this single complex.

The Empress settled in the Winter Palace only two years after her coronation, in 1764. She occupied the rooms of her late husband in the southeastern part of the palace. Vorontsova's place was taken by Catherine's favorite Grigory Orlov.

On the side of Palace Square, under Catherine II, there was a Reception Room, where her throne stood. In front of the Reception there was a cavalier's room, where guards stood - cavaliers of the guard. Its windows overlook the balcony above the Commandant's entrance. From here one could get to the Diamond Room, where the Empress kept her jewelry. Behind the Diamond Room, closer to Millionnaya Street, there was a toilet room, then a bedroom and a boudoir. Behind the White Hall there was a dining room. 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, and a restroom to be built for herself. Under Catherine, a winter garden and the Romanov Gallery were built in the Winter Palace.

The winter garden occupied an area of ​​140 square meters. Exotic bushes and trees grew in it, flower beds and lawns were arranged here. The garden was decorated with sculpture. There was a fountain in the center. According to P. P. Svinin’s description, during the time of Catherine II, the Winter Garden looked like this:

“The winter garden occupies a significant quadrangular space and contains flowering bushes of laurel and orange trees, always fragrant, green even in severe frosts. Canaries, robins, siskins flutter from branch to branch and glorify their freedom with sweet, loud singing or casually splash in a jasper pool, which, under Empress Catherine, was filled with Portuguese goldfish..." [Cit. from: 3, p. 24, 25]

The first performance at the Palace Theater was given on December 14, 1763. Ballets, Italian operas, French and Russian tragedies and comedies were staged here. The first description of the Winter Palace theater was made by J. Shtelin in 1769:

“In the construction of this new theater, which was laid out by the chief architect Rastrelli during the reign of Empress Elizabeth and now had to be hastily completed, there was no lack of convenience, sufficient security and imperial splendor. Above the stalls in four tiers there were about 60 boxes, in addition to three specially furnished with cabinets of extremely magnificent boxes for the Empress and the Grand Duke. But in front of the entire stalls and all the boxes, namely on the pediment of the stage, there was installed the dial of a large clock, illuminated from the inside, which showed the audience the hours and minutes, and during long-lasting performances they saved them from the usual troubles. often take out your pocket watch" [Cit. by: 5, p. 440].

I. Bernoulli described the theater in 1777 as follows:

“Although the theater itself is somewhat smaller than the opera house in Berlin and the proscenium is narrower, the stalls, on the contrary, seemed longer to me. The theater has four rows of boxes and is not very magnificent. The Empress has three seats: one is completely behind, opposite the stage, like the queen’s box in Berlin , one immediately behind the orchestra, like our king, and one above the proscenium for visiting incognito" [Ibid].

The court cathedral of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands was used during especially solemn occasions. In everyday life, the imperial family used the Small Court Church of the Presentation of the Lord, created in 1768, in the northwestern part of the palace.

At the request of Catherine II, the central entrance to the courtyard was blocked by pine gates in 1771. They were made in just 10 days according to the design of the architect Felten.

Since Catherine's time, cats have lived in the Winter Palace. The first of them were brought from Kazan. They protect the palace property from rats.

From the first years of her life in the Winter Palace, Catherine II created a specific schedule of events held here. Balls were held on Sundays, on Monday a French comedy was given, Tuesday was a day of rest, on Wednesday they played a Russian comedy, on Thursday a tragedy or French opera, followed by a traveling masquerade. On Friday, masquerades were given at court, on Saturday they rested.

In 1773, 20 rooms on the third floor of the western part of the Winter Palace were given to the teacher of the children of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich - Adjutant General Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov. Since then, the western entrance and staircase of the building began to be called Saltykovsky.

On September 29, 1773, the wedding of the future Emperor Paul I with Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (in Orthodoxy - Natalya Alekseevna) took place in the Winter Palace. After the wedding, the highest nobility gathered in the Throne Room, where the table was set. This was followed by a ball, which was opened by the newlyweds. However, Natalia's dress turned out to be so heavy due to the precious stones scattered across the sky that she was able to dance only a few minuets. While Natalya was being undressed, Pavel was having dinner in the next room with his mother.

In 1776, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna died in the chambers of the Winter Palace during childbirth. The unborn child died with her.

Due to the growth of the imperial family, the space of the Palace Theater was divided into parts and given over to the living quarters of the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and his wife. In the western part of the Winter Palace, the architect Giacomo Quarenghi created rooms for their children.

On May 9, 1793, in the Great Cathedral Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the ceremony of anointing Louise Maria Augusta of Baden, who became Elizaveta Petrovna in Orthodoxy, was held. The next day, her engagement to Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich took place. On September 28, in the same temple they were married. The newlyweds settled in the northwestern risalit of the Winter Palace. The interiors for them were designed by the architect I. E. Starov in 1793. From the Neva side a suite of Elizaveta Alekseevna’s rooms appeared. It included: Reception Room, First Living Room, Second Living Room, Bedchamber, Sofa Room or Mirror Room. A large dining room with windows onto the courtyard communicated with this enfilade. The windows overlooking the Admiralty overlooked Elizabeth Petrovna's Dressing Room, her Boudoir, Valet's Room and Alexander Pavlovich's Corner Office. On the side of the Saltykovsky entrance there were Alexander Pavlovich’s restroom and the Youngfer’s Chamber.

In 1791-1793, Quarenghi rebuilt the Neva Enfilade. The place of its five Antechambers was taken by the existing Antechamber, Nikolaevsky and Concert Halls.

In order to get to the Hermitage, visitors had to pass through the private chambers of Catherine II in the southeastern part of the Winter Palace. So that outsiders would not have to disturb the empress, by her decree a gallery-bridge was created between the palace and the Small Hermitage. Thus a new Throne Room appeared. It was opened on the day of St. George the Victorious, November 28, 1795 and named St. George. Its design was also done by Quarenghi. On the sides of the throne were installed two large statues of white marble supporting the shield, made by the sculptor Concesio Albani. The hall was illuminated by 28 carved gilded chandeliers, 16 candelabra and 50 bronze girondoles in the form of vases. The creation of the Great Throne Hall cost the treasury 782,556 rubles and 47.5 kopecks. Simultaneously with the Great Throne Hall, the adjacent Apollo Hall was created, through which it became possible to get to the gallery of the Small Hermitage.

St. George's Hall of the Winter Palace was created after the suppression of the Polish uprising, the capture of Warsaw and the third partition of Poland. At the same time, Suvorov brought a trophy to St. Petersburg - the throne of the Polish kings. Catherine II ordered it to be converted into a toilet seat and placed in the restroom. It was there that Catherine II suffered an apoplectic stroke, which brought her to the grave on November 5, 1796. The coffin with the body of the empress was displayed for farewell in the bedroom (third and fourth windows on the right, from the Palace Square).

Under Paul I, a memorial office for his father Peter III was created in the Diamond Room. Immediately after ascending the throne, he ordered the construction of a wooden bell tower for the palace Cathedral of the Holy Image of Our Savior, whose dome is clearly visible from Palace Square. The bell tower was built on the roof of the palace, west of the cathedral. In addition, a bell tower was also built for a small church. The rooms of the emperor’s children were then located on the site of the White Hall.

Instead of one Throne Hall, Paul I created two in the Winter Palace - for himself and for Empress Maria Feodorovna. They were located in the southern enfilade on the courtyard side. The emperor's personal chambers were located in the former rooms of Catherine II; his wife was given rooms in the southern enfilade on the side of Palace Square. Under Paul I, the new state halls - the Cavalry Guard (now Alexander) and the Throne Halls of the southern enfilade - were designed and decorated by the architect Vincenzo Brenna. After Paul I took the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta in 1798, two rooms in the southeastern risalit were converted into the Cavalier Hall, where official receptions of the Maltese cavaliers were held, and the Maltese Throne Hall. The place of gilding on their walls was taken by silver cladding against a background of yellow velvet. The southern facade of the Winter Palace was decorated with the coat of arms of the Order of the Grand Master.

On February 1, 1801, Paul I and his family moved to the newly rebuilt Mikhailovsky Castle.

After the death of Paul I, his son Alexander returned the Winter Palace to the status of an imperial residence. The rooms of Alexander I and his wife remained in the northwestern risalit, where they were before the accession of Alexander Pavlovich to the throne. In the first years of the reign of the new emperor, all these premises were re-decorated by the architect Luigi Rusca. The bedrooms and restrooms of Alexander and Elizabeth began to be located next to each other, whereas previously they were separated by several rooms. In place of Elizaveta Alekseevna’s Bedchamber, her Study-Library appeared. The Bedchamber was moved to the former Dressing Room.

The widow of Paul I, Empress Maria Feodorovna, began to own a suite of rooms on the third floor on the side of Palace Square. But, having moved to Pavlovsk, she was here very rarely.

In 1817, Alexander I invited the architect Karl Rossi to work in the Winter Palace. He was entrusted with remodeling the rooms where the daughter of the Prussian king, Princess Caroline, the bride of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich (the future Nicholas I), would stay. In five months, Rossi remodeled ten rooms located along Palace Square: the Shpalernaya, the Large Dining Room, the Living Room...

In 1825, the courtyard of the Winter Palace was paved with cobblestones.

The next emperor, Nicholas I, settled in the Winter Palace with his family immediately after receiving news of the death of his elder brother. He moved here from Anichkov Palace. The royal family survived the uprising on December 14, 1825 in the Winter Palace.

Nicholas I chose rooms on the third floor of the northwestern risalit for his apartments. Elizabeth Alekseevna's rooms were occupied by his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Part of the premises on the first floor of the northwestern risalit was given to her beloved maid of honor and mentor, Madame Wildemeter. The living quarters of the new emperor and empress were decorated by the architect V.P. Stasov. He kept the layout, but changed the purpose of some rooms. The former Blue sofa of Elizaveta Alekseevna became the Large Study of Alexandra Feodorovna. Nearby are the Bedchamber and the Lavatory. On the Neva side there were the Reception Room and the First Living Room, the Second Living Room and the Library. The rooms of Alexander I were preserved by Nicholas I as memorial ones.

On the third floor, next to the rooms of Nicholas I, Stasov equipped the home of his younger brother Mikhail Pavlovich. The emperor's apartments consisted of a Secretary's room, a reception room, a corner living room, a green office and a boudoir. Painters F. Toricelli, G. Scotti, B. Medici, F. Brandukov and F. Brullo helped Stasov in decorating these rooms.

Even Alexander I planned to create the Gallery of 1812 in the Winter Palace. He learned about the creation of a “Hall of Waterloo Memory” at Windsor Castle with portraits of Napoleon’s victors. But the British won one battle, and the Russians won the whole war and entered Paris. To create a gallery, the English artist George Dow was invited to St. Petersburg, and was given a special room in the palace for his work. Young artists Alexander Polyakov and Vasily Golike were given to help him.

Alexander I was in no hurry to open the memorial hall. But Nicholas I, immediately after ascending the throne, hastened to open it. The architectural design of the hall was entrusted to the architect Carlo Rossi. To create it, he combined a suite of six rooms into one room. The project he created was approved on May 12, 1826. The 1812 gallery was opened on December 25, the fourteenth anniversary of the expulsion of the French army from Russia. At the time of opening, there were 236 portraits of participants in the Patriotic War hanging on the walls. Many years later there were 332 of them.

In early January 1827, Nicholas I entrusted Karl Rossi with remodeling the apartments of Empress Maria Feodorovna in the Winter Palace. The projects were ready by early March. But due to his own illness, the architect took six weeks off. Returning from a well-deserved rest, he learned that the work had been transferred to Auguste Montferrand.

On December 25, 1827, the solemn consecration of the Gallery took place, described in the journal "Domestic Notes":

“This gallery was consecrated in the presence of the imperial family and all the generals, officers and soldiers who had medals of 1812 and for the capture of Paris. The cavaliers of these foot guards were assembled in St. George's Hall, and the horse guards in Belaya... The Sovereign Emperor deigned to give directions to the places for storage in future... the banners of the Life Guards regiments. They are placed in both corners of the main entrance under the inscriptions of memorable places... on which they once fluttered with unwavering glory.
...All the lower ranks, gathered here, were admitted into the gallery, where they passed in front of the images... of Alexander and the generals - who led them repeatedly to the field of honor and victories, in front of the images of their valiant military leaders, who shared their labors and dangers with them.. "[Quoted from: 2, p. 489]

After the opening of the gallery, Carl Rossi designed the rooms around it. The architects planned the Antechamber, Armorial, Petrovsky and Field Marshal Halls. After 1833, these premises were completed by Auguste Montferrand.

From 1833 to 1845, the Winter Palace was equipped with an optical telegraph. For him, a telegraph tower was equipped on the roof of the building, which is still clearly visible today from the Palace Bridge. From here the tsar had connections with Kronstadt, Gatchina, Tsarskoe Selo and even Warsaw. The telegraph workers were housed in the room below it, in the attic.

On the evening of December 17, 1837, a fire started in the Winter Palace. They could not extinguish it for three days, all this time the property taken out of the palace was piled around the Alexander Column. It was impossible to see every little detail of all the things piled up on Palace Square. Here lay expensive furniture, porcelain, silverware. And despite the lack of adequate security, only a silver coffee pot and a gilded bracelet were missing. Thus, many things were saved. The coffee pot was discovered a few days later, and the bracelet was discovered in the spring, when the snow melted. The palace building was so damaged that it was considered almost impossible to restore it. All that remained of it were the stone walls and vaults of the first floor.

While saving the property, 13 soldiers and firefighters died.

On December 25, the Commission for the restoration of the Winter Palace was created. The restoration of the facades and decoration of the ceremonial interiors was entrusted to the architect V. P. Stasov. The personal chambers of the imperial family were entrusted to A.P. Bryullov. General supervision of the construction was carried out by A. Staubert.

The Frenchman A. de Custine wrote:

“Incredible, superhuman efforts were needed to complete the construction within the time appointed by the emperor. Work on the interior decoration continued in the most severe frosts. In total, there were six thousand workers at the construction site, many of whom died every day, but others were immediately brought in to replace these unfortunates, who, in turn, were destined to soon die. And the only purpose of these countless victims was to fulfill the royal whim...
In severe frosts of 25-30 degrees, six thousand unknown martyrs, unrewarded in any way, forced against their will only by obedience, which is the innate, forcefully instilled virtue of the Russians, were locked in the palace halls, where the temperature, due to the increased furnace for speedy drying, reached 30 degrees. . And the unfortunate ones, entering and leaving this palace of death, which, thanks to their sacrifices, was supposed to turn into a palace of vanity, splendor and pleasure, experienced a temperature difference of 50-60 degrees.
Work in the mines of the Urals was much less dangerous for human life, and yet the workers involved in the construction of the palace were not criminals, like those who were sent to the mines. I was told that the unfortunate people who worked in the most heated halls had to put some kind of ice caps on their heads in order to be able to withstand this monstrous heat without losing consciousness and the ability to continue their work..." [Quoted from: 2, p. 554]

For a long time it was believed that after the fire, the facades of the Winter Palace were recreated exactly the same as they were intended by Rastrelli. But in the article “Why Rastrelli was corrected,” historian Z. F. Semyonova described in detail the changes made and pointed out their reasons. It turned out that the northern façade of the building had been significantly altered. The semicircular pediments were replaced with triangular ones, and the design of the stucco decorations changed. The number of columns has increased, which are spaced evenly in each pier. Such rhythmicity and orderliness of the columns is not characteristic of Rastrelli’s Baroque style.

Particularly indicative are the changes in the design of the Jordan entrance. The absence of bending of the entablature, which is replaced by supporting beams and load-bearing columns, is clearly visible here. In his practice, Rastrelli never used such a technique.

The “corrections” in the style of the author of the Winter Palace are associated primarily with a different understanding of the architecture of Russian architects of the mid-19th century. They perceived Baroque as bad taste, diligently correcting it into the correct classical forms.

The wooden bell towers built under Paul I were not recreated.

The design of the interiors of the Winter Palace after the fire was very typical for the late 1830s, when classicism gave way to eclecticism. The main ceremonial interiors have retained the same style solutions. Thus, Nicholas I ordered the front (Jordanian) staircase " resume completely as before", but at the same time " replace the upper columns with marble or granite". In the storerooms of the Winter Palace, ready-made columns made of polished dark Serdobol granite were found - they decorated the Jordan Staircase. The floor and steps were recreated from white Carrara marble, and a balustrade was made from it. In place of the small halls adjacent to the Neva Enfilade, Stasov created narrow galleries-corridors, and in the central part there is a Winter Garden with an area of ​​​​about 140 square meters with a glazed ceiling.

The gallery of 1812 by Stasov was recreated with changes. He increased its length and removed the arches dividing the room into three parts.

The same volumes of the building in which the personal chambers of the imperial family were located were radically redesigned. Architect A.P. Bryullov carried out their redevelopment, significantly improving the functioning of the Winter Palace as apartments for the Tsar and his large family. The interiors created by Bryullov received various style solutions. The architect used techniques of neo-Renaissance, neo-Greek, Pompeian, Moorish, and Gothic styles.

The layout of the building, created at that time, was preserved almost unchanged until 1917.

The celebration of the restoration of the Winter Palace took place in March 1839. A. de Custine visited the restored Winter Palace:

“It was an extravaganza... The shine of the main gallery in the Winter Palace positively dazzled me. It was all covered in gold, whereas before the fire it was painted white... The gallery seemed even more worthy of surprise than the sparkling golden dance hall where dinner was served." [Cit. from: 3, p. 36]

Due to the fire, the statues on the roof of the Winter Palace cracked and began to crumble. In 1840 they were restored under the direction of the sculptor V. Demut-Malinovsky.

On the ground floor, mezzanines were built along the entire eastern gallery, separated by brick walls. The corridor that formed between them began to be called the kitchen corridor.

The gates blocking the entrance to the courtyard were also restored. They exactly repeated the appearance of the gate created by Felten.

Catherine's rooms under Nicholas I began to be called "Prussian-royal". The Emperor's son-in-law, the Prussian King Frederick William IV, used to stay here. After the fire, the former rooms of Maria Feodorovna became the Russian Department of the Hermitage, and after the construction of the New Hermitage building - a hotel for high-ranking persons. They were called the "Second Spare Half".

In general, “halves” in the Winter Palace were called a system of rooms for the residence of one person. Typically these rooms were grouped on one floor around a staircase. For example, the emperor's apartments were on the third floor, and the empress's on the second. They were united by a common staircase. The room system included everything necessary for a luxurious life. Thus, half of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna included the Malachite, Pink and Crimson living rooms, the Arab, Pompeian and Great dining rooms, an office, a bedroom, a boudoir, a garden, a bathroom and a pantry, a Diamond and a Passage room. The first six rooms were the state rooms in which the Empress received guests.

In addition to the halves of Nicholas I and his wife, in the Winter Palace there were halves of the heir, grand dukes, grand duchesses, the minister of the court, the first and second reserve for the temporary stay of the highest persons and members of the imperial family. As the number of Romanov family members increased, the number of spare halves also increased. At the beginning of the 20th century there were seven of them.

The central part of the second floor of the facade of the Winter Palace from Palace Square is occupied by the Alexander Hall. To his left is the White Hall, recreated by the architect Bryullov on the site of the rooms of the children of Paul I. After the marriage of the heir to the throne (the future Alexander II) with Princess Maximiliana Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt (called Maria Alexandrovna in Orthodoxy) in 1841, he became part of it apartments Maria Alexandrovna owned seven more rooms, including the Golden Living Room, the windows of which overlooked Palace Square and the Admiralty. The White Hall was used for receptions. Here tables were set and dances were held.

Having ascended the throne in 1856, Alexander II reserved the rooms in which he lived with his wife after their marriage. The interiors for the imperial couple were restored by the architects A. P. Bryullov, A. I. Stackenschneider, G. E. Bosse. In the northwestern risalit, an apartment was created for the younger brother of Alexander II, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. Before his marriage to Princess Alexandra Frederica Wilhelmina of Oldenburg (who became Alexandra Petrovna in Russia), the apartment was decorated by the architect Andrei Ivanovich Stackenschneider. These works were carried out around the clock and involved up to 200 people.

The apartments of Alexander II consisted of an Entrance Hall, a Hall, a Study Room (on February 19, 1861, the Manifesto on the Abolition of Serfdom was signed in it), a study-bedroom, a room for orderlies and a Library.

In the 1860s, the entrance gate became very dilapidated. They decided to replace them, the architect Andrei Ivanovich Stackenschneider proposed a project for cast iron gates. But this project was not implemented.

In 1869, gas lighting appeared in the palace instead of candlelight.

The Winter Palace became the site of an attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II. Terrorist Stepan Nikolaevich Khalturin planned to blow up the Tsar while he was having breakfast in the Yellow Drawing Room. To do this, Khalturin got a job as a carpenter in the palace and settled in a small room near the carpentry shop. This room was located on the ground floor, above which the palace guard guardhouse was located. Above the guardhouse was the Yellow Living Room. Khalturin planned to blow it up using dynamite, which he carried piece by piece into his room. According to his calculations, the force of the explosion should have been enough to destroy the ceilings of two floors and kill the emperor. The explosive device was detonated on February 5, 1880, at 20 minutes past seven in the morning. The royal family was delayed; by the time of the explosion they did not even have time to reach the Yellow Drawing Room. But the Life Guardsmen of the Finnish Regiment who were in the guardhouse suffered. 11 people were killed, 47 were injured.

Since 1882, the installation of telephones in premises began. In the 1880s, a water supply system was built here (before that, everyone used washstands). At Christmas 1884-1885, electric lighting was tested in the halls of the Winter Palace; from 1888, gas lighting was gradually replaced by electric lighting. For this purpose, a power plant was built in the second hall of the Hermitage, which for 15 years was the largest in Europe.

After the death of Alexander II in 1881, the attitude of the royal family towards the Winter Palace changed. Before this tragedy, it was perceived by the emperors as a home, as a place where it was safe. But Alexander III treated the Winter Palace differently. Here he saw his mortally wounded father. The emperor also remembered the explosion of 1880, which means he did not feel safe here. In addition, the huge Winter Palace no longer met the requirements for comfortable housing at the end of the 19th century. Gradually, the imperial residence became only a place for official receptions, while the royal family more often spent time in other places, in the suburbs of St. Petersburg.

Alexander III made Anichkov Palace his official residence in St. Petersburg. The state rooms of the Winter Palace were open to him for excursions, which were arranged for high school students and students. Balls under Alexander III were not held here. This tradition was resumed by Nicholas II, but the rules for conducting them were changed.

In 1884, the architect Nikolai Gornostaev began designing the new gates of the Winter Palace. He took Stackenschneider's project as a basis. He developed projects for both the entrance gates and the fence for the ramps leading to the Commandant, Her Imperial Majesty and His Imperial Majesty, the Front (in the courtyard) entrances. One of the projects was approved, but it was carried out by the owner of the furniture company, artist Roman Meltzer. This became his first major work. Meltzer slightly reworked Gornostaev’s project, presenting not only the drawings, but also a life-size wooden model for consideration to the highest officials. After their approval, the gates and fences were manufactured at the San Galli iron foundry.

At the end of the 1880s, the architect Gornostaev landscaped the courtyard of the Winter Palace. A garden was created in its central part, where oaks, lindens, maples and white American ash were planted. The garden was surrounded by a granite plinth, and a fountain was installed in its center.

One day, a fragment of one of the figures on the roof of the Winter Palace fell in front of the windows of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II. The statues were removed, and in the 1890s they were replaced by copper figures under the models of the sculptor N.P. Popov. Of the 102 original figures, only 27 were recreated, copying them three times. All vases were repeated from one single model. In 1910, the remains of the original sculptures were found during the construction of a residential building on the corner of Zagorodny Prospekt and Bolshoy Kazachy Lane. The heads of the statues are now kept in the Russian Museum.

On November 14, 1894, the wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna took place in the Court Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands, seven days after the funeral of Alexander III. A week after the wedding, the new emperor decided to once again make the Winter Palace the permanent residence of the Russian Tsar. The personal chambers of the imperial couple were created in the former rooms of Nicholas I and his wife - on the second floor of the northwestern risalit, with the exception of the Arab dining room, the Rotunda and the Malachite living room. Projects for new interiors were developed by academicians of architecture M. E. Mesmacher, D. A. Kryzhanovsky and A. F. Krasovsky. Carpentry and artistic work was carried out by the furniture and parquet factories of F. F. Meltser and N. F. Svirsky. The decoration of the rooms was completed in November 1895. For Nicholas II, the following were created: Adjutant Room, Billiard Room, Library, Passage Room, Bathroom with Swimming Pool, Office and Lavatory. For Alexandra Feodorovna: Small dining room, Malachite living room, First and Second living rooms, Corner office and bedroom. For the first time in the Winter Palace, elements of the Art Nouveau style were used in the rooms of Nicholas II. The move of the imperial family from the Alexander Palace to the Winter Palace took place on December 30, 1895.

Nicholas II's working day was spent in his office. Here he received visitors, listened to reports and signed documents. He did not have a secretary, because he did not want a stranger to influence his train of thought. The emperor spent the evening hours in the Library with the empress. This is one of the few premises that have preserved its interiors to this day. Its decoration was carried out by the architect Alexander Fedorovich Krasovsky. Here, by the burning fireplace, the couple talked and read out loud to each other.

In January, one large and two or three small balls were held at the Winter Palace. Up to 5,000 people were invited to the big ball, the convention was scheduled for 9 pm, and the event ended at about 2 am. 800 - 1,000 people took part in small balls.

On July 30, 1904, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, was born. It soon became clear that he had inherited an incurable disease from his ancestors - hemophilia. After the diagnosis was made, the imperial family decided to move back to the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo in order to hide their grief from prying eyes. The Winter Palace remained the place for ceremonial receptions, state dinners, and the place where the Tsar stayed during short visits to the city. Balls were no longer held here.

One of the last celebrations held in the Winter Palace under Nicholas II was the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. Festive events were held from February 19 to 25, 1913.

During the First World War (October 5, 1915), the building was given over to an infirmary, named after the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. An operating room, therapeutic room, examination room and other services were opened in the Winter Palace. The armorial hall became a ward for the wounded. They were looked after by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the Tsar's eldest daughters, and court ladies.

In the summer of 1917, the Winter Palace became the meeting place of the Provisional Government, which had previously been located in the Mariinsky Palace. In July, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky became chairman of the Provisional Government. It was located in the chambers of Alexander III - in the northwestern part of the palace, on the third floor, with windows overlooking the Admiralty and the Neva. The provisional government was located in the chambers of Nicholas II and his wife - on the second floor, under the apartments of Alexander III. The meeting room became the Malachite Living Room.

The jewelry stored in the Winter Palace was looted even before the October coup. This was facilitated by the work of a hospital here, various public organizations, and the deployment of military units guarding the Provisional Government. Door decorations and a significant part of the candelabra were stolen, marble statues in the White Hall were damaged, furniture was damaged, and portraits were torn by bayonets. In this regard, it was decided to transfer most of the valuables from the Winter Palace to Moscow. At the same time, on August 25, 1917, preparations began for the evacuation of the Hermitage collections to Moscow.

Before the First World War, the Winter Palace was repainted red brick. It was against this background that the revolutionary events took place on Palace Square in 1917. On the morning of October 25, Kerensky left the Winter Palace to join the troops outside Petrograd. On the night of October 25-26, a detachment of sailors and Red Army soldiers entered the building through the entrance of Her Imperial Majesty. On October 26, 1917, at 1:50 a.m., the ministers of the Provisional Government were arrested in the Winter Palace. Subsequently, this entrance to the palace, as well as the staircase behind it, was called October.

Winter Palace after 1917, State Hermitage Museum

On the night of October 25-26, 1917, many rooms of the Winter Palace were destroyed. With particular frenzy, the pogromists destroyed the personal chambers of Nicholas II. On October 27, by decision of the newly created Council of People's Commissars, the hospital in the Winter Palace was closed.

Before the Bolshevik Revolution, the semi-basement floor of the Winter Palace was occupied by a wine cellar. Centuries-old cognacs, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian and other wines were stored here. According to the City Duma, a fifth of the total supply of alcohol in St. Petersburg was stored in the basements of the Winter Palace. On November 3, 1917, when wine pogroms began in the city, the storage facilities of the former royal residence were also damaged. From the memoirs of Larisa Reisner about the events in the cellars of the Winter Palace:

“They were filled with firewood, walled up first in one brick, then in two bricks - nothing helps. Every night they make a hole somewhere and suck, lick, pull out what they can. Some kind of mad, naked, impudent voluptuousness draws them to the forbidden wall one crowd after another. With tears in his eyes, Sergeant Major Krivoruchenko, who was assigned to protect the ill-fated barrels, told me about the despair, about the complete powerlessness that he experienced at night, defending alone, sober, with his few guards against the persistent, all-pervasive lust of the crowd. Now they have decided this: a machine gun will be inserted into each new hole."

But that didn't help either. In the end, it was decided to destroy the wine on the spot:

"...Then they called the firemen. They turned on the machines, pumped the basements full of water and let everything be pumped out into the Neva. Muddy streams flowed from the Winter Palace: there was wine, water, and dirt - everything was mixed up... This story dragged on for a day or two "So far there is nothing left of the wine cellars in Zimny."

Against the background of widespread renaming of streets, squares, former royal and princely residences, a new name appeared for the Winter Palace, which became the Palace of Arts.

In 1922, the “Museum of the Revolution” was organized in the Winter Palace. Three floors of the western half of the building were allocated for it, including the Nikolaevsky and Concert Halls, the Antechamber and 27 rooms with partially preserved pre-revolutionary decoration. The created exhibition was called "Historical rooms of Emperors Alexander II and Nicholas II." Other state rooms of the Winter Palace were transferred to the Hermitage. V.V. Shulgin, who visited the Museum of the Revolution in 1925, wrote:

“We entered the Winter Palace. Downstairs it was cold, uncomfortable, not heated. We took tickets to the “Museum of the Revolution.” We climbed some, apparently service, stairs and entered the hall, where, freezing in boots and felt boots, some people were dozing “watchwomen.” More and more photographs. February days, February newspapers, various members of the Duma, Rodzianko, Kerensky. All this was collected conscientiously, but boringly...
...the rooms, which indicated the modest personal life of the sovereigns and especially the empresses, created some sensation among the handful of people surrounding us. This is not what we expected...
There are no particularly valuable things in the chambers of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna: all these are intimate things that were of value only for themselves. The quills and pens with which Nicholas II wrote have been preserved here; this is Alexandra Fedorovna’s pad. This is a collection of Easter eggs that they received as a gift...
When we passed by the bathing pool, the only luxury that the late Emperor seemed to allow himself, my companion showed me a spiral staircase running upward, and remarked in my ear: “There is a room where that scoundrel, Sashka Kerensky, lived "" [Quoted from: 6, pp. 245, 246].

In addition to the Museum of the Revolution, the premises of the Winter Palace were occupied, successively, by a variety of institutions: the bodies of the Congress of Committees of the Poor Peasants of the Northern Region and the Congress of Working Women of the Northern Region. The former maid of honor rooms were occupied by a dormitory for children's preschool colonies. Thus, on the third floor there was a colony of street children. The headquarters of the October and May Day celebrations worked on the second floor. In some of the main halls (including Georgievsky) exhibitions of the Department of Public Education of the People's Commissariat of Education were held, concerts and performances were held in the Armorial Hall, a cinema was equipped in Nikolaevsky for some time, and later party meetings and rallies of the Central City District of Petrograd began to be held. The former chief marshal's premises were occupied by a club and a children's canteen. The stables and adjacent outbuildings began to serve as warehouses for children's colonies for street children, both the one located in the Winter Palace and those located in the Tsarskoye Selo palaces.

The huge number of people wishing to get acquainted with the former personal chambers of the royal family and their completely different reaction to what they saw than what was expected by the authorities led to the closure of the Museum of the Revolution. On August 1, 1926, the personal rooms of Alexander II and Nicholas II were transferred to the Hermitage.

The Winter Palace has been rebuilt to meet the needs of the museum since 1927, and especially actively in the early 1930s. Then the bay windows above the entrances from Palace Square were dismantled. In 1927, during the restoration of the facade, 13 layers of different paints were discovered. Then the walls of the Winter Palace were repainted gray-green, the columns white, and the stucco almost black. At the same time, the mezzanines and partitions of the eastern gallery of the first floor were dismantled. It was called the Rastrelli Gallery.

On August 31, 1932, the Lenin Komsomol Museum was opened in the Winter Palace, the entrance to which was through the Oktyabrsky entrance from Palace Square. By 1938, almost all the premises were transferred to museum purposes.

During the blockade, in the spring of 1942, a vegetable garden was built in the courtyard garden of the Winter Palace. Potatoes, rutabaga, and beets were planted here. There was a similar vegetable garden in the Hanging Garden.

The last historical rooms of the imperial residence that retained their furnishings were converted for museum purposes in 1946. In 1955, P. Ya. Kann provided the following information about the palace: it had 1050 front and living rooms, 1945 windows, 1786 doors, 117 staircases.

Currently, the Winter Palace, together with the Hermitage Theatre, Small, New and Large Hermitages, forms a single complex “State Hermitage”. Its semi-basement floor is occupied by museum production workshops.

Back in 1752, F. B. Rastrelli drew up several projects for the reconstruction of the existing Winter Palace from the time of Anna Ioannovna. These projects clearly showed that the possibilities for expanding the previous building had been completely exhausted. In 1754, the final decision was made to build a new palace on the same site.

In terms of size and splendor of architectural decoration, it was supposed to surpass all previous imperial palaces in St. Petersburg and become a symbol of the wealth and power of the Russian state. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna especially noted, addressing the Senate through the architect F.B. Rastrelli: “The construction of that stone Winter Palace was built for the glory of the All-Russian Empire and, due to the circumstances, the Governing Senate should in all cases constantly try to ensure that it is built without ceasing towards the end."

The new Winter Palace was conceived in the form of a closed quadrangle with an extensive front courtyard. The northern facade of the palace was facing the Neva, the western - towards the Admiralty. In front of the southern façade, F. B. Rastrelli designed a large square, in the center of which he proposed to install an equestrian statue of Peter I, sculpted by the father of the architect Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli. A semicircular square was also planned in front of the eastern facade of the Winter Palace, from the side of the modern Small Hermitage. These plans were not implemented.

The construction of the grandiose building lasted 12 years. During this period, the imperial court moved to a temporary wooden Winter Palace built on Nevsky Prospekt. During the warm season, the Summer Palace served as the capital's imperial residence.

On the eve of Easter 1762, the solemn consecration of the house church of the Winter Palace took place, marking the end of construction, although many rooms still remained unfinished. Elizaveta Petrovna did not have the chance to live in the new palace - she died in December 1761. Emperor Peter III moved into the palace.

During the reign of Catherine II, part of the interiors of the Winter Palace was decorated in accordance with new artistic tastes. Changes and additions were made in the 1st third of the 19th century. A devastating fire in 1837 destroyed the magnificent interior decoration to the ground. Its restoration in 1838-1839 was carried out by architects V.P. Stasov and A.P. Bryullov.

The Winter Palace belongs to one of the most outstanding works of Russian Baroque. The three-story building is divided into two tiers by an entablature. The facades are decorated with columns of the Ionic and Composite order; 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 (one can count two dozen of their types), abundant stucco molding, many decorative vases and statues on the parapets and pediments create the decorative decoration of the palace, which is extraordinary in splendor and splendor. The bright contrasting colors of the walls and architectural decorations enhance the overall picturesque impression. Its original color scheme was somewhat different compared to the modern one - the palace was “painted on the outside: the walls were sandy paint with the thinnest yellow, and the ornaments were white lime.”

The southern façade of the palace is cut through by three entrance arches leading to the front courtyard. In the center of the northern building there was a central entrance. Through the long vestibule one could go to the main Jordan staircase, which occupied an entire risalit in the north-eastern corner of the building. On the second floor, along the Neva façade from the staircase, there was a solemn enfilade, closing with the grandiose Throne Hall. None of the existing halls of the Winter Palace can compare with its size: F. B. Rastrelli, while maintaining the width of the Throne Hall from the time of Anna Ioannovna (28 meters), increased its length to 49 meters.

Along the eastern facade from the Jordan Staircase there was a second enfilade, ending with the palace church. Behind the church, in the southeastern risalit, Elizabeth Petrovna’s personal apartments were planned.

All of Rastrelli's interiors were destroyed in a fire in 1837. By special order of Nicholas I, the Jordan Staircase and the palace church were restored to their original form. The latter suffered again in Soviet times - in 1938 the magnificent carved iconostasis was dismantled. The interior of the church was restored in 2014.

Nowadays the building of the Winter Palace belongs to the State Hermitage, where the museum’s exhibitions are located.

The Winter Palace on Palace Square in St. Petersburg is the main attraction of the northern capital, serving as the official winter residence of the Russian emperors from 1762 to 1904. The palace has no equal in St. Petersburg in terms of the richness and variety of architectural and sculptural decoration.

To get around all the exhibits in the Hermitage, you will need to spend 11 years of your life and walk 22 kilometers. All St. Petersburg residents know well: in the main museum of the city on the first floor there is the Egyptian Hall, on the third floor there are the Impressionists. City guests are also aware.

How will we surprise you? You can try with facts:

№1. The Hermitage is huge... Like the territory of a huge country ruled by the Tsar, the autocrat of all Rus', right from the walls of this luxurious palace. 1057 rooms, 117 staircases, 1945 windows. The total length of the main cornice bordering the building is almost 2 km.

№2. The total number of sculptures installed on the Winter Palace parapet is 176 pieces. You can count the number of vases yourself.

№3. The main palace of the Russian Empire was built by more than 4,000 masons and plasterers, marble makers and stucco makers, parquet floorers and painters. Receiving an insignificant payment for their work, they huddled in miserable shacks, many lived here, on the square, in huts.

№4. From 1754 to 1762, construction of the palace building took place, which at that time became the tallest residential building in St. Petersburg. For a long time... Empress Elizaveta Petrovna died without settling into the new mansions. Peter III accepted 60,000 square meters of new housing.

№5. After the completion of the Winter Palace, the entire area in front of it was littered with construction debris. Emperor Peter III decided to get rid of it in an original way - he ordered it to be announced to the people that anyone could take anything they wanted from the square, for free. After a few hours, all the debris was cleared.

№6. The garbage was removed - a new problem. In 1837 the palace burned down. The entire imperial family was left homeless. However, 6,000 unknown workers saved the situation, working day and night, and within 15 months the palace was completely restored. True, the price of a labor feat is several hundred ordinary workers...

№7. The Winter Palace was constantly repainted in different colors. It was both red and pink. It acquired its original pale green color in 1946.

№8. The Winter Palace is an absolutely monumental building. It was intended to reflect the power and greatness of the Russian Empire. It is estimated that there are 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows and 117 staircases. The length of the main facade is 150 meters and the height is 30.

The development of the territory east of the Admiralty began simultaneously with the emergence of the shipyard. In 1705, a house was built on the banks of the Neva for the “Great Admiralty” - Fyodor Matveevich Apraksin. By 1711, the site of the current palace was occupied by the mansions of the nobility involved in the fleet (only naval officials could build here).

The first wooden Winter House of “Dutch architecture” according to Trezzini’s “exemplary design” under a tiled roof was built in 1711 for the Tsar, as a shipwright by master Peter Alekseev. A canal was dug in front of its façade in 1718, which later became the Winter Canal. Peter called it “his office.” Especially for the wedding of Peter and Ekaterina Alekseevna, the wooden palace was rebuilt into a modestly decorated two-story stone house with a tiled roof, which had a descent to the Neva. According to some historians, the wedding feast took place in the great hall of this first Winter Palace.

The second Winter Palace was built in 1721 according to the Mattarnovi project. Its main façade faced the Neva. Peter lived his last years in it.

The third Winter Palace appeared as a result of the reconstruction and expansion of this palace according to Trezzini's design. Parts of it later became part of the Hermitage Theater created by Quarenghi. During the restoration work, fragments of Peter the Great's palace were discovered inside the theater: the front courtyard, staircase, vestibule, rooms. Now here is essentially the Hermitage exhibition “The Winter Palace of Peter the Great”.

In 1733-1735, according to the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli, on the site of the former palace of Fyodor Apraksin, bought for the empress, the fourth Winter Palace was built - the palace of Anna Ioannovna. Rastrelli used the walls of the luxurious chambers of Apraksin, erected in the times of Peter the Great by the architect Leblon.

The Fourth Winter Palace stood approximately in the same place where we see the current one, and was much more elegant than the previous palaces.

The Fifth Winter Palace for the temporary stay of Elizabeth Petrovna and her court was again built by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (in Russia he was often called Bartholomew Varfolomeevich). It was a huge wooden building from Moika to Malaya Morskaya and from Nevsky Prospect to Kirpichny Lane. There is no trace of him left for a long time. Many researchers of the history of the creation of the current Winter Palace do not even remember it, considering the fifth one to be the modern Winter Palace.

The current Winter Palace is the sixth in a row. It was built from 1754 to 1762 according to the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and is a striking example of lush baroque. But Elizabeth didn’t have time to live in the palace - she died, so Catherine the Second became the first real mistress of the Winter Palace.

In 1837, the Winter Palace burned down - the fire started in the Field Marshal's Hall and lasted for three whole days, all this time the palace servants carried out works of art that decorated the royal residence, a huge mountain of statues, paintings, precious trinkets grew around the Alexander Column... They say that nothing is missing...

The Winter Palace was restored after the fire of 1837 without any major external changes, by 1839 the work was completed, they were led by two architects: Alexander Bryullov (brother of the great Charles) and Vasily Stasov (author of the Spaso-Perobrazhensky and Trinity-Izmailovsky Cathedrals). The number of sculptures along the perimeter of its roof was only reduced.

Over the centuries, the color of the facades of the Winter Palace changed from time to time. Initially, the walls were painted with “sandy paint with the finest yellow,” and the decor was painted with white lime. Before the First World War, the palace acquired an unexpected red-brick color, giving the palace a gloomy appearance. The contrasting combination of green walls, white columns, capitals and stucco decoration appeared in 1946.

Exterior of the Winter Palace

Rastrelli was not just building a royal residence - the palace was built “for the glory of all Russia alone,” as it was said in the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to the Governing Senate. The palace is distinguished from European Baroque buildings by its brightness, cheerfulness of imagery, and festive, solemn elation. Its more than 20-meter height is emphasized by two-tiered columns. The vertical division of the palace is continued by statues and vases, leading the eye to the sky. The height of the Winter Palace became a building standard, elevated to the principle of St. Petersburg urban planning. It was not allowed to build higher than the Winter Building in the old city.
The palace is a giant quadrangle with a large courtyard. The facades of the palace, varying in composition, form like folds of a huge ribbon. The stepped cornice, repeating all the protrusions of the building, stretches for almost two kilometers. The absence of sharply extended parts along the northern façade, from the Neva side (there are only three divisions here), enhances the impression of the length of the building along the embankment; two wings on the western side face the Admiralty. The main façade, facing Palace Square, has seven divisions and is the most formal. In the middle, protruding part there is a triple arcade of the entrance gate, decorated with a magnificent openwork lattice. The south-eastern and south-western risalits protrude beyond the line of the main façade. Historically, it was in them that the living quarters of emperors and empresses were located.

Layout of the Winter Palace

Bartolomeo Rastrelli already had experience in building royal palaces in Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof. In the scheme of the Winter Palace, he included a standard layout option that he had previously tested. The basement of the palace was used as housing for servants or storage rooms. The ground floor housed service and utility rooms. The second floor housed ceremonial ceremonial halls and personal apartments of the imperial family. The third floor accommodated ladies-in-waiting, doctors and close servants. This layout assumed predominantly horizontal connections between the various rooms of the palace, which was reflected in the endless corridors of the Winter Palace.
The northern façade is distinguished by the fact that it contains three huge main halls. The Neva Enfilade included: the Small Hall, the Large (Nikolaevsky Hall) and the Concert Hall. The large enfilade unfolded along the axis of the Grand Staircase, running perpendicular to the Neva Enfilade. It included the Field Marshal's Hall, Peter's Hall, the Armorial (White) Hall, the Picket (New) Hall. A special place in the series of halls was occupied by the memorial Military Gallery of 1812, the solemn St. George and Apollo halls. The main halls included the Pompeii Gallery and the Winter Garden. The route taken by the royal family through the enfilade of state halls had a deep meaning. The script of the Big Exits, worked out to the smallest detail, served not only as a demonstration of the full brilliance of autocratic power, but also as an appeal to the past and present of Russian history.
Like any other palace of the imperial family, there was a church in the Winter Palace, or rather two churches: Big and Small. According to the plan of Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the Big Church was supposed to serve Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and her “big court”, while the Small Church was supposed to serve the “young court” - the court of the heir-Tsarevich Peter Fedorovich and his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Interiors of the Winter Palace

If the exterior of the palace is made in the late Russian Baroque style. The interiors are mainly made in the style of early classicism. One of the few interiors of the palace that has preserved its original Baroque decoration is the main Jordan staircase. It occupies a huge space of almost 20 meters in height and seems even higher due to the painting of the ceiling. Reflected in mirrors, the real space seems even larger. The staircase created by Bartolomeo Rastrelli after the fire of 1837 was restored by Vasily Stasov, who preserved Rastrelli’s general plan. The decor of the staircase is infinitely varied - mirrors, statues, fancy gilded stucco, varying motifs of a stylized shell. The forms of Baroque decor became more restrained after the replacement of wooden columns lined with pink stucco (artificial marble) with monolithic granite columns.

Of the three halls of the Neva Enfilade, the Antechamber is the most restrained in decoration. The main decor is concentrated in the upper part of the hall - allegorical compositions executed in monochrome technique (grisaille) on a gilded background. Since 1958, a malachite rotunda has been installed in the center of the Antechamber (first it was located in the Tauride Palace, then in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra).

The largest hall of the Neva Enfilade, Nikolaevsky, is decorated more solemnly. This is one of the largest halls of the Winter Palace, its area is 1103 sq. m. Three-quarter columns of the magnificent Corinthian order, painted borders of the ceiling and huge chandeliers give it grandeur. The hall is designed in white.

The concert hall, intended at the end of the 18th century for court concerts, has a more rich sculptural and pictorial decor than the two previous halls. The hall is decorated with statues of muses installed in the second tier of walls above the columns. This hall completed the enfilade and was originally conceived by Rastrelli as a vestibule to the throne room. In the middle of the 20th century, a silver tomb of Alexander Nevsky (transferred to the Hermitage after the revolution) weighing about 1,500 kg, created at the St. Petersburg Mint in 1747–1752, was installed in the hall. for the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which to this day houses the relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The large enfilade begins with the Field Marshals' Hall, designed to house portraits of field marshals; it was supposed to give an idea of ​​the political and military history of Russia. Its interior was created, just like the neighboring Petrine (or Small Throne) Hall, by the architect Auguste Montferrand in 1833 and restored after the fire of 1837 by Vasily Stasov. The main purpose of the Peter the Great Hall is memorial - it is dedicated to the memory of Peter the Great, so its decoration is particularly luxurious. In the gilded decor of the frieze, in the painting of the vaults there are coats of arms of the Russian Empire, crowns, wreaths of glory. In a huge niche with a rounded arch there is a painting depicting Peter I, led by the goddess Minerva to victories; in the upper part of the side walls there are paintings with scenes of the most important battles of the Northern War - at Lesnaya and near Poltava. In the decorative motifs decorating the hall, the monogram of two Latin letters “P”, denoting the name of Peter I, “Petrus Primus”, is endlessly repeated.

The armorial hall is decorated with shields with the coats of arms of Russian provinces of the 19th century, located on huge chandeliers that illuminate it. This is an example of the late classical style. The porticoes on the end walls hide the enormity of the hall, and the solid gilding of the columns emphasizes its splendor. Four sculptural groups of warriors of Ancient Rus' recall the heroic traditions of the defenders of the fatherland and precede the following Gallery of 1812.
Stasov's most perfect creation in the Winter Palace is the St. George (Grand Throne) Hall. The Quarenghi Hall, created on the same site, was destroyed in a fire in 1837. Stasov, while preserving Quarenghi’s architectural design, created a completely different artistic image. The walls are lined with Carrara marble, and the columns are carved from it. The decor of the ceiling and columns is made of gilded bronze. The ceiling pattern is repeated in the parquet flooring, made from 16 valuable types of wood. The only things missing from the floor design are the Double-Headed Eagle and St. George - it is not appropriate to step on the coat of arms of the great empire. The gilded silver throne was restored to its original location in 2000 by architects and restorers of the Hermitage. Above the throne seat is a marble bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon, by the Italian sculptor Francesco del Nero.

Owners of the Winter Palace

The customer of the construction was the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, she hurried Rastrelli with the construction of the palace, so the work was carried out at a frantic pace. The empress's personal chambers (two bedchambers and an office), the chambers of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich and some rooms adjacent to the chambers were hastily finished: the Church, the Opera House and the Light Gallery. But the empress did not have time to live in the palace. She died in December 1761. The first owner of the Winter Palace was the nephew of the Empress (son of her elder sister Anna) Peter III Fedorovich. The Winter Palace was solemnly consecrated and put into operation by Easter 1762. Peter III immediately started alterations in the southwestern risalit. The chambers included an office and a library. It was planned to create the Amber Hall on the model of the Tsarskoye Selo. For his wife, he identified chambers in the southwestern risalit, the windows of which overlooked the industrial zone of the Admiralty.

The emperor lived in the palace only until June 1762, after which, without even expecting it, he left it forever, moving to his beloved Oranienbaum, where at the end of July he signed an abdication, shortly after which he was killed in the Ropshinsky Palace.

The “brilliant age” of Catherine II began, who became the first real mistress of the Winter Palace, and the south-eastern risalit, overlooking Millionnaya Street and Palace Square, became the first of the “residence zones” of the owners of the palace. After the coup, Catherine II basically continued to live in the wooden Elizabethan palace, and in August she left for Moscow for her coronation. Construction work in Zimny ​​did not stop, but it was already carried out by other architects: Jean Baptiste Vallin-Delamot, Antonio Rinaldi, Yuri Felten. Rastrelli was first sent on leave and then resigned. Catherine returned from Moscow at the beginning of 1863 and moved her chambers to the southwestern risalit, showing continuity from Elizabeth Petrovna to Peter III and to her - the new empress. All work on the west wing was stopped. On the site of Peter III’s chambers, with the personal participation of the Empress, a complex of Catherine’s personal chambers was built. It included: the Audience Chamber, which replaced the Throne Room; Dining room with two windows; Restroom; two casual bedrooms; Boudoir; Office and Library. All rooms were designed in the style of early classicism. Later, Catherine ordered one of the everyday bedrooms to be converted into the Diamond Room or Diamond Chamber, where precious property and imperial regalia were kept: crown, scepter, orb. The regalia was in the center of the room on a table under a crystal cap. As new jewelry was acquired, glass boxes mounted to the walls appeared.
The Empress lived in the Winter Palace for 34 years and her chambers were expanded and rebuilt more than once.

Paul I lived in the Winter Palace during his childhood and youth, and having received Gatchina as a gift from his mother, he left it in the mid-1780s and returned in November 1796, becoming emperor. Pavel lived in the palace for four years in Catherine’s converted chambers. His large family moved with him, settling in their rooms in the western part of the palace. After his accession to the throne, he immediately began the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, without hiding his plans to literally “tear off” the interiors of the Winter Palace, using everything valuable to decorate the Mikhailovsky Castle.

After the death of Paul in March 1801, Emperor Alexander I immediately returned to the Winter Palace. The palace returned to its status as the main imperial residence. But he did not occupy the chambers of the southeastern risalit; he returned to his rooms, located along the western facade of the Winter Palace, with windows overlooking the Admiralty. The premises on the second floor of the southwestern risalit have forever lost their significance as the inner chambers of the head of state. Renovation of the chambers of Paul I began in 1818, on the eve of the arrival of the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, in Russia, appointing “collegiate adviser Karl Rossi” responsible for the work. All design work was carried out according to his drawings. From that time on, the rooms in this part of the Winter Palace began to be officially called the “Prussian-royal rooms”, and later - the Second Reserve Half of the Winter Palace. It is separated from the First Half by the Alexander Hall; in plan, this half consisted of two perpendicular enfilades overlooking Palace Square and Millionnaya Street, which were connected in different ways to the rooms facing the courtyard. There was a time when the sons of Alexander II lived in these rooms. First, Nikolai Alexandrovich (who was never destined to become Russian Emperor), and from 1863, his younger brothers Alexander (future Emperor Alexander III) and Vladimir. They moved out of the premises of the Winter Palace in the late 1860s, beginning their independent lives. At the beginning of the twentieth century, dignitaries of the “first level” were accommodated in the rooms of the Second Reserve Half, saving them from terrorist bombs. From the beginning of spring 1905, the Governor-General of St. Petersburg Trepov lived there. Then, in the fall of 1905, Prime Minister Stolypin and his family were accommodated in these premises.

The premises on the second floor along the southern facade, the windows of which are located to the right and left of the main gate, were allocated by Paul I to his wife Maria Feodorovna in 1797. Paul's intelligent, ambitious and strong-willed wife, during her widowhood, managed to form a structure called the “department of Empress Maria Feodorovna.” It was engaged in charity, education, and provision of medical care to representatives of various classes. In 1827, renovations were made to the chambers, which ended in March, and in November of the same year she died. Her third son, Emperor Nicholas I, decided to preserve her chambers. Later, the First Reserve Half was formed there, consisting of two parallel enfilades. This was the largest of the palace halves, stretching along the second floor from the White to the Alexander Hall. In 1839, temporary residents settled there: the eldest daughter of Nicholas I, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and her husband, the Duke of Leuchtenberg. They lived there for almost five years, until the completion of the Mariinsky Palace in 1844. After the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna and Emperor Alexander II, their rooms became part of the First Reserve Half.

On the ground floor of the southern facade between the entrance of the Empress and the main gate leading to the Great Courtyard, the windows on Palace Square were the premises of the Palace Grenadiers on Duty (2 windows), the Candle Post (2 windows) and the department of the Emperor's Military Camp Office (3 windows). Next came the premises of the “Hoff-Fourier and Chamber-Fourier post.” These premises ended at the Commandant's entrance, to the right of which the windows of the apartment of the commandant of the Winter Palace began.

The entire third floor of the southern façade, along the long maid of honor corridor, was occupied by the ladies-in-waiting's apartments. Since these apartments were service living space, at the will of business executives or the emperor himself, ladies-in-waiting could be moved from one room to another. Some of the ladies-in-waiting quickly got married and left the Winter Palace forever; others met there not only old age, but also death...

The southwestern risalit under Catherine II was occupied by the palace theater. It was demolished in the mid-1780s to accommodate rooms for the Empress's many grandchildren. A small enclosed courtyard was built inside the risalit. The daughters of the future Emperor Paul I were settled in the rooms of the southwestern risalit. In 1816, Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna married Prince William of Orange and left Russia. Her chambers were remodeled under the leadership of Carlo Rossi for Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich and his young wife Alexandra Feodorovna. The couple lived in these rooms for 10 years. After the Grand Duke became Emperor Nicholas I in 1825, the couple moved in 1826 to the northwestern risalit. And after the marriage of the heir, Tsarevich Alesander Nikolaevich, to the Princess of Hesse (the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna), they occupied the premises of the second floor of the southwestern risalit. Over time, these rooms began to be called “Half of Empress Maria Alexandrovna”

Photos of the Winter Palace