Winter Palace,( St. Petersburg, Russia); 1721-62; Elizabethan Baroque

Winter Palace is a landmark of St. Petersburg, Russia, was founded in 1721-1762, and is a Baroque architecture.

From the beginning to the end of the Romanov Dynasty in 1917, it was the palace of the Russian monarchs. The Winter Palace also has the duality of being the property of the royal museum as early as during the reign of Peter the Great, Queen Elizabeth Petrovna, the earliest restoration of the Queen Elizabeth, and the largest Queen of Hermitage. The Hermitage Museum was opened to the public in 1852. And it finished its’ historical mission of residence of the Russian monarchs in when Nicolas II resigned in 1917.

The first imperial palace of the Winter Palace was built for Peter the Great and his family. The first style of the place is Dutch-style wooden house. Then it was replaced by a stone building (the basis of the Hermitage Theater) in 1711.

Empress Anna Johnnafnah is the first one of Peter's family to rebuild and redesign the palace. She entrusted the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli to become a recognized Russian late Baroque master who created a new, larger palace on the site in 1731. The third Expansion of Winter Palace had completed in 1735 and only served for 17 years, Then Queen Elizaveta Petrovna had decided to extend the palace again and asked by Rustrelli. After two years of different plans to accommodate the existing buildings, Rustrelli finally decided to completely rebuild the palace, and his new design was confirmed by the Queen in 1754.

The new palace was almost completed when Catherine the Great was ascended in 1762.However, Rustrelli had removed the position by her. The building forms a square and the inner courtyard is accessed by three arches facing the Palace Square. The gorgeous exterior features two layers of gorgeous ionic columns, and the building's guardrail features statues and vases. The palace is 22 meters tall (around 66 feet). Additionally, it established the local planning rules have prevented any buildings built over the height in the city.
The interior decoration of Winter Palace was improved and modified throughout the 18th and 19th centuries continuously.

A fire accident broke out in the Winter Palace. The fire almost burned all interior of palace in 1837. Fortunately, the Hermitage's priceless art collection has saved.  Emperor Nicholas I ordered the reconstruction of the palace within a year. This is a huge effort of taking into account the construction technology at the time. The Luxury interiors were re-created under the supervision of Vasily Stasov, and   architect Alexander Briullov added new designs in a more contemporary style.



On October 17, 1917, the Winter Palace was became as part of the State Hermitage Museum. Based on the original Bolshevik policy, they must remove all the imperial symbols from the palaces and change the style of the place as revolutionary museums. The palace has damaged by the Soviet Union in 1930’s to 1950’s. The one we can visit is The State Rooms of Winter Palace. 

a plan of Winter Palace





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