Winter Palace (Saint Petersburg)
Russia /
Sankt Petersburg /
Saint Petersburg /
Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya, 38
World
/ Russia
/ Sankt Petersburg
/ Saint Petersburg
, 1 km from center (Санкт-Петербург)
palace, museum, place with historical importance, Baroque (architecture), UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1760s construction, 18th century construction, October Revolution, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (architect)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz6B1mkV1gw
Palace Embankment, 32
Sankt-Peterburg, Russia, 190000
Phone: +7 812 710-90-79
www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/?lng=en
The Winter Palace was the official residence of the Russian Emperors from 1732 to 1917. Today, the palace and its precincts form the Hermitage Museum. The elegant, monumental palace is a striking monument of the Baroque style in mid-18th-century Russian art. The palace is a brilliant example of the synthesis of architecture and decorative plastic art. All the facades are embellished by a two-tier colonnade. Forming a complex rhythm of verticals, the columns soar upwards, and this motion embraces the numerous statues and vases on the roof. The abundance of moulded decoration - fanciful cornices and window architraves, mascarons, cartouches, rocailles and a variety of pediments - creates an extremely rich play of light and shade that invest the building's appearance with magnificence.
Developing upon one and the same architectural motif, Rastrelli gave each of the four facades of the palace a different structural rhythm. The southern facade, overlooking the square, has a formal grandeur. Here the architect pierced the building with three arches to create a grand entrance into the courtyard and accentuated it with the vertical elements of paired columns. The majestic northern facade, giving the impression of an endless colonnade, faces the broad expanse of the Neva. The western facade, across from the Admiralty, is reminiscent of the composition of a countryside palace with a small courtyard. The monumental eastern facade with its massive side blocks forming a large cour d'honneur is turned to Millionnaya Street, where the mansions of the nobility stood.
For 150 years the palace served as an imperial residence. In November 1917, after the October Revolution, it was declared a museum. The exhibition placed in the palace includes grand halls and chambers, collections of the antiquities of Eurasia and the East, as well as collections of European and Eastern paintings, sculptures and decorative art works.
Video about the Hermitage and the Winter Palace:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzST7q4ZdG8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m53NP_ydpmY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8jJ-L9OO-E
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wEtHLI251s
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Palace
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 59°56'25"N 30°18'49"E
- Koltushskaya Hills 17 km
- Petrovsky Fairway 18 km
- Yukky Hills 23 km
- The Sea Channel 29 km
- Lomonosov 37 km
- Kronstadt 39 km
- Gatchina 40 km
- The Road of Life 51 km
- Oranienbaum Bridgehead 75 km
- Kenozersky National Park 481 km
- Dvortsovy Municipal Okrug 0.7 km
- Admiralty Island 0.9 km
- Kazanskiy Island 1 km
- Spassky Island 1.2 km
- Bezymyanny island 1.3 km
- Admiralteysky Municipal Okrug 1.4 km
- Municipal Okrug 7 2 km
- Tsentralny District 2.4 km
- Admiralteysky District 2.7 km
- Vasileostrovsky District 3.8 km