The ensemble of the Yusupov Palace — one of few surviving urban manors in St. Petersburg — took almost two hundred years to build. Like other manor ensembles situated in the city's historic centre, it was associated with the lives of many prominent Petersburgers of the past. That is, there was a "pre-Yusupov period" in its life history, which lasted over a century.
In 1726, Peter the Great's niece — Tsaritsa Praskovia Ivanovna — gave her small manor, situated on the left bank of the Moika river, to the Semenov Regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard, where they quartered until 1742.
In mid-1740s, this area became part of a big manor owned by the adroit courtier count Peter Shuvalov, who turned into a major dignitary after Empress Elisabeth's palace coup and had a great influence over the Crown during the whole reign of Peter the Great's daughter.
The name of the architect who built the palace in count Shuvalov's new manor was lost in time. According to a 1760 painting by artist M. Makhaev, it was a mansion in Russian baroque style where count Shuvalov used to give sumptuous feasts and welcomed his crown-bearing patroness. In 1754, it was in the Shuvalov Palace on the Moika river that the birth of her son Tsesarevich Pavel Petrovich, future Russian Emperor, was celebrated with a magnificent costume ball.
Peter Shuvalov's son, count Andrei Petrovich, sold his father's mansion. Peter was a glamorous grandee and a minion of Catherine II in the epoch of the new emperor and probably thought that his parent's mansion was old-fashioned and archaic. The young count Shuvalov thought to build another palace to his taste further up the Moika river in fashionable classicism style.
The redesigned new building, built in 1770s, was constructed under architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe's supersivion, and it was by his decision that the front door of the mansion was built to face the palace court. The seven meter high fence around the court decorated with a symmetrical classic colonnade is the only palace structure surviving to this day.
The mansion on the Moika river was acquired from count Shuvalov's descendants by the Crown at Empress Elisabeth's will and granted to the maid of honour countess Alexandra Branitskaya in 1795. No evidence has been found of any reconstructions during these years.
Countess Alexandra Vasilievna Branitskaya, wife of the Crown Hetman of Poland, owned the palace for 35 years. Then the venerable landlady sold the house to her relatives, the Yusupovs, for 250 thousand roubles. The title deed was made in the name of Branitskaya's nephew Boris Nikolaevich Yusupov.
5 March 1830 was the day when new dynamic and bright life of the antique palace started. It made Russia's history and the architectural chronicles of St. Petersburg as the Yusupov Palace.
The mansion's new owners began with a fundamental reconstruction of the estate, entrusting it to Andrei Alekseevich Mikhailov, a notable classicist and "architecture mentor" of the Russian Academy of Arts. He thoroughly redesigned and enlarged it, adding to the east of the palace a three storey annex with the Banquet hall on the second floor, the biggest hall of the new palace. The palace wings were reconstructed and joined into a single building that disappeared into the depths of the court. That is where the halls of the Art Gallery were situated, with the home theatre at its end. Greenhouses, garden pavilions and landscape garden were also built in the estate yard. The architect achieved extraordinary splendour in the palace interiors, maintaining the ornamental decorations in triumphant Russian Empire style.
From 1840 to 1860, architects Bernard Simone and Ippolit Monighetti worked on the palace. The timing of their artwork coincided with the most romantic period in Russian architecture — historicism, where new stylistic artworks such as neo-renaissance, neo-rococo, and neoclassicism developed based on artistic motifs of the past. All these trends were embodied in the interiors of the Yusupov Palace. Halls of various purposes — home theatre, winter garden, music saloon, living rooms, coffee rooms, libraries, bedrooms, dining rooms, and boudoirs — were masterfully decorated in light of the “retrospective reflection on the past” trend.
In early 1890s, the period house on the Moika river was again in need of modernisation, so the Yusupovs invited architect Alexander Stepanov. He came up with a brilliant way of refurbishing the building, including electrification and installation of central heating, water supply, and a drainage system. The artist's creative genius is embodied in some of the refurbished interiors, such as the Mauritanian parlour and Oak dining room, and his best work — the miniature Home Theatre.
In early 20th century, architect A. Beloborodov was renovating the ground floor apartments for Felix Yusupov and his wife Irina. While studying at the Russian Academy of Arts he gathered a creative team of young artists: S. Chekhonin, V. Konashevich, and N. Tyrsa. They decorated the interiors in neoclassicism style, which was gaining popularity at the time, adding a hint of modern.
The Palace was nationalised by decree as of 22 February 1919, signed by G. Zinoviev and A. Lunacharsky. Commission on Museums Affairs of the Commissariat of Enlightenment decided to preserve the Yusupov Palace and turn it into an artistic and historic monument. On 20 September 1919, the Yusupov Gallery was opened to visitors, and was exhibiting works of arts from the family collection. In 1924, tours were launched into the rooms where Grigory Rasputin was murdered. Unfortunately, the period when the artistic treasures of the Yusupovs were accessible to visitors within their home environment turned out to be very short. In 1925, the museum of "noble life" in the Yusupov Palace was closed, along with a few other museum mansions as well. So began its liquidation, that is the erratic and sometimes uncontrolled removal of the more valuable works of art and items of decor.
Despite the deep post-revolution shocks, the Yusupov Palace's fate turned out to be more fortunate than that of many other antique mansions. After the museum was closed, the Palace was handed over to pedagogical intelligentsia of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), becoming its centre of professional and creative communication. Because of that, the palace wasn't used quite as barbarically and thoughtlessly as other "monuments of noble life" and its gala and private halls have survived to this day.
During the Great Patriotic War the mansion on Moika river shared the same tough fate as the rest of city on Neva river. During the blockade an evacuation hospital was located here. The building was heavily damaged by bombing and artillery fire. Large-scale reconstruction of halls damaged during the blockade began the first postwar year.
In 1960, the Yusupov Palace was granted the status of a federal historic and cultural monument.
Reconstruction of the palace and manor continues to this day. Thanks to the implementation of a purposeful scientific restoration program some visitors can now access the gala halls on the second floor, the Art Gallery suite, the nonpareil Home Theatre, the so-called parents' half: private rooms of the prince and elegant boudoirs of the princess, suite of formerly private rooms of Felix Yusupov where "The Murder of Grigory Rasputin" historical folk exhibit has been created, and the living rooms of Irina and Felix Yusupovs with recreated interior decor and a historical documentary exhibit "History of the Yusupovs. 10th – 21st centuries".
Nowadays the Yusupov Palace is a unique "monument to noble life". This is the mansion where one of the most eminent and richest aristocratic families in Russia lived for nearly a century. It has a lot to tell of the tastes, fancies and fantasies of its former owners and the nobility's everyday life in general.
Even in the absence of its art and sculpture attire, the palace still leaves a great artistic impression and surprises with its lively homeliness and how tended it is.
After the Novodevichy Convent was closed in 1922, a museum was opened inside its walls, which then became a branch of the State Historical Museum in 1934. The museum's collection was formed during the 1920s and 1930s and included the abundant sacristy of the Convent and a unique historical and architectural ensemble of items from the 16th–17th cent...
The Museum of Water (the Museum, for short) through its expositions tells everything about the water and sewage facilities and services of Moscow. The Museum is situated in the ancient Moscow district of Krutitsy, at the premises of a building that from 18th July, 1898, used to host the Moscow Main Sewage Pumping Station. The building was construct...
Varied terrain, full rivers and streams, picturesque ponds are distinctive features of the Tsaritsyno estate. However, in old times there were no ponds, and by a high bank the full-flowing Gorodenka River used to merge with the Yazvenka River that flew from the east. At some distance downstream from there, a deep ravine cut into the Gorodenka River...
WorldWalk.info
en
info@worldwalk.info