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This is one of the ground-floor galleries of the Winter
Palace designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the middle of
the 18th century and remarkable for its particular air of majesty.
The gallery with the massive columns supporting the majestic vaults
of the nave and aisles demonstrates the features characteristic of
the Russian Baroque style: monumentality, an expressive treatment
of masses and forms, and a synthesis of architecture and sculpture.
In the 18th century this gallery was known as the Main Gallery because
guests of the royal residence passed it when going from the Main Vestibule
to the Main Staircase. Their carriages approached the Ambassador's
Entrance to the Winter Palace by the sloping way on the side of the
state courtyard. The gallery and the entrance overlooking the Neva
were renamed the Jordan ones in the 19th century. On the Epiphany
Day the so-called "Jordan" - a tabernacle for consecration of water
and for religious services - used to be erected over an ice-hole in
the Neva River. Religious processions went through the Jordan Gallery
on the way from the Grand Church of the Winter Palace to the Neva. |
