Who built the winter palace architect. Winter Palace: wiki: Facts about Russia

The Winter Palace is the largest palace building in St. Petersburg. Its dimensions and magnificent decoration make it possible to classify it with full right among the most striking monuments of the St. Petersburg baroque. “The Winter Palace as a building, as a royal dwelling, perhaps has nothing like it in the whole of Europe. With its immensity, its architecture, it depicts a powerful people, so recently entered the environment of educated nations, and with its inner splendor it reminds of that inexhaustible life that boils in the interior of Russia ... The Winter Palace for us is a representative of everything domestic, Russian, ours, ” - 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, only naval officials were allowed to build. Peter I took advantage of this right, being a ship's master under the name of Peter Alekseev, and in 1708 he 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, specifically 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 course of work, the architect Mattarnovi was removed from business and the construction was headed by Domenico Trezzini, an Italian architect of Swiss origin. In 1720, Peter I and his entire family moved from summer residence in winter. 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).

Subsequently, 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 necessary to purchase the houses that stood at that time on the site occupied by the current 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, Princess Anna Leopoldovna was betrothed to Prince Anton-Urich. 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 built new buildings. According to the project he drew up, these buildings were to be attached 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 redo the design of the building, after which he decided to build it in a new location. But Elizaveta Petrovna refused to move the new Winter Palace. As a result, the architect decided to rebuild the entire building. The new project - the next building of the Winter Palace - was signed by Elizaveta Petrovna 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 the arrival at the palace of Peter III is curious. After the death of Elizabeth, 15 thousand dresses, many thousands of shoes and stockings remained in her wardrobe, and only six silver rubles turned out to be 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 piles of bricks, boards, logs, barrels of lime and similar building debris. The capricious disposition of the new sovereign was known, and the chief police chief found a way out: it was announced in St. Petersburg that all the townsfolk have the right to take whatever they please on Palace Square. A contemporary (A. Bolotov) writes in his memoirs that almost all of St. Petersburg with wheelbarrows, wagons, and some with sledges (despite the proximity of Easter!) ran to Palace Square. Clouds of sand and dust rose above her. The townsfolk grabbed everything: boards, bricks, clay, lime, and barrels... By evening, the area was completely cleared. Nothing interfered with the solemn entry of Peter III into the Winter Palace.

In the summer of 1762, Peter III was overthrown from the throne. The construction of the Winter Palace was already completed under Catherine II. In the autumn 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 work, and Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy, the illegitimate son of Field Marshal Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy and personal secretary of Catherine II, became the manager at 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 the Palace Square, the Throne Hall was equipped, in front of it a waiting room appeared - the White Hall. A dining room was placed behind the White Hall. The Light Room adjoined it. The dining room was followed by the Front Bedchamber, which a year later became the Diamond Chamber. In addition, the Empress ordered to equip a library, an office, a boudoir, two bedrooms and a lavatory for herself. Under Catherine, a winter garden and the Romanov Gallery were also built in the Winter Palace. At the same time, the formation George Hall. In 1764, in Berlin, through agents, Catherine purchased a collection of 225 works by Dutch and Flemish artists from the merchant I. Gotskovsky. Most of the paintings were placed in secluded apartments of the palace, which received the French name "Hermitage" ("place of solitude").

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

The facades of the palace are divided by the entablature into two tiers. They are decorated with Ionic and Composite columns. The columns of the upper tier unite the second, front, and third floors.

The complex rhythm of the columns, the richness and variety of forms of architraves, the abundance of stucco details, the many decorative vases and statues located above the parapet and above the numerous pediments create the decorative decoration of the building, exceptional in its splendor and magnificence.

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

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

Despite the fact that the Winter Palace was completed in 1762, for a long time the finishing work was still going on. interior design. These works were entrusted to the best Russian architects Yu. M. Felten, J. B. Ballin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi.

In the 1780s-1790s, I.E. Starov and G. Quarenghi continued the work on altering the interior decoration of the palace. In general, the palace was remodeled and rebuilt an incredible number of times. Every new architect I tried to bring something of my own, sometimes destroying what had already been built.

Galleries with arches ran along the entire lower floor. Galleries connected all parts of the palace. The rooms on the sides of the galleries were of a service nature. There were pantries, a guardroom, employees of the palace lived.

The ceremonial halls and living quarters of 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, lush rococo decor. The apartments of the courtiers were mainly located on the upper floor.

The palace was also destroyed. For example, on December 17-19, 1837, there was a strong fire that completely destroyed the beautiful decoration of the Winter Palace, from which only a charred skeleton remained. They could not extinguish the flame for three days, all this time the property taken out of the palace was piled around the Alexander Column. As a result of the disaster, the interiors of Rastrelli, Quarenghi, Montferrand, Rossi were lost. Restoration work started immediately and 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 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, S. N. Khalturin, a Narodnaya Volya member, made an explosion in the Winter Palace in order to assassinate Alexander II. At the same time, eight soldiers from the guard were killed and forty-five wounded, but neither the emperor nor members of his family were injured.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the interior design was constantly changing and replenished with new elements. Such, in particular, are the interiors of the chambers of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II, created according to the designs of G. A. Bosse (Red Boudoir) and V. A. Schreiber (Golden Living Room), as well as the library of Nicholas II (author A. F. 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 Russian emperors. After the assassination 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 again.

The most significant changes in the history of the Winter Palace took place in 1917, along with the coming of the Bolsheviks to power. A lot of valuables were stolen and damaged by sailors and workers while the palace was under their control. A direct hit by a shell fired from a cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress damaged the former quarters of Alexander III. Only a few days later, the Soviet government declared the Winter Palace and the Hermitage state museums and secured the buildings. Soon the valuable property of the palace and the 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 instructed to set up guards to guard the Winter Palace, decided to get acquainted with the arrangement 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 figured out the history of this post. It turned out that somehow Tsarina Catherine II, having gone out in the morning to the Adjustable platform, saw a sprouted flower there. So that soldiers and passersby would not trample it, Catherine, returning from a walk, ordered a guard to be placed at the flower. And when the flower withered, the queen forgot to cancel her order about the stay of the guard at this place. And since then, for about a hundred and fifty years, a guard stood at this place, although there was no longer a flower, no Empress Catherine, or even a Adjustable platform.

In 1918, part of the premises of the Winter Palace was given over to the Museum of the Revolution, which led to the reorganization of their interiors. The Romanov Gallery was completely liquidated, in which there were portraits of sovereigns and members of the Romanov dynasty. Many chambers of the palace were occupied by a reception center for prisoners of war, a children's colony, a headquarters for arranging mass celebrations, etc. The armorial hall was used for theatrical performances, the Nikolaevsky hall was converted into a cinema. In addition, congresses and conferences of various public organizations were repeatedly held in the halls of the palace.

When the Hermitage and Palace collections returned from Moscow to Petrograd at the end of 1920, there was simply no place 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, holiday homes for officials and their families. Since 1922, the premises of the Winter Palace began to be gradually transferred to the Hermitage.

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, many valuables of the Hermitage were urgently evacuated, some of them were hidden in the cellars. To prevent fires in the museum buildings, the windows were bricked up or closed with shutters. In some rooms, the parquets were covered with a layer of sand.

The Winter Palace was a big 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 the roof over an area of ​​three hundred square meters, destroying the fire-fighting water supply installation located in the attic. The attic vaulted ceiling with an area of ​​about six square meters was broken through. Another shell that hit the podium 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 priority restoration work in the Hermitage, in which emergency repair workshops took part. In the summer of 1942, the roof was blocked in places where it was damaged by shells, the formwork was partially repaired, broken skylights or iron sheets were installed, the destroyed metal rafters were replaced with temporary wooden ones, and the plumbing system was repaired.

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 damaging the brickwork of the wall in the pantry 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, skylights. On January 2, 1944, another shell hit the Armorial Hall, severely damaging the finish and destroying two ceilings. The shell also pierced the ceiling of the Nicholas Hall. But already in August 1944, the Soviet government decided to restore all the buildings of the museum. Restoration work required huge efforts and stretched out for many years. 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, Large and New Hermitages and the Hermitage Theater, forms a single palace complex, which has few equals in world architecture. In terms of art and town planning, it belongs to the highest achievements of Russian architecture. All halls of this palace ensemble, built over many years, is occupied by the State Hermitage - the largest museum in the world, which has huge collections of works of art.

In the guise of the Winter Palace, which was created, as the decree on its construction, "for the united glory of all Russia", in its elegant, festive form, in the magnificent decoration of its facades, the artistic and compositional concept 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 urban landscape, preserved to this day.

Palace Square

Any tour of the Winter Palace begins on 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 K. I. Rossi, who in 1819-1829 created the General Staff building and the Ministry building and connected them into a single whole with a 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 architect A.P. Bryullov, completes the Palace Square ensemble.

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

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

Each facade of the Winter Palace is made in its own way. The northern façade, facing the Neva, stretches like a more or less even wall, without noticeable ledges. The southern façade, overlooking the Palace Square and having seven articulations, is the main one. Its center is cut by three entrance arches. Behind them is the front yard? where in the middle of the northern building used to be main entrance to the palace. Of the side facades, the western one is more interesting, facing the Admiralty and the square, on which Rastrelli planned to place the equestrian statue of Peter I cast by his father. Each architraves decorating the palace is unique. This is due to the fact that the mass, consisting of a mixture of crushed bricks and lime mortar, was cut and processed by hand. All 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 evidenced by the drawings of the 18th - the first quarter of the 19th century.

From interior spaces palace, created by Rastrelli, preserved the baroque appearance of the Jordan Stairs and partly big church. The front 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, a huge ceiling created by Italian painters. Divided into two solemn marches, the stairs led to the main, Northern enfilade, which consisted of five large halls, behind which there was a huge Throne Hall in the northwestern risalit, and the Palace Theater in the southwestern part.

The Great Church, located in southeast corner building. Initially, the church was consecrated in honor of the Resurrection of Christ (1762) and again - in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands (1763). Its walls are decorated with stucco - an elegant pattern of 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, ruined in the 1920s, except for the golden dome and the large pictorial ceiling by F. Fonte-basso, depicting the Resurrection of Christ.

white hall

It was created by A.P. Bryullov on the site of a number of rooms that had three semicircular windows along the facade 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 especially magnificent processing. The hall is separated from the side parts by arches on protruding pylons, decorated with pilasters, and the central window and the opposite door are emphasized by Corinthian columns, above which are placed four statues - female figures, personifying the arts. The hall is covered with semicircular vaults. The wall against the central windows is designed with an arcade and above each semicircle there are pairwise 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 finished with stuccoed caissons in the same late classical style rich in 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 molding with a grotesque ornament, is introduced. Above the pilasters there is a wide frieze with figures of children engaged in music and dancing, hunting and fishing, reaping and winemaking, or playing at seafaring and warfare. Such a combination of architectural elements of different scales and overloading the hall with ornaments are typical of the classicism of the 1830s, but the white color gives the hall integrity.

Georgievsky Hall and Military Gallery

Experts call the Georgievsky, or the Great Throne Room, designed by Quarenghi, 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. In the design of this room, which enriched the front suite, colored marble and gilded bronze were used. At the end of it, on a dais, there used to be a large throne, made by the master P. Azhi. In design work palace interiors Other well-known architects also participated. 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 made by the famous English artist J. Dow with the participation of Russian painters A.V. Polyakov and V. A. Golike. Most of the portraits were made from life, but since in 1819, when work began, many were no longer alive, some portraits were painted according to earlier, surviving images. The gallery occupies a place of honor in the palace and is directly adjacent to the St. George's Hall. The architect K. I. Rossi, who built it, destroyed the six small rooms that previously existed here. The gallery was illuminated through glazed openings in vaults supported by arches. The arches rested on groups of twin columns that stood against the longitudinal walls. Portraits were arranged in five rows on the plane of the walls in simple gilded frames. On one of the end walls, under a canopy, was placed an equestrian portrait of Alexander I by J. Dow. 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 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, 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, then on its sides you can see portraits of Field Marshals M. I. Kutuzov and M. B. Barclay de Tolly by Dow.

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

The Russian tsar has a chamber in his halls:
She is not rich in gold, not in velvet;
But from top to bottom, in full length, around,
With my brush free and wide
It was painted by a quick-eyed artist.
There are no country nymphs, no virgin madonnas,
No fauns with bowls, no full-breasted wives,
No dancing, no hunting, but all the raincoats and swords,
Yes, faces full of martial courage.
Crowd close artist placed
Here the chiefs of our people's forces,
Covered with the glory of a wonderful campaign
AND eternal memory year twelfth.

The fire of 1837 did not spare the gallery, however, fortunately, all the portraits were taken out by 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 portraits, and retained the color scheme. But some details of the composition of the hall have been changed. Stasov lengthened the gallery by 12 meters. A balcony was placed above the wide crowning cornice for passage to the choirs of adjacent halls, for which the arches were eliminated, which rested on columns that rhythmically broke the too long vault into parts.

After the Great Patriotic War, the gallery was restored, and four portraits of the palace grenadiers, veterans who passed the company of 1812-1814 as ordinary soldiers, were additionally placed in it. These works are also done by J. Doe.

Petrovsky hall

Petrovsky Hall is also known as the Small Throne Room. 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 was preserved almost unchanged. The main difference of the later decoration is related to the processing of the walls. Previously, the panels on the side walls were divided by one pilaster, now they are placed in two. There was no border around each panel, a large double-headed eagle in the center, and on the scarlet velvet upholstery, bronze gilded double-headed eagles of the same size were fixed in diagonal directions.

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

Well, let's start with the most magnificent and main royal palace - the Winter Palace!

Winter Palace, according to the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, was created "... for the sole glory of the All-Russian" and was supposed to personify the greatness and strength of Russia, which became a powerful European power in the middle of the 18th century.


In 1754, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna approved the project for a new residence, proposed by the leading architect of the Russian Baroque Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli.

The construction of the palace continued for a long eight years, which fell on the sunset of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and brief reign Peter III. In the autumn of 1763, Catherine II, returning from Moscow to St. Petersburg after the coronation celebrations, becomes the sovereign mistress of the Winter Palace.
The creation of the front residence, which, according to the plan of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, was supposed to outshine the palaces of European monarchs with its splendor, required a lot of money and a huge number of workers.

About 4,000 people worked at this construction site; the best craftsmen from all over the country were gathered here. The decoration of the ceremonial halls and apartments of the palace, the number of which, according to its creator, was more than 460, was distinguished by extraordinary luxury.

The Winter Palace impresses with its grandeur of scale, richness and variety of decor, and at the same time with the integrity and proportion of its parts. In this building, the features of the work of Rastrelli, the creator of the Russian Baroque style, found a vivid expression: the majestic splendor of forms, the utmost saturation with decorative details, the uncontrollable desire for brightness, pomp, major. The architect decided the palace as a city building - a colossal closed volume with a courtyard and free, not adjacent to any other buildings, facades. The main facade, facing the Palace Square, has three mighty risalits. The widest of them, the middle one, is cut through by three arched openings-entrances leading to the huge front yard. The carriages of the empress or her guests, having passed the guards, rolled up to the main entrance, located in the northern building.

The facades of the palace are decorated with the diversity and invention inherent in Rastrelli's work, the entire system of decorations emphasized the unusual height of the building in those days - it dominated the city. The architect visually enhanced this impression by placing the columns in two tiers one above the other. At the level of the roof, crowning the palace, there was a balustrade with decorative stone sculptures and vases continuing the verticals of the columns. Initially, the walls of the palace were painted with light yellow paint, and the decor and columns are highlighted in white, which can be seen in the drawings and paintings of the 18th - first quarter of the 19th century.

Internal layout buildings were clear and logical. The main premises of the palace - the main staircase, the throne room, the cathedral and the theater - were to be located in four corner buildings (risalits). Connecting them, the rest of the large and small halls were located, living rooms, galleries, pantries - total number, according to the author himself, more than four hundred and sixty.

The ceremonial interiors of the second floor were designed in the Russian Baroque style of the middle of the 18th century. It is characterized by the enfilade construction of the main chambers, huge halls flooded with light, double rows of large windows and mirrors, lush rocaille decor. At present, only some of the interiors of the palace give an idea of ​​the original decoration of the halls, created according to Rastrelli's drawings. Among them is the Main Staircase, which was called the Embassy Staircase in the 18th century.

Restoring the staircase after the fire of 1837, the architect V.P. Stasov retained Rastrelli's idea and repeated the composition almost unchanged. As in the 18th century, the height of the huge gilded room, permeated with streams of light, is visually enlarged by the skillful perspective of the picturesque ceiling. Stasov included in the composition of the ceiling a ceiling of the 18th century with the image of Olympus, found in the storerooms of the Imperial Hermitage. In the second tier, statues rise on pedestals near paired pilasters: Loyalty, Justice, Wisdom, Greatness, Abundance, Justice, as well as Mercury and the Muse. The basis of the composition is the lower tier of the stairs with walls covered with ornaments.

V.P. Stasov used the decorative means of the Baroque style, but made some changes to the appearance of the stairs. Instead of wooden columns lined with pink marble, monolithic columns of gray Serdobol granite were erected, the carved gilded balusters of the railing were replaced with a marble balustrade, and white with gold began to prevail throughout the room. One of the contemporaries of the restoration of the palace wrote that Stasov's decoration of the stairs, "without deviating in their forms from the style of Rastrelli, is excellently ennobled by the new concept of art regarding purity, relief and correctness of the drawing."

Reviving the Great Church after the fire, V.P. Stasov was guided by the few surviving drawings and drawings of B.F. Rastrelli.

The interior he created testifies to a deep penetration into the originality of the Baroque. The Great Church was one of the most magnificent premises in the Winter Palace. In her decoration, everything is permeated with secular cheerfulness and solemn elation. The walls of the church are decorated with whimsically curly ornaments and fluttering naked putti.

The carving and painting of the iconostasis are harmoniously combined with the painting and molding of the sails and walls. The composition is completed by a plafond on the theme "The Resurrection of Christ". With a maximum approximation to the original appearance, the interior of the Pre-Church Hall was recreated by the architect.

The decoration of the Great Throne (Georgievsky) Hall was almost completely destroyed in the fire. However, drawings, engravings and drawings give enough full view about the decoration of this hall, created by G. Quarenghi in 1787 - 1795, - one of the best examples of the front interior of the era of Russian classicism. The huge double-height hall with twin columns of the Corinthian order was unusually spectacular. Stasov completely preserved the architectural divisions and proportions of the Quarenghi Hall, and, nevertheless, gave the interior a completely different character. Instead of polished columns of colored marble, columns of white Carrara marble appeared, with slabs of which the walls are also covered. Instead of stucco medallions in the second tier, there are paired marble pilasters. Instead of painted plafonds with images of soaring figures against a cloudless sky and allegorical scenes of ancient scenes, there is a coffered ceiling with cast, chased, gilded rods and bronze ornaments. The device of a copper ceiling suspended from iron structures, not wooden, as usual, was a bold engineering decision.

The strict and majestic architecture of the St. George's Hall was in tune with the solemnity of the official ceremonies that took place here until the end of the reign of the Romanov dynasty.

Created by F.B. Rastrelli, the Winter Palace, a true masterpiece of Russian architecture of the 18th century, determined the unique architectural appearance of the palace ensemble on the banks of the Neva. Each reign became a new stage in the life of the grand royal residence. The interiors of the palace, created by the most famous architects of the XVIII-XIX centuries, reflected the change architectural styles and artistic tastes of different eras.

Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Historical building in the style of Elizabethan baroque with elements of French rococo, the former imperial palace, built according to the project of B. F. Rastrelli in 1754-1762. Since 1920, the building has been part of the main museum complex State Hermitage.

Until 1762, five Winter Palaces were built in St. Petersburg, including the current version. The first palace was built in 1712, the second - in 1720, the third - in 1735, the penultimate fourth - in 1755. The last Winter Palace from the moment of construction until 1904 was used as the official winter residence of the Russian emperors. After the revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government met in the palace. Since 1920 the building has been used as a museum.

The building of the palace has the form of a square of 4 outbuildings, which are located around the Great Courtyard, and with their facades look at the Neva, the Admiralty and Palace Square.

The magnificent and magnificent appearance of the Winter Palace was supposed to demonstrate the status of the new city on the Neva as the capital of the Russian Empire. This was achieved by installing special two-level columns on the facades of the building, as well as with the help of sculptures and vases located above the cornice around the entire perimeter of the palace.

Above interior decoration B. F. Rastrelli did not have time to personally finish the work in the halls, as he was removed by Catherine II, the interiors of the palace were completed by Yu. M. Felten, J. B. Vallin-Delamot and A. Rinaldi. The most famous premises of the palace are the Jordan Gallery, the Jordan Stairs, the Field Marshal's Hall, the Petrovsky (Small Throne) Hall, the Armorial Hall, the Military Gallery of 1812, the St. staircase, White Hall, Golden Living Room, Raspberry Study, Boudoir, Blue Bedroom, Entrance Hall, Large (Nikolaev) anteroom, Concert Hall, Malachite Living Room, Small (White) Dining Room.

In 1837, a fire broke out in the Winter Palace, which lasted for 3 whole days, and the restoration of the building after which took about 2 years.

In 1844, Emperor Nicholas I signed a decree prohibiting the construction of civil buildings in St. Petersburg above the Winter Palace. The ban was in effect until 1905.

During the First World War, in 1915, the military hospital named after Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich was located in the palace.

The storming of the Winter Palace, or rather its encirclement and the arrest of members of the Provisional Government, was the main event of the October 1917 coup, which brought the Bolsheviks to power.

During the Great Patriotic War, 12 bomb shelters designed for 2,000 people were equipped in the basements of the palace. During the war years, 17 artillery shells and 2 air bombs hit the palace building. But already in November 1944, the Winter Palace was partially opened to the public, although its full restoration took several years.

The interiors of the palace are often used for filming feature films, as well as being modeled in animated films and computer games.

Almost 50 cats live in the palace, descending from the Dutch cat Peter I. Their main role is to protect the Winter Palace from mice. There is even a special fund for friends of the Hermitage cats, and the museum staff organizes special holidays for them.

The three-storey building of the Winter Palace has 1084 rooms, 1945 windows and 117 stairs. The length of the facade from the side of the Neva is 137 meters, from the side of the Admiralty - 106 meters, the height of the palace is 23.5 meters, the total area is 46,516 square meters.

The Winter Palace is included in the Unified State Register objects of cultural heritage (monuments of history and culture) of Russia and in the list world heritage UNESCO in historical center cities.

Note to tourists:

A visit to the Winter Palace will be of interest to tourists interested in the architecture of the second half of the 18th century, to everyone who wants to see the expositions located in the palace, and can also become one of the points of the excursion program while exploring neighboring attractions that are part of the architectural ensemble

Saint Petersburg - northern capital vast Russia, accustomed to surprise us with a special individuality, originality of tastes and ambition. Hundreds of magnificent sights annually attract the views of many tourists and indigenous people. One of them is the Winter Palace, which is an invaluable monument of history and architecture of the past.

Description

Like many buildings, the building is distinguished by pomp, successfully combined with the special style and handwriting of the author, which we will talk about later. Petersburg Winter Palace cultural heritage Russia, one of the main attractions of the country, which keeps interesting historical events and facts. There are many legends and myths around the Palace, some of which can be fully justified by historical facts.

Thanks to the splendor of the building, being next to it or inside it, you can fully experience the imperial spirit and features several centuries ago. You can also enjoy magnificent architectural solutions, which to this day are considered the standard of beauty and sophistication. The design of the Winter Palace has changed more than once over these centuries, so we can observe the building not in its original form, which, however, does not make it less significant and worthy of attention, since all the main features conceived by the author of the project, Francesco Rastrelli, were carefully preserved and transferred by architects of different times. Is it located majestic building on Palace Square northern city and blends in beautifully with the surrounding landscape.

The history of the creation and development of the palace

The construction is made in the style called Since the times of the USSR, its territory has been equipped with the main part. early times The Winter Palace has always been main residence emperors of Russia. To fully experience the greatness of this place, you need to turn to the history of its creation.

Under the government of Peter I, in 1712, according to the law, it was impossible to give land at the disposal of ordinary people. Such territories were reserved for sailors belonging to the upper class of society. The site on which the Winter Palace is located today was taken under the control of Peter I himself.

From the very beginning, the emperor built a small and cozy house here, near which a small ditch was dug closer to winter and which was given the name Winter. Actually, the further name of the palace came from this.

For many years, the Russian emperor convened various architects to reconstruct his house, and now, years later, the structure turned from an ordinary wooden house into Grand Palace from stone.

And who built the Winter Palace? In 1735, Francesco Rastrelli was appointed the chief architect who worked on the building, who had the idea of ​​buying out neighboring land plots and expanding the construction of the palace, which he told Anna Ioannovna, the ruler of Russia at that time, about.

The task assigned to the architect

It was this architect who created the image of the Winter Palace that we are all used to seeing. However, it is worth remembering that some features of the building have changed over time, but still the main ideas and works of Francesco Rastrelli have remained unchanged to this day.

The Winter Palace acquired its modern look with the advent of Elizabeth Petrovna to the imperial throne. As the ruler considered, the building does not look like a Palace worthy of Russian emperors staying in it. Therefore, a task appeared for Rastrelli - to modernize the structure and design of the structure, which is why it acquired a new look.

During the construction of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the hands of 4 thousand workers were used, many of the masters of whom Rastrelli personally invited to cooperate. Each detail, which differs from other elements of the structure, was personally thought out by the great architect and successfully implemented.

About the architecture of the building

The architectural component of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg is truly multifaceted. The great height of the structure is emphasized by weighty double columns. The chosen baroque style in itself brings notes of pomp and aristocracy. According to the plan, the Palace occupies a territory in the form of a square, which includes 4 outbuildings. The building itself is three-story, the doors of which open onto the courtyard.

The main facade of the palace is cut through by an arch, the other sides of the building are made in an exquisite style, which is expressed in Rastrelli's unique sense of taste and his unusual decisions, which can be traced everywhere. These include the extraordinary layout of the facades, differences in the design of the facades, noticeable risalite ledges, uneven construction of the columns, and the author's special emphasis on the stepped corners of the building attracts attention.

The Winter Palace, the photo of which is presented to your attention in the article, has 1084 rooms, where in total there are 1945 window structures. According to the plan, there are 117 stairs in it. Also unusual and memorable facts include the fact that at that time it was a building with a very large, by European standards, amount of metal in the structures.

The color of the building is not uniform and is made mainly in sandy shades, which are Rastrelli's personal decision. After several reconstructions, the color scheme of the palace changed, but today the authorities of St. Petersburg have come to the conclusion that the best solution is to recreate appearance the palace exactly in the version that was originally conceived by the great architect.

A few words about the architect

Francesco Rastrelli was born in the capital of France in 1700. His father was a talented Italian sculptor who had no difficulty in recognizing his son as a future skilled architect. After graduating in 1716, he and his father came to live in Russia.

Until 1722, Francesco worked only as an assistant to his father, but by 1722 he was ripe for a start independent career, which at first did not develop very well in a country that was very unfriendly for him. Rastrelli Jr. spent 8 years traveling around Europe, where most time he did not work, but received new knowledge in Germany, Italy, France and other countries. By 1730, he had formed his own vision of the Baroque style, which was reflected in his most ambitious project - the Winter Palace.

The architect has repeatedly worked on the creation and reconstruction of buildings in Russia. His main work fell on the period from 1732 to 1755.

Exclusive facts about the Winter Palace

The building is the richest building in St. Petersburg, and the value of its exhibits still cannot be accurately calculated. The Winter Palace has many secrets and interesting stories, of which the following can be distinguished:

• During the war with the German invaders, the color of the palace was red. The current white and green color of the building was acquired only after the war in 1946.
• At the end of construction work, so much construction waste had accumulated in the square in front of the Palace that it could take whole weeks to clean it up. However, the king came up with an interesting idea: he allowed absolutely anyone to take any thing from these building materials left after work. The area in front of the building was cleared as soon as possible.

Fire

In 1837, all the efforts of Francesco Rastrelli and other architects practically came to naught. A terrible event happened: a considerable fire broke out in the palace due to a malfunction of the chimney, and 2 companies of specialists were called to extinguish it. For 30 hours, firefighters tried to reduce the flames by blocking windows and other openings with bricks, but this did not bring any result. The fire subsided only a day after the start of the fire, incinerating almost all the beauty of the structure. From the former palace, only walls and columns remained, which were singed under high temperatures.

Restoration work

Restoration work was started immediately and lasted 3 years. Unfortunately, from the first buildings, the masters of that time did not have any drawings, so they had to turn on improvisation and come up with a new style literally on the go. As a result, the “seventh version” of the palace appeared with a predominance of light green and white shades and gilding inside.

Along with the new look, electrification also came to the palace. The largest power plant in all of Europe (considered as such for 15 years) was installed on the 2nd floor and provided electricity to the entire building.

Not only the fire knocked on the doors of the Winter Palace with bad news. So, this building at one time survived the assault, and the attempt on Alexander II, and numerous bombings of the Great Patriotic War.

For modern tourists

Today, you can walk through the halls of the Winter Palace by ordering one of the many excursions, individual or in a group. The doors of the museum are open to visitors from 10:00 to 18:00 and are closed only on Monday - an official day off.

You can buy tickets for a tour of the Winter Palace directly at the museum's box office, or by ordering them from a tour operator. They are not always available due to the high popularity of the building, especially during the tourist season. Therefore, it is better to buy tickets in advance.

Very beautiful and also large palace Petersburg is Winter Palace. This is his fourth building, leaving far behind all the previous ones, in terms of scale and luxury of decoration. The construction of the palace began in 1754, and the construction ended eight years later, in 1762.

The author of the project was the famous architect B. Rastrelli. In fact, the Winter Palace is an outstanding example of the late St. Petersburg Baroque. The layout of the Winter Palace, differs in that in plan, it is a clear, regular quadrangle with a fairly wide courtyard. It can be seen that the architect wanted to give this building grandeur and scale, because this is the future palace of the Russian autocrats, and he succeeded.

It can be seen with the naked eye that the colossal size of the palace dominates the entire nearby territory and buildings. And for all the enormity of the building, it is hard to find monotony here. Rastrelli planned all the facades individually, taking into account their location and purpose. For example, a facade north side directed to the Neva, it was built in the form of a straight wall without any special protrusions. And the southern facade is a completely different matter, it overlooks Palace Square, three entrance arches were built here and this facade is the main one in the whole complex. Behind it is the front yard.

As for the eastern and western facades, it would be worth dwelling on the western one here, it goes to the Admiralty to the square where the famous Rastrelli planned to install the statue of Peter I created by his father on horseback. When talking about the Winter Palace, one cannot remain silent about Hermitage. Moreover, in the light of the events of the last century, it has become much more popular than the palace itself. After all, the only thing left behind the palace was that there were rulers great Russia. And the Hermitage is interesting every hour, every minute, because the masterpieces of the great masters of the brush are collected here. This is what attracts visitors here. Because the craving for beauty - exists forever.