Pleasure palace
The Pleasure or Amusement Palace ( Russian Потешный дворец , Poteschny dworez ) is a small palace in Moscow on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin . The relatively inconspicuous building from the middle of the 17th century is now partially overbuilt and originally served as a boyar residence typical of early modern Russia .
The palace stands directly on the western section of the Kremlin wall as well as in the immediate vicinity of the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin wall and the State Kremlin Palace . When entering the Kremlin via the entrance in the Trinity Tower, the east facade of the Lustpalast can be seen on the right.
history
1651–52 had a petty nobleman named Ilya Miloslawski, who was raised to a boyar due to the marriage of his daughter Maria with the then Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and for this reason was now allowed to reside in the Kremlin, to build a residential building there for himself. This was built in a style that was very typical of boyar palaces at that time, in which the nearby Terem Palace - at that time the tsar's residence - was also executed. In addition to the actual residential palace, Miloslawski had the small house church built on its roof in homage to the Mother of God ( Церковь Похвалы Богородицы ). The main facade of the palace was then on the side facing the Kremlin wall, and a richly stylized entrance gate was built on the south side, which was named Lion Gate ( Львиные ворота ) because of its lion head ornaments .
When the palace passed to the state after Miloslawski's death in 1668, the still ruling Alexei Mikhailovich had the building rebuilt, in which from now on - for the first time in the Kremlin - theater performances for the boyars and the tsar and their families were to be held. The name of the palace, which has been used since that time, comes from this: the word poteschny is derived from potecha , which in turn means something like "entertainment" or "amusement". In this respect, the purpose of the pleasure palace under Tsar Alexei was indeed comparable to a European pleasure palace . The reconstruction of the palace as a pleasure palace was completed in 1674. Since then, mainly comedies, but also - at that time also a novelty - ballet performances have been performed on his stage.
Under Alexei's successor, Fyodor Alexejewitsch , the pleasure palace was rebuilt again and served for a time as a residence for his wife and her sisters. In the 18th century the use of the building changed several times; Among other things, there was an archive there, as well as the apartment of the architect Vasily Baschenow in the 1760s when he was preparing the later abandoned building of the Tsar's palace in the Kremlin. The building still kept the old name Lustpalast .
In the course of the 19th century the pleasure palace served as the residence of the Kremlin commanders for a long time and during this time, more precisely in 1875, it was rebuilt again, during which the old lion gate was destroyed. In addition, several simple two- to three-storey residential houses were built on the two side facades of the palace, some of which are still preserved today. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly servants of the Moscow tsar's residence lived in these houses. One of them was the German-born doctor Andrei Bers, whose daughter Sofia married the writer Leo Tolstoy in 1862 . The wedding ceremony took place in one of the house churches of the nearby Terem Palace. In the 1920s, shortly after the October Revolution , the additions to the Lustpalast served as temporary residence for high statesmen. Among them was Josef Stalin with his wife Nadezhda Allilueva , who also committed suicide right here in 1932 . Shortly afterwards, Stalin moved into another official apartment that was set up for him in the Senate Palace of the Kremlin.
Later, both the pleasure palace and the annexes were returned to the Kremlin headquarters, which they still own today. For this reason, the small thoroughfare on which the palace is located is closed to tourists as a safety zone, so that the palace can only be viewed from the outside and from about 100 meters away.
architecture
The pleasure palace was last restored in the 2000s and today is the only surviving former boyar residence in the Moscow Kremlin. Overall, the architecture of the palace has similarities with the Terem Palace, which was built around the same time. The gable-shaped roof construction is similar to the boyar “terems” that were common in Moscow at the time, but it is not as visible in the pleasure palace as it is in the terem palace due to the additions and the domes of the house church. The facades, clad with white limestone , have richly carved ornaments on the window frames, which can also be regarded as typical of an old Moscow boyar residence.
Particularly noticeable on the south facade of the building facing the Kremlin are the four consoles in the upper part of the facade, which serve as supports for the somewhat outwardly protruding chancel of the house church. This church, which closes off the palace at the top, is clearly visible from below through its three onion domes and a small bell tower. It has also recently been restored as true to the original as possible.
literature
- SK Romanjuk: Kremlʹ i Krasnaja Ploščadʹ . Moskvovedenie, Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-78530-434-1 , pp. 117-120
Web links
- Description on the official Kremlin website (in Russian, photos)
- Report on the restoration work on the Lustpalast (Russian, photos)
Individual evidence
- ↑ hronos.km.ru, Аллилуева Надежда Сергеевна (checked on January 25, 2009)
Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 4.6 ″ N , 37 ° 36 ′ 51.8 ″ E