Winter Palace during the time of Catherine 2. Formation of half of Catherine II

Winter Palace is the largest palace building St. Petersburg a. The size and excellent finish make it one of the most striking monuments of the Petersburg Baroque. “The Winter Palace as a building, as a royal dwelling, perhaps, has nothing similar in the whole of Europe. With its immensity, its architecture, it depicts a powerful people who so recently entered the environment of educated nations, and with its inner splendor reminds of that inexhaustible life that boils in the interior of Russia ... - this is how V. A. Zhukovsky wrote about the Winter Palace. The history of this architectural monument is rich in turbulent historical events.

At the beginning of the 18th century, in the place where the Winter Palace now stands, construction was allowed only to naval officials. Peter I exercised this right, being a shipbuilder under the name of Peter Alekseev, and in 1708 built a small house in the Dutch style for himself and his family. Ten years later, by order of the future emperor, a canal was dug in front of the side facade of the palace, called (after the palace) the Winter Canal.

In 1711, specially for the wedding of Peter I and Catherine, the architect Georg Mattarnovi, by order of the tsar, set about rebuilding the wooden palace into a stone one. In the process, the architect Mattarnovi was retired and the construction was headed by Domenico Trezzini, an Italian architect of Swiss origin. In 1720, Peter I with all his family moved from a summer residence to a winter one. In 1723 the Senate was transferred to the Winter Palace. And in January 1725 Peter I died here (in the room on the first floor behind the current second window, counting from the Neva).

Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna considered the Winter Palace too small and in 1731 entrusted its reconstruction to F.B. Rastrelli, who offered her his project for the reconstruction of the Winter Palace. According to his project, it was required to acquire the houses that stood at that time on the site occupied by the present palace and belonged to Count Apraksin, the Naval Academy, Raguzinsky and Chernyshev. Anna Ioanovna approved the project, the houses were bought up, demolished, and the work began to boil. In 1735, the construction of the palace was completed, and the empress moved into it to live. Here on July 2, 1739, the betrothal of Princess Anna Leopoldovna to Prince Anton-Urikh took place. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the young emperor John Antonovich was brought here, who stayed here until November 25, 1741, when Elizaveta Petrovna took power into her own hands.

Elizaveta Petrovna also wished to remake the imperial residence to her taste. On January 1, 1752, she decided to expand the Winter Palace, after which the neighboring plots of Raguzinsky and Yaguzhinsky were bought out. At the new location Rastrelli added new buildings. According to the project drawn up by him, these buildings were to be added to the existing ones and be decorated with them 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 redesign the building, after which he decided to build it in a new location. But Elizaveta Petrovna refused to move the new Winter Palace. As a result, the architect decided to rebuild the entire building. New project- the next building of the Winter Palace - Elizaveta Petrovna signed on June 16, 1754.

Construction lasted eight long years, which fell on the decline of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and the short reign of Peter III.

The story of Peter III's arrival at the palace is curious. After Elizabeth's death, 15 thousand dresses, many thousands of shoes and stockings remained in her wardrobes, and only six silver rubles were in the state treasury. Peter III, who replaced Elizabeth on the throne, wished to immediately move into his new residence. But the Palace Square was cluttered with heaps of bricks, boards, logs, barrels of lime and similar construction waste. The capricious disposition of the new sovereign was known, and the chief of police found a way out: in St. Petersburg it was announced that all inhabitants have the right to take whatever they please on Palace Square. A contemporary (A. Bolotov) writes in his memoirs that almost all of Petersburg with wheelbarrows, carts, and some with sleds (despite the proximity of Easter!) Palace Square... Clouds of sand and dust rose above her. The townsfolk grabbed everything: boards, bricks, clay, lime, and barrels ... By evening, the square was completely cleared. Nothing prevented Peter III from entering the Winter Palace.

In the summer of 1762, Peter III was dethroned. The construction of the Winter Palace was completed already under Catherine II. In the fall of 1763, the Empress returned from Moscow to St. Petersburg after the coronation celebrations and became the sovereign mistress of the new palace.

First of all, Catherine removed Rastrelli from the work, and Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy, the illegitimate son of Field Marshal Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy and the personal secretary of Catherine II, became the manager of the construction site. The Empress moved the chambers to the southwestern part of the palace, under her rooms she ordered to place the chambers of her favorite G. G. Orlov.

From the side of Palace Square, the Throne Hall was arranged, in front of it a waiting room appeared - the White Hall. A dining room was placed behind the White Hall. Adjacent to it was the Light Office. The dining room was followed by the Main Bedchamber, which a year later became the Diamond Rest. In addition, the empress ordered to equip a library, study, boudoir, two bedrooms and a dressing room for herself. Under Catherine, a winter garden and a Romanov gallery were also built in the Winter Palace. At the same time, the formation of the St. George Hall was completed. In 1764, in Berlin, through agents, Catherine acquired from the merchant I. Gotskovsky a collection of 225 works by Dutch and Flemish artists. Most of the paintings were housed in the secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name "Hermitage" ("place of solitude").

The fourth palace built by Elizabeth, now existing, was conceived and implemented in the form of a closed quadrangle with a vast courtyard. Its facades face the Neva, the Admiralty and the square, in the center of which F.B. Rastrelli intended to erect an equestrian statue of Peter I.

The facades of the palace are divided into two tiers by an entablature. They are decorated with columns of Ionic and composite orders. 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 platbands, an abundance of stucco details, a multitude of decorative vases and statues located above the parapet and over numerous pediments, create a decorative decoration of the building that is exceptional in its splendor and splendor.

The southern facade is cut through by three entrance arches, which emphasizes its importance as the main one. The entrance arches lead to the front yard, where the central entrance to the palace was located in the center of the northern building.

The front Jordan Staircase is located in the northeast corner of the building. On the second floor, along the northern façade, there were five large halls, the so-called "anti-chambers," in a suite, behind them was the huge Throne Hall, and in the southwestern part there was the palace theater.

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

In the 1780s and 1790s, work on altering the interior of the palace was continued by I. Ye. Starov and G. Quarenghi. In general, the palace has been altered and rebuilt an incredible number of times. Each new architect tried to bring something of his own, sometimes destroying what had already been built.

Arched galleries ran along the entire lower floor. Galleries connected all parts of the palace. The premises on the sides of the galleries were of a service nature. There were storage rooms, a guardroom, and the palace employees.

The ceremonial halls and living quarters of the members of the imperial family were located on the second floor and were built in the Russian Baroque style - huge halls flooded with light, double rows of large windows and mirrors, and lush Rococo decor. The upper floor was mainly occupied by the apartments of the courtiers.

The palace was also destroyed. For example, on December 17-19, 1837, there was a strong fire, which completely destroyed the excellent decoration of the Winter Palace, of which only a charred skeleton remained. They could not extinguish the flames for three days, all this time the property taken out of the palace was piled around the Alexander Column. The disaster killed the interiors of Rastrelli, Quarenghi, Montferrand, Rossi. The restoration work, which began immediately, lasted two years. They were led by architects V.P. Stasov and A.P. Bryullov. According to the order of Nicholas I, the palace was to be restored the same as it was before the fire. However, not everything was so easy to do, for example, only some of the interiors created or restored after the fire of 1837 by A.P. Bryullov have come down to us in their original form.

On February 5, 1880, SN Khalturin, a member of the Narodnaya Volya, set off an explosion in the Winter Palace with the aim of assassinating Alexander II. At the same time, eight soldiers from the guard were killed and forty-five were wounded, but neither the emperor nor his family members were injured.

In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, the interior design was constantly changing and supplemented with new elements. These, in particular, are the interiors of the apartments of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II, created according to the projects of G.A. Bosse (Red Boudoir) and V.A. Krasovsky). Among the renovated interiors, the most interesting was the decoration of the Nicholas Hall, which contained a large equestrian portrait of Emperor Nicholas I by the artist F. Kruger.

For a long time, the Winter Palace was the residence of the Russian emperors. After the murder of Alexander II by terrorists, Emperor Alexander III moved his residence to Gatchina. From that moment on, only especially solemn ceremonies were held in the Winter Palace. With the accession to the throne of Nicholas II in 1894, the imperial family returned to the palace.

The most significant changes in the history of the Winter Palace took place in 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power. A lot of valuables were plundered and damaged by sailors and workers while the palace was under their control. The former chambers of Alexander III were damaged by a direct hit from a shell fired from a gun at the Peter and Paul Fortress. Only a few days later, the Soviet government declared the Winter Palace and the Hermitage state museums and took the buildings under protection. Soon the valuable palace property and collections of the Hermitage were sent to Moscow and hidden in the Kremlin and in the building of the Historical Museum.

An interesting story is connected with the October Revolution in the Winter Palace: after the storming of the palace, the Red Guard, who was entrusted with setting up guards to guard the Winter Palace, decided to familiarize himself with the placement of guards in pre-revolutionary times. He was surprised to learn that one of the posts had long been located on an unremarkable alley of the palace garden (the royal family called it "Own" and under this name the garden was known to Petersburgers). An inquisitive Red Guard found out the history of this post. It turned out that once Tsarina Catherine II, having come out in the morning to the Draw ground, saw a sprouting flower there. So that he would not be trampled by soldiers and passers-by, Catherine, returning from a walk, ordered a guard to be set up at the flower. And when the flower withered, the queen forgot to cancel her order on the presence of the guard in this place. And since then, for about a hundred and a half years, there was a guard at this place, although there was no longer a flower, no Tsarina Catherine, or even a Draw ground.

In 1918, part of the premises of the Winter Palace was given over to the Museum of the Revolution, which entailed the reconstruction of their interiors. The Romanov Gallery, which contained portraits of the sovereigns and members of the Romanov dynasty, was completely liquidated. Many chambers of the palace occupied a reception center for prisoners of war, a children's colony, a headquarters for organizing mass celebrations, etc. The coat of arms was used for theatrical performances, the Nicholas Hall was converted into a cinema. In addition, congresses and conferences of various public organizations have been held in the halls of the palace.

When at the end of 1920 the Hermitage and palace collections returned from Moscow to Petrograd, there was simply no room for many of them. As a result, hundreds of paintings and sculptures were used to decorate the mansions and apartments of party, Soviet and military leaders, rest homes for officials and their families. Since 1922, the premises of the Winter Palace began to be gradually transferred to the Hermitage.

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

The Winter Palace was a major target. A large number of bombs and shells exploded near him, and several hit the building itself. So, on December 29, 1941, a shell crashed into the southern wing of the Winter Palace, overlooking the kitchen yard, damaging the iron rafters and roofing on an area of ​​three hundred square meters, destroying the fire-fighting water supply installation in the attic. An attic vaulted ceiling with an area of ​​about six square meters was pierced. Another shell that hit the rostrum in front of the Winter Palace damaged the water main.

Despite the difficult conditions that existed in the besieged city, on May 4, 1942, the Leningrad City Executive Committee ordered construction trust No. 16 to carry out urgent restoration work in the Hermitage, in which emergency restoration workshops took part. In the summer of 1942, they blocked the roof in places where it was damaged by shells, partially fixed the formwork, installed broken skylights or iron sheets, replaced the destroyed metal rafters with temporary wooden ones, and repaired the plumbing system.

On May 12, 1943, a bomb hit the building of the Winter Palace, partially destroying the roof over the St. George Hall and metal truss structures, and damaged the brickwork of the walls in the storeroom of the Department of the History of Russian Culture. In the summer of 1943, despite the shelling, they continued to seal the roof and ceilings with tarred plywood, and skylights. On January 2, 1944, another shell hit the Armorial Hall, severely damaging the decoration and destroying two ceilings. The shell also pierced the ceiling of the Nikolaev Hall. But already in August 1944, the Soviet government decided to restore all the buildings of the museum. The restoration work required enormous efforts and took many years to complete. But, despite all the losses, the Winter Palace remains an outstanding monument of Baroque architecture.

Today, the Winter Palace, together with the buildings of the Small, Big and New Hermitages and the Hermitage Theater, forms a single palace complex, which has few equal in world architecture. In terms of art and town planning, it belongs to the highest achievements of Russian architecture. All the halls of this palace ensemble, built over many years, are occupied by the State Hermitage - the largest museum in the world with huge collections of works of art.

In the appearance of the Winter Palace, created, as the decree on its construction said, "for the common glory of all-Russian", in its elegant, festive form, in the magnificent decor of its facades, the artistic and compositional idea of ​​the architect Rastrelli is revealed - a deep architectural connection with the city on the Neva, became the capital Russian Empire, with all the character of the surrounding cityscape, which continues to this day.

Palace Square

Any tour of the Winter Palace begins at Palace Square. It has its own history, which is no less interesting than the history of the Winter Palace itself. The square was formed in 1754 during the construction of the Winter Palace, designed by V. Rastrelli. An important role in its formation was played by C.I. Rossi, who in 1819-1829 created the General Staff building and the Ministry building and connected them into a single whole with the magnificent Arc de Triomphe. The Alexander Column took its place in the Palace Square ensemble in 1830-1834, in honor of the victory in the war of 1812. It is noteworthy that V. Rastrelli intended to place a monument to Peter I in the center of the square. The building of the Headquarters of the Guards Corps, created in 1837-1843 by the architect A.P. Bryullov, completes the ensemble of Palace Square.

The palace was conceived and built in the form of a closed quadrangle, with an extensive courtyard. The Winter Palace is rather big and stands out clearly from the surrounding houses.

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

Each facade of the Winter Palace is made in its own way. The northern facade, facing the Neva, stretches out as a more or less flat wall, without noticeable protrusions. The southern facade, overlooking the Palace Square and having seven divisions, is the main one. Its center is cut through by three entrance arches. Is there a front yard behind them? where in the middle of the northern building was the main entrance to the palace. Of the side facades, the western one is more interesting, facing the Admiralty and the square on which Rastrelli intended to erect the equestrian statue of Peter I cast by his father. Each platband decorating the palace is unique. This is due to the fact that the mass, consisting of a mixture of crushed brick and lime mortar, was cut and processed by hand. All the stucco decorations of the facades were made on the spot.

The Winter Palace was always painted in bright colors. The original color of the palace was pink-yellow, as can be seen from the drawings of the 18th - first quarter of the 19th century.

From the interior of the palace, created by Rastrelli, the Baroque appearance of the Jordan Staircase and partly the Great Church have been preserved. The main staircase is located in the northeast corner of the building. On it you can see various details of the decor - columns, mirrors, statues, intricate gilded stucco moldings, a huge plafond created by Italian painters. The staircase, divided into two solemn marches, led to the main, Northern suite, which consisted of five large halls, a Fragment of the Jordan Staircase behind which in the northwestern projection was a huge Throne Hall, and in the southwestern part - the Palace Theater.

The Great Church, located in the southeast corner of the building, also deserves special attention. Initially, the church was consecrated in honor of the Resurrection of Christ (1762) and a second time - in the name of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands (1763). Its walls are decorated with stucco molding - an elegant floral ornament. The three-tiered iconostasis is decorated with icons and picturesque panels depicting biblical scenes. Evangelists on the vaults of the ceiling were later painted by F.A. Bruni. Now, nothing reminds of the former purpose of the church hall, destroyed in the 1920s, except for a golden dome and a large picturesque plafond by F. Fonte-basso, depicting the Resurrection of Christ.

White Hall

It was created by A.P. Bryullov in place of a number of rooms that had three semicircular windows on the front in the center and three rectangular windows on the sides. This circumstance led the architect to the idea of ​​dividing the room into three compartments and highlighting the middle one with a particularly magnificent treatment. The hall is separated from the side parts by arches on protruding pylons decorated with pilasters, while the central window and the opposite door are accentuated by Corinthian columns, above which are placed four statues - female figures representing the arts. The hall is covered with semicircular vaults. The wall opposite the central windows is designed with an arcature, and above each semicircle are placed in pairs the bas-relief figures of Juno and Jupiter, Diana and Apollo, Ceres and Mercury and other deities of Olympus.

The vault and all parts of the ceiling above the cornice are processed with caissons with stucco molding in the same late classical style saturated with decorative elements.

The side compartments are decorated in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Here, under the common crowning cornice, a second smaller order with Tuscan pilasters covered with small stucco with grotesque ornaments was introduced. Above the pilasters there is a wide frieze with figures of children engaged in music and dancing, hunting and fishing, harvesting and winemaking, or playing sailing and war. Such a combination of architectural elements of different scales and the overload of the hall with ornamentation are characteristic of the classicism of the 1830s, but the white color gives the hall integrity.

George Hall and the Military Gallery

Experts call the Georgievsky, or the Great Throne Hall, designed by Quarenghi as the most perfect interior. In order to create the St. George Hall, a special building had to be attached to the center of the eastern facade of the palace. Colored marble and gilded bronze were used in the design of this room, which enriched the front suite. At the end of it, on a dais, there used to be a large throne, executed by the master P. Azhi. Other famous architects also took part in the work on the design of the palace interiors. In 1826, according to the project of K. I. Rossi, the Military Gallery was built in front of the St. George Hall.

The military gallery is a kind of monument to the heroic military past of the Russian people. It contains 332 portraits of generals, participants in the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaign of 1813-1814. The portraits were performed by the famous English artist J. Doe with the participation of Russian painters A.V. Polyakov and V.A.Golike. Most of the portraits were executed from nature, but since in 1819, when work began, many were no longer alive, some portraits were painted from earlier, preserved images. The gallery occupies a place of honor in the palace and is directly adjacent to the St. George Hall. The architect K.I.Rossi, who built it, destroyed the six small rooms that had previously existed here. The gallery was illuminated through glazed openings in the vaults supported by arches. The arches rested on groups of double columns that stood against the longitudinal walls. On the plane of the walls, portraits were arranged in simple gilded frames in five rows. On one of the end walls, under a canopy, there was an equestrian portrait of Alexander I by J. Doe. After the fire of 1837, it was replaced by the same portrait by F. Kruger, it is his painting that is in the hall today, on the sides of it there is an image of King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia, also executed by Kruger, and a portrait of the Austrian Emperor Franz I by P. Kraft. If you look at the door leading to the St. George Hall, you can see Dow's portraits of field marshals M.I.Kutuzov and M. B. Barclay de Tolly on either side of it.

In the 1830s, A.S. Pushkin often visited the gallery. He immortalized her in the poem "The Leader", dedicated to Barclay de Tolly:

The Russian Tsar has a chamber in his palaces:
She is not rich in gold, not velvet;
But from top to bottom, full length, all around,
With my brush free and wide
It was painted by a fast-paced artist.
There are no rural nymphs, no virgin madonnas,
No fauns with cups, no full-breasted wives,
No dances, no hunts, but all the cloaks and swords,
Yes, faces full of belligerent courage.
In a crowded crowd, the artist placed
Here the chiefs of our people's forces,
Covered in the glory of a wonderful march
And the eternal memory of the twelfth year.

The fire of 1837 did not spare the gallery either, however, fortunately, all the portraits were taken out by the soldiers of the guards regiments.

V.P. Stasov, who restored the gallery, basically retained its former character: he repeated the treatment of the walls with double Corinthian columns, left the same arrangement of the portraits, retained the color scheme. But some details of the composition of the hall have been changed. Stasov lengthened the gallery by 12 meters. Above the wide crowning cornice, a balcony was placed for passage to the choirs of adjacent halls, for which the arches resting on columns, rhythmically breaking the too long vault into parts, were eliminated.

After the Great Patriotic War, the gallery was restored, and it additionally contains four portraits of the palace grenadiers, veterans who went through the company of 1812-1814 as ordinary soldiers. These works were also performed by J. Doe.

Petrovsky hall

Peter's Hall is also known as the Small Throne Hall. Decorated with special splendor in the spirit of late classicism, it was created in 1833 by the architect A.A. Montferrand. After the fire, the hall was restored by V.P. Stasov, and its original appearance has been preserved almost unchanged. The main difference between the later decoration is associated with the treatment of the walls. Previously, the panel on the side walls was divided by one pilaster, now there are two of them. There was no border around each panel, a large double-headed eagle in the center, and bronze gilded double-headed eagles of the same size were fixed in diagonal directions on the crimson velvet upholstery.

The hall is dedicated to the memory of Peter I. The crossed Latin monograms of Peter, double-headed eagles and crowns are included in the motives of the stucco ornament of the capitals of the columns and pilasters, the frieze on the walls, in the ceiling painting and decoration of the entire hall. On two walls there are images of the Poltava battle and the battle near Lesnaya, in the center of the compositions is the figure of Peter I (artists - B. Medici and P. Scotti).

Where did the tradition of dividing the houses of monarchs into winter and summer ones come from? The roots of this phenomenon can be found even in the times of the Muscovy. It was then that the tsars first began to leave the walls of the Kremlin for the summer and go to breathe the air in Izmailovskoye or Kolomenskoye. Peter I transferred this tradition to the new capital. The Emperor's Winter Palace stood on the spot where the modern building, and the Summer Palace can be found in the Summer Garden. It was built under the direction of Trezzini and is, in fact, a small two-story house with 14 rooms.

Source: wikipedia.org

From house to palace

The history of the creation of the Winter Palace is not a secret for anyone: Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, a great lover of luxury, in 1752 ordered the architect Rastrelli to build for herself the most beautiful palace in Russia. But it was not built from scratch: before that, on the territory where the Hermitage Theater is now located, there was a small winter palace of Peter I. The house of the Great was replaced by the wooden palace of Anna Ioannovna, which was being built under the leadership of Trezzini. But the building was not luxurious enough, so the empress, who returned the status of the capital to St. Petersburg, chose a new architect - Rastrelli. It was Rastrelli Sr., the father of the famous Francesco Bartolomeo. For almost 20 years, the new palace became the residence of the imperial family. And then the very Winter one, which we know today, appeared - the fourth in a row.

Source: wikipedia.org

The tallest building in St. Petersburg

When Elizaveta Petrovna wanted to build a new palace, the architect, in order to save money, planned to use the previous building for the foundation. But the empress demanded to increase the height of the palace from 14 to 22 two meters. Rastrelli redesigned the building several times, and Elizabeth did not want to move the construction site, so the architect had to simply demolish the old palace and build a new one in its place. Only in 1754 the empress approved the project.

It is interesting that for a long time the Winter Palace remained the tallest building in St. Petersburg. In 1762, a decree was even issued prohibiting the construction of buildings higher in the capital. imperial residence... It was because of this decree that the Singer company had to abandon its idea to build a skyscraper for itself on Nevsky Prospekt, like in New York, at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, a tower was built over six floors with an attic and decorated with a globe, giving the impression of a height.

Elizabethan Baroque

The palace was built in the style of the so-called Elizabethan baroque. It is a quadrangle with a large courtyard. The building is decorated with columns, platbands, and the roof balustrade is lined with dozens of luxurious vases and statues. But the building was rebuilt several times, on the interior decoration at the end of the 18th century were worked by Quarenghi, Montferrand, Rossi, and after the notorious fire of 1837 - by Stasov and Bryullov, so that baroque elements were not preserved everywhere. Details of the magnificent style remained in the interior of the famous front Jordan staircase. It got its name from the Jordan passage, which was nearby. Through him, on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, the imperial family and the higher clergy went to the ice hole in the Neva. This ceremony has traditionally been called the "move to Jordan". Baroque details are also preserved in the decoration Large church... But the church was ruined, and now only a large ceiling by Fontebasso with the image of the Resurrection of Christ reminds of its purpose.

Source: wikipedia.org

In 1762, Catherine II ascended the throne, who did not like Rastrelli's pompous style. The architect was dismissed, and new craftsmen took over the interior decoration. They destroyed the Throne Room and erected a new Nevskaya suite. Under the leadership of Quarenghi, the Georgievsky, or Great Throne Hall, was created. For him, a small extension had to be made to the eastern facade of the palace. At the end of the 19th century, the Red Boudoir, the Golden Lounge and the library of Nicholas II appeared.

Hard days of the Revolution

In the early days of the 1917 Revolution, sailors and workers stole a huge amount of treasures from the Winter Palace. Only a few days later, the Soviet government guessed to take the building under protection. A year later, the palace was given over to the Museum of the Revolution, so part of the interiors was rebuilt. For example, the Romanov Gallery was destroyed, where there were portraits of all the emperors and members of their families, and in the Nicholas Hall they began to show films at all. In 1922, part of the building was transferred to the Hermitage, and only by 1946 the entire Winter Palace became part of the museum.

During the Great Patriotic War, the palace building suffered from air raids and shelling. With the beginning of the war, most of the exhibits exhibited in the Winter Palace were sent for storage to the Ipatievsky mansion, the same one where the family of Emperor Nicholas II was shot. About 2000 people lived in the Hermitage bomb shelters. They did their best to preserve the exhibits remaining within the walls of the palace. Sometimes they had to fish for china and chandeliers floating in flooded basements.

Furry guards

Not only did the water threaten to spoil the art, but also the voracious rats. For the first time, a mustachioed army for the Winter Palace was sent from Kazan in 1745. Catherine II did not like cats, but she left striped defenders at court in the status of "guards of art galleries." During the blockade, all the cats in the city died, because of which the rats multiplied and began to spoil the interiors of the palace. After the war, 5 thousand cats were brought to the Hermitage, which quickly dealt with the tailed pests.

Address: Palace Square, 2

Working hours: from 10.30 to 18.00

The main palace of the Russian emperors was under construction from 1754 to 1762 years as a court architect, Italian by origin B.F.Rastrelli... The palace was created in the then widespread style baroque, which was characterized by pomp, grandeur, pronounced contrast and solemnity.

The construction of the palace began at Elizaveta Petrovna, but before the end of construction, the empress did not live and the first mistress of the new Winter Palace was Catherine II... She was also the initiator of the creation of an art gallery and collections of other works of art, which over time formed priceless treasures of the Hermitage. Subsequently, the palace turns into a permanent residence acting emperors up to Nicholas II, although he was more fond of the Tsarskoye Selo Alexander Palace.

In difficult years First World War palace halls were given over to military hospital... In 1917 (from March to October), members of the Winter Palace met and practically lived The provisional government... From 1920 to 1941 the halls are occupied Museum of the Revolution and the Hermitage.

Today, the Winter Palace with the treasures of the Hermitage housed in it is the most visited tourist place in St. Petersburg. People come here to see the palace itself - the brightest city landmark and the works of art that are in it.

History of creation

From the time of Peter the Great to the transformation of the palace into a magnificent work of architectural art of the mid-18th century, it was built 5 winter palace buildings (together with the latter).

First Winter

The first stone Winter Palace was a palace presented to the first emperor of Russia Peter on the day of his wedding with Ekaterina Alekseevna by the then governor of the city, a friend and ally of Peter - A. Menshikov in 1712 year... That palace, nicknamed Wedding chambers, stood between the Neva and the current Millionnaya Street.

Second Winter

Peter, while living in the Wedding Chambers, decided to build a new royal winter residence, which was supposed to be located on the formed new embankment(now Dvortsovaya), from where the city buildings, and the Peter and Paul Fortress, and Menshikov's palace, and, of course, the banks of the Neva, flowing to the sea, were perfectly visible.

The construction of the Winter Palace of Peter the Great at the intersection of the Winter Canal with the Neva was started by a German architect G. Mattarnovi... His palace project resembled a solid two-story German building, decorated with pilasters and rustic stones, with a central risalit part, on the pediment of which the coat of arms with a crown was to be placed.

Palace construction was in full swing when the architect suddenly dies. The construction was continued by the St. Petersburg architect N. Gerbel, who expanded the building, using the already rebuilt premises as the west wing. Making the eastern wing similar to the west, Gerbel focuses on the central part, decorating it with columns and creating the effect of a triumphal Roman arch.

The Winter Palace of Peter the Great begins a new era in the creation of magnificent, large-scale and solemn palace apartments for which St. Petersburg is so famous today. Although, in comparison with subsequent palaces, the Peter's palace decoration was more than humble... Nevertheless, with the creation of the second Winter Palace, the city's ensemble buildings, characteristic of St. Petersburg architecture, began.

In this Winter Palace, Peter the Great lived with his family from 1720... Here Tsar Peter died in 1725.

Catherine the First After Peter's death, work began on expanding the palace (architect D. Trezzini), interior work continued under Peter II. But then, already under Anna Ioannovna, the royal persons did not live in the Winter Palace of Peter. Elizaveta Petrovna placed the grenadier company of the Preobrazhensky regiment in it. A by the end of the 18th century Catherine II instead of the Winter Palace of Peter the Great was erected Hermitage Theater(architect J. Quarenghi) for amusement.

For a long time it was believed that the Palace of Peter the Great gone, dismantled for theatrical construction, but at the end of the 70s of the 20th century, architectural research revealed several preserved parts of the first floor and the basement of the former Peter's building, which were located under the stage of the Hermitage Theater. In the surviving rooms called "Small tents" Peter, managed to recreate the interiors of the Petrine era. The tsar's office with a Dutch tiled stove is furnished with his personal belongings. It was also possible to restore some of the chambers built during the reign of Catherine the First.

Today you can see the expositions of the Dining Room, Peter's Cabinet where he died, turning, Of the front yard... Posthumous wax is also presented Peter's "persona" created from the deceased emperor himself Rastrelli, who, having removed casts from the face, hands and feet, subsequently made a life-size Wax persona based on them. Moreover, the hair for making a wig, mustache, eyebrows was real - imperial. The "persona" is dressed in a European costume from the tsar's wardrobe.

To get acquainted with the exposition of this little-known, but very unique Winter Palace of Peter the Great, you need to enter from Dvortsovaya embankment, 32... The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30 to 17.00. On Mondays, the museum is a day off.

Third Winter Palace

As already mentioned, the next mistress of the Russian throne Anna Ioannovna Peter's palace seemed too small. She commissions the creation of an enlarged palace analogue F.Rastrelli... To make this task a reality, nearby buildings are bought and demolished, and in 1732 the construction of the third Winter Palace building begins. A new four-story palace is being built in three years and includes seventy halls, one hundred bedrooms, several galleries, premises for the theater, as well as service rooms.

However, the Empress who entered the palace constantly demanded some new additions, the organization of new premises, etc. Since 1741, the new mistress of the palace - Elizaveta Petrovna- continued the policy of adding new premises, which ultimately led the palace to a state of decentralization, untidiness of architectural forms and a lack of a common style.

In 1752 Elizabeth buys out the next neighboring plots for the expansion of the palace building. Rastrelli proposed expanding the palace territory in breadth, at the expense of new buildings, but Elizabeth demanded that the building be expanded upwards. Debate architect and empress led to the decision to demolish the existing palace and build a new one in its place! The construction of another palace building began in 1754.

Fourth Winter

The Fourth Winter Palace, as a temporary one (at the time of the creation of the fifth), is being built on the already taking shape Nevsky Prospekt, where houses 13 and 15 are located today. After the completion of the construction of the fifth and last version of the Winter Palace in 1761, the fourth, as unnecessary, was dismantled (1762). Elizaveta Petrovna, so dreaming of a large palace, did not live to see the end of construction work.

Fifth Winter (last)

So, by the imperial order of Elizabeth Petrovna, the architect Rastrelli erects a three-story - the highest at that time ( about 24 meters) - an architectural structure in St. Petersburg, the area of ​​which was about 60 thousand square meters... The palace, consisting of four buildings, closed in the shape of a square, forming an inner courtyard. Such a palace layout was typical of Western architecture of that time.

The main arched entrance to the palace territory was organized from the Palace Embankment... But even though the main facade, more than two kilometers long and overlooked the Neva, this did not mean that more attention was paid to it. The palace amazed from all sides luxury, splendor, architectural decor with the changing rhythm of the columns.

The perimeter of the roof is decorated with vases and sculptures, which gives the building even more splendor and pomp. The palace building had ocher color with highlighted elements of decor and columns. The palace consisted of over a thousand rooms, had more than a hundred stairs and about one and a half thousand windows.

The internal structure of the palace was created enfilade, i.e. all rooms were located along the same axis, connected by a through corridor and had a spatial perspective. North the suite stretches along Nevsky Prospekt, southern- along the Palace Square. Three corner wings were occupied by the living quarters of the ruling emperors.

The final interior design of the building has already been completed under Catherine II, which removes Rastrelli from further work and the interiors continue to take shape Y. Felten, J. Wallen-Delamotte and A. Rinaldi. Under subsequent emperors, reconstruction work was also carried out, the purpose and interior design of the premises changed.

In 1837 powerful fire, which raged for three days, caused a terrible ruin to the palace - a huge part of the interiors died in the fire - but, nevertheless, the Winter Palace restored in a record period. Moreover, some of the halls (Field Marshal, Petrovsky, etc.) were recreated almost in their original version, and some of the rooms (Malachite, Gothic Library, White Living Room of Alexandra Feodorovna, etc.) were created in a new architectural style.

Therefore, it must be borne in mind that much in the interiors and the purpose of the premises has been changed compared to the original concept, and today we see the halls in their reconstructive and new design, related to by the second half of the 19th century.

The main halls of the Winter Palace (briefly)

The main palace halls, including the ceremonial ones, occupy second floor Of the Winter Palace.

Jordan stairs

Acquaintance with the halls of the Winter Palace begins with a magnificent front staircase, originally called Ambassadorial, and then Jordanian. This staircase has retained the Baroque Rastrellian style, restored by subsequent architects, who, however, made significant changes to the interior.

The splendor of the white marble staircase with a carved balustrade, granite columns, and the reflected light of mirrors amazes here. statues of gods and muses, gilded intricate ornament and, of course, incomparable plafond with images of the gods of Olympus.

The main staircase on the second floor diverges in two enfilade directions - along the north - along the Neva, and along the east - into the interior of the palace. In any case, you can bypass all the premises of the second floor around the perimeter, thanks to their through suite device.

Nikolaev Hall

If you walk along the northern suite, then through Nikolaev avanzal with a malachite rotunda, you can go to hall Nikolaevsky, which is considered the largest room in the Winter Palace. It was named so after the portrait of the late Nicholas I was placed here, and was considered the main palace hall for holding receptions and balls, at which up to 3,000 guests could gather.

The interior of this hall was decorated in the post-fire period. V. Stasov in a different vein than it existed before the fire - austere monotonous decor is decorated Corinthian columns... From the Nikolaev hall we get to Concert hall, having examined which, further along the direction of movement we move to the north-western wing.

Concert hall

Originally intended for concerts, the hall several times modified... It is decorated with antique sculptures depicting various types of art, among which there are all kinds goddesses and muses... Today, the hall presents an exposition of Russian silver items, as well as the unique Alexander Nevsky cancer made of silver and transferred here from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The northwest wing was designed for the family during the post-fire recovery period Nicholas II, and at the beginning of the 19th century, the chambers of Alexander the Great were located here. In 1917, it was this wing that occupied Provisional government, here and arrested.

In this wing, the Arabian and Malachite Halls, the White Dining Room, and the Gothic Library of Nicholas II are accessible for inspection.

Malachite hall

This is a well-known and unique hall in a bright green frame. malachite columns and fireplaces. The hall is created by an architect A. Brullov after a fire in a new interior solution. The wall opposite the windows is decorated with decorative painting with figures of "Day", Night "and" Poetry ".

It was in this room that the Provisional Government, overthrown in October 1917, sat. Today, here you can get acquainted with wonderful malachite products made by Russian craftsmen.

White dining room

This dining room has been redesigned in a mix of styles classicism and rococo at the end of the 19th century for the marriage of Nicholas II. The dining room is furnished with elegant furnishings.

The bronze mantel clock shows the time of the arrest of the Provisional Government, which was taken under arrest right here.

Gothic library

Library premise complete in the spirit of the middle ages(arch. A.Krasovsky). Used in its decoration Walnut and embossed gilded leather... High windows with openwork bindings, high choirs for bookcases with a massive staircase, a monumental fireplace - all create an atmosphere of strength and inviolability.

Further through Rotunda we turn into the western gallery, where samples of works related to Russian art of the 18th century are exhibited. We move along the gallery to the south-western wing of the palace, where the former chambers belonging to Maria Alexandrovna- to the wife of Alexander II, among which are the Golden Drawing Room and the Blue Bedroom, the Raspberry Study and the Boudoir, the White Hall and the Green Dining Room.

White living room

This hall of Maria Alexandrovna appeared in the same period as the Malachite Hall, and is made in the same way A. Bryulov... The White Hall is the most successful work of the architect, who united three living rooms into a single architectural solution, decorated in the style ancient Roman villas. This style determines both the presence of Corinthian columns and the image of the Olympian gods.

The White Drawing Room was preparing for the marriage of Alexander II to Maria Alexandrovna and, as part of the other rooms of this wing, was the apartments of the new imperial family.

During the period of placement in the Winter Provisional Government, the soldier garrison guarding it was located in these apartments. The soldiers, without much ceremony, dried their wet linen on Roman statues.

Golden living room

In this living room we are captivated by the placers gold ornaments over white faux marble walls. Interior made A. Bryulov for Empress Maria Alexandrovna, later improved A. Stackenschneider... Here you can admire the amazing marble fireplace for a long time. Its jasper columns, picturesque panels and bas-reliefs harmoniously combine with gilded doors and beautiful parquet floors.

It was in this room, after the tragic death of his father, that Alexander III, together with the State Council, discussed the further development of Russia.

Raspberry Cabinet

This is the premises of Maria Alexandrovna, we also see in the converted A. Stackenschneider form. This living room sometimes served as a dining room and sometimes as a concert hall. From here, a staircase, hidden by draperies, led to the children's rooms.

By the design of the room, one can judge the personal predilections of the empress, who was fond of music and painting... The room is decorated with medallions with images of music signs and musical instruments. We see and unique carvings 19th century grand piano... Also here you can see applied arts, china, and more.

Further, bypassing October stairs, we walk along the enfilades of the southern side of the palace, along the Palace Embankment, in which French art of the 18th century is presented and we find ourselves in the front Alexander Hall, built by A. Brullov to perpetuate the memory of Alexander the Great.

From the Alexander Hall through Pre-church, you can get to the Great Palace church Savior Not Made by Hands, which after restoration is open to the public. The premises of the church retained the splendor of F. Rastrelli's baroque style. The former church of the imperial family today houses objects related to Russian church art.

And through located nearby Picket hall, where in the 19th century guards officers were on duty, and the palace guard was broken, we go to the Military Gallery and the Armorial Hall.

Hall of arms

During the restoration of the Winter Palace after the fire, this hall, with an area of ​​about a thousand square meters, was given a different semantic direction than before. During the pre-fire period in this place of the palace there was White gallery, in the hall of which luxurious palace balls were held.

Architect V. Stasov creates a hall with an interior in a completely different thematic content, in accordance with its new purpose - now ceremonial receptions were planned here, and the decoration of the hall in classic style should have shown power of Russia and the vastness of her possessions. Therefore, sculptures of the warriors of ancient Russia, equipped with the provincial coats of arms, are installed here. The same coats of arms are also present in the design of the chandeliers.

The colonnade with a balustraded balcony surrounding the hall gives it monumentality and solemnity. And the amazing aventurine bowl, located in the center, evokes admiration for the skill of Russian stone cutters.

Military gallery

Gallery dedicated to participants heroic victory over Napoleonic troops (architect K. Rossi)- one of the most famous palace galleries. It was formed in 1826 by combining several not very large palace premises.

The Military Gallery was created to accommodate generals portraits of the Russian-French company 1812-1814 years... Each portrait was assigned a specific location by a specially created commission, where they were installed as they were painted. Almost all of over three hundred portraits created J. Doe... Some of them were written from the original source, some from previously painted portraits. It was not possible to find 13 images of the dead generals, so green silk is simply stretched over their names. A separate wall is occupied with a ceremonial portrait of Emperor Alexander the First.

Further, in a straight line, it is supposed to inspect the Petrovsky and Field Marshal halls. These halls, as well as the Heraldic Hall in the 30s. 19th century decorated the famous O. Montferrand. However, his work perished in the fire of the infamous fire of 1837. What we see is a talented reconstruction carried out by V. Stasov, A. Bryulov and E. Staubert.

Petrovsky hall

From the ashes of 1937 Small throne room, dedicated to Peter the Great, is restored in the original idea of ​​Montferrand. Triumphal arch, framed by columns. Silver and gilded throne. The canvas behind the throne, depicting Peter the Great and the goddess Minerva (by J. Amikoni).

Other canvases in the hall show scenes of the famous battles of the Northern War. The interior decor contains the monogram of the first Russian emperor, images of two-headed eagles and the imperial crown.

Field marshal hall

This hall got its name due to the placement in its niches of portraits of outstanding field marshals Russia. From the walls of this hall they are looking at us Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, Potemkin-Tavrichesky, Suvorov, Kutuzov other. The decor of the hall is sustained military theme- these are both laurel wreaths of winners and war trophies. Also in the decoration of the hall there are canvases depicting military victories of the Russian army.

Today, the hall additionally houses paintings by foreign and domestic masters and houses the famous Imperial porcelain.

If we turn right from the Military Gallery, we will find ourselves in the St. George Hall (Great Throne Hall).

Georgievsky hall

As the most majestic and solemn, Great Throne Room appeared towards the end of the 18th century in the best examples of the classical style. It was supposed to host the imperial ceremonies and receptions. On the day of St. George the Victorious, the hall was consecrated, which is why they began to call it St. George. This hall completely burned down in 1837, and the splendor that we see with you is again a talented reconstruction created by V. Stasov.

George the Victorious is present in the decoration of the hall in the form of a bas-relief located above the royal throne of London work. This throne, by the way, belonging to the first half of the 18th century, was made especially for Anna Ioannovna. The ornamental designs on the ceiling are similar to those of a parquet floor made up of pieces of wood from 16 types of wood.

From here, through the Apollo Hall, you can go to the halls of the Small Hermitage, where art galleries are located.

Apollo hall

At the end of the 18th century, the Apollo Hall appeared as a connecting link between the halls of the Winter Palace and the pavilions of the Small Hermitage. The chambers of Catherine II occupied the southeastern wing and were located in front of the Alexander Hall. The southern pavilion of the Small Hermitage occupied Count G. Orlov... Their chambers were connected by a gallery built between the palace and the pavilion.

When Catherine began collecting paintings for which the Northern Pavilion was built, visitors to the Hermitage zone walked past the Empress's chambers, which caused her displeasure. Therefore, both the Apollo Hall and the new Throne George Hall ( architect Quarenghi).

Winter Palace. People and Walls [History of the Imperial Residence, 1762-1917] Zimin Igor Viktorovich

Formation of half of Catherine II

Back in the second half of the 1750s. F.B. Rastrelli laid down in the scheme of the Winter Palace the standard planning variant that he used in the palaces of Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof. The basement of the palace was used as servants' quarters or storage rooms. Service and utility rooms were located on the ground floor of the palace. The second floor (mezzanine) of the palace was intended to accommodate ceremonial, ceremonial halls and personal apartments of the first persons. On the third floor of the palace were lodged maids of honor, doctors and close servants. This planning scheme presupposed predominantly horizontal connections between the various zones of the palace. The endless corridors of the Winter Palace became the material embodiment of these horizontal connections.

The chambers of the first person became the heart of the palace. At first, Rastrelli planned these chambers for Elizaveta Petrovna. The architect located the rooms of the aging empress in the sunny southeastern part of the palace. The windows of the empress's private chambers overlooked Millionnaya Street. She loved to sit by the window, looking at the hustle and bustle of the street. Apparently, taking into account precisely this form of women's leisure and sunlight, which is so rare in our latitudes, Rastrelli planned the location of the empress's private rooms.

Peter III, and after him Catherine II, left Rastrelli's planning scheme in force, retaining the role of its residential center for the southeastern projection of the Winter Palace. At the same time, Peter III retained the rooms in which Elizaveta Petrovna planned to live. For his hateful wife, the eccentric emperor assigned chambers on the western side of the Winter Palace, the windows of which overlooked the industrial zone of the Admiralty, which since the time of Peter the Great had functioned as a shipyard.

E. Vigilius. Portrait of Catherine II in the uniform of L. - Guards Preobrazhensky regiment. After 1762

After the coup of June 28, 1762, Catherine II lived in the Winter Palace for just a few days. The rest of the time she continued to live in the wooden Elizabethan Palace on the Moika.

Since Catherine II urgently needed to strengthen her precarious position with a legitimate coronation, she left for Moscow in August 1762 in order to be crowned in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The coronation took place on September 22, 1762.

It is impossible not to note the high pace of life of this woman, so atypical for that leisurely time. Then, in the first half of 1762, she not only organized a conspiracy against her husband, but also managed to secretly give birth to a child in April 1762, whose father was her lover G.G. Orlov. At the end of June 1762, a coup followed, at the beginning of July - the "mysterious" death of Peter III and the coronation in September 1762. And for all this she had enough intelligence, strength, nerves and energy.

After Catherine II left for Moscow, construction work in the Winter Palace did not stop, but other people were already doing it. These changes are associated with a number of circumstances. First, a new reign is always new people. Catherine II removed many dignitaries of the Elizabethan period, including the architect F.B. Rastrelli. On August 20, 1762, Rastrelli was sent on leave as the person of Elizabeth Petrovna. Secondly, Catherine II considered the whimsical baroque an obsolete style. At the subconscious level, she wanted her reign to be marked by visible style changes, called classicism. Therefore, Rastrelli's vacation smoothly spilled over into his resignation.

Unknown artist. The oath of the Izmailovsky Life Guards Regiment on June 28, 1762. First quarter of the 19th century.

Rastrelli was replaced by architects who had previously played secondary roles. These were those who worked in a new manner pleasing to Catherine II - J.-B. Wallen-Delamot, A. Rinaldi and J. Felten. That is, those architects who are usually attributed to the period of the so-called early classicism. It should be noted that they all treated the completed sections of their predecessor's work in the Winter Palace with great care. They did not at all touch upon the already completed Baroque façade of the Winter Palace. However, it is possible that purely mercantile considerations played a role here. There was simply no money for global changes in the newly rebuilt Winter Palace.

I. Mayer. Winter Palace from the side of Vasilievsky Island. 1796 g.

M. Mikhaev. View of the Winter Palace from the east. 1750s

Nevertheless, this tradition continued later. Therefore, the Winter Palace to this day is a bizarre mixture of styles: the façade, the Great Church, and the Main Staircase still retain Rastrelli's baroque décor, yet the rest of the premises have undergone numerous alterations. In the second half of the 18th century. these corrections and alterations were sustained in the spirit of classicism. After the fire of 1837, many of the interiors were decorated in the style of historicism.

Winter Palace. Pavilion Flashlight. Bayot's lithograph after a drawing by O. Montferrand. 1834 g.

A new creative group began work in the Winter Palace in the fall of 1762. Thus, Y. Felten, on a personal assignment from the Empress, decorated her chambers in the classicist style. Best known for its descriptions of the Diamond Room, or Diamond Rest. We emphasize that no images of the personal chambers of Catherine II have come down to us. At all. But numerous descriptions of them have survived.

As mentioned, at the end of 1761, Peter III ordered "for the empress ... to decorate the premises from the Admiralty side and make a staircase through all three floors." Therefore, on the second floor of the western building of the Winter Palace, even during the reign of Peter III, J.-B. Vallin-Delamot began to decorate the private chambers of Catherine II. Among them were the Bedroom, Restroom, Boudoir, Study. Y. Felten also worked there, whose labors appeared Portrait and "Light cabinet" in a wooden bay window, arranged above the entrance, which would later be called Saltykovsky.

Apparently, the empress liked the idea of ​​a three-height bay window. Even in the hustle and bustle of preparing the coup, she was able to note and appreciate this "architectural element." Therefore, after the cessation of work in the western part of the palace, the idea of ​​a "cabinet" materialized in the southwestern projection, where the famous Lantern appeared above the entrance, later called the Commandant's, - a small palace hall located above the entrance.

A watercolor by an unknown artist "Catherine II on the balcony of the Winter Palace on the day of the coup", dated to the end of the 18th century, has survived. This watercolor shows scaffolding near the southwestern projection of the palace. There is no flashlight yet, but there is a balcony closed on top by a four-slope canopy. The place was cozy, and the Flashlight, given the Petersburg climate, was closed with capital walls. This cozy Lantern remained above the Commandant's Entrance until the 1920s.

By the beginning of 1763, Catherine II, having returned to St. Petersburg, finally decided on her place of residence in the huge Winter Palace. In March 1763, she ordered to move her chambers to the southwestern projection, where the chambers of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and Peter III used to be.

There was no doubt that there was a distinct political context in this decision. Catherine II, as a pragmatic and intelligent politician, built herself not only into the system of power, but also into the existing scheme of palace chambers. Then, in 1863, she took into account any trifle that could strengthen her position, including such as the continuity of the imperial chambers: from Elizabeth Petrovna to Peter III and to her - Empress Catherine II. Her decision to move her chambers to the status southeastern corner of the Winter Palace was probably dictated by the desire to strengthen her precarious position, including by this "geographical method." The chambers in which Elizaveta Petrovna and Peter III were supposed to live could only become her chambers. Accordingly, all the work that was carried out by J.-B. Vallin-Delamot and Y. Felten, in the western wing of the palace, immediately turned off. So, in the rooms located along the western facade of the Winter Palace, Catherine II did not live a single day.

New work was carried out on a grand scale. This was no longer a minor cosmetic repair, initiated by Peter III. In the southeastern projection, a large-scale redevelopment of the interior began when the newly erected walls were being dismantled. When carrying out the work, the architects also took into account the nuances of the personal life of the 33-year-old empress. Right under the private chambers of Catherine II, on the mezzanine of the first floor, the rooms of her civil husband at that time, Grigory Orlov, were placed. In the same place, on the mezzanine, right under the church altar, a bathhouse (soap room, or soap box) with vast and luxurious premises was arranged.

G.G. Orlov

G.A. Potemkin

The empress repeatedly mentioned this soapbox in her intimate correspondence with her changing favorites. The favorites changed, but the soap, as a secluded meeting place, remained. For example, in February 1774 Catherine II wrote to G.A. Potemkin: “My dear fellow, if you want to eat meat, then you should know that now everything is ready in the bathhouse. And do not carry food from there to you, otherwise the whole world will know that food is being prepared in the bathhouse. " In March 1774 the empress informs Potemkin about her conversation with Alexei Orlov, who knew well what the soap was meant for: “... My answer was:“ I don’t know how to lie ”. He paki asked: “Yes or no?” I said: “Yes”. After hearing what, he burst out laughing and said: “Do you see in the soap?” I asked: “Why does he think this?” Then he added: "It was evident yesterday that convention is by no means to show in people agreement between you, and this is very good."

Construction and finishing work proceeded at a feverish pace from January to September 1763. As a result, on the site of Peter III's chambers, through the efforts of architects and with the unconditional personal participation of the empress, a complex of personal chambers of Catherine II was formed, which included the following premises: Audience chamber with an area of ​​227 m 2 which replaced the Throne Room; Dining room with two windows; Light cabinet; Restroom; two casual bedrooms; Boudoir; Cabinet and Library.

AND ABOUT. Midushevsky. Presentation of the letter to Catherine II

All these rooms were designed in the style of early classicism, but at the same time they combined components that are difficult to compare for this style - solemn splendor and undoubted comfort. The pomp was provided by the architects of early classicism, and the comfort, no doubt, was brought by the empress herself. However, we know about all this only from the descriptions of the chambers left by contemporaries.

By the direct intervention of Catherine II in the adoption architectural solutions known reliably. Most known fact- this is the order of the empress to remake one of her everyday bedrooms into the Diamond Room, or Diamond Rest, which will be described later.

Contemporaries who visited the Winter Palace left numerous descriptions of the empress's private rooms. One of these French travelers wrote: “... the apartments of the empress are very simple: in front of the audience hall there is a small glass cabinet, where the crown and its diamonds are kept under seals; the audience hall is very simple: next to the door is a throne of red velvet; then there is the wood and gilded living room with two fireplaces, ridiculously small. This room, serving for receptions, communicates with the apartments of the Grand Duke, where there is nothing remarkable, as well as in the rooms of his children. "

It should be noted that marble of various grades began to flow from the Urals to St. Petersburg to decorate the premises of the Winter Palace. Columns, fireplaces, boards for tables and so on were hewn from this marble. Finished products and semi-finished products were delivered to St. Petersburg by water on barges. The first such transport was sent to the capital in the spring of 1766.

Empress Catherine II moved to the Winter Palace in the fall of 1763. If we turn to the Camer-Furier journals for 1763, the chronology of events is as follows:

August 13, 1763 "Her Imperial Majesty deigned to have an exit for a walk through the streets and to be deigned in the stone Winter Palace ...".

On October 12, 1763, the Empress ordered "not to be a kurtagh, but to be on it next Wednesday, that is, this October 15th in the Winter Stone Palace of Her Imperial Majesty."

On October 15, 1763, Catherine II moved to the Winter Palace, where she arranged a housewarming, “presenting” her new home to the people around her.

On October 19, 1763, the Empress staged the first "public masquerade in the Winter Palace for the entire nobility", presenting the palace to all the capital's nobility.

At the same time, construction work did not stop in other parts of the palace, where they continued to decorate the state rooms. Only in 1764 were major finishing works in the Winter Palace completed.

Naturally, with the completion of work in 1762-1764. The Winter Palace has not stood still in its unchanged form and layout. Construction work proceeded almost continuously on a larger or smaller scale. This is evidenced by the handwritten note of Catherine II, dating back to 1766, in which she summarizes the "costs of buildings." (See table 1.)

Table 1

Global redevelopments in the Winter Palace began in the late 1770s. and were associated with the growth of the imperial family. All this time, the construction work in the palace was supervised by the President of the Imperial Academy of Arts and the secretary of the Empress I.I. Betskoy. On his initiative, Catherine II signed a decree of October 9, 1769, according to which the "Chancellery on the construction of Her Imperial Majesty's houses and gardens" was abolished and on its basis the "Office on the construction of Her Imperial Majesty's houses and gardens" was created under the direction of the same I. AND. Betsky. Then, in 1769, the empress determined the quota for the maintenance and construction of the Winter Palace at 60,000 rubles. in year.

A. Roslin. Portrait of I.I. Betsky. 1777 g.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book From Rurik to Paul I. History of Russia in questions and answers the author Vyazemsky Yuri Pavlovich

Chapter 8. From Catherine to Catherine Question 8.1 In 1726 Menshikov abolished the salary of minor officials. On what basis? How did he explain? Question 8.2 Who was the last to be buried in the Cathedral of the Archangel? Question 8.3 It is said that under Anna Ioannovna Elizabeth Petrovna, the future

From the book History of the Middle Ages. Volume 1 [In two volumes. Edited by S. D. Skazkin] the author Skazkin Sergey Danilovich

§ 1. BYZANTINE IV - FIRST HALF OF IX c. Formation of the Byzantine Empire Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire), which took shape as an independent state in the IV century. as a result of the division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western (395), surpassed the Western in level

From the book The Winter Palace. People and Walls [History of the Imperial Residence, 1762-1917] the author Zimin Igor Viktorovich

Half of the children and grandchildren of Empress Catherine II in the Winter Palace Rooms on the second floor of the western facade of the Winter Palace, facing the Admiralty, located between two projections, were originally intended for Catherine II when she was her wife

From the book Guerrilla Warfare. Strategy and tactics. 1941-1943 author Armstrong John

2. Formation "Graukopf" (experimental formation "Osintorf", experimental formation "Center") At the end of 1941, German military intelligence and counterintelligence (Abwehr) began to form a special unit of Russian nationalists in the village of Osintorf,

From the book World History: in 6 volumes. Volume 3: The World in Early Modern Times the author Team of authors

DISCOVERY OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVI - FIRST HALF OF THE XVII CENTURY Search for the northwestern and northeastern passages. In the second half of the XVI century. the initiative in the Great Geographical Discoveries passes from the Spaniards and the Portuguese, whose forces were barely enough to hold

From the book Historical Fates of the Crimean Tatars. the author Vozgrin Valery Evgenievich

ECONOMY OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY One of the largest colonizers of the beginning of the last century, Mordvinov, was convinced that "the Tatars are incapable of living and occupying lands and gardens", which is why "the general good demands that foreigners be attracted to the mountainous part of Crimea, raising the price

From the book Patriotic History. Crib the author Barysheva Anna Dmitrievna

26 THE ENLIGHTED ABSOLUTISM OF CATHERINE II. REFORMS OF Catherine II Catherine II ruled for almost the entire second half of the 18th century. (1762-1796). This era is usually called the era of enlightened absolutism, since Catherine, following the new European educational tradition, was

From the book From the Varangians to the Nobel [Swedes on the banks of the Neva] the author Youngfeldt Bengt

From Catherine to Catherine: Karl Karlovich Anderson The Stockholm boy Karl Anderson was one of those many foreigners whose talent blossomed in St. Petersburg; in this sense, his fate is typical. But the beginning of his life was far from ordinary;

From the book Architects of Moscow XV - XIX centuries. Book 1 author Yaralov Yu.S.

S. M. Zemtsov Architects of Moscow in the second half of the 15th and first half of the 16th century From the 70s of the 15th century to the end of the 30s of the 16th century, Moscow was enriched with works of architecture worthy of the capital of a huge country.

The development of the territory east of the Admiralty began simultaneously with the emergence of the shipyard. In 1705, a house was erected on the banks of the Neva for the "Great Admiralty" - Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin. By 1711, the place of the present palace was occupied by the mansions of the nobility involved in the fleet (only naval officials could be built 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 for the shipbuilder Peter Alekseev. A canal was dug in front of its facade 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 slope down 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 project of Mattarnovi. The main facade already opened onto the Neva. In it, Peter lived his last years.

The Third Winter Palace appeared as a result of the reconstruction and expansion of this palace according to Trezzini's project. Parts of it later became part of the Hermitage Theater, created by Quarenghi. During the restoration work, fragments of the Peter's palace inside the theater were discovered: the front yard, stairs, entrance halls, rooms. Now there is essentially the Hermitage's exposition "The Winter Palace of Peter the Great".

In 1733-1735 according to the project of Bartolomeo Rastrelli on site former palace Fyodor Apraksin, ransomed 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 Peter's times by the architect Leblond.

The Fourth Winter Palace stood approximately in the same place where we see the present one, and was much more ornate 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. Not a trace of him remained 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 - the modern Winter Palace.

The current Winter Palace is the sixth in a row. It was built from 1754 to 1762 according to the project of Bartolomeo Rastrelli for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and is a vivid example of the magnificent baroque. But Elizabeth did not have time to live in the palace - she died, so Catherine II became the first real mistress of the Winter Palace.

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

The Winter Palace was rebuilt after a fire in 1837 without any major external changes, by 1839 the work was completed, they were supervised by two architects: Alexander Bryullov (brother of the great Karl) and Vasily Stasov (author of the Spaso-Perobrazhensky and Trinity Izmailovsky cathedrals). It only reduced the number of sculptures around the perimeter of its roof.

Over the centuries, the color of the facades of the Winter Palace has changed from time to time. Initially, the walls were painted with "sandy paint with the most subtle veil", the decor was white lime. Before the First World War, the palace acquired an unexpected red-brick color, which gave the palace a gloomy look. The contrasting combination of green walls, white columns, capitals and decorative moldings appeared in 1946.

Exterior of the Winter Palace

Rastrelli was building not just a royal residence, - the palace was built “for the glory of all-Russia”, as it was said in the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to the Governing Senate. The palace is distinguished from the European buildings of the Baroque style by its brightness, cheerfulness of the imaginative structure, festive solemn elevation. Its more than 20-meter height is emphasized by two-tier columns. The vertical division of the palace is continued by statues and vases, leading the gaze into the sky. The height of the winter palace has become a building standard, erected in the principle of St. Petersburg city planning. It was not allowed to build higher than the Winter building in the old town.
The palace is a giant quadrangle with a large courtyard. The facades of the palace, different in composition, form, as it were, folds of a huge ribbon. The stepped cornice, repeating all the protrusions of the building, stretches for almost two kilometers. The absence of sharply protruding parts along the northern facade, from the side of the Neva (there are only three divisions), enhances the impression of the length of the building along the embankment; two wings on the western side are facing the Admiralty. The main facade, overlooking the Palace Square, has seven divisions, it is the most ceremonial. In the middle, protruding part, there is a triple arcade of the entrance gate, decorated with a magnificent openwork lattice. The southeastern and southwestern projections protrude beyond the line of the main facade. Historically, it was in them that the living quarters of the emperors and empresses were located.

Layout of the Winter Palace

Bartolomeo Rastrelli already had experience in the construction of royal palaces in Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof. In the scheme of the Winter Palace, he laid down the standard planning variant, which he had previously tested. The basement of the palace was used as housing for servants or storage rooms. Service and utility rooms were located on the ground floor. The second floor housed the ceremonial ceremonial halls and the personal apartments of the imperial family, while the third was used to accommodate the maid of honor, doctors and close servants. This layout presupposed predominantly horizontal connections between the various rooms of the palace, which was reflected in the endless corridors of the Winter Palace.
The northern facade is distinguished by the fact that it contains three huge ceremonial halls. The Nevskaya suite included: the Small Hall, the Big (Nikolaev Hall) and the Concert Hall. The large suite unfolded along the axis of the Main Staircase, going perpendicular to the Nevskaya suite. It included the Field Marshal Hall, the Petrovsky Hall, the Armorial (White) Hall, the Picket Hall (New). 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 ceremonial halls included the Pompeii Gallery and the Winter Garden. The route of passage of the royal family through the suite of ceremonial halls had a deep meaning. The scenario of the Great Exits, worked out to the smallest detail, served not only to demonstrate the full splendor of autocratic power, but also to refer to the past and present of Russian history.
As in any other palace of the imperial family, in the Winter Palace there was a church, or rather, two churches: the Big and the Small. According to Bartolomeo Rastrelli's plan, the Big Church was to serve Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and her “big court”, while the Small Church was 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 style of the late Russian baroque. The interiors are mostly made in the style of early classicism. One of the few interiors of the palace that has retained the original baroque decoration is the front Jordan staircase. It occupies a huge space of almost 20 meters in height and seems even higher due to the painting of the plafond. Reflecting 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 the general idea of ​​Rastrelli. The decor of the stairs is infinitely varied - mirrors, statues, fancy gilded stucco molding, varying the motif of a stylized shell. The baroque décor forms became more restrained after the replacement of wooden columns faced with pink stucco (artificial marble) with monolithic granite columns.

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

The largest hall of the Nevskaya suite, Nikolaevsky, is more solemnly decorated. This is one of the largest halls of the Winter Palace, its area is 1103 square meters. The three-quarter columns of the magnificent Corinthian order, the painted border of the plafond and huge chandeliers give it a pomp. The hall is designed in white.

The Concert Hall, intended at the end of the 18th century for court concerts, has a richer 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 room completed the suite and was originally conceived by Rastrelli as the entrance 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 1500 kg, created at the Mint of St. Petersburg in 1747-1752, was installed in the hall. for the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which to this day keeps the relics of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The large enfilade begins with the Field Marshal Hall, designed to house portraits of field marshals; he was supposed to give an idea of ​​the political and military history Russia. Its interior was created, as well as the neighboring Petrovsky (or Small Throne) Hall, by the architect Auguste Montferand in 1833 and restored after the fire of 1837 by Vasily Stasov. The main purpose of the Petrovsky Hall is memorial - it is dedicated to the memory of Peter the Great, so its decoration is particularly splendid. In the gilded decor of the frieze, in the painting of the vaults - the coats of arms of the Russian Empire, crowns, wreaths of glory. In a huge niche with a rounded vault, 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 depicting scenes of the most important battles of the Northern War - at Lesnaya and near Poltava. The decorative motifs that adorn the hall endlessly repeat the monogram of two Latin letters "P" denoting the name of Peter I - "Petrus Primus"

The hall of arms is decorated with shields with the coats of arms of the 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 conceal the vastness of the hall, the solid gilding of the columns emphasizes its splendor. Four sculptural groups of warriors of Ancient Rus remind of the heroic traditions of the defenders of the fatherland and precede the following Gallery of 1812.
The most perfect creation of Stasov in the Winter Palace is the St. George (Great Throne) Hall. The Quarenghi Hall, created in the same place, died in a fire in 1837. Stasov, keeping the architectural design of Quarenghi, created a completely different artistic image. The walls are faced with Carrara marble, and the columns are carved from it. The decor of the ceiling and columns is made of gilded bronze. The ceiling ornament is repeated in the parquet made of 16 precious woods. Only the Double-Headed Eagle and St. George are absent in the floor drawing - it is useless to step on the coat of arms of the great empire. The gilded silver throne was restored in its former place in 2000 by architects and restorers of the Hermitage. Above the throne place is a marble bas-relief with Saint George slaying the dragon, by the Italian sculptor Francesco del Nero.

The owners of the Winter Palace

The customer of the construction was the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, she hurried Rastrelli with the construction of the palace, so the work was carried out at a frantic pace. The empress's private chambers (two bedchambers and an office), the chambers of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, and some adjoining rooms: the Church, the Opera House and the Light Gallery, were hastily finished off. 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 (the son of her elder sister Anna) Peter III Fedorovich. The Winter Palace was solemnly consecrated and commissioned by Easter 1762. Peter III immediately started alterations in the southwestern projection. The number of chambers included an office and a library. It was planned to create the Amber Hall on the model of Tsarskoye Selo. For his wife, he assigned chambers in the southwestern projection, the windows of which overlooked the industrial zone of the Admiralty.

The emperor lived in the palace only until June 1762, after which, without knowing it, he left it forever, moving to his beloved Oranienbaum, where he signed a renunciation at the end of July, and soon after that he was killed in the Ropsha palace.

The “brilliant age” of Catherine II, who became the first real mistress of the Winter Palace, began, and the southeastern projection, facing Millionnaya Street and Palace Square, became the first of the “residence zones” of the owners of the palace. After the coup, Catherine II mainly continued to live in a wooden Elizabethan palace, and in August she left for Moscow for her coronation. Construction work in the Winter Palace did not stop, but other architects were already doing it: Jean Baptiste Wallen-Delamot, Antonio Rinaldi, Yuri Felten. Rastrelli was first sent on vacation, and then retired. Catherine returned from Moscow at the beginning of 1863 and moved her chambers to the southwestern projection, showing the continuity from Elizabeth Petrovna to Peter III and to her - the new empress. All work in the west wing has been canceled. 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: Audience Chamber, which replaced the Throne Room; Dining room with two windows; Restroom; two casual bedrooms; Boudoir; Cabinet and Library. All rooms were designed in the early classicism style. Later, Catherine ordered to remake one of the everyday bedrooms into the Diamond Room or the Diamond Room, where precious property and imperial regalia were kept: a crown, a scepter, orb. The regalia were in the center of the room on a table under a crystal topped. As new jewelery was acquired, glass boxes appeared that were attached to the walls.
The Empress lived in the Winter Palace for 34 years and her chambers were expanded and rebuilt more than once.

Paul I spent his childhood and youth in the Winter Palace, and having received Gatchina as a gift from his mother in the mid-1780s, he left it and returned in November 1796, becoming the emperor. In the palace, Pavel lived for four years in the converted chambers of Catherine. His large family moved with him and settled in their rooms in the western part of the palace. After accession, he immediately began construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, not hiding his plans to literally "rip off" the interiors of the Winter Palace, using everything valuable to decorate the Mikhailovsky Castle.

After Paul's death in March 1801, Emperor Alexander I immediately returned to the Winter Palace. The palace returned to the status of the main imperial residence. But he did not begin to occupy the chambers of the southeastern projection, returned to his rooms, located along the western facade of the Winter Palace, with windows overlooking the Admiralty. The premises of the second floor of the southwestern projection have forever lost their significance as the inner chambers of the head of state. The renovation of the chambers of Paul I began in 1818, on the eve of the arrival of King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia to Russia, by appointing the “collegiate advisor Karl Rossi” to be responsible for the work. All design works were made according to his drawings. From that time on, the rooms in this part of the Winter Palace were officially called the "Prussian-Royal Rooms", and later - the Second spare half of the Winter Palace. It is separated from the first half by the Alexander Hall; in the plan, this half consisted of two perpendicular enfilades overlooking Palace Square and Millionnaya Street, which were connected in different ways with rooms overlooking 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 the Russian emperor), and from 1863 his younger brothers Alexander (the future emperor Alexander III) and Vladimir. They moved out of the premises of the Winter Palace in the late 1860s, starting their independent life. At the beginning of the twentieth century, dignitaries of the "first level" were housed in the rooms of the Second Reserve Half, saving them from terrorist bombs. From the beginning of the spring of 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 also assigned by Paul I to his wife Maria Feodorovna in 1797. The clever, ambitious and strong-willed wife of Paul during the period of her widowhood managed to form a structure that was called "the department of Empress Maria Feodorovna." It was engaged in charity, education, and the provision of medical care to representatives of various classes. In 1827, the apartment was renovated, which ended in March, and in November of the same year she died. Her third son, Emperor Nicholas I, decided to conserve her chambers. Later, the first spare half was formed there, consisting of two parallel enfilades. It was the largest of the palace halves, stretching along the second floor from the White Hall to the Alexander Hall. In 1839, temporary residents settled there: the eldest daughter of Nicholas I, the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and her husband, the Duke of Leuchtenberg. They lived there for almost five years, until the construction of the Mariinsky Palace was completed in 1844. After the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna and Emperor Alexander II, their rooms became part of the First Reserve Half.

On the first floor of the southern façade, between the empress's entrance and up to the main gate leading to the Great Courtyard, the rooms of the Palace Grenadiers on duty (2 windows), Candlestick positions (2 windows) and the office of the Emperor's Military Campaign Office (3 windows) looked out onto Palace Square. Next came the premises of the "Gough-Fourier and Chamber-Fourier Office". 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 a long maid of honor, was occupied by the maid of honor's apartments. Since these apartments were a service living space, then at the behest of the business executives or the emperor himself, the maid of honor could be moved from one room to another. Some of the ladies-in-waiting, quickly getting married, left the Winter Palace for good; others met there not only old age, but also death ...

The southwestern projection under Catherine II occupied the palace theater. It was demolished in the mid-1780s to accommodate the empress's many grandchildren. A small enclosed courtyard was arranged inside the risalit. The daughters of the future Emperor Paul I were settled in the rooms of the south-western projection. In 1816, the Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna married Prince William of Orange and left Russia. Her chambers were remodeled under the leadership of Carlo Rossi for the 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 projection. And after the marriage of the heir-Tsarevich Alesandr Nikolaevich to the Princess of Hesse (the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna), they occupied the premises of the second floor of the south-western projection. Over time, these rooms began to be called "Half of Empress Maria Alexandrovna"

Photos of the Winter Palace