59°56′43″N30°19′36″E / 59.945176°N 30.326799°E /59.945176; 30.326799
| Marble Palace | |
|---|---|
Мраморный дворец | |
.jpg) Larger Marble Palace. View from theField of Mars | |
  Location in Saint Petersburg | |
| General information | |
| Location | St. Petersburg, Russia |
| Coordinates | 59°56′42.64″N30°19′36.47″E / 59.9451778°N 30.3267972°E /59.9451778; 30.3267972 |
| Completed | 1785 |
TheMarble Palace (Russian:Мраморный дворец) is one of the firstNeoclassicalpalaces inSaint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between theField of Mars andPalace Quay, slightly to the east fromNew Michael Palace.
The palace was built as a gift from EmpressCatherine the Great for CountGrigory Orlov, her favourite and the most powerful Russian nobleman of the 1760s. Construction started in 1768 to designs byAntonio Rinaldi,[1] who previously had helped decorate the grand palace atCaserta nearNaples, and lasted for 17 years.[2]
The palace takes its name from its opulent decoration in a wide variety of polychromemarbles.[2] A rough-grainedFinnishgranite on the ground floor is in subtle contrast to polished pinkKarelian marble of thepilasters and whiteUrals marble ofcapitals andfestoons. Panels of veined bluish gray Urals marble separate the floors, whileTallinndolomite was employed for ornamentalurns. In all, 32 disparate shades of marble were used to decorate the palace.[1]
The plan of the edifice istrapezoidal. Each of its fourfacades, though strictly symmetrical, has a different design. One of the facades conceals a recessed courtyard, where an armored car employed byLenin during theOctober Revolution used to be mounted on display between 1937 and 1992. Nowadays, the court is dominated by a sturdyequestrian statue ofAlexander III of Russia, the most famous work of sculptorPaolo Troubetzkoy; formerly it graced asquare before the Moscow Railway Station.
Fedot Shubin,Mikhail Kozlovsky,Stefano Torelli and other Russian and foreign craftsmen decorated the interior. In 1797–1798 the structure was leased toStanisław II Augustus, the last king ofPoland. Thereafter the palace belonged to Grand DukeConstantine Pavlovich and his heirs from the Konstantinovichi branch of theHouse of Romanov.
In 1843,Grand Duke Constantine Nikolayevich decided to redecorate the edifice, renaming it Constantine Palace and engagingAlexander Brullov as the architect.[1] Only the mainstaircase and the Marble Hall survived that refacing.
During theSoviet era, the palace successively housed the Ministry of Labour (1917–19), the Academy of Material Culture (1919–36), and, most notably, the main local branch of the Moscow-based Central (i.e. National)Lenin Museum (1937–91) with sub-branches acrossLeningrad in Lenin's memorial apartments all over the city - the places where he lived or stayed during his various periods in what was then Saint Petersburg.
Currently, the palace accommodates permanent exhibitions of theRussian State Museum.[1]
Media related toMarble Palace at Wikimedia Commons
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