The Premier Site for Russian Culture
Original house on the site belonged to Prince Alexander Menshikov (1710). After he was sent into exile (1727), the house was awarded to Count Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann and rebuilt. After th...
Built by Giacomo Quarenghi for lord chamberlain Ivan Yelagin on Yelagin Island (1780s). A granite landing wharf was built in front of the palace (late 18th century). Inherited by Dowager Empress Maria...
First Winter Palace Original “winter house” was a small single-storey wooden building created for Peter the Great on the bank of the River Neva (1708). Dismantled (1711) to make way for the Winter Pa...
Built by Ivan Starov for Prince Grigory Potemkin (1783–89). Potemkin was awarded the title of “prince of Tauride” for annexing the Crimea and the name was applied to the palace and adjoining garden. ...
The Summer Palace stands in the north-east corner of the Summer Garden. The first wooden palace was built on the “summer allotment” laid out by Peter the Great on a plot of land between the River Nev...
Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli began laying the foundations of a new wooden palace for the regent of Ivan VI, Anna Leopoldovna, in the Third Summer Garden on the bank of the River Fontanka (1741). Co...
A rare example of the Baroque style in the residential architecture of St Petersburg, the Stroganov Palace was built by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (1752–54) on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and t...
Peter the Great awarded a plot of land for a country residence on the bank of the Anonymous Creek to Count Boris Sheremetev (1712). A timber-frame house was built for his son Count Pyotr Sheremetev (...
The Mikhailovsky Palace is named after its first owner, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I. The palace was built between 1819 and 1825 for the marriage of the grand duke...
The Menshikov Palace was the residence of Prince Alexander Menshikov, a close friend and ally of Peter the Great. The first stone building in St Petersburg, it stood at the centre of a large urban es...