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Thursday, 19.07.2007
Marble Palace
Like many of Petersburg’s palaces, the Marble Palace on the banks of the Neva boasts a dramatic history. What is now a branch of the Russian Museum was originally a present from Catherine the Great to her favourite Grigori Orlov, who however did not live to see its completion.
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The palace was built 1768-1785 by Antonio Rinaldi in a neo-classic style, using 32 types of marble, as well as much bronze and gold, and the Romanov family owned it until the Revolution. The otherwise uncouth Bolsheviks always showed considerable good taste in choosing their residences. So it was no surprise when the Marble Palace was chosen to house the Lenin Museum in 1937 – such noble surroundings were considered worthy of the leader of the international proletariat.
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| Coordinates |
Millionnaya ul. 5/2
Nearest metro:
Nevsky Prospekt/Gostiny Dvor
Opening hours:
10.00am – 6.00pm, Monday till 4pm,
closed Tuesdays
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The armoured car from which he had held a flaming speech in front of the Finland Station in April 1917 took pride of the place in the courtyard. Only in 1991 was Lenin expelled from the palace, and the armoured car went into exile in the Artillery Museum.
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Nowadays, visitors to the palace are welcomed by a stocky monument to Alexander III (‘the fat Tsar on the fat horse’) which returned from the Russian Museum to take up its rightful place, and mark the change in eras.
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The Marble Palace houses the ‘Ludwig Museum’ – a gift from the collections of the German Ludwig family. Special exhibitions of modern Russian and international artists are also held here, together with the permanent exhibition “Foreign artists in Russia from the 18th to mid-19th century”.
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(sb/rUFO)
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