Anichkov Palace
The Anichkov Palace ( Russian Аничков дворец ) is a palace from 1754 in Saint Petersburg ( Russia ). The building is located on Nevsky Prospect immediately to the west of its intersection with the Fontanka embankment ( house 39 ). Originally a baroque palace, it was given its current classical form at the end of the 18th century .
In 1741, Empress Elisabeth ordered the construction of a palace, which was to serve as one of the city residences of the Romanov House, on the previously unoccupied property on the south side of Nevsky Perspective Street west of the Fontanka. Construction began shortly thereafter and lasted until 1754. The design came from the city master builder Michail Semzow , but after he died in 1743, the baroque court architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli continued the construction work, modifying the original design somewhat. When it was completed, the representative palace had a stone enclosure wall on the side of Perspektivstrasse, and on the side of the river there was both the parade entrance and its own dock for boats. The name of the palace, which still exists today, was chosen based on the Anichkov Bridge , the bridge on Nevsky Prospect that spans the Fontanka in the immediate vicinity of the palace.
From 1757 the palace belonged to Count Alexei Grigoryevich Rasumovsky , and two decades later Empress Catherine II gave the Anichkov Palace to her partner, Count Grigory Alexandrovich Potjomkin . A little later, the classical master builder Ivan Starow carried out the reconstruction of the palace in its present form on behalf of Potjomkin. Among other things, the boat harbor on the Fontanka disappeared and the formerly very solemn baroque shape of the facades was considerably simplified. The two roof projections crowned with domes, which gave the palace an H-shaped floor plan, were partially dismantled; a house church was set up in one of them, but this was also dissolved in the 20th century. Instead, the palace received its characteristic row of Ionic columns on the facades during the renovation by Starow .
After Potjomkin's death, the palace was returned to the court and officially became an imperial residence from 1793. There were further alterations to the building in 1809–1812, when Luigi Rusca redesigned some of the interiors, and in 1817–1820 based on a design by Carlo Rossi , who also built the two courtyard pavilions at the same time. 1803–1805 Giacomo Quarenghi built another classical building from the ensemble of the Anitschkow-Palais in the forecourt facing Moika-Uferstrasse with the cabinet of His Imperial Majesty .
The palace remained in the possession of the Romanov House until the February Revolution of 1917 , including where Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich lived from 1866, who also became Alexander III after his enthronement . preferred the Anitschkow-Palais as a residential residence. His son Nikolai Alexandrowitsch, who later became Emperor Nikolaus II , also spent his youth in the Anichkov Palace.
In 1918 the building complex was nationalized and then housed the Leningrad City Museum until the mid-1930s. In 1937, the Palace of the Lenin Pioneers , an ideological children's leisure center, was established here. With the collapse of the Soviet Union , the former Palace of Pioneers became the Palace of Creativity for Young People in 1990 . This important leisure facility, which includes numerous youth facilities and a school , is still located in the Anitschkow Palace today.
literature
- BMKirikov, LAKirikova, OVPetrova: Nevskij Prospect. Dom za domom . Centrpoligraf, St. Petersburg / Moscow, 3rd edition 2009, ISBN 978-5-9524-4205-4
- AGMitrofanov: Progulki po Sankt-Peterburgu. Nevsky prospect . Kljutsch-S publishing house, Moscow 2010, ISBN 978-5-93136-125-3
Web links
- Anichkov Palace in the Saint Petersburg Encyclopedia (Russian)
Coordinates: 59 ° 55 ′ 58 ″ N , 30 ° 20 ′ 23 ″ E