The Marble Palace is one of the most impressive and majestic palaces in the city of St. Petersburg. This palace is one of the greatest works of the famous Italian architect, Antonio Rinaldi which has a quite interesting historical background.
The Marble Palace which got its name because of the various types of marble that utilized for its construction locates at the north part of the city of St. Petersburg beside the Field of Mars and the Neva River. The palace was meant to build for one of the military generals, Grigory Orlov for his services in the Russian army, and his contributions to crown the Emperor’s wife Catherine the Great after his death.
Count Grigory Orlov was Catherine’s favorite because of all the work he had done to make sure that Catherine success her husband after his death. Catherine ordered to build a palace for Orlov in 1768, but two years before the construction completed in 1785, Count Grigory Orlov died, though he lost his influence in the latest years of his life and three years before his death, he left the St. Petersburg forever. Following his death, Catherine the Great purchased the palace from his descendants and gave it to his grandson Constantine Pavlovich. Since then until the October Revolution, the Marble Palace became the primary residence of the junior members of the royal family.
Count Orlov assigned Antonio Rinaldi, the famous Italian architect for the job. Rinaldi who admired the neoclassic architecture a lot built one of the first neoclassical construction in St. Petersburg in 1768. There were more than 30 types of marble utilized to build this palace which is the reason behind its name. He designed four different façade for this palace so people would face a new style on each side. Besides Rinaldi, several other architects and artists worked on the interior and exterior of the palace such as Mikhail Kozlovsky, Fedot Shubin, and Stefano Torelli.
The first major renovation that happened in the palace was in 1843 by the request of Duke Constantine Nikolayevich. He assigned the Russian artist and architect, Alexander Brullov to redesign the interior of the palace. Beside the Marble Hall and the grand staircase, he redesigned the entire interior following renaissance and gothic architecture style.
Like all the other noble’s houses and imperial palaces, the Marble Palace seized and turned to government offices after the October Revolution. The Marble Palace first housed the labor ministry till 1919, then change into the Academy of the History of Material Culture until 1037. From then it changed for the last time to a branch of Lenin Museum and stayed like that until the fall of the Soviet Union.
During the Soviet era, the palace interior changed its face due to its owner’s need. Most of the valuable stuff in the palace demolished or damaged during these changes. For example, the second floor of the palace completely lost its interior decoration during the time that Lenin Museum administrate the palace.
The Marble Palace turned to The State Russian Museum in 1992 following the fall of the Soviet Union. The State Russian Museum began the restoration soon after they granted the palace. The museum has three permanent exhibitions in the palace as of today. The first one is the contemporary art of the modern era which mostly is pieces of art that Rzhevskiy brothers donated to the palace. The collection includes several remarkable paintings by artists from the 19th and 20th centuries such as Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Mikhail Nesterov, and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. This collection contains more than 500 pieces of art including paintings, drawings, applied arts, procaine, ceramics, and antique clocks.
The Ludwig Museum is another permanent exhibition in the palace which contains several impressive artworks by the contemporary artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. This collection is gathered by Irene and Peter Ludwig that contains around 108 pieces of art that amazingly shows the development of modern art to the public in such a small collection.
The last permanent exhibition in the Marble Palace is Poet of the Silver age by Konstantin Romanov. Konstantin Romanov who inherited the palace in 1888 was the son of Constantine Nikolayevich and grandson of Nicholas I. He was one of the finest poets and translator of his time who translated several masterpieces of literature to Russian such as Shakespeare and Schiller’s work turned the Marble Palace into the center of St. Petersburg’s culture. The exhibition displays the personal belongings, the room, and halls that he held musical parties, performances, and discussions. The exhibition is all about his life and his work during his presence in the Marble Palace.
Besides these permanent exhibitions, there are several temporary exhibitions held in the palace throughout the year by the State Russian Museum, but the most popular parts of the palace are the architecture, the interior, and the permanent exhibitions. The Marble Palace becomes one of the main destinations in St. Petersburg Tours’ lists because of its architectural character and the impressive interior. We recommend that if you’ve got enough time in your travel to St. Petersburg, including this palace in your Russia tour program.
