Winter Palaces

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Palaces
WINTER PALACES. The first Winter Palace, "a small house of Dutch design ", was constructed in March of 1708 for Tsar Peter the Great on the left bank of the Neva River in a row of the houses for Admiralty department officials, who settled along the embankment upstream from the Main Admiralty. The Tsar's neighbour was shipwright F.M. Sklyaev. The Winter Palace, set back a little from the river, looked out onto the Neva. In 1711, this "small mansion" was moved to Petrovsky Island, on its place a second Winter Palace designed by D. Trezzini was constructed, it was a stone two-storied building with three projections (corbels), the facade featured 11 windows (depicted on the print of A.F. Zubov, 1717). Within its precincts in February 1712 the wedding of Peter the Great and Catherine was celebrated. In 1716-1723, the third Winter Palace located closer to the Neva was built. The construction work was carried out to the project of architect J.B. Le Blond and G.I. Mattarnovi, and since 1719 - to F. Rastrelli's design. In 1718-1719, from the western side of the palace, a canal was dug from the Neva to the Moika – Zimnaya Canal. It was in this palace that Peter the Great died. In 1726-1727, the third Winter Palace was extended considerably by architect Trezzini, who included the old building in the new composition as a western corbel. After the death of Empress Catherine I in this palace the courtiers were accommodated, and then for the housing of the Life-Campaigns. In 1783-1787, it was replaced by the Hermitage Theatre. The reconstruction work of 1976-1989 was carried out in the basement revealed fragments of the third Winter Palace, now there is a museum exposition (in particular, the wax figure of Peter I is exhibited). The fourth Winter Palace replaced the house of General Admiral F.M. Apraksin (1716-1720, architect J.B. Le Blond, F. Vasilyev), who had left it to Emperor Peter II in 1728. In 1732, Empress Anna Ioannovna moved to this house, for whom it was totally reconstructed. According to F. Rastrelli's project it faced the Main Admiralty. The work continued until 1736. In 1744-1745, a number of rooms acquired new decorations (in particular, the Amber Room was created, this was later moved to the Catherine (Ekaterininsky) Palace). In 1752, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna entrusted Rastrelli with a new project for the Winter Palace, which should include the fourth Winter Palace and Stone Chambers of S.L. Raguzinsky-Vladislavich and P.I. Yaguzhinsky, that were located up the Neva River. In 1754, the construction of the present Winter Palace was launched. For that period the Empress moved to a temporary wooden Winter Palace, erected in 1754-1755 to Rastrelli's design on the place of Gostiny Dvor which had been burnt down in 1736, on the ground between Nevsky Prospect, Malaya Morskaya Street and the Moika River. There the Empress died in 1761. In 1767-68 the wooden Winter Palace was dismantled, in its place the house of Chicherin appeared.

References: Эрмитаж: История и архитектура зданий. Л., 1974; Михайлов Г. В. Зимние дворцы Петра I: История стр-ва. Архитектура и худож. убранство. События и люди. СПб., 2002.

Y. M. Piryutko. Anna Ioannovna, Empress
Apraksin Fedor Matveevich
Catherine I, Empress
Chicherin Nikolay Ivanovich
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Le Blond Jean-Baptiste Alexander
Mattarnovi Georg Iogann
Peter I, Emperor
Peter II, Emperor
Raguzinsky-Vladislavich Savva Lukich
Rastrelli Francesco de
Sklyaev Fedosey Moiseevich
Trezzini Domenico
Vasilyev Fedor
Yaguzhinsky Pavel Ivanovich, Count
Zubov Alexey Fedorovich
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city
Эрмитаж: История и архитектура зданий. Л., 1974
Михайлов Г. В. Зимние дворцы Петра I: Исслед. и науч. реконструкции // Музей: Сб. ст. и публ. М., 1988 Hermitage Theatre
Peter the Great' waxwork
Amber Room
Winter Palace
Chicherin House