Elagin Palace

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Palaces
ELAGIN PALACE (4 Elagin Island), an Empire style architectural monument, constructed in the 1780s for I.P. Elagin, rebuilt in 1818-1822 (architect K.I. Rossi) for Empress Maria Fedorovna. Up to 1917, it served as a summer residence for the Imperial family. The two-storied rectangular building stands on a stylobat that forms a circular terrace. The western facade is marked with three porticoes of Corinthian order. Gently sloping ramps and a wide staircase decorated with cast-iron lion figures lead to the front door (sculptor I.P. Prokofyev). In the centre of the eastern facade is a three-storey semirotunda, to which a fan-shaped staircase decorated with marble vases leads. The interior boasts the Oval hall with Ionic caryatids and semi-columns supporting the cupola, the Crimson and the Blue sitting-rooms (decorated by sculptors V.I. Demut-Malinovsky, S.S. Pimenov, painters A. Vigi, B. Medici, D. Skotti and others). In 1942, the Elagin Palace was destroyed, in 1952-1960 - restored (architect M.M. Plotnikov). The ensemble comprises kitchen and stable outbuildings and the Musical pavilion (all were constructed in 1818-1822, architect Rossi), the Conservatory (1819-1821, architect Rossi, sculptor Pimenov) and a quay. After October 1917, Elagin Palace housed the Museum of Culture and Every Day Life, then - the All-Union Institute for the Protection of Plants; from 1960, it was the Palace of Artistic Exhibitions, since 1987 it has remained the Elagin Island Palace-Museum of Russian Decorative and Applied Arts and Interiors of the late 18th to early 20th centuries.

References: Немчинова Д. И. Елагин остров: Дворцово-парковый ансамбль. Л., 1982; Елагин остров: Императорский дворец: История и архитектура / Сост. Б. Е. Шмидт. СПб., 1999. Б. П. Demut-Malinovsky Vasily Ivanovich
Elagin Ivan Perfilievich
Maria Fedorovna, Empress
Medici Barnaba (Varnava Iosifovich)
Pimenov Stepan Stepanovich
Plotnikov Mikhail Mikhailovich
Prokofiev Ivan Prokofievich
Rossi Carl Ivanovich (Carlo Giovanni)
Scotti Giovanni Batista (Ivan Karlovich)
Vigi Antoniо
Elagin Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Немчинова Д. И. Елагин остров: Дворцово-парковый ансамбль. Л., 1982
Елагин остров: Императорский дворец: История и архитектура / Сост. Б. Е. Шмидт. СПб., 1999 Elagin Island Palace and Museum of Russian Applied and Decorative Arts
1818
1822