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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Door from Rinaldi's time in an art gallery

Lamp above the main staircase

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


Ceiling lamp


Chandelier made of domestic crystal


Stacked parquet


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

Bas-relief on the wall and fireplace

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


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

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


Stucco molding above the entrance to the hall


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

Fireplace with mirror - original

Winter Garden

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

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

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


Floor lamps

Fountain

Sculptures by M. Popov and A. Bok

The very doors near which Ilyich showed off

Immediately behind the Winter Garden is the Royal Room,


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

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

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


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

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

Table - original

ceiling in the library

and Walnut Cabinet.


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

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


this is the former matrimonial bedroom


Very beautiful hall, I don’t remember its purpose

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


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

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

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

Among the many architectural and historical monuments of the world, there are special ones that embody a whole layer of architectural trends, the names and fates of famous personalities of past centuries. A striking example of this is the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg - a colossal, majestic structure, a real “marble fairy tale”. Now it is one of the famous tourist sites of the “Venice of the North”, striking in its grandeur of size, splendor and virtuosity of decoration. The rich history of the palace, associated with the Romanov royal dynasty, cannot but excite and interest people of the 21st century.

A nice bonus only for our readers - a discount coupon when paying for tours on the website until December 31:

• AF500guruturizma - promotional code for 500 rubles for tours from 40,000 rubles
• AFTA2000Guru - promotional code for 2,000 rubles. for tours to Thailand from 100,000 rubles.
• AF2000KGuruturizma - promotional code for 2,000 rubles. for tours to Cuba from 100,000 rubles.

The Travelata mobile app has a promotional code - AF600GuruMOB. He gives a discount of 600 rubles on all tours from 50,000 rubles. Download the application for and

Arrangement of the office

The interior design of the office mainly uses natural wood and leather. The walls, decorated with highly artistic canvases and portraits, are covered with gilded leather wallpaper, illustrated with royal coats of arms. The ceiling is covered with mahogany, the furniture is made from different types of wood, and oak parquet covers the floor. The prince's chair, resting on the front “legs” in the form of gilded swans with raised wings, is a special rarity of the office.

Other rooms of the apartments

In the interiors of other rooms, wood is also present in the design. The owner’s special love was the Musical “Gothic” living room, decorated in an unusually picturesque Gothic style with wooden openwork panels at the bottom and covered with gray leather wallpaper with gilded ornaments. An elegant model of a Gothic temple mounted on a panel adorns one of the walls of the living room. An antique black lacquered grand piano symbolizes the purpose of the room.

Owners

The change of owners of the Marble Palace, dictated by time and circumstances, can be arranged in a symbolic series.

The first owner of the palace, Catherine G. Orlov’s closest favorite, adjutant general and holder of many other ranks and titles, became the owner of the palace before 2 years before its official opening (he died in 1783).

• The second owner, Catherine’s grandson Konstantin Pavlovich, was the owner of the palace until 1831. Moreover, in 1797-98 the building was given over to the residence of the last Polish king S.A. Poniatowski, who died suddenly in 1798).
• The third owner, another grandson of the Empress, Konstantin Nikolaevich, was granted the palace in 1832, when he was 5 years old. Until the prince came of age, numerous court servants lived in the building. Having become the prince's wife, the owner of the palace along with him was Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, a bright, outstanding personality of her time. During the life of K.N. (1827-92) the palace was called Konstantinovsky.
• The fourth owner was the next grandson of Catherine I, Crown Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich, who owned the building until 1915, making the palace a kind of temple of art. The magnificent halls hosted dramatic performances, musical concerts of great musicians and composers, and creative meetings of writers and poets.

Exhibitions and expositions

In Soviet times, a branch of the Central Museum of V.I. was organized in several halls of the Marble Palace, which was the first example of using an architectural monument in a new capacity that met the needs of society. The work on the reconstruction of the premises was led by the architect N. Lansere, and the museum was opened in a sadly memorable year for the country - 1937. The museum's exhibitions introduced visitors in detail to the life and revolutionary activities of the leader of the proletariat.

Modern concept – promotion of art

The most beautiful building today northern capital, transferred to the Russian Museum - a center for displaying works of “Russian art in combination with world trends. Paintings, sculptures and other genres are widely represented here through permanent and temporary exhibitions. Various thematic exhibitions are regularly organized:

• Collection of the Rzhevsky brothers (masterpieces of graphics, painting, sculpture, objects of applied art - 503 copies in total).
• Konstantin Romanov - poet of the Silver Age (in the authentic setting of his office and Musical Living Room).
• Ludwig Museum (works of German classical art of the 19th-21st centuries).
• Dialogue between German sculptors E. Barlach and K. Kollwitz with Russian contemporaries (220 works of modernists and works of Russian masters).

In addition, temporary exhibitions showcasing world art are constantly held.

Legends and traditions

Like all significant architectural monuments, the history of the Marble Palace is surrounded by myths. One of the legends says that when the foundation was laid, a box filled to the top with royal coins was walled up in it. Although there is no exact information about this, rumors about the mysterious box continue to live. There is a legend about why the empress took away the palace donated to Konstantin Pavlovich. Allegedly because he, being 16 years old, shot live rats from a cannon, scaring his young wife. One of the legends tells of a secret door through which Catherine entered on a date with Orlov when the construction of the palace was still underway.

(function(w, d, n, s, t) ( w[n] = w[n] || ; w[n].push(function() ( Ya.Context.AdvManager.render(( blockId: "R-A -143470-6", renderTo: "yandex_rtb_R-A-143470-6", async: true )); )); t = d.getElementsByTagName("script"); s = d.createElement("script"); s .type = "text/javascript"; s.src = "//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.async = true; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); ))(this , this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks");

The Marble Palace is one of the most beautiful buildings in St. Petersburg. He completes the composition Palace Embankment, which begins at the Winter Palace. From a distance it seems that the palace seems to grow out of the granite of the Neva. Gray-pink granite and marble walls echo the colors of the St. Petersburg sky.

Marble Palace, 19th century painting

In the era of Peter the Great there was a drinking house here. In 1714, a wooden Post Office building with a pier appeared on this site. In 1716 it was built on; Peter I held assemblies on the second floor. The embankment in those days was called Pochtovaya. After a while, a Manege was built on the site of the Postal Yard, which later burned down.

On October 10, 1769, by order of Catherine the Great, construction of a huge palace began. The architect was the famous Antonio Rinaldi. However, according to one of the St. Petersburg legends, the empress personally sketched out a sketch of the future structure. The sculptures were made by Fedot Ivanovich Shubin. The Italian master Antonio Valli, the Austrian I. Duncker and many other famous sculptors and painters also took part in the work. More than 100 stonemasons worked daily at the construction site.

Catherine the Great gave her favorite another palace - also built according to the design of Antonio Rinaldi.

The palace was intended for the count Grigory Orlov(1734-1783) as gratitude for his active participation in the events of 1762. In 1773, he responded by presenting his empress with a huge cut diamond of 189.62 carats, which is now kept in Diamond Fund in Moscow and bears the name "Orlov".

Construction took 16 long years. In 1783, Count Orlov died without waiting for the completion of the work. In 1785, when the Marble Palace was ready, Catherine bought it from her heirs for 1.5 million rubles.

Monument to Alexander III in the courtyard of the Marble Palace

In 1780-1788, in the eastern part of the site, according to the design of the architect P.E. Egorov, the Service Building was built, where stables, an arena, a carriage house, hay sheds, etc. were located. On the second floor there were apartments for servants. The new building obscured the facade of the palace, facing the current Suvorov Square. A lattice was installed between the buildings, its style reminiscent of a fence.

In 1796, the Empress gave the Marble Palace to her 16-year-old grandson, the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Juliana-Henrietta-Ulrika of Saxe-Saalfeld-Coburg, baptized Anna Fedorovna. However, soon Catherine was forced to take away the gift “for misbehavior” - the young prince was shooting live rats from a cannon in the corridor, and his 14-year-old wife was forced to hide in a vase.

In 1797-1798, the Marble Palace became the residence of the last Polish king Stanislav Poniatowski(1732-1798). For him and his retinue, some of the halls were decorated by V. Brenna. Then A. Voronikhin continued the work on decorating the palace.

After the death of Poniatowski, the palace again returned to the possession of Konstantin Pavlovich and belonged to him until his departure to Poland as governor of the Kingdom of Poland. Subsequently, the palace was owned by the Court Chancellery, renting out apartments to court officials, who remodeled the interiors to their liking.

In 1832, Emperor Nicholas I gave the Marble Palace to his second son, the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The palace had become dilapidated by that time, and in 1843-49 its reconstruction began according to the design of the architect A.P. Bryullov. Bryullov retained appearance building and, mainly, its layout. He designed a number of rooms in the Gothic, late Renaissance, Rococo and Classical styles. The Service Building was built on, its façade is decorated with pilasters. Technical improvements appeared in the palace: air heating, “pneumatic ovens,” a prototype of an elevator, and machines for supplying water upstairs.

After perestroika, the Marble Palace began to be called Konstantinovsky after its owner, although there was a palace with the same name in Strelna.

In 1888, the son of Konstantin Nikolaevich, the Grand Duke, became the owner of the palace. Konstantin Konstantinovich, a highly educated person, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences and poet of the Silver Age. His chambers on the first floor were furnished with an English study, Gothic and Musical living rooms, and a Lower library. The palace became one of the centers cultural life St. Petersburg.

Marble Palace, pre-revolutionary photo

During the First World War, the palace premises were converted into a hospital for wounded officers. After the February Revolution, various services were located in the palace for a short time. In 1919-1936, the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture was located within the walls of the Marble Palace. Since 1937 - Leningrad branch of the Central Museum of V.I. Lenin. Almost all the halls on the second floor were rebuilt, the interiors were lost. Only the Main Staircase and the Marble Hall have retained their original decoration.

Marble Hall, photo from the Internet

In front of the main entrance, an armored car “Enemy of Capital” was installed on a pedestal, from which V.I. Lenin spoke on the night of April 3-4, 1917, next to the Finlyandsky Station building. In 1990, the armored car was dismantled, and in its place a marble Ford Mondeo was installed - a monument to the “Motor Age”.

In 1992, the dilapidated building of the Marble Palace was transferred to the Russian Museum, and work began to restore the original layout and interiors. The Service Building houses the Northwestern Correspondence Technical University.

In 1994, in place of the pedestal for the armored car, a equestrian statue of Emperor Alexander III. It was made in 1909 by sculptor Paolo Trubetskoy and stood on Znamenskaya Square (now Vosstaniya Square). After 1937, it was preserved in one of the closed courtyards of the Russian Museum.

Transportation of the monument to Alexander III in November 1994, photo by Belenky

Exhibitions at the Marble Palace

Currently the Marble Palace houses permanent exhibitions Russian Museum dedicated to Russian art of the 20th century:

♦ “Foreign artists in Russia XVIII-XIX centuries»,
♦ “Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum” - a gift from collectors Peter and Irena Ludwig: works of contemporary European, American and Russian artists,
♦ “Collection of St. Petersburg collectors of the Rzhevsky brothers”,
♦ “Konstantin Romanov – poet of the Silver Age.”

In addition, exhibitions of works by contemporary Russian and foreign artists are held.

Facade of the Marble Palace from the Neva, photo from the Internet

External and internal decoration of the Marble Palace

The Marble Palace was built in the style of early classicism and is distinguished by the richness of its interior decoration, which was supposed to emphasize the strength and masculinity of its owner.

The combination of finishing stones of different colors and textures gives the palace a special expressiveness. 32 types of marble, granite, and agates were used for the exterior and interior decoration of the palace. White marble was brought from Italy - it was cheaper than transporting it from Siberia. Other types of marble are obtained from quarries in Karelia and Estonia, white marble for sculptures is from the islands of the Greek archipelago, and agates are from the Urals. The copper roof was made in Sestroretsk and was of such high quality that it lasted for about 150 years without repair.

The ground floor is finished with pink granite, which goes perfectly with granite embankment Not you. The upper floors are tiled in gray. The portico is made of pink Tivdi marble.

Marble Palace from the Neva

The thickness of the palace walls is 1.5-2 meters. The total height of the building is 22 meters, the height of the Corinthian order of the upper floors is 12.5 meters.

The main façade of the palace faces the garden, where the Red Canal (later closed) used to run, connecting the Neva with the Moika. Above the entrance to the palace is written: “Building of Gratitude.” At the top there is a turret with a clock, on the sides of which there are figures of Loyalty and Generosity by F.I. Shubin.

According to Rinaldi's plan, she continued the stone finishing of the palace facades. It is distinguished by restraint of design. The statues Morning, Day, Evening and Night symbolize childhood, youth, maturity and old age. Between the 2nd and 3rd floors there are sculptures of the Spring and Autumn Equinox. On the ceiling there is a panel by the German painter I. Christ “The Judgment of Paris”.

On the ground floor of the palace there were kitchens, a boiler room, other service rooms, as well as Church of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The main staircase leads to the second floor, where there are enfilades of ceremonial halls: the Lacquer Hall, the Tsar’s Living Room (“Assembled Hall”), the Gallery (Orlovsky Hall), the Chinese Hall and the Marble Hall. Behind them are the personal chambers of Grigory Orlov.

Lacquer Hall decorated with wood. Its walls were decorated with wooden carved panels depicting the exploits of Alexander the Great (now kept in the State Hermitage). Initially, the ceiling was decorated with a picturesque ceiling by I. Chris “The Judgment of Paris”, which was later moved to the Main Staircase.

"The Gathered Hall" dedicated to Catherine the Great. The velvet walls are decorated with the empress's monograms. Under a carved canopy with a crown there is a ceremonial portrait of the empress, in front of which there is a pedestal with a vase decorated with war trophies.

Art Gallery located in the southeastern part of the palace. 206 works are presented here, including paintings by Rembrandt, Titian, and Raphael. The portrait room contained 91 portraits of all representatives of the House of Romanov and the ruling European monarchs of that time. In addition, there were equestrian portraits of the Orlov brothers.

Chinese hall It was decorated in a fashionable style at that time and served as a formal dining room.

- the most luxurious room of the Marble Palace. According to the project of A. Rinaldi, it was one-light, but was rebuilt into two-light by A. Bryullov. Its walls are decorated with various types of marble and decorated with bas-reliefs, originally made for St. Isaac's Cathedral. The ceiling is decorated with a picturesque ceiling “The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche” by S. Torelli.

Marble Palace

The Marble Palace is the oldest building on the Champ de Mars, one of the most beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg, built in 1768–1772 on the site of Peter the Great's postal mud hut courtyard according to the design of Antonio Rinaldi for the favorite of Catherine II, Count Grigory Orlov. It was named “Marble” because different types of marble were used in its interior and exterior decoration. For a long time, the palace housed the V.I. Lenin Museum (now a branch of the Russian Museum).

It would seem - famous building with a famous history. When I suggested this topic to Viktor Mikhailovich, he doubted. But we still decided to take the risk. And this is what happened.

Antonio Rinadi, builder of the Marble Palace, was born in 1709 near Naples. He studied with Luigi Vanvitelli, one of the greatest architects of the late Italian Baroque.

In 1752 Rinaldi came to Russia. Or rather, to Little Russia - that’s what Ukraine was called then. He was invited by Kirill Razumovsky, the then all-powerful hetman of Little Russia. He became a hetman at the age of 22, and at the age of 18 he was appointed president of the Academy of Sciences. Everyone knew that such a high appointment was connected with the fact that his brother Alexei Razumovsky was the favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and, according to rumors, her morganatic husband. The Razumovskys came from Ukraine and grazed oxen as children. Alexei had a marvelous voice, they noticed him, took him to the capital as a singer - and there the empress paid attention to him. At one time, Alexei Razumovsky - the “night emperor of Russia”, as he was called - was omnipotent. But he left a good memory of himself: he did not get involved in politics, did no harm to anyone, did not suffer from the love of money, and, they say, until his death he kept in the closet in his office the shepherd’s scroll in which he once appeared in St. Petersburg. And I didn’t forget my relatives. Kirill received a decent education and, having become hetman, decided to make the city of Baturin the capital of Little Russia. And what a palace, stone houses, a university... And Antonio Rinaldi is building a hetman’s palace in the Baroque style in Baturyn. When Catherine II abolished the hetmanship in 1764, Baturin remained in the possession of the Razumovskys. Later, Charles Cameron rebuilt the palace, taking into account Rinaldi's plans.

Antonio Rinaldi

The first building of Antonio Rinaldi in the St. Petersburg province was the Cathedral of St. Catherine in Yamburg (Kingissepp). The graceful, light building looks a bit like a whipped cream cake and is still a symbol of this small town.

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Antonio Rinaldi called himself “the architect of the Grand Duchess.” This is significant. After all, officially his customer was Peter III. Apparently, Rinaldi was a supporter of the future Empress Catherine II. Therefore, it is not surprising that when she ascended the throne, and Peter III died “from an attack of hemorrhoidal colic” in Ropsha, it was Rinaldi who became the leading architect of St. Petersburg. Oranienbaum - Roller coaster, Chinese palace. Gatchina – Grand Palace. Tsarskoe Selo - monuments of military glory. Prince Vladimir Cathedral on Petrogradskaya... The name Rinaldi is associated with the Myatlev mansion on St. Isaac's Square and - what is most interesting - with house number 12 on the Moika River embankment. This is Pushkin's last address. Rinaldi himself, of course, did not build this house. But at the beginning of the 19th century, the old house from Peter’s time was rebuilt by an unknown architect. And he took the Marble Palace as a prototype, although, of course, house No. 12 on the Moika embankment did not turn out to be so luxurious. Some experts believe: “judging by the general character of the outline of the building, there is a certain similarity with the general architectonic structure of the Marble Palace.”

Marble Palace from the Palace Embankment. year 2014

It is also known about Rinaldi that he was a romantic, a dreamer, an enthusiast of his work - for example, he personally searched for some special marbles for decoration in Italian quarries.

Alas, in 1784 an accident occurred: the architect fell from the scaffolding while inspecting the Bolshoi Theater (in the place where the Conservatory is now). He went to Rome, but until his death in 1794 he received a pension of 1000 rubles. per year assigned to him by Empress Catherine II.

But let's return to the Marble Palace. It was called the “House of Gratitude” - after all, Catherine II’s favorite Grigory Orlov was an active participant in the 1762 coup that brought her to the throne. At one time there were even rumors that Catherine was going to marry him. But they apparently told her that it was unlikely that “Mrs. Orlova” would be able to remain Empress of All Russia.

Marble Palace from the Neva

The Rinaldi facades of the Marble Palace have reached us almost unchanged. The main façade is the eastern one, the one that now faces the garden. He is noticeably more elegant than the others. The garden originally extended to the Red Canal, which in the 18th century connected the Moika River with the Bolshaya Neva. (It ran along the western border of the Campus Martius and was filled in in the 1770s). The Manege building (A. Bryullov, 1840s) on the opposite side of the modern kindergarten did not exist then. The northern facade is perceived through the Neva, so it is more restrained, without small details. The main feature here is the combination of marble and Neva water. The sculptural decoration of the palace was made by the wonderful master Fedot Shubin.

The arena, built by A. Bryullov, is a service, rather modest building. But on the side of the garden it is decorated with a long bas-relief “The Acceptance of a Horse into the Service of Man.” It depicts 33 horses - the largest herd in the city! The author of the bas-relief is the incomparable Peter Klodt.

The service building of the Marble Palace and a fragment of a bas-relief by P. Klodt. year 2013

I have already mentioned that Grigory Orlov did not have time to live in the palace. After his death, the palace was taken into the treasury. At one time, an exile lived in it - the King of Poland Stanislav-August Poniatowski, once Catherine's favorite (he was even considered the father of Paul the First). King Stanislav died in the Marble Palace. He was buried in the Church of St. Catherine on Nevsky (a joint creation of Antonio Rinaldi and Jean-Baptiste Valen-Delamot), then in 1938 the king’s ashes were transported to Poland and buried in the former Poniatowski family estate, 35 km from Brest. Later, these lands were annexed to Belarus, and the king’s grave was plundered. Only in 1988, in the wake of perestroika, at the request of the Polish government, a Soviet archaeological expedition began searching for the remains of the burial place of King Stanislaus. Alas, little survived, and what survived was transported to Poland and finally rested in the Church of St. John in Warsaw. And about the Marble Palace they have long said: “It was built for one favorite, another died here.”

Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich

The next owner of the palace, the second son of Paul I, Grand Duke Constantine, left a bad memory of himself. He was a rude, hot-tempered man, a real martinet. His wife Anna Fedorovna, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, was hiding in a huge vase when Konstantin Pavlovich amused himself by firing blank charges from a cannon along the corridors of the palace. In the end, the poor Grand Duchess fled to her parents. The Grand Duke also stained himself with outright criminality - he and his drinking companions kidnapped and dishonored a certain Mrs. Araujo, the mother of two children. “This was the most vile story that darkened the beginning of Alexander’s reign.” The unfortunate woman died, unable to withstand the bullying and shame. Since Mrs. Araujo was a foreign subject, and not a powerless Russian, Emperor Alexander I ordered 20 thousand rubles to be paid to her relatives. and sent brother Constantine away from Russia - as governor to Poland.

The Polish beauty Zhanetta Grudzinskaya, who became his morganatic wife, managed to calm the Grand Duke somewhat. Emperor Alexander granted her the title of Princess Łowicz. Konstantin had no legitimate children, and the Marble Palace passed to Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich.

Konstantin Nikolaevich, second son of Nicholas I, family tradition was preparing for naval service. He commanded the frigate "Pallada" (later he made a trip around the world Goncharov). Founded the Russian Geographical Society, “Sea Collection” - a magazine in which Goncharov, Stanyukovich and others were published famous writers. Konstantin Nikolaevich was seriously involved in the affairs of the Naval Department, and the Russian fleet owes a lot to the Grand Duke. In his family life, at first he was very happy, he married the beautiful Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg, who took the name Alexandra Iosifovna at baptism. But then he fell in love with the ballerina Anna Vasilyevna Kuznetsova, the illegitimate daughter of the great tragedian Vasily Andreevich Karatygin.

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich

Many people knew about the second family of the Grand Duke. Emperor Alexander III had a sharply negative attitude towards his uncle’s behavior, but, despite his dislike for Konstantin Nikolaevich, in 1883 he granted all his illegitimate children the patronymic “Konstantinovichi”, the surname “Princely” and personal nobility, and in 1892 - hereditary nobility. Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich ended his life as a paralyzed, helpless old man who had lost his speech. His unloved wife looked after him devotedly.

The Marble Palace was inherited by the eldest son of Konstantin Nikolaevich, also Konstantin. Konstantin Konstantinovich entered the history of Russian literature as a poet of the Kyrgyz Republic.

In those carefree years

We didn’t know everyday prose,

how good then

how fresh the roses were.

Marble Palace,

Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich

Due to his character, inclination towards mysticism and melancholy, Konstantin Konstantinovich, of course, would prefer a different life, far from drilling and shooting. But the Romanovs had to serve the Tsar and the Fatherland primarily in the military field. This was not discussed. Therefore, from birth, the poet of the Kyrgyz Republic had to become the chief of the 15th Tiflis Grenadier Regiment, as a young man - to begin serving in the Naval Department, which was headed by his father, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, and later - to command the Preobrazhensky Regiment, to be a chief, then - inspector general military educational institutions. Of all the Romanovs, only Konstantin Konstantinovich’s son Oleg entered a higher civilian educational institution, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, before military service, and successfully graduated from it. By the way, it was Oleg Konstantinovich who published Pushkin’s manuscripts at his own expense, he himself wrote poetry (albeit rather weak ones) - in a word, he tried to deviate from the mandatory canons of behavior of the Romanov family. At the beginning of the First World War, Oleg Konstantinovich died at the front.

Konstantin Konstantinovich died in 1915. I didn’t see how the building of the Russian Empire collapsed, how the imperial family died. Konstantin Konstantinovich never had a chance to find out that his sons John, Igor and Konstantin, along with Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Prince Vladimir Paley, were thrown alive into a mine near Alapaevsk. Of all the male “Konstantinovichs,” only Gabriel was able to escape (he was literally rescued from the clutches of the security officers by the ballerina Nesterovskaya, whom Prince Gabriel later married in emigration), and fifteen-year-old Georgy.

And one more poetic page from the history of the Marble Palace:

A wind full of Baltic salt

Blizzard Ball on the Champ de Mars,

And the invisible sound of hooves...

And there is immeasurable anxiety,

Who has a little time left to live,

Who only asked God for death,

And who will be forgotten forever.

Anna Akhmatova.

"Poem without a Hero"

After the 1917 revolution, Assyrologist Vladimir Kazimirovich Shileiko lived in Manege. In 1918, he married the poetess Anna Akhmatova, with whom he had long been in love. By the way, Shileiko himself wrote some good poetry:

In the bitterness of the hour

The last sound of height,

A short swan song,

You are the only star left.

The marriage quickly fell apart. Shileiko, as Akhmatova put it, was a person “unsuited for living together,” but echoes of his short life on the Field of Mars remained in “Poem without a Hero.”

“Corner of the Champ de Mars. House built at the beginning of the 19th century by the Adamini brothers. It would take a direct hit from an aerial bomb in 1942. A high fire is burning. Beats are heard bell ringing from the Savior on Spilled Blood. On the Field behind a snowstorm is the ghost of a palace ball. In the interval between these sounds, Silence itself speaks.”

For a long time, the Marble Palace housed the V.I. Lenin Museum. They say that this actually saved the palace from looting. And they probably didn’t spare money for the repair and restoration of such a museum. Now it is a branch of the Russian Museum. And in the garden in front of the palace for a long time there was an armored car “Enemy of Capital”, from which Lenin allegedly spoke. Meticulous historians question the very fact of the performance (few), the type of armored car (a few more) and whether it is the same armored car or just a similar one (many). Now the armored car has moved to the museum according to its profile - to the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps. And its place “temporarily” (there is nothing more permanent than temporary) was taken by the monument to Alexander III by the sculptor Paolo Trubetskoy. In 1899–1909, when Trubetskoy was working on the monument, a special workshop-pavilion made of glass and iron was built for this purpose on Staro-Nevsky Prospekt, not far from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. According to Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, Trubetskoy created a caricature of his brother. However, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna liked the sculpture, and her opinion was decisive.

...on a heavy-footed horse,

Wedged into the ground, the emphasis of the hooves,

Half asleep, inaccessible to excitement,

Standing motionless, squeezing the bridle.

This is how V. Ya. Bryusov expressed his impressions of the monument in the poem “Three Idols”.

Monument to Alexander III at the Marble Palace. year 2013

The monument is far from simple - it can personify the strength of foundations, the inviolability of laws, the firmness of views - and stupidity, stubbornness, slow-wittedness - depending on how you treat the personality of Emperor Alexander III.

It gave birth to a monument and numerous epigrams:

On the square there is a chest of drawers,

There's a hippopotamus on the dresser,

There's a freak on the hippopotamus,

On the back is a hat.

(On the back is a cap,

How stupid is this daddy?)

There is another epigram

Third wild toy

for the Russian serf:

There was the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon,

and now the Tsar...

(substitute the rhyme yourself).

During the revolution, Znamenskaya Square was a place of rallies. The monument, apparently, greatly irritated the protesters - either they would attach a red bow to the Tsar, or they would hang a poster with poems by Demyan Bedny:

Later, these “immortal lines” were engraved on the pedestal of the monument.

In 1937, in connection with the reconstruction of Vosstaniya Square and the laying of tram tracks along Nevsky Prospect, the monument was removed and transferred to the Russian Museum. It was kept in the courtyard of the museum and during the Great Patriotic War almost died. At the beginning of the war, museum staff dug a deep hole, but were unable to lower the heavy bronze sculpture into it. I had to carry sand in buckets and bags from barges stationed on the Moika. As a result, the statue was nevertheless covered with sand, covered with boards and covered with logs on top. However, the monument to Alexander III turned out to be the only sculpture in Leningrad that received a direct hit from an artillery shell. However, the shelter still held up.

Now Alexander III has “registered” in the courtyard of the Marble Palace. The high pedestal created by Fyodor Shekhtel, unfortunately, has been lost. There is a proposal: to return the monument to the square, and the stele located there (“ Horrible dream paratrooper”, “Bayonet in the throat of Nevsky Prospekt”) will be moved to Muzhestva Square.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Another Petersburg author Rotikov Konstantin Konstantinovich

Chapter 13 Millionnaya Street. Marble Palace. Field of Mars. “Comedians' Halt” and “Stray Dog” by Telamona of the Hermitage. - Knight on Winter Palace. - Nice personality of Peter III. - Hermitage staff. - Lenya Kanegisser as a tyrannicide. - Count A.I. Sollogub. -

From the book Museums of St. Petersburg. Big and small author Pervushina Elena Vladimirovna

Menshikov Palace Universitetskaya embankment, 15. Tel.: 323-11-12. Metro station: “Vasileostrovskaya”. Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday – 10.30–18.00, Sunday – 10.30–17.00, day off – Monday. Ticket offices close one hour before closing of the museum. History of the museum The building was built in 1710–1714

From the book The Palace in the History of Russian Culture. Typology experience author Nikiforova Larisa Viktorovna

Mikhailovsky Palace Inzhenernaya Street, 4. Tel.: 318-16-08. Metro station: “Gostiny Dvor”. Opening hours: Monday – 10.00–17.00, Wednesday-Sunday – 10.00–18.00, day off – Tuesday. Ticket offices close for an hour earlier. For visitors with limited mobility. For questions

From the book Mysteries of Old Persia author Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna: The Palace of Congresses as a topos of civil society Congress palaces appeared in European countries in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Congress as a form of scientific communication is both an organization and self-organization

From the book Alexander III and his time author Tolmachev Evgeniy Petrovich

From the book The Other Side of Moscow. The capital in secrets, myths and riddles author Grechko Matvey

From the book Two Petersburgs. Mystical guide author Popov Alexander

From the book Folk Traditions of China author Martyanova Lyudmila Mikhailovna

Slobodsky Palace The neighboring palace, usually called Slobodsky, began to be built in the middle of the 18th century by Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin for himself, in order to be conveniently located next to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, if she happened to live in the Lefortovo Palace. Finish

No. 17/46 Stroganov Palace 1753–1754, F.B. Rastrelli; 1788–1800s, internal restructuring, F.I. Demertsov, A.N. Voronikhin The ancient and famous family of the Stroganovs (Strogonovs), the largest industrialists and landowners in Russia, made a huge contribution to the development of the domestic

From the author's book

No. 39 Anichkov Palace 1741–1754, M.G. Zemtsov, G.D. Dmitriev, F.B. Rastrelli; 1776–1778, perestroika, I.E. Starov The vast territory between Sadovaya Street and Fontanka belonged at the beginning of the 18th century to a close associate of Peter I, the first Chief of Police of St. Petersburg

From the author's book

Marble Palace The Marble Palace is the oldest building on the Champ de Mars, one of the most beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg, built in 1768–1772 on the site of Peter the Great's postal mud hut courtyard according to the design of Antonio Rinaldi for the favorite of Catherine II, Count Grigory Orlov.

From the author's book

Prince's Palace The most ancient information about the prince's palace is reported by Ibn Fadlan. He says that the prince's palace is a huge room where up to 400 people can be present at the same time. There is a throne in it, on which, towering above his servants, sits