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This staircase, created by the architect Andrei Stakenschneider
in the 1850s, is located in the Old (Great) Hermitage. The walls faced
with artificial marble strikingly set off the red porphyry columns.
Metal structures, that had become part of building practice by the
mid-19th century, made it possible to create soaring flights of stairs:
the marble treads rest on iron beams concealed by moulded ornament.
The lightness of the construction is stressed by the open-work wrought-iron
banisters with a pattern of plant scrolls. This staircase and the
adjoining entrance got the name Council, because in the 19th century
the State Council met in a hall on the ground floor of the Old Hermitage. |
