Anichkov Palace

The cour d'honneur

Anichkov Palace (Russian: Аничков дворец, Aníchkov dvorets) is a former imperial palace in Saint Petersburg, at the intersection of Nevsky Avenue and the Fontanka.

History

The palace, situated on the plot formerly owned by Antonio de Vieira, takes its name from the nearby Anichkov Bridge across the Fontanka. Designed for the Empress Elizabeth of Russia in a dazzling Baroque style, the palace came to be known as the most imposing private residence of the Elizabethan era. Some suggest architects Bartolomeo Rastrelli and Mikhail Zemtsov were responsible for the design, though it's yet to be substantiated. The main frontage faces the river and was originally connected to it by a Canal.

Construction works continued for thirteen years and, when finally finished in 1754, the palace was presented by the Empress to her favourite and likely spouse, Count Aleksey Razumovsky. After his death, the palace reverted to the crown, only to be donated by Catherine the Great of Russia to her own favourite, Prince Potemkin, in 1776. The architect Ivan Starov was charged with extensive renovations of the palace in the newly-fashionable Neoclassical style, which was effected in 1778 and 1779. Simultaneously a regular park was laid out by an English garden architect, William Hould.

The collonnade of Her Imperial Majesty's Cabinet (designed by Giacomo Quarenghi)

Upon Potemkin's demise, the palace was restored to the crown and adapted to accommodate Her Imperial Majesty's Cabinet. The last major structural additions were made in the reign of Alexander I, with Quarenghi's construction of the Imperial Cabinet along Nevsky Avenue. The latter structure was formulated in a rigorous Neoclassical style and many people feel that it doesn't complement Rastrelli's original work. Three year later, Alexander I bestowed the palace on his sister, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia – she was later the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by marriage. Several architects worked on the edifice since then, and its interiors were continuously refurbished.

19th and 20th centuries

Following his marriage the future Tsar Alexander III and his wife, Maria Feodorovna, made it their St. Petersburg residence, ensuring its refacing in a variety of historic styles. It was there that their children, including the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, spent his childhood years, and after Alexander III assumed power, he preferred to stay at the Anichkov Palace as opposed to the Winter Palace. It was also the setting for numerous family festivities, including the wedding of Nicholas's niece Irina Romanova to Prince Felix Yusupov in 1914. Nicholas II's mother, after becoming dowager empress, continued to have right of residence in the palace until the February Revolution, although she had moved to Kiev away from St. Petersburg. After the revolution the Ministry of Provisions moved there instead.

Following the October Revolution, the Anichkov Palace was nationalized and designated the St. Petersburg City Museum. Since 1934, when it was converted into the Young Pioneer Palace, the palace has housed over hundred after-school clubs for more than 10,000 children. While a small museum inside is open to the public at selected times, the edifice is normally not accessible to tourists.

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  Anichkov Bridge and Anichkov Palace in 1753.

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  Palace in the 1750s: Elizabethan Baroque at its most flamboyant

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  Palace in the 1830s: after the Neoclassical renovation

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  Palace in 1862.

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  Interior of one of the halls in the early 20th century

References

• Axelrod V.I., Bulankova L.P. Anichkov dvorets – legendy i byli. SPb, 1996.

External links

• Official website
• Anichkov Palace in Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg