Conclusion. Last years of life Since the late 1940s. In Einstein's letters, remarks about general fatigue from life increasingly flashed, and a sad note of farewell sounded. This calm sadness is similar to the mood that sometimes overwhelms a person on quiet evenings. Feelings experienced

We all walk around the Winter Palace, looking at paintings, lampshades, vases, tapestries, parquet flooring, gilding in general, all sorts of works of art, but there wasn’t always a museum here, people lived here, and not just any, but the rulers of a great state, so I want see in what chambers their lives passed. Therefore, we will visit the living quarters of the Winter Palace. Currently, only part of the magnificent series of residential apartments that once occupied a significant place in the huge building has been preserved in the Winter Palace.

On April 16, 1841, the marriage of the heir to Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, and the Princess General of State, who received the title of Grand Duchess Tsarevna, took place. Maria Alexandrovna, the future empress, settled in the rooms assigned to her on the second floor of the northwestern part of the palace. She lived in these chambers until her death in 1880. Maria Alexandrovna's apartment consisted of eight rooms, some of which have retained their decoration to this day.

Large office of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, watercolor by E. P. Gau

The boudoir, or Small Study, was one of Maria Alexandrovna’s favorite places. Its decoration was made in the mid-nineteenth century by the architect Harold Bosse in the style of the second Rococo, fashionable at that time.

It's like there's an atmosphere here fairy tale, patterns whirl whimsically, the shine of gilding sets off the slender figures of snow-white caryatids. A magnificent bronze chandelier is reflected in mirrors of various shapes. Maria Alexandrovna spent a lot of free time in her cozy boudoir, reading, writing letters to her family, and drinking tea with her husband. From here there was an exit to the stairs, along which one could go down to the first floor, to the children's rooms.

Raspberry cabinet

Receptions of the empress's personal guests and meetings with relatives of the royal family took place in the Big or Raspberry Office. The office was also a kind of music salon. In the fabric patterns covering the walls you can see numerous images of musical instruments and notes. The frame of the huge fireplace mirror is crowned with cupids holding a shield in their hands, on which is depicted the monogram of Maria Alexandrovna.

Golden living room

With its shining abundance of gilding, the Golden Living Room is reminiscent of the chambers of the Moscow Kremlin with their vaulted ceilings and richly decorated walls. True, the owner of the apartment herself compared her living room to the throne room of the Bavarian kings.

The development of the territory east of the Admiralty began simultaneously with the emergence of the shipyard. In 1705, a house was built on the banks of the Neva for the “Great Admiralty” - Fyodor Matveevich Apraksin. By 1711, the site of the current palace was occupied by the mansions of the nobility involved in the fleet (only naval officials could build here).

The first wooden Winter House of “Dutch architecture” according to Trezzini’s “exemplary design” under a tiled roof was built in 1711 for the Tsar, as a shipwright by master Peter Alekseev. A canal was dug in front of its façade in 1718, which later became the Winter Canal. Peter called it “his office.” Especially for the wedding of Peter and Ekaterina Alekseevna, the wooden palace was rebuilt into a modestly decorated two-story stone house with a tiled roof, which had a descent to the Neva. According to some historians, the wedding feast took place in the great hall of this first Winter Palace.

The second Winter Palace was built in 1721 according to the Mattarnovi project. Its main façade faced the Neva. Peter lived his last years in it.

The third Winter Palace appeared as a result of the reconstruction and expansion of this palace according to Trezzini's design. Parts of it later became part of the Hermitage Theater created by Quarenghi. During the restoration work, fragments of Peter the Great's palace were discovered inside the theater: the front courtyard, staircase, vestibule, rooms. Now here is essentially the Hermitage exhibition “The Winter Palace of Peter the Great”.

In 1733-1735, according to the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli, on site former palace Fyodor Apraksin, bought for the empress, built the fourth Winter Palace - the palace of Anna Ioannovna. Rastrelli used the walls of the luxurious chambers of Apraksin, erected in the times of Peter the Great by the architect Leblon.

The Fourth Winter Palace stood approximately in the same place where we see the current one, and was much more elegant than the previous palaces.

The Fifth Winter Palace for the temporary stay of Elizabeth Petrovna and her court was again built by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (in Russia he was often called Bartholomew Varfolomeevich). It was a huge wooden building from Moika to Malaya Morskaya and from Nevsky Prospect to Kirpichny Lane. There is no trace of him left for a long time. Many researchers of the history of the creation of the current Winter Palace do not even remember it, considering the fifth one to be the modern Winter Palace.

The current Winter Palace is the sixth in a row. It was built from 1754 to 1762 according to the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and is a striking example of lush baroque. But Elizabeth didn’t have time to live in the palace - she died, so Catherine the Second became the first real mistress of the Winter Palace.

In 1837, the Winter Palace burned down - the fire started in the Field Marshal's Hall and lasted for three whole days, all this time the palace servants carried out works of art that decorated the royal residence, a huge mountain of statues, paintings, precious trinkets grew around the Alexander Column... They say that nothing is missing...

The Winter Palace was restored after the fire of 1837 without any major external changes; by 1839 the work was completed, they were led by two architects: Alexander Bryullov (brother of the great Charles) and Vasily Stasov (author of the Spaso-Perobrazhensky and Trinity-Izmailovsky Cathedrals). The number of sculptures along the perimeter of its roof was only reduced.

Over the centuries, the color of the facades of the Winter Palace changed from time to time. Initially, the walls were painted with “sandy paint with the finest yellow,” and the decor was painted with white lime. Before the First World War, the palace acquired an unexpected red-brick color, giving the palace a gloomy appearance. The contrasting combination of green walls, white columns, capitals and stucco decoration appeared in 1946.

Exterior view of the Winter Palace

Rastrelli was not just building a royal residence - the palace was built “for the glory of all Russia alone,” as it was said in the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to the Governing Senate. The palace is distinguished from European Baroque buildings by its brightness, cheerfulness of imagery, and festive, solemn elation. Its more than 20-meter height is emphasized by two-tiered columns. The vertical division of the palace is continued by statues and vases, leading the eye to the sky. The height of the Winter Palace became a building standard, elevated to the principle of St. Petersburg urban planning. It was not allowed to build higher than the Winter Building in the old city.
The palace is a giant quadrangle with a large courtyard. The facades of the palace, varying in composition, form like folds of a huge ribbon. The stepped cornice, repeating all the protrusions of the building, stretches for almost two kilometers. The absence of sharply extended parts along the northern façade, from the Neva side (there are only three divisions here), enhances the impression of the length of the building along the embankment; two wings on the western side face the Admiralty. The main façade, facing Palace Square, has seven divisions and is the most formal. In the middle, protruding part there is a triple arcade of the entrance gate, decorated with a magnificent openwork lattice. The south-eastern and south-western risalits protrude beyond the line of the main façade. Historically, it was in them that the living quarters of emperors and empresses were located.

Layout of the Winter Palace

Bartolomeo Rastrelli already had experience in building royal palaces in Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof. In the scheme of the Winter Palace, he included a standard layout option that he had previously tested. The basement of the palace was used as housing for servants or storage rooms. The ground floor housed service and utility rooms. The second floor housed ceremonial ceremonial halls and personal apartments of the imperial family. The third floor accommodated ladies-in-waiting, doctors and close servants. This layout assumed predominantly horizontal connections between the various rooms of the palace, which was reflected in the endless corridors of the Winter Palace.
The northern façade is distinguished by the fact that it contains three huge main halls. The Neva Enfilade included: the Small Hall, the Large (Nikolaevsky Hall) and Concert hall. The large enfilade unfolded along the axis of the Grand Staircase, running perpendicular to the Neva Enfilade. It included the Field Marshal's Hall, Peter's Hall, the Armorial (White) Hall, the Picket (New) Hall. A special place in the series of halls was occupied by the memorial Military Gallery of 1812, the solemn St. George and Apollo halls. The main halls included the Pompeii Gallery and the Winter Garden. The route taken by the royal family through the enfilade of state halls had a deep meaning. The scenario of the Big Exits, worked out to the smallest detail, served not only as a demonstration of the full brilliance of autocratic power, but also as an appeal to the past and present Russian history.
Like any other palace of the imperial family, there was a church in the Winter Palace, or rather two churches: Big and Small. According to the plan of Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the Big Church was supposed to serve Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and her “big court”, while the Small Church was supposed to serve the “young court” - the court of the heir Tsarevich Peter Fedorovich and his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Interiors of the Winter Palace

If the exterior of the palace is made in the late Russian Baroque style. The interiors are mainly made in the style of early classicism. One of the few interiors of the palace that has preserved its original Baroque decoration is the main Jordan staircase. It occupies a huge space of almost 20 meters in height and seems even higher due to the painting of the ceiling. Reflecting in the mirrors real space it seems even bigger. The staircase created by Bartolomeo Rastrelli after the fire of 1837 was restored by Vasily Stasov, who preserved Rastrelli’s general plan. The decor of the staircase is infinitely varied - mirrors, statues, fancy gilded stucco, varying motifs of a stylized shell. The forms of Baroque decor became more restrained after the replacement of wooden columns lined with pink stucco (artificial marble) with monolithic granite columns.

Of the three halls of the Neva Enfilade, the Antechamber is the most restrained in decoration. The main decor is concentrated in the upper part of the hall - allegorical compositions executed in monochrome technique (grisaille) on a gilded background. Since 1958, a malachite rotunda has been installed in the center of the Antechamber (first it was located in the Tauride Palace, then in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra).

The largest hall of the Neva Enfilade, Nikolaevsky, is decorated more solemnly. This is one of the largest halls of the Winter Palace, its area is 1103 sq. m. Three-quarter columns of the magnificent Corinthian order, painted borders of the ceiling and huge chandeliers give it grandeur. The hall is designed in white.

The concert hall, intended at the end of the 18th century for court concerts, has a more rich sculptural and pictorial decor than the two previous halls. The hall is decorated with statues of muses installed in the second tier of walls above the columns. This hall completed the enfilade and was originally conceived by Rastrelli as a vestibule to the throne room. In the middle of the 20th century, a silver tomb of Alexander Nevsky (transferred to the Hermitage after the revolution) weighing about 1,500 kg, created at the St. Petersburg Mint in 1747–1752, was installed in the hall. for the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which to this day houses the relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The large enfilade begins with the Field Marshals' Hall, designed to house portraits of field marshals; it was supposed to give an idea of ​​the political and military history Russia. Its interior was created, like that of the neighboring Petrovsky (or Small Throne) Hall, by the architect Auguste Montferrand in 1833 and restored after the fire of 1837 by Vasily Stasov. The main purpose of the Peter the Great Hall is memorial - it is dedicated to the memory of Peter the Great, therefore its decoration is particularly luxurious. In the gilded decor of the frieze, in the painting of the vaults there are coats of arms Russian Empire, crowns, wreaths of glory. In a huge niche with a rounded arch there is a painting depicting Peter I, led by the goddess Minerva to victories; in the upper part of the side walls there are paintings with scenes of the most important battles of the Northern War - at Lesnaya and near Poltava. In the decorative motifs decorating the hall, the monogram of two Latin letters “P”, denoting the name of Peter I, “Petrus Primus”, is endlessly repeated.

The armorial hall is decorated with shields with the coats of arms of Russian provinces of the 19th century, located on huge chandeliers that illuminate it. This is an example of the late classical style. The porticoes on the end walls hide the enormity of the hall, and the solid gilding of the columns emphasizes its splendor. Four sculptural groups of warriors Ancient Rus' remind of the heroic traditions of the defenders of the fatherland and precede the next Gallery of 1812.
Stasov's most perfect creation in the Winter Palace is the St. George (Grand Throne) Hall. The Quarenghi Hall, created on the same site, was destroyed in a fire in 1837. Stasov, while preserving Quarenghi’s architectural design, created a completely different artistic image. The walls are lined with Carrara marble, and the columns are carved from it. The decor of the ceiling and columns is made of gilded bronze. The ceiling pattern is repeated in the parquet flooring, made from 16 valuable types of wood. The only things missing from the floor design are the Double-Headed Eagle and St. George - it is not appropriate to step on the coat of arms of the great empire. The gilded silver throne was restored to its original location in 2000 by architects and restorers of the Hermitage. Above the throne seat is a marble bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon, by the Italian sculptor Francesco del Nero.

Owners of the Winter Palace

The customer of the construction was the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, she hurried Rastrelli with the construction of the palace, so the work was carried out at a frantic pace. The empress's personal chambers (two bedchambers and an office), the chambers of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich and some rooms adjacent to the chambers were hastily finished: the Church, the Opera House and the Light Gallery. But the empress did not have time to live in the palace. She died in December 1761. The first owner of the Winter Palace was the nephew of the Empress (son of her elder sister Anna) Peter III Fedorovich. The Winter Palace was solemnly consecrated and put into operation by Easter 1762. Peter III immediately started alterations in the southwestern risalit. The chambers included an office and a library. It was planned to create the Amber Hall on the model of the Tsarskoye Selo. For his wife, he identified chambers in the southwestern risalit, the windows of which overlooked the industrial zone of the Admiralty.

The emperor lived in the palace only until June 1762, after which, without even expecting it, he left it forever, moving to his beloved Oranienbaum, where at the end of July he signed an abdication, shortly after which he was killed in the Ropshinsky Palace.

The “brilliant age” of Catherine II began, who became the first real mistress of the Winter Palace, and the south-eastern risalit, overlooking Millionnaya Street and Palace Square, became the first of the “residence zones” of the owners of the palace. After the coup, Catherine II basically continued to live in the wooden Elizabethan palace, and in August she left for Moscow for her coronation. Construction work in Zimny ​​did not stop, but it was already carried out by other architects: Jean Baptiste Vallin-Delamot, Antonio Rinaldi, Yuri Felten. Rastrelli was first sent on leave and then resigned. Catherine returned from Moscow at the beginning of 1863 and moved her chambers to the southwestern risalit, showing continuity from Elizabeth Petrovna to Peter III and to her - the new empress. All work on the west wing was stopped. On the site of Peter III’s chambers, with the personal participation of the Empress, a complex of Catherine’s personal chambers was built. It included: the Audience Chamber, which replaced the Throne Room; Dining room with two windows; Restroom; two casual bedrooms; Boudoir; Office and Library. All rooms were designed in the style of early classicism. Later, Catherine ordered one of the everyday bedrooms to be converted into the Diamond Room or Diamond Chamber, where precious property and imperial regalia were kept: crown, scepter, orb. The regalia was in the center of the room on a table under a crystal cap. As new jewelry was acquired, glass boxes mounted to the walls appeared.
The Empress lived in the Winter Palace for 34 years and her chambers were expanded and rebuilt more than once.

Paul I lived in the Winter Palace during his childhood and youth, and having received Gatchina as a gift from his mother, he left it in the mid-1780s and returned in November 1796, becoming emperor. In the palace, Pavel lived for four years in Catherine’s converted chambers. His large family moved with him, settling in their rooms in the western part of the palace. After his accession, he immediately began the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, without hiding his plans to literally “tear off” the interiors of the Winter Palace, using everything valuable to decorate the Mikhailovsky Castle.

After the death of Paul in March 1801, Emperor Alexander I immediately returned to the Winter Palace. The palace returned to its status as the main imperial residence. But he did not occupy the chambers of the southeastern risalit; he returned to his rooms, located along the western facade of the Winter Palace, with windows overlooking the Admiralty. The premises on the second floor of the southwestern risalit have forever lost their significance as the inner chambers of the head of state. Renovation of Paul I’s chambers began in 1818, on the eve of the arrival of the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, in Russia, appointing “collegiate adviser Karl Rossi” responsible for the work. All design work was carried out according to his drawings. From that time on, the rooms in this part of the Winter Palace began to be officially called the “Prussian-Royal Rooms”, and later - the Second Reserve Half of the Winter Palace. It is separated from the First Half by the Alexander Hall; in plan, this half consisted of two perpendicular enfilades overlooking Palace Square and Millionnaya Street, which were connected in different ways to the rooms facing the courtyard. There was a time when the sons of Alexander II lived in these rooms. First, Nikolai Alexandrovich (who was never destined to become the Russian emperor), and from 1863, his younger brothers Alexander (future Emperor Alexander III) and Vladimir. They moved out of the Winter Palace at the end of the 1860s, beginning their independent lives. At the beginning of the twentieth century, dignitaries of the “first level” were accommodated in the rooms of the Second Reserve Half, saving them from terrorist bombs. From the beginning of spring 1905, the Governor-General of St. Petersburg Trepov lived there. Then, in the fall of 1905, Prime Minister Stolypin and his family were accommodated in these premises.

The premises on the second floor along the southern facade, the windows of which are located to the right and left of the main gate, were allocated by Paul I to his wife Maria Feodorovna in 1797. Paul's intelligent, ambitious and strong-willed wife, during her widowhood, managed to form a structure called the “department of Empress Maria Feodorovna.” It was engaged in charity, education, and provision of medical care to representatives of various classes. In 1827, renovations were made to the chambers, which ended in March, and in November of the same year she died. Her third son, Emperor Nicholas I, decided to preserve her chambers. Later, the First Reserve Half was formed there, consisting of two parallel enfilades. This was the largest of the palace halves, stretching along the second floor from the White to the Alexander Hall. In 1839, temporary residents settled there: the eldest daughter of Nicholas I, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and her husband, the Duke of Leuchtenberg. They lived there for almost five years, until the completion of the Mariinsky Palace in 1844. After the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna and Emperor Alexander II, their rooms became part of the First Reserve Half.

On the ground floor of the southern façade between the entrance of the Empress and the main gate leading to the Great Courtyard, the windows overlooking Palace Square were the premises of the Palace Grenadiers on Duty (2 windows), the Candle Post (2 windows) and the department of the Military Camp Office of the Emperor (3 windows). Next came the premises of the “Hough-Fourier and Chamber-Fourier post.” These premises ended at the Commandant's entrance, to the right of which the windows of the apartment of the commandant of the Winter Palace began.

The entire third floor of the southern façade, along the long maid of honor corridor, was occupied by the ladies-in-waiting's apartments. Since these apartments were service living space, at the will of business executives or the emperor himself, ladies-in-waiting could be moved from one room to another. Some of the ladies-in-waiting quickly got married and left the Winter Palace forever; others met there not only old age, but also death...

The southwestern risalit under Catherine II was occupied by the palace theater. It was demolished in the mid-1780s to accommodate rooms for the Empress's many grandchildren. A small enclosed courtyard was built inside the risalit. The daughters of the future Emperor Paul I were settled in the rooms of the southwestern risalit. In 1816, Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna married Prince William of Orange and left Russia. Her chambers were remodeled under the leadership of Carlo Rossi for Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich and his young wife Alexandra Feodorovna. The couple lived in these rooms for 10 years. After the Grand Duke became Emperor Nicholas I in 1825, the couple moved in 1826 to the northwestern risalit. And after the marriage of the heir, Tsarevich Alesander Nikolaevich, to the Princess of Hesse (future Empress Maria Alexandrovna), they occupied the premises of the second floor of the southwestern risalit. Over time, these rooms began to be called “Half of Empress Maria Alexandrovna”

Photos of the Winter Palace