Sports sections in the Anichkov Palace
Probably every resident and guest of St. Petersburg was once for the first time impressed by the appearance of the palace ensemble, located in the very heart of the hero city, at the meeting point of Nevsky Prospect with the Fontanka River, which before the revolution belonged to the imperial family, and after which it was given to children. And now many young St. Petersburg residents attend clubs at the Anichkov Palace. This monument of Russian architecture is magnificent because it was created gradually, absorbing the influence of eras and styles, reflecting the tastes of its aristocratic owners. Rastrelli, Zemtsov, Ruska, Starov, Quarenghi, Rossi, Stackenschneider - all the great architects contributed to the design of the Anichkov estate, so that today's children could conveniently engage in a variety of creative activities, which are offered by the children's circles of the Anichkov Palace.
Story
Since February 1937, children's hubbub has been heard here, since it was then that the St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity was located in the royal residence. True, until 1990 it was called the Palace of Pioneers. Even during the difficult war years, during the devastating blockade, the Anichkov Palace circles did not stop their work. The library and playgrounds were always open. Even the New Year's party was held here, welcoming 1942, even the city Olympiad of children's creativity was not cancelled, Anichkov Palace always welcomed children.
The Olympics Center operating here today has absorbed all the traditions that have developed over almost a century. And now they are steadily supported. During the blockade, schoolchildren who attended the Anichkov Palace clubs formed several concert teams. These were dancers from the ensemble of A. E. Obrant and students from the art department. They trained here even during bombings, and then performed in hospitals and military units. More than seventy students received the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".
Present tense
Even today, Anichkov Palace hospitably opens its doors to young St. Petersburg residents: enrollment in clubs occurs as the groups fill up, introducing children to the world of the real ones - for life! - hobbies. All types of arts, sciences, as well as technology and sports are represented here. A new direction is social activities. The Anichkov Palace is open all year round. The Olympiad Center constantly holds competitions and festivals, scientific conferences and subject Olympiads. New game programs are developed here and magnificent performances are staged.
Literally every day some new event awaits visitors. Anichkov Palace is a favorite meeting place for children with participation in a variety of all-Russian and city events. Also, teachers study and share their experience here, when seminars and conferences, competitions and festivals are held. Anichkov Palace (St. Petersburg) traditionally hosts the final of the competition for additional education teachers for all of Russia - “I Give My Heart to Children.”
Anichkov estate
Three quarters of a century have passed, but the traditions that were once laid down here still live on and help raise a worthy successor - generation after generation. Among the graduates of the Anichkov Palace are many of the most prominent figures in science, culture, and sports. In addition, for the most gifted students there is the Anichkov Lyceum, where they receive secondary education. Lush ceremonial interiors are the style of Russian classicism; they add solemnity to festive evenings and concerts, and educate schoolchildren in the spirit of beauty. Not a single tomboy attending tours of the Anichkov Palace will spit in the front door or spoil the elevator or any public space with extraneous drawings or inscriptions.
Official receptions, assemblies, exhibitions, magnificent balls and chamber concerts are held in enfilades of living rooms, halls and offices. However, the very heart of the children's palace is the Anichkov estate, where there are many buildings - architectural monuments, including the palace itself. This is, for example, the Cabinet building, the Service building. There is also a modern complex "Carnival" - a concert and theater complex. And all this is surrounded by magnificent gardens. It is here, where the Children's House of Creativity is located - Anichkov Palace - that the slogan “All the best goes to the children!” works most fully. Despite its age, this wonderful institution never tires of developing, and very dynamically.
Development
The territory of the palace already extends significantly beyond the walls of the Anichkov estate. For example, on the Karelian Isthmus there is a resort area where “Zerkalny” is located - a country center where both children and teachers love to relax. More recently, already in our century, two new complexes opened - the pride of the Anichkov Palace. The first, with greenhouses, enclosures and modern laboratories, “Krestovsky Island” is an ecological and biological center, and the second has educational and recreational functions, and therefore included a four-lane swimming pool, halls for choreography and gymnastics, and gyms. And the Theater of Youth Creativity (YUT) of the Anichkov Palace is very popular not only among residents of St. Petersburg, but also among guests of the city. Getting there to study is almost as difficult as getting into the Anichkov Lyceum for especially talented schoolchildren. A very big competition.
The teachers working here do not allow students to forget about the previous achievements of the Palace of Youth Creativity; this is the only way they will be able to conquer new heights. Patriotic education is especially well organized in all departments of this institution. Excursions held in the Anichkov Palace are very helpful in this regard. Even overview ones, like “Palace of the Kings - Palace of Children,” which tell the story of the owners of the palace and its construction, as well as its recent history, and these stories are supported by a journey through the state rooms, the Winter Garden, a visit to the magnificent library, the Oak Cabinet, where he loved to relax Alexander the Third, a review of the unique paintings of the Fairy Tale Room (Palekh) and many, many more. You can imagine with what reverence children attend the sections and clubs of the Anichkov Palace. He has more than one address, since there are many divisions and the territory is vast. The Museum of the History of the Anichkov Palace, for example, is located on Nevsky Prospekt at 39, where you can also find the entire management team of the organization.
Anichkov Lyceum
At first, eight classes were formed at the lyceum, where, in addition to basic and general secondary education, additional education was provided according to special programs. That is why places in the lyceum are extremely in demand. Since the year of its creation (1989), they have been teaching comprehensively here, and children who are closely involved in scientific and technical creativity in circles and sections of the Anichkov Palace enter the lyceum. Since 1993, ninth-graders have also studied here. mostly academic, but greatly expanded. Particular attention is paid equally to all academic disciplines without a single exception, therefore, over the quarter century of its existence, the lyceum has graduated students with a very high level of training. Today there are just over two hundred lyceum students studying here, who had to compete with five to six people per place.
Education is effective: students win subject competitions at any level - from city to all-Russian. One hundred percent of Anichkov Lyceum graduates enter universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg and any other cities, certainly continuing the scientific research begun here. After graduating from universities, they become prominent scientists both in Russia and abroad. The basis for admission to the Anichkov Lyceum is the results of mandatory entrance tests. Admission is open to eighth and tenth grades. For those who want to try their hand at the Lyceum’s website, examples of tasks that will be present at the entrance examinations are presented. After successfully passing the exams, admission follows a rating, where preferential categories are not taken into account.
Library
The library of the Anichkov Palace is the oldest, largest and unique. Her fund was collected in the thirties of the last century. And for students visiting Anichkov Palace, reading really is participation in creativity, as Marina Tsvetaeva argued. The entire general pedagogical environment of this institution is created with the active participation of the library and its employees. The library is not just unique, it is unique in its versatility: its collection includes more than seventy-five thousand copies of various publications. There are domestic and foreign books, reference books, and popular science books, as well as many valuable printed publications, which are able to satisfy absolutely any request - be it a child’s or an adult’s.
Specialists working in the library higher education(often not the only one) and with extensive experience, who still constantly improve their cultural and professional level. Cooperation has been established with a variety of institutions in the city: the library is helped by the Academy of Postgraduate Education, regional methodological offices, Palaces and Children's Art Centers, the Russian National Library, Children's Library named after Pushkin and all its branches, libraries - regional children's and public libraries named after Mayakovsky, ITMO universities, St. Petersburg State University, and many others. Joint socially significant programs and sociocultural projects are being developed and implemented, which are aimed at serving the hometown.
Heirs
In St. Petersburg there is a comprehensive, state-supported program “Heirs of the Great City,” and within its framework there is a movement organized in 1990 by Vladimir Ilyich Axelrod. The movement is called “Young for the Revival of St. Petersburg.” Its goal was to form the civic and patriotic feelings of young people by involving them in the field of local history. The main objectives are to create conditions for self-realization of all project participants, taking into account age, interests, and aptitudes, as well as support for local history associations for children, training in organizational skills, and education of leaders of children's associations. The work being carried out is enormous and it does not lie within the walls of the Anichkov Palace, since it involves the implementation of many interrelated subprograms. This is the path to the revival of the city through enlightenment, the path to understanding it through play.
Here schoolchildren act as tour guides and local historians-researchers; they study not only multinational St. Petersburg, but also the whole of Russia, and even know how to compile genealogies for interested schoolchildren. They look after the city’s monuments, look after museums, and protect the shrines of St. Petersburg. Each subprogram is filled with specific content, and this content is supplemented annually. The entire project is being implemented through city shows and competitions, camp gatherings and conferences. Schoolchildren from the sixth grade, students and local history teachers, all members of the Anichkov Palace circle participate in this program. In general, the Movement includes fifteen clubs, more than thirty city teams and twenty groups of young guides. More than seventeen thousand children participate in all the Movement's programs.
TYUTE
The Theater of Youth Creativity in the Anichkov Palace, created in 1956 by theater teacher and outstanding director M. G. Dubrovin, during this time managed to become a unique theater, not just a children's theater. This is primarily an institution that performs an educational role through dramatic art. The Anichkov Palace Youth Theater always successfully fulfilled this mission, and even if its students did not connect their future lives with the theater, they loved it all their lives, and the personality of each Tyuta Theater graduate turned out to be developed and harmoniously built. Now about three hundred schoolchildren study here, and the teaching staff includes twenty-five excellent teachers of acting, movement, stage speech, and directors and production shop foremen work here.
Many thousands of young St. Petersburg residents have already received the highest moral lessons, and many generations of theater lovers have grown up. For sixty years, a harmonious and complex education system has been successfully operating, which includes mastering a number of theatrical professions - make-up artists, lighting designers, costume designers, and theater designers are trained here. Many of the TYUT graduates work as heads of production departments of the main theaters in St. Petersburg and Moscow; all of them have grown into highly qualified specialists in their field. An example is G. Filshtinsky, a lighting artist who received three national awards. TYuT holds international festivals of children's theaters, regional and international seminars and conferences dedicated to children's theater creativity.
How to register in TYUT
Recruitment, naturally, is carried out on the basis of a competition, the same as when entering a theater school. Applicants must go through three rounds of the creative competition so that the most talented remain. Here they look first of all at the existing inclination towards theatrical activities, at psychophysical indicators. All information collected about the teenager is studied, which allows for gender and age differentiation. It is necessary in order to maintain an optimal ratio in the team of girls and boys, younger and older. Children perform creative tasks, and based on their results, a competitive selection takes place. This is reading a poem, a fable, showing the simplest acting sketches.
In the first round, an inclination and interest in theater classes is revealed, in the second, the personality traits that will be necessary for these classes are revealed - these are plastic expressiveness and expressiveness of speech, internal vision. In the second round, an interview is conducted once again to identify aptitudes, abilities for activities, and determination. In the third round, they look specifically at the degree of talent, at the skill and ability to perform certain stage actions, at how the teenager navigates the stage space, and how he acts in an imaginary situation. Also a decisive factor is the competitive material itself and its choice.
Work of circles
The department of humanitarian programs and children's programs, the largest of the structural divisions of the Palace of Youth Creativity, supports the humanitarian and social education of adolescents and children. The highest priority tasks of education are solved, and the educational programs implemented by Anichkov Palace form constant motivation for creativity and research, and cultivate spiritual ideals in each individual. There are clubs in literally all areas of children's creativity, and they help children choose future profession. Future geologists - romantics of long roads, and real poets and writers, and lawyers, and historians, and teachers, and journalists, and tour guides study here. It’s impossible to even list all the directions.
In addition to circles, there are large public associations, including the already mentioned “Young for the Revival of St. Petersburg.” There is an association "Clio", and its main task is to support the social initiatives of young residents of the glorious city. There are also club-type associations where children are given a humanitarian education. It is through such activities that the Anichkov Palace multiplies its considerable achievements, including winners of shows and competitions, Olympiads of various levels, winners of domestic and international prizes, diploma winners and prize-winners of various competitive events. Absolutely all the groups studying under the programs created here distinguished themselves: the Youth University, the Petropol club, young museum experts, the Daring literary club, the Generation press center, the social sciences club and many, many other divisions of the Anichkov Palace.
The St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity occupies a historical and architectural ensemble on the corner of the Fontanka River and Nevsky Prospect, including the Anichkov Palace and the Imperial Cabinet. Anichkov Palace became the second home for many generations of St. Petersburg residents - for many, the path to the profession began with participation in circles; real “stars” were lit here, who still demonstrate success in various sciences and arts. City+ decided to hold a small educational program and outlined the main milestones in the history of this amazing building on Nevsky Prospekt.
The first palace on Nevsky Prospekt
The territory between Sadovaya Street and Fontanka along Nevsky Prospekt, where the Anichkov Palace is now located, at the beginning of the 18th century belonged to A. M. Devier, the first Chief of Police of St. Petersburg. However, after the palace coup on November 25, 1741, the daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth, ascended the throne, and she ordered the construction of a palace on the site of the Preobrazhensky regimental courtyard. It was no secret that the palace was being built for Elizabeth Petrovna’s favorite, Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky.
The creation of the project and the actual construction of the palace was undertaken by the architect M.G. Zemtsov in 1741, then the case was transferred to G.D. Dmitriev, and the construction of the Anichkov Palace was completed by the famous architect F.B. Rastrelli.
Anichkov - the first palace on Nevsky Prospekt. It got its name from the Anichkov Bridge, located nearby. Unlike other buildings on the prospect, the main facade does not face it - this suggests that in the early 1740s, Nevsky Prospekt was not yet perceived as the main street of the city. Many guests arrived at the palace by water, and then the main side of the building faces the Fontanka, by the time the palace was built - the border of the city.
Anichkov Palace in the 18th century
Construction of the building was completed in 1756 year. When Count Razumovsky died, the Anichkov Palace came into the possession of his brother, the President of the Academy of Sciences, Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky, and then in 1775 the estate was rented by the St. Petersburg merchants, who staged a large masquerade in the palace for 2,500 people.
In 1776, Catherine II bought the palace from Razumovsky and presented it to Count G. A. Potemkin. In the next two years, the palace was rebuilt for Potemkin according to the design of I. E. Starov - since then the palace has a classical, rather than baroque appearance. In 1779, a gallery with exotic tropical plants was created in the garden. In the gallery, the prince organized masquerades, at which up to a hundred musicians played, and other entertainment events. Then Potemkin sold the Anichkov Palace to the merchant Shemyakin. Deciding that it was not appropriate to refuse royal gifts, Catherine II again bought the palace and gave it to Potemkin. However, in 1785 the estate was sold again, this time to the treasury.
In 1794, it was decided to house the building Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. Anichkov Palace became the personal office of the Tsar. In 1795, the book collection of Joseph Załuski was temporarily stored in one of the palace pavilions, which became the basis for the creation of the Public Library, and in 1799 the western part of the estate was transferred to the Theater Directorate.
Photo: ipetersburg.ru
The palace is the best wedding gift
In 1809, Alexander I gave the Anichkov Palace to his sister - Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna- on the occasion of her wedding to Prince George of Oldenburg. Since the 1810s he lived in the Anichkov Palace poet V. A. Zhukovsky. He was the tutor of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II. It was here that A.S. Pushkin read the completed poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” to Zhukovsky.
In 1817, Alexander I gave the Anichkov Palace to his brother Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich(future Emperor Nicholas I) for the wedding. As is usual with tsars, they began to rebuild the building again: in the years 1817-1820, K. Rossi did this. He built the Service Building, two garden pavilions, and redesigned the garden. The estate was included in the unified ensemble of Teatralnaya Square (now Ostrovsky Square) designed by Rossi.
In 1825, Prince Nikolai Pavlovich became emperor and a year later gave the Anichkov Palace imperial status. It was under Nicholas I that balls were held in the Anichkov Palace that A.S. Pushkin despised, and which his wife Natalya Nikolaevna loved so much.
The owners of the palace were Alexander II, Alexander III, and the last mistress of the estate was the mother of Nicholas II, Empress Maria Feodorovna. In 1897, cinema was shown to her here, and in 1899, a school for the children of employees began operating at the Anichkov Palace.
Immediately after the revolution, the Anichkov Palace was nationalized - at first the Ministry of Food worked in it, in 1918-1935 the museum of the city (not only Leningrad) functioned in the palace. Since 1918, the Department of Communal and Social Hygiene and the library of the City Museum have worked in the Cabinet buildings.
On February 12, 1937, on the initiative of S. M. Kirov, a Palace of Pioneers, the largest in the USSR. The Anichkov Palace was reconstructed according to the design of architects A. I. Gegello and D. L. Krichevsky. The cabinet bodies took on a square shape. More than a hundred children's clubs opened, and the chess club, which was attended by Viktor Korchnoi, Boris Spassky, and Mark Taimanov, became especially famous. In addition, the Palace of Pioneers was visited by Stanislav Zhuk, Lev Dodin, Sergei Yursky, Alisa Freindlikh, Lev Lurie, Elena Obraztsova.
The Palace of Pioneers did not stop working throughout the blockade, and on June 28, 1942, a gala evening for graduates of Leningrad schools was held here, and by 1945 palace complex was restored.
In 1990, the Palace of Pioneers was transformed into Palace of Youth Creativity.
Photo: saint-petersburg.com
Palace today
To this day, the doors of the Palace are open to young St. Petersburg residents: there are many different clubs in art, science, technology, sports, social activities, etc. One of the largest structural divisions of the Palace of Youth Creativity - Department of Humanitarian Programs and Children's Social Initiatives. Children can choose any of the areas of activity that interest them: journalism, basic etiquette, local history, museum studies, a course on the culture of speech of a guide, the basics of layout and design, join a tourist and local history club, and attend a counselor school.
For schoolchildren interested in technology, the Palace also provides various clubs: car modeling, design of unmanned aerial vehicles aircraft, robotics, entertaining mathematics, 3D modeling, space exploration, modeling in graphic editors, photo studio, programming basics, electrical engineering and much more.
At the St. Petersburg Palace of Creativity, great attention is paid to musical education Little St. Petersburg residents are taught here to play various instruments, sing, even artistic expression! In addition, the Anichkov Palace has its own orchestra, theater studio, choreography class and studio visual arts. In total, the Palace of Youth Creativity works more than 200 clubs- here everyone will find something to their liking!
Festivals and competitions, game programs and performances, subject Olympiads and scientific conferences are held here all year round. Among the graduates of the Anichkov Palace are several generations of outstanding figures of culture, science, and sports. Over the 80 years of its existence, the Palace as an educational institution for young St. Petersburg residents has stepped far beyond the walls of the Anichkov estate. IN resort area on the Karelian Isthmus there is a Country Center for Children and Youth Creativity "Zerkalny", two modern complexes opened in the 21st century: the ecological and biological center "Krestovsky Island" with modern laboratories, greenhouses and enclosures and an educational and recreational complex, which includes a swimming pool, gyms, gymnastics and choreography rooms.
Text: Yulia Sevostyanova
Anichkov Palace, by order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, was donated to her favorite Alexei Razumovsky, but today almost nothing from that era has survived in the building
It was in the Anichkov Palace that Vasily Zhukovsky presented Alexander Pushkin with his lithographed portrait with the famous inscription “To the victorious student from the defeated teacher...”
View of the Church of Saints and Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess. Built at the behest of Empress Anna Ioannovna in the period from 1731 to 1734 (architect M.G. Zemtsov, with the participation of I.Ya. Blank) in the Anninsky Baroque style using elements of ancient Russian architecture
August 10, 1741 - Tsesarevna Elizaveta Petrovna orders the Anichkov Palace to be built for her.
1747-1751 - Architect Rastrelli completes the interior decoration of the palace.
1754 - Completion of construction of the residence as a whole.
1756 - Elizaveta Petrovna gives the palace to her favorite A. G. Razumovsky.
August 28, 1761 - Empress Elizabeth comes to the palace for the last time.
February 26, 1762 - Fire in the palace.
September 7, 1771 - The palace was inherited by Kirill Razumovsky.
June 22, 1776 - Empress Catherine II granted the palace to G.A. Potemkin "in eternal and hereditary possession."
1785 - G.A. Potemkin sells the palace to the state treasury.
1855 The palace is renamed Nikolaevsky.
1881 - The palace again becomes an imperial residence.
1859-1861 A telephone line is installed in the palace.
1890 - A power station was built on the territory of Anichkov, the palace was illuminated with electricity.
May 1, 1916 - Maria Fedorovna left Anichkov Palace.
February 1917 - The palace and garden came under the jurisdiction of the City Duma.
June 1917 - The Provisional Government transfers the palace to the Ministry of Food.
June 1917 Anichkov Palace came under the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of Property of the Republic.
October 4, 1918 - The City Museum is located in the Anichkov Palace.
1924 - The palace was damaged by floods in St. Petersburg.
May 1, 1935 - The city museum is closed.
February 12, 1937 - Opening of the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers.
1941-1942 - A civil hospital was located in the main building of the Anichkov Palace.
June 1, 1944 - Restoration of the buildings of the Anichkov Palace after hostilities.
June 1, 1944 Opening of the Museum of the History of Anichkov Palace.
Photo of the family of Emperor Alexander III. On the left is Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Tsar Nicholas II. Standing after Nikolai Alexandrovich: Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (youngest daughter of Alexander III), Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna. Sitting on chairs: Empress Maria Feodorovna, Emperor Alexander III. Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich sits on the ground. Photo taken between 1892 and 1894
Nameless Eden
Only seven years have passed since the day when Peter, on May 116, 1703, by his royal decree, ordered the foundation of a fortress on Hare Island, giving rise to the construction of the Northern capital of the Russian state, and on the site of the swamps a city has already grown, the pace of development outpacing the wildest expectations of its founder.
In 1710, the lands adjacent to the banks of the Fontanka, known as the Nameless Erik, began to be distributed to Russian nobles for use as country dachas. Those places where Empress Elizabeth Petrovna subsequently ordered the Anichkov Palace to be built originally belonged to Anton Devier, the son-in-law of Peter I’s associate Alexander Menshikov. True, he always had a complex, far from family relationship with Menshikov, which ultimately led to disastrous consequences - Devier was arrested on a trumped-up case, allegedly he decided to plot intrigues around the crown prince in order to prevent Peter II from inheriting the throne, and thereby violate his will Catherine I. Anton Manuilovich was deprived of all titles and ranks and exiled to Siberia.
Later, the Deviera estate was acquired by timber merchant Dmitry Lukyanov. He owned a plot of land in “200 fathoms”, that is, the merchant owned almost half a kilometer of land along the Fontanka embankment and Nevskaya Perspective. However, on August 20, 1739, a decision was issued by the Commission on the St. Petersburg building, in which all land owners along the Nevsky Perspective.
A View of Nevsky Prospekt towards the Admiralty. Engraving by Y. Vasiliev based on a drawing by M.I. Mahaeva, 1753
It was ordered to demolish wooden houses and build stone mansions in their place. For the merchant, this decision was extremely unprofitable; construction required enormous costs, and to think that
from him, located in the far corner of St. Petersburg, there would be some kind of profit in the future, it was completely ridiculous. Therefore, he decided to quickly get rid of the possessions that belonged to him and sold them to the princess Elizabeth Petrovna.
Even before her accession to the throne, the future empress of the Russian state, having taken possession of the merchant's lands
Lukyanova, ordered the chief intendant Ivan Konstantinovich Shargorodsky to hire the architect Zemtsov and his assistants and so that they immediately begin laying the foundation for the future palace. In 1744, Gezel Grigory Dmitriev presented sixteen options for the future of “Anichkov’s Paradise” to the empress for approval.
The Empress approved the plans, and the construction of large stone chambers began. Count Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli was appointed chief observer of the work.
Work on the construction and decoration of the interior of the palace lasted for five years. In 1746, Elizabeth ordered two domes to be placed on the roof of the chambers on each side.
Located almost in an open field, the three-story palace with a simple facade, but absolutely amazing interiors, amazed with its enormous size. Its spectacular addition was the exquisite luxurious hanging garden, facing the street. The Anichkov palace was framed by a regular garden in which trees and flowers grew, brought there from all over Europe.
After the count's death, the palace became the property of the count's brother, Kirill Razumovsky, as evidenced by the decree of Catherine II dated September 7, 1771.
Alexei Razumovsky did not live in Anichkovo during the life of the empress: together with Elizabeth he spent most time in Tsarskoe Selo. He moved to the palace, presented to him by his beloved woman, only after the death of Elizabeth, where he lived until the end of his life.
Anichkov Palace. View from Nevsky Prospekt
First wedding gift
After the death of his elder brother Razumovsky, his brother Kirill became the owner of Anichkov. However, he had no need for it, and in 1776 he sold the palace to the treasury. Empress Catherine II, in turn, presented the building to Grigory Potemkin as a gift. He reluctantly accepted the gift. Catherine had to literally persuade her favorite to take over Anichkov. In 1779, Prince Tauride lost heavily and sold the palace to the tax farmer Nikita Shemyakin, and used the proceeds to pay off his gambling debt.
Catherine II learned about the deal only when rumors spread throughout St. Petersburg about the noisy musical evenings that were organized in the palace with the permission of the new owner by entrepreneurs and invited musicians. The merchant owned Anichkov for less than a month: on the eve of Maslenitsa 1779, the empress bought the palace to once again give it to Grigory Alexandrovich.
Potemkin never lived in the palace, but he sometimes gave magnificent holidays in the Garden Pavilion. And in 1785 Anichkov was again purchased from him for the treasury. Only nine years later, in 1794, they decided to rebuild the palace to house the Imperial Cabinet and its jewelry. In the same year, remembering the high society receptions that Prince Potemkin hosted in Anichkov, court artists began to hold concerts and performances in the Garden Pavilion of the palace.
In 1801, a certain Antonio Casassi allocated considerable funds to rebuild the pavilion into a theater, where Italian operas were first performed. The architect Vincenzo Brenna worked on the project.
The Chamber-Fourier Journal is a diary that was kept daily since 1695. The journal, the founder of which was Peter I, reflected all the events that took place at the imperial court, from the course of military operations to descriptions of banquets and ceremonies. The last issue of the Chamber-Fourier magazine was published in 1917.
Quartermaster - construction manager. The position was created in 1743. His responsibility included supervision of all houses, gardens and other buildings that belonged to the imperial court.
In 1804, the main facade of the Anichkov Palace overlooking the Fontanka was obscured by the new palace pavilion, the Service Pavilion. Its upper floor was intended for storing works of the imperial glass and porcelain factories, and the premises on the first floor were rented out as shops.
After their marriage, in April 1809, the Grand Duchess moved to live in Anichkov Palace. From that moment on, the palace was under siege for some time. Anichkov Bridge during shelling. Reproduction of a photograph dated January 24, 1942 lost its official name; in documents of that time it was called “the palace of Her Highness Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna.”
Belokonnyts Hall of the Anichkov Palace
After Ekaterina Pavlovna married for the second time in 1816 to Crown Prince Wilhelm of Württemberg and moved to her husband in Stuttgart, her palace entered the Main Directorate of Appanages. But after some time, the halls of the palace were again filled with the noise of life: Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich received it as a gift from his brother, Emperor Alexander I. The gift pleased its new owner: he was in love with the strict palace vaults and did not call the palace anything other than paradise . Even when Nicholas I ascended the throne, he continued to live for a long time in Anichkovo. During the first week of Great Lent and Holy Week, the emperor traditionally attended services with his entire august family in the palace church. Here he often appeared: at the christenings of children he received babies at the font, and came to many wedding ceremonies. And when in December 1837 in Winter Palace - official residence Russian emperors - there was a fire, then the sovereign moved to Anichkov for the entire time, where he spent, in his own words, happy and best years own life. After the death of the emperor, the Dowager Empress Alexandra Feodorovna lived here with her children. The future Emperor Alexander II, his brothers, Grand Dukes Konstantin, Nikolai and Mikhail, and sisters, Grand Duchesses Maria, Olga and Alexandra, were brought up in Anichkovo. After the coronation of Alexander II and his move to the Winter Palace, Anichkov receded into the background for him. However, remembering his father’s love for the house in which all his children spent their childhood, the emperor ordered the Anichkov Palace to be renamed Nikolaevsky, in honor of Nicholas I. Over the centuries, the owners of the palace added the word “own” to the established name, and then there was a decoding, Whose palace is this exactly? The name indicating the affiliation of the royal person was indicated in official papers and invitations sent out on the occasion of receptions and balls held in the palace. But no matter what name the palace appeared in the records, even in the imperial family it was called Anichkov in the old fashioned way.
From 1859 to 1861 Anichkov was the home of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. After the completion of the construction of his palace on Konnogvardeisky Boulevard, also called Nikolaevsky, in order to avoid misunderstandings, Anichkov again received its former name. By that time, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich had already grown up, and in 1864 the Anichkov Palace, by right of inheritance, came into the possession of the Grand Duke. However, his death mixed up the cards of history. The owner of Anichkov became his brother, Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander II, and his wife Maria Feodorovna. It was in this palace that their son, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, spent his childhood.
The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna continued the traditions established by the grandfather of her crowned husband, Nicholas I, and weddings began to take place in the palace again. The most luxurious wedding took place in the imperial church on February 9, 1914, when Maria Feodorovna’s granddaughter, Irina Romanova, married the “diamond” Prince Felix Yusupov (this nickname was passed down to him from his mother, whom the empress called her that way).
Anichkov Palace Library
Palace education
The February Revolution deprived the palace of its historical owners. It, like many palaces, estates and estates that belonged to the imperial house of the Romanovs and the Russian nobility, was nationalized. At first, Anichkov was given over to the offices of the Ministry of Food, and within its walls in the 17th year of the last century one could often see the small, thin figure of Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, who served as chairman of the Provisional Government. In 1918, the preserved interiors of the imperial chambers of the Anichkov Palace were given to the City Museum. The museum existed there for seventeen years. In 1935, it was disbanded, and two years later, at the suggestion of USSR political figure Sergei Kirov, inspired by his participation in the gathering of young talents, the building was transferred to Leningrad children. On February 12, 1937, dozens of children became the first visitors to the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers that opened here.
This institution became the work of the entire city. It was created by the labor of thousands of factory workers. Children's writer Samuil Marshak, who witnessed this epoch-making construction, congratulating the children on the opening of the Palace, said: “This is not only a beautiful and rich palace, it is, first of all, a smart palace...
Children were helped to open the doors to big science greatest people modernity, luminaries of science and creative figures of the Soviet state. The chess section was led by Mikhail Botvinnik, and the song and dance ensemble was led by Isaac Dunaevsky. The outstanding orientalist and historian Vasily Struve told children about distant countries, instilling a love of travel and developing their horizons, academician Lev Berg initiated them into the secrets of geography and zoology, and Joseph Orbeli opened up the world of art to them.
Blue living room
Even during the difficult years of the blockade, educational activities were carried out in the Palace. In 1941, in one wing of the building there was a civil hospital, in the other there was a library, where work with readers did not stop. Among the lightly wounded patients were those who held general readings. During the most difficult time, in the spring of 1942, music began to play again in the Ballroom, and tenth grade graduates waltzed to the prom. In the same year, it was decided to open the Palace for Pioneers.
The pioneers were abolished, but the memory of his former students, who, having matured, became representatives of the creative and scientific elite of Russia, remained forever in the history of this legendary institution.
Few palaces can boast of such a large number of architects who created its unique, amazing appearance, changing, adding and redoing everything from the first step to the last tile on the roof. The Anichkov Palace was incredibly lucky in this regard; perhaps the best architects had a hand in its creation.
Winter Hall
Architect of Petrov's Nest
In the middle of the 18th century, there was a joke in St. Petersburg that after the death of the architect Mikhail Zemtsov, the building office had to increase the staff of workers by a damn dozen so that they could cope with all the tasks that Zemtsov performed alone during his lifetime. He was such a “devil’s architect”, managing both here and there, keeping up everywhere, both in theory and in practice.
Mikhail Zemtsov is one of the galaxy of the first urban planners of Peter’s brainchild. Born in Moscow around 1688.
As a teenager, he was sent to study at the typographic art school at the Armory Chamber. When the future architect turned 21, he moved to St. Petersburg and began his first steps in the craft under the guidance of the first architect of St. Petersburg, the Italian master Domenico Trezzini. His second teacher was Nicolo Michetti, thanks to whom Zemtsov learned many secrets of graphics and construction, helping him in the construction of a palace in Reval for the emperor’s wife, Catherine. Peter I was pleased with the work of the talented architect and even entrusted him with a responsible task - in 1721 he sent him to Stockholm to gain experience from local architects and lure a couple of them to work in Russia. The royal commission, as well as everything that Zemtsov undertook, was successfully carried out.
Upon returning home, the architect received honors and promotions. At first he was transferred from students to the “architecture of Gezel”, and at the end of 1724 he received the title of architect. In addition, his teacher Michetti left Russia in 1723, leaving many unfinished projects. Both the Tsar and the Chancellery from the buildings were unanimous that they could not find a better candidate than Mikhail Zemtsov to complete what his teacher had begun. It was a great honor, but the new appointment could only please the architect’s vanity, if there was any. In this position, working extremely hard, Zemtsov received 10 times less than his predecessor: the salary was only 180 rubles a year. By the way, the architect’s financial situation did not improve almost until his death. Being a famous architect, he received only 500 rubles; it was difficult to support his family with that kind of money. Zemtsov turned to Empress Anna Ioannovna three times with requests to increase his salary, but received refusals for each one. A year before his death, he again made a request, now to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, to endow him with “rank and a patent, and for food. .. an extra salary,” pointing out that even his students live much better than he himself, and yet his contribution to the construction of St. Petersburg far exceeded their merits. To confirm his words, in August 1742, he provided the imperial office with a detailed description of his work for the benefit of the Fatherland in the construction business over 32 years of service. The listing of all the hard work took several pages.
Golden living room
Grigory Dmitrievich Dmitriev
Born in 1714. At the age of 14 he entered training with the architect Mikhail Zemtsov. In the future, his entire path will be connected with the talented architect. In 1733, Dmitriev began work in the Office of Buildings under the supervision of the architect Pyotr Eropkin. At the age of 27 he received the title of Gezel. After the death of his first teacher, he was engaged in the construction of the Anichkov Palace according to Zemtsov’s designs. At the same time, he is working on the restoration of the Triumphal Gate in Anichkovskaya Sloboda. Died in 1746.
Only in February 1743, Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree, according to which the first architect of the Anichkov Palace was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel with the wording: “for his long service and zeal for other architects.” But it was too late, just a few months later, on September 28, 1743, Zemtsov died without having time to enjoy the material benefits given to him. In his declining years, Mikhail Grigorievich fully realized how different the heirs to the throne were from the stern but fair “Father Peter”, how disdainful their attitude was towards the common man. Perhaps this shook Zemtsov’s health, pushing the architect to the edge of the grave. If the niece of Peter I, Anna Ioannovna, simply did not perceive Zemtsov’s talent, then in the actions of Elizaveta Petrovna there appeared something similar to competition with the decisions of her father, for whom Zemtsov was the best of the best. However, despite the fact that the empress constantly rejected the architect’s projects, as if in mockery giving preference to his students - as was the case, for example, with Tsarskoye Selo, the reconstruction plan of which, already at the construction stage, the empress suddenly changed, approving instead the project of the novice architect Andrei Kvasova, - Zemtsov tried his best to please Elizabeth’s changeable moods. And in the end he succeeded; The Anichkov Palace, of which he was the author, became one of the empress’s favorite buildings in the city on the Neva.
Lost in translation
Monsieur Ernest Gibert was one of those Frenchmen whose fate was firmly connected with Russia. Giber was just over seventeen years old when he entered the Academy of Arts, from which he successfully graduated in 1846.
Ernest Ivanovich, as he was called in Russia, implemented the experience and knowledge gained in many projects. The most notable of them are the Church of the Holy Ascension of Christ in Samara, built in 1848, and the Samara Cathedral, to the foundation of which Emperor Alexander I personally came to lay the first stone in the foundation of the cathedral in 1869. Shortly before this, in 1865, the emperor instructed Zhiber to carry out the decoration of the Anichkov Palace for the new owner - Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich. The task was set to redesign the rooms and completely change all the interiors of the eastern wing of the mezzanine, where it was planned to place the personal chambers of the heir to the throne and his future wife Dagmar, as well as make a number of changes to the palace church. The reconstruction project was almost ready when the sad news of the sudden death of the Grand Duke reached the architect. But the work was ordered to continue. The architect was not privy to the details of what was happening in the august family, but soon the emperor personally summoned the architect to his reception and ordered the monogram in the palace to be changed from “NA” to “AA”, while the initials of his wife remained the same. Gibert did not have to repeat the request twice: the insightful French mind instantly grasped the impending changes in the succession to the throne and carried out the work exactly as the sovereign commanded.
Kabanet of Alexander III in the Anichkov Palace. Artist Luigi Permazzi, 1871
Around this time, at the peak of his career as an architect, Ernest Gibert married Olga Fegin. Soon they had children: three sons and an only daughter, named after her mother. One of Ernest Ivanovich’s sons, Evgeny, followed in his father’s footsteps and served as a civil engineer all his life; he was also known for marrying the famous poetess Mirra Lokhvitskaya at a young age. Unlike many architects, Ernest Ivanovich’s life flowed largely serenely and was blessed from above. His work was greatly appreciated by the emperors, and throughout his life Gibert received many awards and honors. Among the imperial gifts, as a sign of his magnificent service to His Majesty, the architect received a ring from the hand of Alexander III, two gold snuff boxes, one of which was decorated with a portrait of the emperor covered in diamonds. But the most valuable award for Zhiber personally was the insignia for 40 years of impeccable service.
The architect died in 1909.
Zhiber's ashes are buried at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery.
Children's architect
Alexander Ivanovich Gegello was destined to become the builder of a new era, the architect of the future. He was born on July 23, 1891 in Yekaterinoslavl (now Dnepropetrovsk), and began his creative activity in the country of the Bolsheviks. It is not surprising that he was destined to become the great reconstructor of the old world expressed in stone by his predecessors. It is with his works that one of the first monuments of Soviet power is associated, which was the construction of Tractor Street in Leningrad in 1925-1927. But before becoming a participant-developer of a completely new architecture, houses intended not for bourgeois individuals, but for representatives of working society, in 1920 he successfully graduated from the Institute of Civil Engineers of Municipal Construction and also simultaneously underwent training in Mecca for all the architects of previous centuries - the Academy arts True, in his time the Academies had already changed their name to the State Workshop of Free Artists. Since 1923, Alexander Ivanovich began free creativity as one of the leading architects of the Land of Soviets.
It should be noted that attempts to create new homes for the proletariat were, although relatively unsuccessful, but at the same time the spirit of progressive thought, “mind freed from shackles,” was felt in them. For example, he undertook an experiment in building houses in Leningrad, without the famous “well courtyards”.
In 1926, the architect Hegello, in collaboration with David Krichevsky, erected a new type of public building - the House of Culture. A.M. Gorky. In 1937, for his innovation of thought and excellent execution of the project, Alexander Ivanovich received international recognition and an honorary diploma at the Paris World Exhibition. Two years later, in 1939, he began the reconstruction of the Lutheran Church of St. Anne, completely changing its architecture and purpose - a new sanctuary appeared in its place - the temple of cinema, the Spartak cinema.
Between the construction of the House of Culture and the cinema, there were many other buildings, reconstructions and projects, the most significant of which was the Palace of Pioneers on Fontanka. The same Anichkov Palace, which for a century was a wedding gift from the Imperial House of Romanov, was given to children in 1935.
The major reconstruction of the palace lasted for two years from the date of approval of the project provided by Hegello to the state commission. Perestroika did not affect only those interiors that had artistic and historical value, such as the decoration of the Great Dining Room, made by Luigi Rusca. In the former chambers of Nikolai Alexandrovich, a lobby with a winter garden was built on the ground floor; on the third floor, where the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting and servants lived, a lecture hall with a cinema hall and several game rooms. Maria Feodorovna's rest rooms were painted by masters from Palekh, and where the emperor's dressing rooms were once located, a fairy-tale world arose, illustrating the works of Alexander Pushkin and Maxim Gorky. Children became the owners of the palace. So someone’s fairy tale became reality, which Alexander Gegello brought to reality.
The architect died on August 11, 1965.
Room of fairy tales in the St. Petersburg City Palace of Weaving for Young People
Even experts, researchers of palace chambers, restorers and researchers cannot say with absolute accuracy what other priceless treasures are hidden under thick layers of plaster, what is hidden in wall niches and what may one day be revealed to those who try once again to rebuild the many-sided Anichkov Palace .
Paradise changes
The oldest palace on Nevsky Prospekt looks completely different from the famous engraving by Mikhail Makhaev, made for the 50th anniversary of St. Petersburg in 1753.
By order of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, it was built for the favorite Alexei Razumovsky, and today almost nothing from that era has survived in it.
There is no longer an entrance from the Fontanka side, which made it possible for guests of the palace to swim directly to the entrance steps. However, even in the time of Razumovsky, the main gates were located in the same way as now, on Nevsky Prospekt.
Where the Alexandrinsky Theater is now located, a large palace pavilion was built, called the Garden Pavilion, where the first owner placed an art gallery and where masquerades, balls and numerous concerts were held. Behind the palace along the entire Nevsky there was a pond with high banks. Between the pond and the palace, opposite Malaya Sadovaya, which was called Shuvalov Lane in the time of Catherine II, there was a fountain. For a long time, on the half-collapsed walls of the garden pavilions, preserved after reconstruction in 1818 by Carlo Rossi, back in the 30s of the 19th century, frescoes by Gonzago were visible.
The territory adjacent to the Anichkov Palace was enormous. It was framed by a magnificent lattice fence. Karl Rossi, making changes to the appearance of the palace, the adjacent garden and many pavilions, abolished the old fence. In its place in 1818, a new one was installed, which was designed by the architect himself, but there is a version that the sketch of this fence was created by the King of Prussia, Frederick William III. It consisted of 534 copies, and was crowned with 28 sculptures of double-headed eagles. During the years of Soviet power, the grille was completely lost and restored only in 2003.
Then the palace was rebuilt for the favorite of the great Catherine, Grigory Potemkin, by Ivan Starov. It was a reconstruction in the spirit of classicism. Then, at the beginning of the 19th century, such outstanding masters as Giacomo Quarenghi, Luigi Rusca, and Karl Ivanovich Rossi worked here.
In the second half of the 19th century, the palace was changed again, but in the spirit of eclecticism. Thus, today Anichkov is a monument of different eras, different great styles. Despite this, it leaves a light and bright feeling. Perhaps because it was given over to the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers, and was filled with laughter and joy for a long time. Or maybe because there really is a special aura here. Aura of Anichkovsky paradise.
Concert hall in Anichkov Palace
Alexander III Museum
Today, Anichkov Palace is more the palace of Alexander III, and not at all the palace of Nicholas I, and certainly not the palace of Alexei Razumovsky. Alexander III's passion for Russian art served him well. He was a passionate collector of paintings, and here, in the Anichkov Palace, he set up his own museum. The collection collected by the emperor formed the basis of the world-famous State Russian Museum.
Initially, in the part of the palace where the Alexander III Museum was located, there was a palace church. The first reconstruction was carried out by Luigi Rusca, who placed the rooms of Princes Peter and George of Oldenburg in this part of Anichkov.
In 1817, these premises were converted into the personal apartments of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich; his Reception Room and Adjutant Room were located here. By 1856, their place was taken by the Znamennaya and the Imperial Cabinet, which housed a huge stove.
In the same year, one of the significant reconstructions of the palace was carried out, which has come down to our time: the windows of the southern wall were walled up, and on the western and eastern sides There are only two windows left. When in 1866 the Imperial Cabinet was moved to the site of the Library of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which existed at that time, a Billiard Room was installed in the vacant premises. This layout lasted until 1870, when Ippolit Monighetti was commissioned to change it. He combined the former Billiard Room with the adjacent Living Room with a series of arches supported by columns. The result was a two-hall gallery.
One of the garden pavilions of the Anichkov Palace
Library
Initially, the imperial Library was located on the left side of the palace with windows facing the garden.
In the Anichkov Palace, the great Russian portrait painter Valentin Serov painted perhaps the best portrait of Emperor Nicholas II. It was created as a gift to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. This was an unofficial image of the king for his personal quarters in the Anichkov Palace. It depicts the emperor not as an autocrat was supposed to be depicted - in a solemn uniform with epaulettes, completely strewn with precious stones, orders and an imperial chain over his shoulder with links of diamond monograms, but in a simple tunic of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.
Serov began work on the painting back in Tsarskoye Selo, and finished it in one of the pavilions of the Anichkov Palace, the one facing the avenue. Initially, the work proceeded with great difficulty. At one point, the master was ready to refuse the order, nothing worked out, the emperor was disappointed, and Serov was unnerved by the constant presence of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who interfered in the process.
From those years, a funny story has been preserved, clearly illustrating how Alike tried to take personal control of any situation. When the first sketch was ready, the emperor's wife ordered Nicholas II to take a pose similar to the one in which he is depicted on the canvas, and, picking up a brush, began to carefully peer at the features in the portrait, comparing them with nature.
Felix Yusupov, whose portrait Serov created after the imperial one, recalled that Serov, being an independent and straightforward person, could not stand it when people interfered with his work with advice.
The portrait of Nicholas II is the only portrait in which we see a happy Nicholas II - a father and loving husband. The way the king always wanted to be, in that atmosphere of peace and joy to which he gravitated throughout his short life.
For Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, a Music Salon was built on this site. It was a rotunda decorated with artificial marble. Inside the salon one could see walls upholstered in orange satin and a dome painted by artist Ivan Yakovlev.
In 1817, the painting was updated by the author of numerous interiors, including the Tauride and Winter Palaces, Giovanni Battista Scotti, rewriting the dome using the “chiaroscuro” graphic technique in pale gray tones.
Only in 1866, when the newlyweds Alexander III and Princess Dagmar moved into the palace, the premises were returned to their historical purpose. The Emperor ordered the library to be moved from the Winter Palace to Anichkov. The source of inspiration for the creation of the Library by the architect Ernest Gibert, who was invited to reconstruct the palace, was the interiors of the library of the Prince of Oldenburg. But in 1868, Ippolit Monighetti was brought in to design the interiors, changing its decoration in the spirit of the Renaissance. After the renovation, the Library became an octagonal hall. In its four corners there were niches, in one of which there was an entrance, in the other there was a built-in fireplace, the third led to the mezzanine, and the fourth, disguised as a bookcase, led to a secret room. The ceiling was decorated with a stucco lampshade with oak inserts, created by Alexander Dylev based on Monighetti’s sketches. The furnishings of the Library were also carried out by the firm of F. Meltzer, represented by his partner N. Stange. They supplied the palace with wardrobes, sofas and armchairs made of light oak, upholstered in leather with coat of arms, wall paneling, parquet flooring and carved doors. Five chandeliers were also made directly at the Stange bronze foundry. The library interiors were completed with carpets woven in France and green silk curtains covering the mirrored glass windows.
Dressing room of Maria Feodorovna
Living rooms
Throughout the existence of the palace, the interior of the living rooms was repeatedly modified. Only in the Yellow or Golden Living Room, which got its name because of the yellow color of the damask upholstery, no less than ten types of clocks visited over a hundred years.
The 1904 inventory mentions watches made of bronze with gilding, decorated with mythical figures and bronze with patina, created in the 19th century. The lighting also underwent changes: under Nicholas I, the Golden Living Room was illuminated by four crystal candelabra, and already under Alexander III they were replaced by bronze candelabra, gilded on pedestals and columns made of marble.
The second living room, the Blue, received its name only after the reconstruction of the palace by Carlo Rossi in 1817. Before
At that time it was called Raspberry.
In 1809, its walls were covered with crimson velvet, and the ceiling was decorated with a ceiling painted by Fyodor Shcherbakov.
Rossi changed the upholstery to blue velvet with a silver tint and separated the panels from each other with gilded carved baguettes. This time, the painting of the ceilings of the Yellow and Blue living rooms seemed to complement the thematic focus of each room.
The scenes decorating the Yellow Drawing Room refer us to the theme of love and marriage “Sacrifice to Athena” and “Marriage in the Temple of Cupid”, and the Blue Drawing Room, imbued with mythological images of Apollo - “Triumph of Apollo” and “Parnassus” - seems to be intended to glorify courage and beauty owners of the palace.
Chiaroscuro is a type of graphic art that gives its name to the painting technique. The name comes from the Italian a chiaro e scuro, which means “chiaroscuro”. It was invented at the beginning of the 16th century by the painter and woodcarver Hugo da Capri.
The floor lamp living room, or Small dining room, as it was also called, has not changed in volume since the end of the 18th century. When decorating the living room, Ruska only changed the location of the wall openings. The passages to the living room were made of marble, and the top of each of the portals was decorated with a picturesque border. The next changes affected this living room only in 1817, when Scotti painted the walls and lampshades in it. When the Winter Garden was built in the palace in 1874, the windows facing the courtyard were abolished, and arches were installed in their place.
Floor lamp room
Winter Garden
If you compare the palace plans made by Hippolyte Monighetti or Karl Rachau, you can easily see that the Winter Garden is one of the few rooms of the Anichkov Palace that has been preserved practically unchanged. The only thing that has not survived in its original form is the picturesque ceiling. During the reconstruction of the palace in 1936, Ilya Repin’s student, artist Valentin Shcherbakov, decorated it with paintings from pioneer life, but in 1990, during the restoration of the Palace of Youth Creativity, all images were whitewashed.
Reached to this day detailed descriptions what the palace was like during the time of its last owners - the Winter Garden of Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna. In those days, the favorite architect of His Imperial Majesty, Maximilian Messmacher, was engaged in remodeling the interiors; the furniture for the Winter Garden, as well as for most of the palace furnishings, was made at the furniture factory Meltzer F. and Co.
The Winter Garden's interior and furnishings were designed in Messmacher's favorite Louis XVI style. The word “garden” in the name of the room implied an abundance of plants; were here for them
special flower beds-curtains were created, where flowers and exotic trees were installed in semicircular wooden pallets, decorated with bronze and gilded gratings.
Having at least a modicum of imagination, one could easily imagine oneself strolling through an Italian villa. Everything was pleasing to the eye: emerald foliage, and an abundance of roses brought here in tubs from the Elagin Palace, and elegant sculptures, such as “Cupid” by the French master Etienne Falconet, and extraordinary beauty Chinese vases. There was a collection of carved items made from Ural gems, mounted on a shelf with painted medallions.
During the reconstruction, Ernest Gibert destroyed the wall partitions with Scotty's oil paintings on artificial marble and the picturesque ceiling. He also dismantled the huge marble stove in the center of the northern wall in order to realize his design for the Imperial Cabinet in the style of Louis XVI on the site of its former splendor. The furnishings of the Cabinet consisted of carved oak furniture, corresponding to the style chosen by the architect, which was ordered from the A. Tour and sons."
After the death of Alexander III, in 1898, for this room, Mr. Büchter’s furniture factory ordered bog oak wall decoration and a massive wooden frame for the fireplace.
Dressing room of Alexander III
The small space separating the Imperial Cabinet and the Museum changed its appearance more often than all other palace rooms. Under Count Razumovsky, there was a staircase in this place adjacent to the church, down which one could go out onto Nevsky Prospekt.
From 1801 to 1812, the staircase was moved deeper, making room for a small room where the maid of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna lived. Karl Rossi, who was tasked with making changes to the palace for its new owners, reduced the width of the staircase, and divided the remaining free space between the Office of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, the Living Room and the Dressing Room.
One of the last architects to redevelop the palace was Maximilian Messmacher, who in 1886 moved the Dressing Room of Alexander III to the upper part of the palace, and in its place designed the Dressing Room. The interiors, created under the leadership of Messmacher, have survived to this day almost without any significant changes. The walls of the Dressing Room are decorated with panels made of Karelian birch; doors and cabinets were cut from the same material at F. Meltzer's company. The passage room from which the emperor entered the Grand Staircase is lined with mahogany panels.
Cabinet of Empress Maria Feodorovna
Until the middle of the 18th century, on the site of the Study of Empress Maria Feodorovna and the room next to it - the Second Reception Room - there was one room. Here was the Blue Drawing Room, designed by Luigi Rusca in 1809. The painting of the lampshades in it, as in the entire palace, was done by Fyodor Shcherbakov. In 1817, Karl Rossi changed the layout of the rooms, moved the Blue Living Room to what was then the Red Living Room, and built a Divan Room in the free space. Almost forty years later, Ernest Gibert, rebuilding the palace interiors for the new owners, made this room in the style of Louis XVI.
After reconstruction, the room intended for the Empress's Office had a square shape. In its northwestern corner, surrounded by flowers and greenery of palm trees, stood a sculpture of Tatiana, carved by Isobelli, inspired by the poem by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". In the corner there was a large piano, on each side of which there were two shelves with sheet music.
Jacob is a style of mahogany furniture made by the Jacob family. It is characterized by corrugated strips of brass glued to a wooden surface.
Wall upholstery with crimson silk.
Stucco decoration made by S. Sadikov, gilded using the “mordan” technique, when gold plates are laid out on a surface smeared with amber-based oil varnish.
Sofas and armchairs in the “Jacob” style, made at the company of F. Meltzer according to drawings by M.E. Messmacher.
The custom of arranging a Christmas tree was brought to Russia by the owner of the Anichkov Palace, Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. This custom already existed in her homeland, Germany, and when she arrived here, she arranged such a Christmas tree for the first time in Russia. True, not in St. Petersburg, but in Moscow, where the newlyweds, Nicholas I and Alexandra, celebrated the New Year of 1818.
All life is a game
Emperor Nicholas I was a great actor; his official and private life differed from each other like day and night. In everyday life he was more of an ordinary bourgeois. He really loved comfort in the most ordinary, philistine sense of the word. At the same time, the couple enjoyed reading the novels of Walter Scott; in Alexandra Fedorovna’s rooms, according to the custom of burgher houses, there were flowers in pots and, of course, canaries in openwork cages.
The life of the emperor was completely different at parade parades and official receptions in the Winter Palace. The only episode from the “other” life in the history of this palace is associated with the Decembrist uprising.
On November 25, 1825, news arrived from Taganrog to the capital that Emperor Alexander I was dying. On the evening of that November day, the military governor-general of St. Petersburg, Count Miloradovich, and the commander of the guards corps, General Voinov, came to the Anichkov Palace to see Nikolai Pavlovich. What happened at this meeting predetermined all subsequent events, the interregnum and the uprising on December 14. The fact is that Miloradovich managed to convince the Grand Duke to violate the will of Alexander I and not to swear allegiance to his brother Constantine, who - and this was known in the family - abdicated the throne in his favor several years ago. The army's oath to Constantine, the oath to Nicholas, confusion in understanding who is going to the throne, the uprising on December 14 and, as a result, grapeshot on Senate Square...
Nicholas I possessed the only quality that Nicholas II later lacked: at a crucial moment, he found the strength to pull himself together in order to begin to act quickly. Everyone close to him, however, knew that strong character traits were a mask for the sake of preserving the empire. In the emperor’s soul there was torment and doubt. And Nikolai Pavlovich also regretted what happened on Senate Square. The Emperor regularly celebrated the anniversary of December 14, and this happened most often in the Anichkov palace church:
Ave Maria…
By all accounts, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna - as Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria of Hesse was named here in Russia - was a beauty with magnificent manners.
Initially, the parents of Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, Emperor Nicholas I and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, were against this marriage. The true origin of the princess raised doubts among the august couple about the correctness of their choice of the heir to the Russian throne. All the royal houses of Europe knew about this, which means that Maria Alexandrovna had practically no chance of a successful match...
The Grand Duke's passion for her flared up suddenly. By the way, later, more than twenty years later, Alexander II deeply regretted the mistake of his youth, marriage weighed on him, moreover, Maria Alexandrovna was in poor health, suffered from tuberculosis, and there were so many pretty and charming college girls around, such as Ekaterina Dolgorukaya. The Empress knew about her husband’s adventures, but the only thing she could do in this situation was to pray.
Eight children were born to this marriage. The first daughter, Alexandra, born on August 18, 1842, died in the Anichkov Palace before she was seven years old, and the eldest son Nikolai, heir to the throne, died at the age of 21 from tuberculosis. So Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich became heir to the throne. And a dramatic collision occurred, because he was not prepared for the throne. At the age of twenty, he was taken by surprise by this unexpected role.
In a certain sense, he repeated the fate of his grandfather, Nicholas I, who also became an heir in his mature years. But the drama of the situation was aggravated by the fact that on the eve of his death, his older brother became engaged to the Danish princess Dagmar. However, instead of a wedding, a funeral took place. The wedding happened later... Alexander Alexandrovich himself offered his hand to the bride of his deceased brother. Surprisingly, it turned out to be an extremely happy marriage. The couple loved each other tenderly for almost thirty years of their marriage, which is confirmed by all contemporaries.
God save the queen
In September 1866, almost all the residents of Copenhagen gathered at the pier to see off the ship Schleswig. Never before has the departure of a ship caused such excitement; never before has the young Princess Maria Sofia Frederica Dagmar left her homeland for so long. The future empress of the Russian state went to big Adventure- V new life in a new capacity. The young princess has grown up. On that September day, she said goodbye not only to her beloved sisters and loyal subjects, she said goodbye to a rosy and carefree childhood. In the crowd, among the numerous mourners, Dagmar saw a lean figure and hurried towards her. This was her favorite storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen. As if in the hope that he would tell her a new fairy tale, in which there would never be the nightmare that she had to endure a year and a half ago, the princess ran up to him and extended her hand. Andersen could not hold back his tears of sadness. It was as if he knew that her fairy tale would not have a happy ending.
A month after Dagmar’s arrival in Russia, on October 28, 1866, her marriage to Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich took place. At baptism she was named Maria Feodorovna, and among her family they called her Minnie. The august family adored their daughter-in-law, and the people even idolized her. The authority of the Empress both among the family and outside the main entrance of the Anichkov Palace was enormous. For almost thirty years she lived in a kind fairy tale, until death again touched her fate.
bony hand. In 1894, her beloved husband Alexander III died. Having barely recovered from the loss, the Dowager Empress lost her beloved son, Tsarevich George. The heir to the throne died at the age of 28. Relations with his daughter-in-law, the wife of Nicholas II, Alika, became complicated - neither one nor the other wanted to give in to their desire to rule the emperor.
The absurd rivalry between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law over who controls the empire led to final discord in the family. She suffered.
A series of funeral services, the empty halls of the palace, mourning clothes, which became almost the only outfit of the once beautiful woman, capable of decorating the darkest corner of any almshouse with her inner light and transforming the sad faces of orphans with smiles, drove Maria Fedorovna into extreme melancholy. However, this was not the end... In February 1917, her son Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and in November of the same year, her youngest son Mikhail was under house arrest in Gatchina. Maria Fedorovna had no choice but to go to Crimea, where she was met with terrible news: her children, grandchildren - everyone who remained dear to her and who was dearly loved by her, had been shot. Until the last moment, she could not believe what had happened; she even forbade not only the funeral service, but also speaking about her relatives in the past tense. However, there was nothing to wait... And in April 1919, together with her granddaughter Irina and her husband Felix Yusupov, she again boarded the cruiser Marlborough, sent for her by her sister Alexandra, Queen of England, to take the opposite route to what had been done from Copenhagen fifty years ago. The fairy tale is over...
On October 13, 1928, the last owner of the Anichkov Palace died. In 2006, the ashes of the Empress were transferred from Cathedral in Roskilde to the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul of the Peter and Paul Fortress and buried next to the grave of her husband Alexander III.
For 100 years, Anichkov Palace was an earthly paradise for four generations of imperial families. From July 1817, when the newlyweds - Russian Emperor Nicholas I and Princess Friederike Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina of Prussia, who went down in the history of the Russian state as Alexandra Feodorovna, arrived at their new home after the wedding, until the stormy year of 1917, when the Romanov empire collapsed.
Temple of Hymen
It was here that the happiest days took place in the lives of Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III, and the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. For them it was the temple of Hymen. Russian emperors remembered this place with nostalgia, because all the joys of their childhood were associated with the Anichkov Palace.
The history of the palace in the context of a “wedding gift” began in 1809, when Emperor Alexander I gave the Anichkov Palace to his beloved sister Ekaterina Pavlovna on her wedding day. Napoleon Bonaparte himself wooed Ekaterina Pavlovna, but was rejected. The Grand Duchess was madly in love with Peter Bagration. And, naturally, she didn’t like Bonaparte at all. It is believed that she owns the phrase:
“I would rather marry the last stoker than this Corsican.” As a result, she was married to the Duke of Oldenburg, and the Anichkov Palace was presented to the newlyweds for their wedding. However, this marriage was short-lived: Ekaterina Pavlovna was widowed in 1812.
From that time on, she visited Anichkov only occasionally. Everything here reminded her of the grief she had experienced, and in 1816, having remarried King William I of Württemberg, she left Russia forever, leaving her “gift” here.
And so on July 1, 1817, more than a year and a half after the Grand Duchess left the palace, a new married couple settled here. This was Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich and the daughter of the Prussian king, a 19-year-old princess who, having converted to Orthodoxy, received the name Alexandra Feodorovna. Nikolai Pavlovich loved Anichkov Palace very much and said that he spent the happiest years of his life in it.
From the moment the imperial couple Nicholas I and Alexandra Fedorovna crossed the threshold of the Anichkov Palace, life began to bubble within its walls. Anichkov became the city residence of the small grand-ducal court of Nikolai Pavlovich; balls and famous masquerades were held here, the fame of which spread throughout Europe.
The first seven years of the life of Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Emperor Alexander II the Liberator, passed in this palace. When the Grand Duke turned 20, he went on a trip to the cities Western Europe, where he met a young 14-year-old princess, the daughter of Grand Duke Ge, to marry her. Two years later, the princess arrived in St. Petersburg. But her appearance did not arouse the slightest enthusiasm from either Nicholas I or Alexandra Fedorovna. They tried to prevent this marriage. Alexander Nikolaevich was adamant. He posed the question bluntly: “Either I renounce my rights to the throne, or I will marry this girl.” I had to give in. The wedding of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna took place on April 16, 1841 in the Winter Palace, and in the evening the newlyweds arrived in Anichkov. The palace on the banks of the Fontanka again became a wedding gift.
The childhood years of Nicholas II also passed within the walls of Anichkov. In the late 80s of the 19th century, the august couple moved to the third floor of the palace, where very small, modest chambers were equipped for them, next to the palace church. Even the chambers of the Massandra Palace, in which the emperor never had a chance to live, were built in accordance with his predilection for small, intimate spaces. Knowing this feature of Alexander III, contemporaries were even surprised how he managed to rule the huge Russian state - probably the emperor was not very comfortable in a large country.
Nicholas II also, following the wonderful tradition that had developed at the beginning of the century, brought his young wife to this palace. This was the German princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, whose name after baptism became Alexandra Feodorovna.
The newlyweds spent the first weeks here, under the supervision of the Dowager Empress. After Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II moved to Tsarskoe Selo, the palace remained at the disposal of Maria Feodorovna, the last mistress of the Anichkov Palace.
It is interesting that Anichkov’s “imperial” century began with Nicholas and Alexandra and ended with Nicholas and Alexandra. The mothers of Nicholas I and Nicholas II had the same names, they both
were Maria Feodorovna. Amazing gel symmetry reigned over the family of stakes, 1820
The Romanovs, casting a shadow on the majestic Temple of Hymen - Anichkov Palace.
And the ball lasts...
In 1818, on October 30, the entire high society of St. Petersburg was received in Anichkovovo. Nikolai Pavlovich and Alexandra Fedorovna at that time were the only ones from the imperial family who remained in the Northern capital, and their shoulders were entrusted with the honorable duty of representing the House of Romanov in St. Petersburg. For Alexandra Feodorovna, this was the first opportunity to show herself to the world as a worthy wife of a crowned husband.
Alexander Sumarokov
From this day on, the magnificent tradition of balls in the Anichkov Palace began, and throughout the century the ceremony remained unchanged. The arriving guests, sometimes their number reaching four hundred people, gathered in the state drawing rooms at a quarter to ten. When the chimes of the clock struck the tenth stroke, the highest persons came out to the audience to the sounds of the orchestra playing a polonaise. At midnight after the dances, which, according to custom, took place in the Ballroom adjacent to the Great Dining Room, the senior ladies in Her Majesty's company retired to the Blue Drawing Room to drink tea, the rest were content with a buffet in the Winter Garden, where they were treated to sweets, cookies and soft drinks. The Empress's maid of honor Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset recalled: “The Emperor loved to have them dance late and then everyone would leave. They didn’t know the polka yet, but they waltzed and loved the cotillion.” Then there was dancing again until two o'clock in the morning, until the master of the ball invited all the guests to the tables set in the Yellow Drawing Room, the Museum and the Library. The ball lasted exactly until three o'clock in the morning, when the clock hands pointed to a quarter past four, the guests left the hospitable house. The Anichkov Palace stood still in anticipation of a new ball.
Interiors of Anichkov Palace
Helicon
Anichkov Palace, one way or another, has always been inextricably linked with cultural life Northern capital. It is associated with many moments that influenced the course of development of Russian literature.
Even under the first owner of the palace, Count Razumovsky, Alexei Grigorievich’s adjutant, Alexander Sumarokov, lived in the palace. It was in Anichkovo in 1774 that he created one of his most curious works - the poem “Letter to a Friend in Moscow,” a kind of topographical riddle.
Later, under the new owners, when Nikolai Pavlovich and Alexandra Feodorovna had their first child, Alexander, the future heir to the throne, Alexander II, the poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky was invited to be his teacher. With the appearance of Zhukovsky, “literary Saturdays” began to be held in the palace.
The beginning of this tradition was laid at the poet’s old place of residence, in a house on the corner of Ekateringofsky Avenue and the Kryukov Canal. Zhukovsky collected the color of Russian literature of his time: Pyotr Vyazemsky, Ivan Krylov, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker... On these “Saturdays,” chapter by chapter, as he wrote, Pushkin read the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila.” Alexander Sergeevich read the last part of it already in the Anichkov Palace.
In March 1820, Zhukovsky met with Pushkin in the Dance Hall, and at this meeting Pushkin presented the final scenes of the work to his teacher.
The poet's next appearance in Anichkov was with his wife, in the 1830s, and it turned out to be not the most pleasant in his life. Alexander Sergeevich did not like balls and did not like to dance, but was forced to take into account the fact that the emperor wanted to see his wife at the dance evenings.
For the first time, Natalya Nikolaevna was brought into the palace by the maid of honor of Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, Goncharova’s aunt, Princess Ekaterina Zagryazhskaya. Natalya Nikolaevna captivated the entire high society of St. Petersburg with her beauty, and rumors spread that Nicholas I adored her. The emperor knew the absurd character of Goncharova’s restless husband and suspected that the poet would find a lot of reasons and excuses not to attend high-society balls, and therefore, in order to prevent refusals, he ordered Pushkin to be given the title of chamber cadet, which obligated him to attend dance evenings. The chamber cadet's uniform humiliated the poet, because this title was awarded to yellow-haired young men at 18, at the latest at 20 years old, and Pushkin was already 34!
In addition to Zhukovsky and Pushkin, the walls of Anichkov also remember other figures of Russian literature. Many outstanding writers appeared here, in particular Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. On December 16, 1880, he was invited to a reception with Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna to read excerpts from his novels.
The appearance of Dostoevsky made an indelible impression on the courtiers. He was probably the only visitor to the palace who did not have the slightest idea about the rules of behavior in the presence of the august couple. However, despite the fact that the writer behaved like a bull in a china shop: he started the conversation first, could get up without His Grace’s permission, and, leaving the living room, simply turned his back to the emperor, Alexander III was imbued with special respect for him .
Even after Fyodor Mikhailovich left Anichkov, people spoke about him with special sympathy. This
Dostoevsky's visit and almost childlike spontaneity marked the beginning of the writer's warm relationship with the imperial couple.
Another genius of Russian literature, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, or rather, his wife Sofya Andreevna, did not receive such treatment from the emperor. When in the spring of 1891 unpleasant news reached Yasnaya Polyana that the tsarist police had arrested the XIII volume of Tolstoy’s works - the same one in which the Kreutzer Sonata was published - Sophia Tolstaya went to St. Petersburg to the emperor to beg him to lift the highest ban on publication. A warm welcome could not be expected, but the writer’s wife still hoped that Alexander III would influence the fate of her husband’s work. Nothing good came of this trip: Tolstoy accused his wife of currying favor with the sovereign, and the emperor reprimanded Sofya Andreevna for her husband’s behavior inappropriate for a Russian nobleman, for blasphemy and for the fact that Tolstoy’s thoughts have a harmful effect on the common people, causing in human consciousness “ there are many heresies." The Kreutzer Sonata was published only in 1900.
They say that the words of the ghost confused the heir to the House of Romanov so much that he even invited the famous master of occult sciences, Dr. Papus, from France. But no one, except the most august persons, could come into contact with a ghost, not even a famous magician.
And today there is evidence that mysterious guests live in the palace. If you believe the stories of ordinary people, then over the years their number has even increased: in addition to the White Lady, “appearing” on the second floor of Anichkov, near the fireplace, the ghost of an old man was also seen. Sometimes the night watchers hear the sounds of voices coming from the Yellow Living Room, as if someone is having a conversation, but no one manages to make out what the spirits are talking about.
So Anichkov to this day remains not only one of the remarkable historical buildings St. Petersburg, but also a tasty morsel for ghost hunters.
Curse of the Palace
It is reliably known that Emperor Nicholas I died of bacterial pneumonia; this fact is evidenced by medical cards, certificates, and tests stored in archives from that time. There is another version, the “folk” one, from which it follows that the emperor committed suicide, being depressed due to the sad news of the loss of the battle of the Russian troops during Crimean War. But there is a third version... fantastic. As if the emperor was strangled... by the White Lady.
For the first time, people started talking about the existence of a certain mystical substance, or, simply put, a ghost, during the time of Count Razumovsky. There were persistent rumors that a white female silhouette was noticed in Anichkovo even before the end of construction. It was as if the artisans, who were late with work, saw with their own eyes a creature in a white robe, moving, creaking floorboards, through the empty halls and felt the grave cold emanating from it.
And then one day in 1837 Nikolai Pavlovich dreamed of the White Lady of the Anichkov Palace. In the notes of the emperor's closest friend, Peter Kleinmichel, one can find a memory in which he sets out in detail everything that his crowned friend told him, namely how the figure of a woman suddenly silently appeared from the wall and how it touched the sovereign's lips with a deathly cold hand. Pyotr Andreevich claims that it was after this event that Nicholas I experienced the first attacks of suffocation. And after a while, salon gossips talked in every possible way with aspiration about a ghost visiting the royal chambers and talking with the emperor.
Many were inclined to believe that this was the spirit of a girl whom Nikolai Pavlovich seduced and abandoned in her youth, and she, unable to bear the shame, drowned herself in the Fontanka near the palace walls. Zhukovsky, who lived in the palace, had heard a lot about the night visitor and even wanted to write a ballad about the White Lady, but Nicholas II, having learned about the poet’s plan, strictly forbade the development of this topic.
The mysterious visions did not stop: when Alexander II began to own the palace, she allegedly told him about three attempts on his life; She allegedly also predicted the future for Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, namely, that he would become the last autocrat of the Russian state.
History of Anichkov Palace
At the beginning of the 18th century land plot between Sadovaya Street and Fontanka, where the Anichkov Palace now spreads its possessions, belonged to the chief general of police in St. Petersburg. However, soon the presumptuous nobleman ended up in exile, and his estate went to the timber merchant D.L. Lukyanov, who temporarily located the yard of the Preobrazhensky Regiment on the newly acquired territory. It is possible that over time, the land plot on the banks of the Fontanka would have passed to another owner if another coup d’etat had not happened in the country, as a result of which the daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth, took the Russian throne.
The newly-crowned empress zealously set about improving the Northern capital, ordering the foundation of a new imperial residence in the former regimental courtyard. According to the official version, the main mission of the Anichkov Palace was to give a more spectacular appearance to the entrance to St. Petersburg (in those days, the Fontanka embankment was something like the city outskirts). In fact, the pretentious construction project was started for the favorite, and also the morganatic husband of the Empress, A. Razumovsky.
The construction of the building was entrusted to the then popular St. Petersburg architect Mikhail Zemtsov, who, as luck would have it, suddenly died, having only managed to sketch out a project for the future residence and erect the first floor. As a result, the architect G.D. Dmitriev had to continue the work, but B. Rastrelli himself put the final point in this long-term construction.
For the royal gift, it was necessary to dig a separate canal extending from the Fontanka and connecting it with a small harbor, equipped right at the main entrance to the Anichkov Palace. The “crème de la crème” of St. Petersburg were supposed to sail to this makeshift port on their ships to participate in all sorts of festivities. The architectural ensemble itself was conceived to be multi-story and consisted of a main two-story building and two three-story wings on the sides. The territory adjacent to the palace was ennobled in taste, receptive to everything bright and pretentious of Elizabeth Petrovna, that is, by analogy with the Peterhof parks. The location of the architectural structure relative to Nevsky Prospekt is also interesting: in those days, the central street of the Northern capital was an uninteresting sight, so the façade of the building does not “look” at the prospect.
In 1756, the Anichkov Palace was finally completed, and since Razumovsky himself had “ordered to live long” by that time, the estate passed to his brother Kirill. Well, then began an endless series of buyouts, donations and re-registration of the “royal real estate”.
In 1776, Catherine II bought the residence and, according to the tradition established by her predecessor, presented it to her lover, Count Potemkin. Along with the construction, the favorite received 100,000 rubles. “to establish a household”, which he immediately spent on rebuilding the estate. Thanks to the new owner Anichkov, the palace lost its harbor, and also lost its famous multi-story structure and stucco, but acquired a greenhouse with exotic plants. Having caroused to his heart's content in his new possessions, Potemkin sold the estate to the merchant Shemyakin, which, apparently, thoroughly hurt the crowned passion. How else can we explain the fact that the empress bought the building for the second time, again handing it over to her ungrateful favorite.
Since 1785, the estate on the Fontanka was returned to the state treasury, and in 1794 it turned into the royal office, which is why the palace was once again redeveloped.
From 1803 to 1805 next to the building, shopping arcade buildings appeared, the lower tier of which was an open gallery. The designs for the new premises were developed by the legendary D. Quarenghi.
In 1809, the residence was presented as a wedding gift to the sister of Alexander I, who turned out to be a very enterprising lady. After the death of her first husband, the august lady again sold the Anichkov Palace to the treasury for a fantastic sum at that time - 2,000,000 rubles.
In 1817, the estate passed to Nicholas I, who at that time was still a grand duke. The next owner did not miss the opportunity to make his modest contribution to the decoration of the palace. This time, C. Rossi was appointed responsible for the project, who built the Service Building and two garden pavilions on the palace grounds. Among the interior spaces, changes were made to the Dance Hall, Sofa and Music Rooms, Study and Boudoir.
Since 1830, Anichkov Palace became the center of social life and court gossip in St. Petersburg - almost all the major capital balls were held in the halls of the imperial estate.
Starting from 1842, the residence managed to be owned by Alexander II and Alexander III, and, finally, it was within its walls that Emperor Nicholas II spent his childhood. By that time, the building had made great strides forward in terms of comfort - it was installed with running water and equipped with a sewer system. Well, the last owner of the Anichkov Palace was the wife of Alexander III, Maria Feodorovna.
After the October Revolution, the “bourgeois heritage” on the Fontanka was nationalized, alternately housing all sorts of useless ministries and museums in its premises. Soon all the more or less valuable property of the Anichkov Palace went under the hammer, and the building itself was converted into the Palace of Pioneers.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a military hospital was located in the buildings of the estate, which existed for a year and a half. During an artillery shelling in the fall of 1941, a shell hit its territory, destroying the winter garden.
In 1990, the Palace of Pioneers was renamed the Palace of Youth Creativity, which it still remains.
Interiors of Anichkov Palace
A standard tour starts from the main entrance and the palace staircase. The decoration of this part of the Anichkov Palace is relatively modest - stucco molding, decorative flowerpots, green marble columns supporting the ceiling vaults. From here you can get to the entrance hall, where titled visitors used to languish while waiting for the emperor. The room is decorated with green panels, and the windows are covered with matching curtains. The only decorative element reminiscent of the former luxury of this room is an elegant chandelier with a pineapple-shaped base. In the middle of the 19th century, a separate room was fenced off in the reception area, where there was a platform for a lifting machine - the ancestor of the modern elevator. Before the Great Patriotic War, this partition was demolished, completely destroying the car and masking the traces of its presence with a new painted ceiling and two columns.
The winter garden, destroyed during German shelling, has long been restored. In the spacious hall with wide windows, as hundreds of years ago, palm trees and monsteras grow, among which sculptures of Bacchus, Cupid and other ancient characters are hidden.
The interiors of the palace library, which has a non-standard octagonal shape, have been preserved almost unchanged. Oak-panelled walls, a carved gallery balcony, bookcases and exquisite ornate wooden niches make up the main part of the decoration of this room. There are also secret doors with ladders, which at one time were silent witnesses to the imperial secrets and pranks. The only element of the library interior that was completely lost after the nationalization of the palace was the stained glass window with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire.
From a visual point of view, the most expensive room in the Anichkov Palace is traditionally considered to be the Golden Hall, decorated in the classical Baroque style - merciless in its pretentiousness and eye-catching luxury. Walls covered in shiny yellow damask, life-size mirrors in gilded frames and an abundance of small decorative elements in the same color scheme balance on the verge of kitsch.
The Crimson Living Room with a huge mirror and intricate ceiling bas-reliefs, which once belonged to Maria Feodorovna, looks solemn and at the same time romantic. From it you can get to the next hall of the palace - the Blue, the interior of which is not burdened with kilograms of fancy stucco molding and is made in calmer colors. You can see unusual lamps and chandeliers of bizarre shapes in the Floor Lamp Hall, and in the Dance Hall (Belokolonnoy) it is worth imagining the theme of the Nicholas balls. If historians are to be believed, it was these events that Natalya Goncharova loved to come to, which greatly angered her brilliant husband. Connoisseurs of folk art will be interested in looking into the former royal dressing rooms: you will not be shown imperial outfits here, but they will show wall paintings in the Palekh style on the theme of fairy tales by A. S. Pushkin and M. Gorky.
For visitors
Single tourists are not allowed to enter the premises of the Anichkov Palace. You can get here only with an organized excursion (from 10 to 25 people), by purchasing a ticket at the box office, or by leaving a preliminary request by e-mail. You can arrange a time to visit the architectural monument by calling: 310-93-80, or by writing to the museum’s email address: [email protected]. In addition, in order not to spoil the floor covering of the premises, you will have to get replacement shoes or shoe covers: the latter can be bought directly in the palace. The cost of an adult “pass” to the imperial residence is 200 rubles, a child’s pass is 80 rubles. Sometimes the travel itinerary may change due to events and planned renovations taking place in the building.
- V. A. Zhukovsky, who was a teacher under the young Alexander II, had his own apartments in the Anichkov Palace.
- IN different time the youth sections of the palace were visited by such celebrities as Sergei Yursky, Boris Spassky, Elena Obraztsova, Alisa Freundlich, Dmitry Medvedev and Stanislav Zhuk.
- At the end of the 19th century, the first silent films were shown in the palace halls.
- In front of the main building of the estate there is a birch tree, which was planted by Soviet cosmonauts G. Titov and V. Komarov.
- One of the urban legends claims that the ghost of the White Lady lived in the Anichkov Palace, who adored conversations with Russian emperors. According to a well-known story, it was the White Lady who predicted Nicholas II’s tragic fate.
How to get there
Address of Anichkov Palace: Russia, St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt, 39.
The easiest way to get to Anichkov Palace is by metro. Get off at the Gostiny Dvor or Mayakovskaya stations and walk along Nevsky Prospekt in the direction of Fontanka, that is, following the descending numbering of the houses.
Where the Fontanka River is crossed by Nevsky Prospekt, the legendary Anichkov Palace is located. This building is the very first stone building on Nevsky. Throughout its existence, the palace changed many owners, was rebuilt, changing its appearance, but still remained as magnificent as two centuries ago.
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History of Anichkov Palace
Like many palaces built during the reign of august persons (for example, the Yusupov Palace), the Anichkov Palace was also created as a gift to Elizabeth’s favorite - A.G. Razumovsky. Its construction began back in 1741 by the architect M.G. Zemtsov, who died before construction was completed and was replaced by G.D. Dmitriev, and after – F.B. Rastrelli. Initially, the palace was built in the Russian Baroque style, but due to numerous reconstructions that began in 1779, the facade, roofs and the extension of the third floor, the palace acquired the appearance of early classicism.
The appearance of the main entrance changed several times; in its place, in 1805, a majestic colonnade of shopping arcades was built. Later, stable buildings and service buildings were built. Each owner who was once again granted the palace made his own changes to its appearance. All reconstruction continued until the start of the Great Patriotic War, during which the palace was practically not damaged.
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The Anichkov Palace received its name from the surname of officer Anichkov, who was stationed with his battalion in a neighboring settlement, and under whose leadership the first wooden bridge, named Anichkov, was built here. Subsequently, after the death of the officer, the palace located not far from the bridge also began to be called Anichkov.
Museum of the History of Anichkov Palace
The former personal museum of Emperor Alexander now houses the Anichkov Palace Museum. The exhibition includes everything related to the history of the estate and the owners of the estate. A special place in the museum is occupied by evidence of modern post-war history, since the Anichkov Palace was given to children and the Palace of Youth Creativity is located here to this day. Every year, exhibitions are held here that present the achievements of young St. Petersburg residents and their mentors.
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Activities for children in Anichkov Palace
The smallest residents of St. Petersburg have somewhere to usefully spend their leisure time, because the famous Anichkov Palace, in which the House of Creativity is located, has in its arsenal 1,300 various sections and circles. Such a huge selection will not leave the slightest desire in children to wander aimlessly through the streets or spend time near the computer. Here you can choose an activity that will appeal to both boys and girls.
Pool of Anichkov Palace
The largest institution of extracurricular education in Europe, which includes a swimming pool, a country center, a concert complex, its own sea vessel and much more - all this is Anichkov Palace. The educational and health complex has recently included a swimming pool, where not only children, but also adults can spend their free time with health benefits.