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 There is a
reason why the second capital of Russia is called Northern Palmyra, Northern
Venice and a bunch of other glorious names. The number of architectural
monuments and entire ensembles unquestioningly recognized as world cultural
heritage found in the city and its neighborhood is so high that you can
probably randomly point at any building and say it belongs to XVIII-XIX and be
right. In most cases, you will definitely fortune upon masterpiece. But even in
this constellation of brilliant works of art, the star of so-called Marble
Palace shines brighter than others.
Few historically
significant buildings can boast such an exciting romantic story related to their
construction as Marble Palace, which was designed to become a gift of love in
the true sense of the word. Of course, in the XVIII century Russia there was
only one person who could make such presents, the Russian tsar, or tsarina, to
be precise. In the late 1760-ies, the Empress Catherine II decided to present
her favorite Count Grigory Orlov with a sumptuous palace in the heart of the
capital. At the time, there was no such thing as a «vacant» palace in St.
Petersburg, so a new building was needed. Previously, the construction area was
occupied by the Postal yard where ships carrying mail from abroad moored; currently
the edifice is located in the quarter defined by the Palace Quay (formerly the
Postal Quay), Suvorov Square, Millionnaya Street and Marble Lane.
Construction
started in 1768 to designs by Antonio Rinaldi, who previously had helped
decorate the grand palace at Caserta near Naples. The combination of sumptuous
ornamentation with rigorously classicizing monumentality, as practiced by
Rinaldi, may be attributed to his earlier work under Luigi Vanvitelli in Italy.
However, the legend goes that the actual «designer» of Marble Palace was the
Great Empress Catherine, who drew the conceptual designs, and Rinaldi was
clever enough to «approve» them. Unfortunately, the palace has never been used
for its initial purpose. Count Orlov not live to see the end of the
construction works and never moved into this building. In 1783, Catherine the Great
bought the palace from the heirs of the Count, and the new masters were found
promptly: from the late XVIII to early XX century, it served as the residence for
the members of the Imperial Family, the Grand Dukes. The last owner and
resident of Marble Palace was Grand Duke Constantine Romanov, known not only
for «blue blood» running in his veins, but for undeniable poetic talent. The
Grand Duke was one of the best Russian poets before of the turn of the XІX century.
The palace
takes its name from its opulent decoration in a wide variety of polychrome
marbles (in all, 32 disparate shades of marble were used to decorate the palace).
Big marble and granite blocks were used in the process of construction, and it
was difficult to deliver and process them, so it took many years to construct
the palace. A rough-grained Finnish granite on the ground floor is in subtle
contrast to polished pink Karelian marble of the pilasters and white Urals
marble of capitals and festoons. Panels of veined bluish gray Urals marble
separate the floors, while Tallinn dolomite was employed for ornamental urns.
Marble
Palace would be an ambitious and challenging construction project even for our
time with its absolutely incredible technologies, so it's not surprising that
two hundred years ago it took a decade and a half to complete it. However,
brick vaulted walls of the palace were built almost instantly, in less than a
year. But massive amount of time, money and labor was required to transform
bare walls into a luxurious palace. Pre-processing of trim-stone alone took
several years, and the decoration of the walls with marble and granite took six
years, from 1774 to 1780.
In 1781, the construction of the two-storied Service
building, where service facilities (riding hall, stables, haylofts, valet
rooms) were located, commenced. As already mentioned, the construction and
decoration of Marble Palace was completed only in 1785.
The Marble
Palace is distinguished among St. Petersburg 's masterpieces of architecture
not only by its architectural features, the exquisiteness of its exterior and
interior decoration. Its facades were never rebuilt, but the interiors were
changed by order of each new owner. This palace is an original combination of
the city residence, naturally blending in with St. Petersburg cityscape, and country
estate of the Russian nobleman. The point is that the palace is divided into
two interconnected parts. The eastern U-shaped part of the palace was the forecourt
for receptions and balls. And the western part, which had a similar layout, was
designed for household needs and, thus, was used as the estate. At the same
time, the «the Estate» was skillfully concealed from the curious eyes of city
dwellers and «masked» by the luxurious facades blending several architectural
styles. The plan of the edifice is trapezoidal: each of its four facades,
though strictly symmetrical, has a different design. One of the facades
conceals a recessed courtyard which is nowadays dominated by a sturdy
equestrian statue of Alexander III of Russia. This architecture concept was
rooted in the Renaissance art, and monochrome stone decorations had much in
common with the Baroque, while the layout, according to which every building
was independent and at the same time connected with other buildings of the
complex through a network of small hallways and staircases, was in the Rococo
style. The interior decoration, though magnificent, was at the same time
surprisingly low-key, since the palace was built as a gift for a military man of
a strict disposition. At the same time, the decoration was subtle and elegant,
as the halls were graced by numerous allegorical statues by the great Russian craftsmen
Fedot Shubin and Mikhail Kozlovsky.
After 1917,
Marble Palace shared the fate of many historic buildings of St. Petersburg:
from 1919 to 1936 it successively housed the Academy of Material Culture
(1919-36), and the Lenin Museum (1937-91). In 1992, the palace became a branch
of the Russian Museum. Currently, the palace accommodates permanent exhibitions
of the Russian State Museum, notably «Foreign Artists in Russia (XVIII and XIX
centuries)» and the «Peter Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum», featuring
canvases by Andy Warhol and other Pop Art idols. Some of its rooms are used for
commercial purposes and rented for various events and celebrations.
Inessa Hyder
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