Landmarks

In our last Landmarks article, we featured the State Hermitage Museum of Russia. There we mentioned that the Winter Palace is the biggest and most important section of the museum. Today we will be bringing you more information on this Winter Palace.

The impressive Winter Palace	The ornate staircase and pillars

The magnificent edifice known as the Winter Palace or Zimniy Dvorets in Russia is located at the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square in Saint Petersburg. It was built between 1755 and 1762 as the winter residence of the Russian tsars (emperors).

However, it wasn't always as grand as it is now. The original palace, which was created for Peter the Great in 1711, was a simple one-storey building on the edge of the city. The Winter Canal, a channel which flowed from the Neva River to the Moika, is believed to have given the palace its name.

After a while, it came to be seen that the palace was too small for its occupants, so the German architect Georg Johann Matternovi designed a two-storey replacement which was built between 1719 and 1720. Then architect Domenico Tressini was commissioned by Empress Anna to completely demolish the existing building and create a more regal three-storey replacement which consisted of 100 rooms. When Count Apraxine built an even more luxurious mansion close to the Neva River, this displeased Anna so much that the Count had to pacify her by gifting the new building to her. Anna in 1732 commissioned the services of noted sixteenth century architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to remodel this Apraxine mansion into the new version of the Winter Palace.

Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great who succeded Anna as empress, wanted a palace to rival the Versailles in Paris and employed the services of Rastrelli again to create what would be the fifth and final version of the palace. Between 1754 and 1762, he created a Rococo-style building in green and white with three storeys, 1,786 doors, 117 staircases and 1,945 windows.

The old Winter Palace

However, it was Catherine the Great who became the first lucky imperial occupant of this building as Elizabeth died before the palace was completed. From the 1760s onwards, the Winter Palace was the main residence of the Russian Tsars.

There is an interesting story which describes how big the building was. A former servant and his family once moved into the roof of the palace without informing the palace authorities of their move.

They survived there for some time and were discovered only when the smell of the manure from the cow that they had also smuggled into the building with them to provide fresh milk, was investigated.

The palace was badly damaged in a huge fire on December 1, 1837. Afterwards, Tsar Nicholas I had the complex completely restored without having it razed to the ground and building a new palace.

After the Russian Revolution, the Winter Palace became the headquarters of the Russian Provisional Government. The assault of the Winter Palace by the revolutionary Bolshevik forces was considered as an official milestone of the October Revolution. With the transfer of the country's capital to Moscow by the Bolshevik government, the Winter Palace came to serve as a museum.

Now the Winter Palace is open to the public as part of the Hermitage museum and has1,057 beautifully decorated halls and rooms which are accesible to the public. The massive complex displaying grand Baroque architecture boasts 1,786 doors and 1,945 windows.

The many arches, columns and balustrades speak volumes for the grandeur of the place.