Winter palaces of St. Petersburg: description, history

The history of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, like many other buildings in this city, begins during the reign of Tsar Peter I. In 1711, for the king built something like a winter residence, which was nicknamed the Winter Palace. It was a tiny two-story house with a roof made of shingles and a tall porch with steps. The history of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg is rather multi-stage and interesting. Well, it's time to start this historic voyage.

The Second Winter Palace

Years passed, the city grew rapidly, and more and more people, close to the emperor (that is, the king), began to build their own estates in St. Petersburg. Peter I, of course, also wanted a magnificent holiday home. Thus appeared the famous Winter Palace of St. Petersburg. The second palace was built right next to the first by the architect I. Matarnovi. The palace was only slightly larger than the first, but it was built of stone, but its greatest notice is that it was here in 1725 that Tsar Peter the Great died. Information about the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg has been preserved so reliably that any tourist can personally look at Place of death of the king.

The Third Winter Palace

The architect D. Trezzini took up the modernization of the Second Winter Palace almost immediately after the death of the Tsar. The building turned out to be really big and majestic. The Second Winter Palace became the western wing, and on the place of the main premise of the third is now the Hermitage Theater. About the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg you can tell a lot, and this is only a small part of the whole great history.

The Fourth Palace

Historians associate the fourth palace with the name of Anna Ioannovna. The fastidious Empress was dissatisfied with the fact that some Admiral Apraksin's palace was bigger and richer than her ... However, it was not big enough and beautiful for Her Majesty. Architect F. Rastrelli solved this problem in the following way: he attached a long body to the existing third palace. This building was named "The Fourth Winter Palace in St. Petersburg". The brief description of the structure is as follows: a grand palace with two beautiful facades. Rastrelli was a truly talented architect.

Fifth and Sixth Milestones

The fifth palace was just a temporary, not very luxuriant wooden haven, which, moreover, was located far from the banks of the Neva. But the sixth palace was truly inexpressibly grandiose. In general, all the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg was innovative for its time. This time, the chief architect was faced with an almost unconquerable task: to develop a palace project and implement it in two years' time! Such was the whim of the then Empress Elizabeth!

Over the sixth palace thousands of artisans, painters, foundry workers and many others worked. Huge areas and resources were allocated for construction needs. But the chief engineer F. Rastrelli understood that in two years he could not manage, and he constantly asked for an extension of the term. In the end, with great difficulty, he managed to get the empress renewed for a year.

Creative genius F. Rastrelli

In the end, it turned out a full-fledged Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. A brief description of it is as follows: a giant work of art. The palace had two facades: one went to the square, the other - to the Neva. In warmer times the palace is reflected in the waters of the river, which multiplies the effect many times.

The brilliant F. Rastrelli thought out the interior layout of the palace very well. It consisted of three floors. On the first there were offices, on the second - the ceremonial halls and two churches, and the third floor was allocated entirely for the courtiers. In general, the palace had 460 different rooms, which were distinguished by a stunning finish. Perhaps, it is thanks to the creative research of F. Rastrelli that we can safely say that the key attraction of St. Petersburg is the Winter Palace.

The death of the Empress and the new owner of the palace

Empress Elizabeth, apparently subconsciously felt the impending demise, so she wanted her palace project to be completed as soon as possible. However, she died in the temporary fifth wooden palace, and did not see her Winter Palace.

In 1761, the palace was "captured" by Tsar Peter III. He was extremely pleased with such a work of architectural art and decided to award F. Rastrelli the title of Major-General. However, ascended to the throne in 1962, Catherine II destroyed the career of a great architect, and he had to emigrate to Italy, where he also continued to work in the specialty.

A little about the process of construction

As already mentioned above, thousands of serfs were involved in the construction. Only a tiny fraction of them was given the right to spend the night and live in the Winter Palace, most of them were located in huts right on the Admiralty meadows. The sellers of that part of the city, seeing all this excitement, overstated prices for food, and the payment for food was deducted from the salaries of workers. It often happened that the worker remained in debt to his employer after paying his salary. They say that some masons even died of hunger, so brutal were the conditions. Winter palaces of St. Petersburg, like the Great Wall of China, demanded a fair amount of resources from the state. At that time Russia was at war with Prussia, there was no one to forge the guns, for most blacksmiths were involved in the construction of the Winter Palace.

The construction of the Winter Palace cost about 2.5 million rubles, and in those days the ruble was a very valuable currency.

Fire in the Winter Palace

In 1837 there was a terrible bad weather - a beautiful Winter Palace broke out! The cause of the disaster was the failure of the chimney. The scale of the fire was truly colossal - for 30 hours it was extinguished by several battalions of guards regiments, two companies of palace firemen, a company of palace grenadiers and hundreds of "combat units". Trying to save the palace's property, the soldiers desperately laid the doors with bricks, trying to stop the fire, dismantled the roof in parts to get the opportunity to pour water from above, however, it did not bring any actual benefit.

Restoration of the palace

When the fire finally subsided, it was possible to learn only the walls and arches of the ground floor - everything else was deformed beyond recognition. In 1837, restoration work was started , which ended only three years later (we recall that during the same time the Winter Palace was built from scratch). And this despite the fact that 10,000 workers took part in the work every day. Since the original design of the palace a lot of time has passed, a significant part of the drawings was lost, and then the architects had to improvise. As a result, the winter palaces of St. Petersburg have significantly changed, having acquired the features of modern architecture. Thus appeared, in fact, the "seventh version" of the palace. Description of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg is as follows: white-green appearance with a huge number of columns and periodically encountered gold ornaments.

Electrification and internal modernization

In the time interval of 1869-1888, the palaces are modernized in every way: they are telephoned, electrified, gasified, and run by water pipelines. By the way, to electrify the Winter Palace on its second floor, a power station was built, which for 15 years was considered the largest in Europe.

Under the influence of different modes, the palace was repeatedly subjected to modernization of the interior and painting of the walls. There is no such color on the spectrum of the rainbow, which was not painted at the time the Winter Palace. For example, during the Second World War the palace was belligerently rich red color.

Winter Palace in our days

This is the story of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg coming to an end. Now it exists in an alliance with the theaters adjoining it and forms together with them a single complex "The State Hermitage". This is the last, the eighth version. An exquisite and exquisite view gives the right to confidently declare that the key attraction of St. Petersburg is the Winter Palace.

Now the magnificent Winter Palace is open for visits and historical excursions. The description of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg from the mouth of an experienced historian is truly fascinating. Tourists have the right to admire the beautifully decorated throne Georgievsky Hall, the Golden Room or the elegant Boudoir, full of a huge number of mirrors and gold ornaments. Also it is necessary to learn the Malachite drawing room with rich green columns and a grand concert hall. Also in it there is an art gallery with many original works.