Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (Palace Square, 2 / Palace Embankment, 38)
The Winter Palace is a former imperial palace, currently part of the Main Museum Complex of the State Hermitage.
The monumental and elegant Winter Palace, commissioned by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-1762, is a striking monument to the Baroque style. The building is a brilliant example of the synthesis of architecture and decorative plastics. All its facades are decorated with a two-tier colonnade. Forming a complex rhythm of verticals, the columns rush upward, and this movement is picked up by numerous statues and vases on the roof.
The abundance of stucco decorations - fancy cornices and window frames, mascarons, cartouches and rocailles, torn pediments - creates a rich play of light and shadow, giving the appearance of the building a special splendor. It is a cultural heritage site of federal significance and a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the historical center of St. Petersburg
From the end of construction in 1762 to 1904, it was used as the official winter residence of the Russian emperors. In 1904, Nicholas II moved his permanent residence to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. From October 1915 to November 1917, a hospital named after Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich operated in the palace. From July to November 1917, the palace housed the Provisional Government. In January 1920, the State Museum of the Revolution was opened in the palace, sharing the building with the State Hermitage until 1941.
The Winter Palace and Palace Square form a beautiful architectural ensemble of the modern city and are one of the main objects of domestic and international tourism.
Story
In total, during the period 1711–1764, five winter palaces were built in the city. Initially, Peter I settled in a one-story house, built hastily in 1703, not far from the Peter and Paul Fortress.
First Palace - Wedding Chambers
Peter the Great owned the site between the Neva and Millionnaya Street (on the site of the current Hermitage Theater). In 1708, here, in the depths of the site, a wooden “Winter House” was built - a small two-story house with a high porch and a tiled roof. In 1712, the stone Wedding Chambers of Peter I were built. This palace was a gift from the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, for the wedding of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna.
The Second Winter Palace - the palace of Peter I at the Winter Canal
In 1716, the architect Georg Mattarnovi, by order of the Tsar, began building a new Winter Palace, on the corner of the Neva and the Winter Canal (which was then called the “Winter House Canal”). In 1720, Peter I and his entire family moved from their summer residence to their winter residence. In 1725, Peter died in this palace.
Third Palace - Anna Ioannovna's Palace
Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna considered the Winter Palace too small and in 1731 entrusted its reconstruction to F.B. Rastrelli, who offered her his own project for the reconstruction of the Winter Palace. According to his project, it was necessary to purchase the houses that stood at that time on the site occupied by the current palace and belonged to Count Apraksin, the Maritime Academy, Raguzinsky and Chernyshev. Anna Ioannovna approved the project, the houses were bought up, demolished, and construction began in the spring of 1732.
The facades of this palace were facing the Neva, the Admiralty and the “meadow side”, that is, the palace square. In 1735, construction of the palace was completed, and Anna Ioannovna moved to live there. The four-story building included about 70 state rooms, more than 100 bedrooms, a gallery, a theater, a large chapel, many staircases, service and guard rooms, as well as rooms for the palace chancellery. Almost immediately the palace began to be rebuilt; an extension began along the meadow side of technical buildings, sheds and stables[
Anna and Anton-Ulrich
Here, on July 2, 1739, Princess Anna Leopoldovna's engagement to Prince Anton-Ulrich took place. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the young Emperor Ivan Antonovich was brought here, who stayed here until November 25, 1741, when Elizaveta Petrovna took power into her own hands.
Fourth (temporary) Winter Palace
It was built in 1755. It was built by Rastrelli on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the river embankment. Sinks. Was dismantled in 1762
Fifth Winter Palace
From 1754 to 1762, construction took place on the existing palace building, which at that time became the tallest residential building in St. Petersburg. The building included about 1,500 rooms. The total area of the palace is about 60,000 sq.m. Elizaveta Petrovna did not live to see the completion of construction; Peter III took over the work on April 6, 1762. By this time, the decoration of the facades was completed, but many of the interior spaces were not yet ready. In the summer of 1762, Peter III was overthrown from the throne, and construction of the Winter Palace was completed under Catherine II.
Initially, the color of the palace had yellow shades, like those of Versailles and Schönbrunn
In the mid-19th century, red shades appeared in the color of the palace.
First of all, the Empress removed Rastrelli from his work. The interior decoration of the palace was carried out by the architects Yu. M. Felten, J. B. Vallin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi under the direction of Betsky.
On January 1, 1752, the Empress decided to expand the Winter Palace, after which the neighboring areas of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky were purchased. At the new location, Rastrelli added new buildings. According to the project he drew up, these buildings were to be attached to existing ones and be decorated in the same style.
In December 1752, the Empress wished to increase the height of the Winter Palace from 14 to 22 meters. Rastrelli was forced to redo the design of the building, after which he decided to build it in a new location. But Elizaveta Petrovna refused to move the new Winter Palace. As a result, the architect decides to build the entire building anew; the new project was signed by Elizaveta Petrovna on June 16 (June 27), 1754
According to the original layout of the palace, made by Rastrelli, the largest state rooms were located on the 2nd floor and overlooked the Neva. According to the architect’s plan, the path to the huge “Throne” hall (which occupied the entire space of the north-western wing) began from the east - from the “Jordan” or, as it was previously called, the “Embassy” staircase and ran through a suite of five outer halls ( Of these, the three middle halls later formed the current Nicholas Hall).
Rastrelli placed the palace theater “Opera House” in the southwestern wing. Kitchens and other services occupied the north-eastern wing, and in the south-eastern part there was a gallery between the living quarters and the “Big Church” built in the eastern courtyard.
In 1763, the Empress moved her chambers to the southwestern part of the palace; under her rooms, she ordered the chambers of her favorite G. G. Orlov to be placed (in 1764-1766, the Southern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage would be built for Orlov, connected to Catherine’s chambers by a gallery on the arch ).
In the northwestern risalit, the “Throne Hall” was equipped, and a waiting room appeared in front of it - the “White Hall”. A dining room was located behind the White Hall. The “Light Study” was adjacent to it. The dining room was followed by the “Grand Bedchamber,” which a year later became the “Diamond Chamber.”
In addition, the Empress ordered to equip herself with a library, an office, a boudoir, two bedrooms and a restroom. In the restroom, the empress built a toilet seat from the throne of one of her lovers, the Polish king Poniatowski. In 1764, in Berlin, through agents, Catherine acquired a collection of 225 works by Dutch and Flemish artists from the merchant I. Gotzkovsky. The paintings were placed in secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name “Hermitage” (place of solitude); from 1767 to 1775 a special building was built for them east of the palace.
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In the 1780-1790s, work on finishing the palace interiors was continued by I. E. Starov and G. Quarenghi.
In 1783, by decree of Catherine, the palace theater was demolished.
In the 1790s, by decree of Catherine II, who considered it inappropriate for the public to enter the Hermitage through her own chambers, a gallery-bridge with the Winter Palace - the “Apollo Hall” - was created, through which visitors could bypass the royal apartments. At the same time, Quarenghi erected the new “Throne (St. George)” hall, opened in 1795. The old throne room was converted into a series of rooms provided for chambers for the newly married Grand Duke Alexander. A “Marble Gallery” (of three halls) was also created.
In 1826, according to the design of K. I. Rossi, a Military Gallery was built in front of St. George’s Hall, which housed 330 portraits of generals who took part in the War of 1812, painted by D. Doe over almost 10 years. In the early 1830s, in the eastern building of the palace, O. Montferrand designed the “Field Marshal’s”, “Peter’s” and “Armorial” halls.
After the fire of 1837, when all the interiors were destroyed, restoration work in the Winter Palace was led by architects V.P. Stasov, A.P. Bryullov and A.E. Staubert.
Historical events
On April 7 (according to another version - April 11), 1762, on Easter, the ceremony of consecrating the palace took place, and the next day the imperial court moved into it.
K. J. Vernet. Fire in the Winter Palace
On December 29, 1837, there was a fire in the Winter Palace. They could not put it out for three days; all this time, the property taken out of the palace was piled up around the Alexander Column. Restoration work required enormous efforts, but the palace was revived in two years. The work was supervised by V.P. Stasov, who used new floor and roof structures.
Women's shock battalion defending the Winter Palace from the Bolshevik rebellion.
On February 5, 1880, Narodnaya Volya member S.N. Khalturin carried out an explosion in the Winter Palace with the aim of killing Alexander II, while eleven guard soldiers were killed and fifty-six were wounded, but neither the emperor nor his family members were injured.
On January 9, 1905, during a procession of columns of workers to the Winter Palace, a peaceful workers' demonstration was shot, which served as the beginning of the Revolution of 1905-1907. In August 1914, after the outbreak of the Second Patriotic (First World) War, some of the cultural property from the palace, including the Jewelry Gallery, was taken to Moscow, but the Art Gallery remained in place.
In mid-October 1915, a military hospital named after Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was located in the palace. The halls of the Nevsky and Great Enfilades, as well as the Picket and Alexander Halls were allocated for hospital wards. During the revolution of February 1917, the palace was occupied by troops who went over to the side of the rebels.
Since July 1917, the palace became the residence of the Provisional Government, which announced the nationalization of the royal palaces and formed an artistic and historical commission to accept the values of the Winter Palace. In September, part of the art collection was evacuated to Moscow.
On the night of October 25-26 (November 7-8), 1917, during the October Revolution, the Red Guard, revolutionary soldiers and sailors surrounded the palace, which was guarded by a garrison of cadets and a women’s battalion, totaling 2.7 thousand people. The palace was fired upon by the cannons of the Peter and Paul Fortress. By 2 hours 10 minutes. On the night of October 26 (November 8), the palace was stormed and the Provisional Government was arrested. In cinema, the storming of the Winter Palace was depicted as a battle. In fact, it was almost bloodless - the defenders of the palace offered almost no resistance.
On October 30 (November 12), 1917, People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky declared the Winter Palace and the Hermitage state museums. For several months, the People's Commissariat for Education was located in the rooms on the first floor of the palace. Cinematic screenings, concerts, lectures, and meetings began to be held in the main halls. In 1919, the first exhibitions of paintings from paintings remaining in Petrograd after the revolution, as well as the exhibition “Funeral Cult of Ancient Egypt,” opened in the palace.
Workers of the Kirov plant and young sailors on the bridge. Defenders of Leningrad during the siege. Siege of Leningrad Russia, Leningrad region
On June 22, 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, twelve bomb shelters were equipped in the basements of the palace, in which about two thousand people permanently lived until 1942. Part of the non-evacuated museum collection of the Hermitage, cultural values from suburban palaces and various institutions of Leningrad were hidden in the palace.
During the war, the palace buildings were damaged by Wehrmacht artillery fire and Luftwaffe bombing; a total of seventeen artillery shells and two aerial bombs hit them. The Small Throne (Peter's) Hall was damaged, part of the Armorial Hall and the ceiling of the Rastrelli Gallery were destroyed, and the Jordan Staircase was damaged. On November 7, 1944, the palace was partially opened to the public. The restoration of the halls and facades of the palace continued for many years after the war.
Architecture
Facade facing the Neva
The modern three-story building has the shape of a square of 4 wings with an internal courtyard and facades facing the Neva, the Admiralty and Palace Square. The magnificent decoration of the facades and premises gives the building a sense of splendor. The main facade, facing Palace Square, is cut through by the arch of the main passage, which was created by Rastrelli after his work on the renovation of the palace in Strelna, probably under the influence of the magnificent architectural design of Michetti (whose forerunner was Leblon). Differently composed facades, strong protrusions of risalits, accentuation of stepped corners, changing rhythm of columns (by changing the intervals between columns, Rastrelli either collects them into bunches or exposes the plane of the wall) create an impression of restlessness, unforgettable solemnity and splendor.
Clock mechanism of the Winter Palace clock
The palace building has 1084 rooms, 1945 windows, 117 staircases (including secret ones). The length of the facade from the Neva side is 137 meters, from the Admiralty side - 106 meters, height 23.5 meters. In 1844, Nicholas I issued a decree prohibiting the construction of civil buildings in St. Petersburg higher than the height of the Winter Palace. They had to be built at least one fathom less.
Despite the reconstruction and many innovations, the basic planning scheme of the palace retained the ideas of F.-B. Rastrelli. The palace buildings are formed around the internal Great Courtyard. In the northwestern and southwestern wings, on the site of the Throne Hall and the Opera House, light courtyards were created, around which enfilades of residential chambers were formed.
Adjacent to the Winter Palace from the east is the Small Hermitage, built along the Black Passage. The buildings of the St. George's Hall, the Great Church, the south-eastern and north-eastern wings of the palace open into this passage; the space is divided into a system of courtyards and depressions: “Small” and “Big Church” courtyards (from the Great Church located here, founded back in 1763), “Church” and “Garage” (from the garage located here) depressions, “Kitchen yard” .
Design features
The three-story building of the palace has a semi-basement floor and numerous mezzanine floors, some of the main halls on the second floor are double-story. The brickwork of the walls with lime mortar is very massive, the interfloor ceilings are made both in the form of brick vaults and along beams. The massive cornice of the palace is built on a stone foundation, which is supported by iron clamps passing through the brickwork of the outer walls, preserved from the time of Rastrelli.
The entire rafter system and all the ceilings above the halls in the 18th century were made of wood (the ceilings were insulated with felt and canvas, the rafters were tarred). There were no firewalls in the attics before the fire. During the restoration of the palace, iron structures began to play a major role. Such a massive use of iron in construction was unusual in world practice. Engineer M. E. Clark developed triangular trusses - “roofing trusses” - to support the roof of the Winter Palace, and “blown elliptical beams” to cover the palace halls.
The covering of the St. George's Hall became one of the first examples of the use of rolled steel in domestic construction. In 1887, under the leadership of the architect Gornostaev, some deformed structures were updated and old structures were strengthened. Most of them still regularly serve in Zimny.
When constructing the floors between the nearest beams, microvaults were made from hollow pottery pots in lime mortar. Below in the halls a metal ceiling was fixed or plastered.
In the 1840s, the building was equipped with a unique heating system using Ammos stoves, which were located in the basements, and heated clean air entered the premises through heat ducts (later a water-air system would be created on this basis). At the end of the 19th century, much attention was paid to the ventilation system. Sewage accumulated in a collector built by Rastrelli, which drained sewage into the Neva. After the reconstruction of the embankment, this collector was sealed and the Winter Palace “became itself” for some time. In 1886, the Winter Palace was electrified.
The rafters above the Great Throne Room.
Brace supporting the cornice
I-beam elliptical beam
Pottery pots in the palace vaults
The facades and roof of the palace changed the color scheme several times. The original color had a very light warm ocher color, highlighting the order system and plastic decoration with white lime paint.
In the second half of the 1850s - 1860s, under Emperor Alexander II, the color of the palace facades changed. The ocher becomes more dense. The order system and plastic decor are not painted with an additional color, but acquire a very light tonal highlight. In fact, the facades are perceived as monochrome.
Clearing historical paint
In the 1880s, under Emperor Alexander III, the facades were painted in two tones: a dense ocher expression with the addition of red pigment and a weaker terracotta tonality. With the accession of Nicholas II in 1897, the emperor approved the project of painting the facades of the Winter Palace in the coloring of the “new fence of the Own Garden” - red sandstone without any tonal highlighting of the columns and decor.
Winter Palace. Coloring of the second half of the 18th century. B.F. Rastrelli
Winter Palace. Painting at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries.
All the buildings on Palace Square - the headquarters of the Guards Corps and the General Staff - were painted in the same color, which, according to the architects of that period, contributed to the unity of perception of the ensemble. In 2011, during the restoration of the Hermitage garage for painting it
Winter Palace. Coloring of the first quarter of the 20th century.
The terracotta-brick color of the palace remained until the end of the 1920s, after which experiments began and the search for a new color scheme began. In 1927, an attempt was made to paint it gray, in 1928-1930. - in a brown-gray color scheme, and the copper sculpture on the roof - in black.
Winter Palace. Coloring 1880s - 1890s.
In 1934, the first attempt was made to paint the palace with orange oil paint highlighting the order system with white paint, but oil paint had a negative impact on the stone, plaster and stucco decoration. In 1940, a decision was made to remove oil paint from the façade.
Winter Palace.Current painting
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, for camouflage purposes, the palace was painted with reversible adhesive gray paint.
Since the 1960s, when painting facades, instead of lime paints, synthetic dyes began to be used, which negatively affect stucco decoration, plaster and natural stone. In 1976, on the recommendation of the All-Union Central Research Laboratory, a decision was made to clear the surface of the sculptures from the paint coating to form a natural layer of patina, which at that time was considered a natural protection against aggressive environmental influences. Currently, the copper surface is protected with a special paint composition containing a copper corrosion inhibitor.
Over sixty-five years, the public and city authorities have developed a certain stereotype in the perception of the color scheme of the palace, however, according to the Hermitage researchers, the currently existing color scheme of the facades does not correspond to the artistic image of the palace, and therefore it is proposed to recreate the color scheme of the facades as close as possible to the volumetric-spatial composition of the palace created by Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The sculptures and vases installed above the cornice along the entire perimeter of the building add elegance and splendor to the silhouette of the building. They were originally carved from stone and replaced by metal ones in 1892-1902 (sculptors M.P. Popov, D.I. Jensen). The “opened” composition of the Winter Palace is a kind of Russian reworking of the type of closed palace building with a courtyard, common in the architecture of Western Europe.
To be continued
In the northern capital of Russia, the museum complex of five majestic buildings, known as the Hermitage, deserves close attention. It would not be out of place to say that in order to visit the halls of this museum, tourists plan their vacations and trips, and the native residents of St. Petersburg purchase tickets in advance.
Like any historical architectural creation, the Hermitage has its own history and special regalia. Currently, it is known as a federal state budgetary institution of culture and museums and is included in the group of the world's largest museums of cultural and historical heritage; in Russia, the Hermitage is the largest and richest in the content of exhibits.
The museum's collection includes about 3,000,000 masterpieces, ranging from stone age creations to modern art. Historians have suggested that it would take about five years to examine all the examples of world culture stored within the walls of the State Hermitage for a minute. The number of paintings, sculptures and examples of applied art is such that the once small outbuilding in the palace of the Russian Empress Catherine II has grown into a chain of buildings on the Neva embankment.
The name of the museum in St. Petersburg has not changed since the time of Catherine. Descendants call it the Small Hermitage from the French - ermitage (hermitage, cell). The collection presented in the Hermitage began with the private collection of the Empress - paintings by Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky - and served as the impetus for the establishment of the museum in 1764. The first exhibition included 225 paintings and was available for viewing only to particularly close people.
Catherine's tastes were inexorable; she acquired sculptures, paintings, precious stones and jewelry. The private collection of paintings by Baron Crozat, acquired by the Russian Empress in 1772, aroused the greatest interest. It was this collection that formed the basis of the art gallery.
The growth of the collection led to the need to expand the space, which prompted the construction of a new Hermitage building designed by the architect Felten. Construction took about six years from 1771. During this period, Parisian collections of carved stone belonging to the Duke of Orleans and 3,996 books by Diderot and Walter were acquired.
If under Catherine the Hermitage was replenished with collections of works of art, then under Nicholas I single paintings began to be purchased, for example “The Adoration of the Magi” by Botticelli or “The Lute Player” by Caravaggio. It was Nikolai who came up with the idea of making the Hermitage collection public, opening the doors not only to a select circle. In addition, painting collections were replenished with works by Russian artists.
At the beginning of the post-Soviet period, the State Hermitage announced “trophy” storerooms in which works of impressionist artists that were considered lost forever after the war (Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Daumier, Manet) are carefully preserved. This became the starting point for filling the halls with modern painting and sculpture.
Despite the rich and warmly preserved history of the Hermitage and its collection, there were dark streaks in the museum’s fate, one of which was associated with the theft of jewelry in 2006. Fortunately, some of the stolen exhibits were returned within a year. But such events only excite the viewer’s attention and attract art connoisseurs to contemplate and get acquainted with the work of great masters - they have time to spend their five years of life in the halls of the Hermitage while that feeling that we call inspiration is alive in people.
