Michaelsburg

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Michaelsburg south facade
West facade
North facade
Equestrian statue of Peter the Great in front of the Michaelsburg

The Michaelsburg ( Russian Миха́йловский за́мок, Michailowski samok ) is a former tsar's residence in Saint Petersburg in the classicism style . The building is also known as the Engineer Castle due to its earlier use. It now serves as a museum. Michaelsburg is named after the Archangel Michael .

history

Michaelsburg was built from 1797 to 1801 by architects Vincenzo Brenna and Vasili Iwanowitsch Baschenow at the behest of Russian Tsar Paul I on the site of the demolished wooden summer palace of Tsarina Elisabeth . The tsar was afraid of an assassination attempt. He had the building protected by drawbridges and ditches. An underground corridor connected the new domicile with the barracks on the Marsfeld . On February 1, 1801, the Michaelsburg became the residence of the tsarist family for a short time, until there on the night of March 12 . / March 24, 1801 greg. Tsar Paul I was murdered. From then on, none of his family wanted to live there. The building stood empty for two decades, so that the main engineering school could move in in 1820 . Hence the second name of the castle: the engineering castle. Fyodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski studied here from 1838 to 1843 . From the 1820s through the 1840s, most of the facility was damaged or removed. In 1855 a number of apartments in the building were given to the Nikolaevskaya Engineering Academy. Until 1917 the Michaelsburg housed the main engineering department of the Ministry of Defense. Further military uses followed from 1918.

During the Second World War, the Michaelsburg suffered considerable damage from air raids. Extensive restoration work was carried out in various stages from 1947 onwards. Since 1994 the Michaelsburg has shown an exhibition of the State Russian Museum and houses a library. Portrait paintings of famous Petersburg personalities hang in the gallery.

layout

The Michaelsburg is built of brick . It lies between Moika and Fontanka . The square building with an octagonal courtyard was originally protected by moats, which were filled in in 1823.

The main south facade has an Ionic portico . The north facade is oriented towards the summer garden. The open terrace is decorated with Doric marble columns, a large granite staircase and bronze statues of Hercules and Flora , copies of ancient sculptures. The original decor of the front stairs, the throne room, the Rafael gallery and the castle church have been partially preserved from the interior.

The castle church is dedicated to the Archangel Michael. It is considered a typical example of Brenna's classicism. According to a legend, Tsar Paul I dreamed of the Archangel Michael. The latter ordered him to build a church in his honor.

In front of the castle is a bronze statue of Peter the Great , depicted in Caesar's robe with the general's marshal's baton in his right hand. Bartolomeo Rastrelli had designed it as early as 1719 on behalf of the Tsar, but did not find the favor of the ruler. It was not until 1747 that Elisabeth, Peter's daughter, had the slightly modified statue cast in bronze. In the meantime, the taste of the times had passed over this form of idealization and it took another half a century before the monument was placed in front of the newly built Michael’s Castle in 1800. Tsar Paul I had the inscription "To the great-grandfather, the great-grandson" affixed, alluding to the dedication on the bronze rider .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michaelsburg in the online encyclopedia Saint Petersburg (English)
  2. ^ Catherine Phillips, Christopher Rice, Melanie Rice: St. Petersburg. Dorling Kindersley, London 1998, p. 101
  3. ^ Eva Gerberding: St. Petersburg. DuMont, Cologne 2000, p. 141
  4. ^ Frithjof Benjamin Schenk : The city as a monument to its builder, in: Karl Schlögel et al. (Ed.): Saint Petersburg, Schauplätze einer Stadtgeschichte. New York / Frankfurt 2007, p. 55

Web links

Commons : Michaelsburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 59 ° 56 ′ 25 ″  N , 30 ° 20 ′ 16 ″  E