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A New Imperial Residence "When one knows that the localities in this city were an impassable marsh less than fifty years ago," one mid-18th-century traveller wrote about St Petersburg, "on first seeing it, one might well believe that it was made by magic. The splendid buildings, broad streets, gilded bell-towers and roofs of many palaces present a picture worthy of delight." In the very centre of the capital at that time, right on the bank of the Neva, stood the huge and rambling building of the Winter Palace. Erected by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the 1730s on the orders of Empress Anna Ioannovna, it had already been reconstructed several times. The palace comprised both newly constructed elements and pre-existing buildings - the palace of Admiral Apraxin and the mansions of associates of Peter the Great. It did not, however, accord with Empress Elizabeth's ideas of an imperial residence and she ordered Rastrelli to put up a new palace in its place. According to the architect's concept, in front of the palace there was to be a grand square surrounded by a gallery with a broad entranceway. In the centre he proposed to set up the equestrian monument to Peter the Great that had been created by his sculptor father (it now stands in front of St Michael's Castle). In April 1754 Elizabeth Petrovna signed a decree ordering the construction of the Winter Palace alone - disregarding the plan for the construction of an ensemble. The building was standing by 1759, but finishing work continued into the 1760s. The Empress who had commissioned it died in December 1761, and in the spring of the following year her nephew, Peter III, moved into the Winter Palace. He awarded Rastrelli the Order of St Anne and the rank of major general. Soon after the palace coup of 28 June 1762 that brought Catherine II to the throne, the chief architect was discharged. The Winter Palace became a gem of the new Russian capital. Painted with "sandy paint with the subtlest hint of yellow, and white lime on the ornament", it stood out vividly against the grey northern sky and the leaden waters of the river, towering above the earth ramparts around the Admiralty and the surrounding two-storey houses. A contemporary wrote with admiration about the magnificent panorama of the capital city opened up to him as he approached St Petersburg: "the gold spires of its tall towers and bell-towers, as well as visible too from a distance and rising above the rooftops the upper storey of the new Winter palace, adorned with a host of statues". |
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