One of the reasons why we at the Star Travel Company have to recommend our tourists roam around St. Petersburg is that they can see multiple significant architectures. At the same time, they enjoy their tour to Russia and discover various styles of design, such as one of our favorite walking-paths in the city, the rout of Discover the Art Nouveau Architecture. While St. Petersburg has more than enough places to offer to people, who love to learn about St. Petersburg architecture, there are also multiple places outside of the city in the suburban area that people can visit during their travel to Russia, such as Oranienbaum and Gatchina, which are excellent destinations to learn about architecture history of the city.
Peter the Great moved the capital to his newly founded city of St. Petersburg in 1703, while many experts and artists, such as Domenico Trezzini and Carlo Rastrelli had helped Peter the Great to make the fundamental of the city. Many people have contributed to bringing glory to St. Petersburg, especially in the second half of the 18th century, where neoclassical architecture style had slowly replaced the Baroque style all over the city. One of the significant features of St. Petersburg is the architecture in the city. You can find multiple styles of architecture in the significant locations of the town, including Russian Revival, Baroque architecture, neoclassic, imperial style, and Art Nouveau. Each of them gives a different look to the city, and together they make St. Petersburg as one of the most fabulous destinations for architectural enthusiasts.
One of the well-known architects in St. Petersburg in the second half of the 18th century was the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi, who entered Russia in the 1750s. Rinaldi was born in 1709 in the south of Italy, and he studied architecture in the classes of one of the leading Neapolitan architects in Italy, Luigi Vanvitelli. Before he came to Russia, he was working for Hetman Kirill Razumovsky in Ukraine. After arrived in St. Petersburg, he was appointed as court architect of the court of Peter III and Catherine II in 1754; his first tasks were building Peter III’s Palace from 1758 to 1760 at Peter III’s residence in Oranienbaum. He also constructed the Chinese Palace and several pavilions in there from 1762 to 1774.
Rinaldi was one of the architects who was admired for both his interior design and architecture, and the interior design of the Chinese Palace was one of his masterpieces in that area. His great work at Oranienbaum led to Rinaldi's first significant job in the city, the industrial building of Tuchkov Buyan Hemp Warehouses, in 1763. That work made Catherine's favorite, Count Grigory Orlov, to commission Rinaldi multiple jobs, including the Gatchina Palace, which Vincenzo Brenna had redesigned it later. However, Rinaldi's masterpiece in St. Petersburg is the well-known Marble Palace, which was one of the first neoclassical architecture in St. Petersburg, also for Grigory Orlov. During his time in St. Petersburg, he also supervised various projects, including the completion of the Church of Catherine in 1782, Prince Vladimir Cathedral, from 1766 to 1773. He was in charge of the reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1775 as well, in which he fell from scaffolding and could not complete his mission, which that eventually led to his resigning from his post. He returned to Italy after that and died in 1794 in Rome.
Oranienbaum
Oranienbaum was one of the imperial residences outside St. Petersburg, where Peter III had built several structures, and Antonio Rinaldi was in charge of some of them, including Peter III’s Palace and the Chinese Palace. He began his work in Oranienbaum in 1758 by starting the work on Peter III’s palace. Peter III was obsessed with the military, and he had the vision of becoming the emperor of Russia all his life, which that obsession can be easily seen on Antonio Rinaldi’s design for his palace. Peter III’s Palace is a majestic but straightforward example of early neoclassical architecture style in St. Petersburg. Rinaldi had designed the two-story mansion for Peter III to live there alone, which is evident because of the size of the palace and its rooms. There is nothing particularly exciting inside the palace that tourists would want to see. Still, the simple architecture of the building is one of the architectural attractions of Oranienbaum that people can see on their tour to Russia.
Rinaldi’s next project in Oranienbaum was the Chinese Palace; despite its name, there’s nothing mainly Chinese about this palace, other than its significant interior decorations, such as Chinoiserie, which had brought to Russia from England rather than China and East Asia. This fascinating Rocco architecture style palace was designed for Catherine the Great, who desired to build a summer dacha in Oranienbaum. The Chinese Palace has a simple exterior featuring a light mixture of golden and ochre. Still, the interior, which several leading artists of that time helped Rinaldi to design, featured multiple magnificent styles and decoration. One of the interesting facts about the interior of this palace is that it survived almost fully intact since it was built. In contrast, other imperial palaces required multiple reconstructions, especially after the second world war. The Chinese Palace is one of the places that we at the Star Travel Company recommend our tourists visit during their Russia tour if they have plans to visit Oranienbaum on their trip to Russia.
Gatchina
When Count Grigoriy Orlov discovered Rinaldi’s talent, he assigned him to build his in Gatchina. Rinaldi designed the magnificent Grand Palace of Gatchina with the inspiration of his travel to England. The Grand Palace of Gatchina had around 600 rooms in the style of medieval castles, which Rinaldi had designed both welcoming and imposing with his immense talent. The work he had done in Gatchina had convinced Orlov to give Rinaldi the commission to build his palace in his St. Petersburg residence as well, which turned out to be the magnificent Marble Palace. Although by the time the project in Gatchina had completed, Orlov had lost his title at the imperial court and had to leave St. Petersburg, Rinaldi’s work had fascinated Cathrine the Great. She purchased the palace for his son Pavel I. If you want to visit this palace on your tour to Russia, you should know that most of the interior works inside this palace are the redone by Vincenzo Brenna, who Pavel I commissioned to reconstruct the building.
The Marble Palace
The Marble Palace is one of the most elegant structures among imperial palaces in St. Petersburg, which Rinaldi had designed with the help from various well-known artists and sculptures of that time. Similar to the Grand Palace at Gatchina, the Marble Palace was also constructed for Count Grigoriy Orlov at first, but was purchased back from his heir by the imperial court, and given to Cathrine the Great’s grandson, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. The name of the palace came from the fact that about 32 different types of marble were used to build the palace. While the interior design of this magnificent palace was outstanding, Alexander Briullov was commissioned to reconstruct the interior in 1843, who only kept the Marble Hall and the Grand Staircase from the original design and changed the rest of the palace entirely. However, this palace is still one of the most excellent examples of Antonio Rinaldi’s work in the St. Petersburg tour, which you can visit on your tour to Russia.
As you can see, Antonio Rinaldi was one of the greatest architects who have worked in St. Petersburg in the second half of the 18th century, and he should be recognized as leading members of the most prominent Italian architects who have worked in St. Petersburg. We at the Star Travel Company recommend you visit our weblog to learn more about the history of St. Petersburg and the top places that you can visit on your travel to Russia. We also have several recommendations and tips about the Russia tour and activities that you can try on your tour to Russia.
