Ice House

Categories / Population/Urban Living
ICE HOUSE, or ICE PALACE, was constructed in December 1739 - January 1740 (architect P.M. Eropkin, engineer G.V. Kraft) by the order of Empress Anna Ioannovna at the bank of the Neva, near the Winter Palace, to celebrate the mock wedding of prince M.A. Golitsyn and A.I. Buzheninova. It was made of ice blocks joined with water and designed a la Baroque (the house was 17.1 meters long, 5.3 meters wide and 6.4 meters high). The interior decoration, including baths, cannons, a life-sized elephant etc. was moulded from ice. The strange wedding took place on February 6, 1740. Two representatives from every Russia's ethnic minority (300 people in total) were specially taken to the celebration. V.K. Trediakovsky recited a jocular welcoming poem. During the construction of the building some scientific experiments were conducted, including attempts at glaciology. In March 1740 the House of Ice melted away. Its story was reflected in I.I. Lazhechnikov's novel House of Ice (1835), Y.M. Nagibin's story Kvasnik and Buzheninova (1986). In the winter of 1888 in the pleasure garden Aquarium an exact life-sized replica of the House of Ice was made of ice.

References: Крафт Г. В. Подлинное и обстоятельное описание построенного в Санкт-Петербурге в генваре месяце 1740 года Ледяного дома... СПб., 1741; Алянский Ю. Л. Веселящийся Петербург. СПб., 1992. Т. 1. С. 65-68.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Anna Ioannovna, Empress
Buzheninova A.I.
Eropkin Peter Mikhailovich
Golitsyn Alexander Mikhailovich, Duke
Kraft Georg Wolfgang
Lazhechnikov Ivan Ivanovich
Nagibin Yury Markovich
Trediakovsky Vasily Kirillovich
Алянский Ю. Л. Веселящийся Петербург. СПб., 1992
Крафт Г. В. Подлинное и обстоятельное описание построенного в Санкт-Петербурге в генваре месяце 1740 года Ледяного дома... СПб., 1741 Winter Palace
1740