Palace Embankment(Russia) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.
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Palace Embankment can be called one of the most beautiful and famous embankments in St. Petersburg. This is where world-famous attractions are located Northern capital: Hermitage, Winter Palace, Russian Museum, House of Scientists and many others. From this street there is an excellent view of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and Peter and Paul Fortress. The Palace Embankment is located on the left bank of the Neva from the Kutuzov Embankment to the Admiralteyskaya Embankment. Its length is 1300 meters.
On the Palace Embankment there are world-famous sights of the Northern capital: the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, the Russian Museum, the House of Scientists and many others. From this street there is an excellent view of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island and the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The development of the Palace Embankment began quite early - at the very beginning of the 18th century. The architectural tone of the buildings was set by the summer and winter residences of Peter I. People close to the Tsar also began to build their houses on this land. In 1705, the first wooden house of Admiral General Fyodor Apraksin appeared. The building defined the red line of the street, and all other buildings began to be erected according to this line.
Palace Embankment
Palace Embankment had many names: Cash Line, Verkhnyaya Kamennaya Line Embankment, Millionnaya. It was often called Pochtovaya due to the fact that the Postal Yard was located here. In 1762, the architect Rastrelli built the royal residence here - the Winter Palace. After this, the embankment, square and bridge located nearby began to be called palace. Already under Soviet rule, the street was renamed the Ninth January Embankment. But in 1944 it was given back its old name.
To transport the main part of the Alexander Column, which weighs 600 tons, a special pier was used on Palace Embankment. Engineer Glasin developed a special bot capable of lifting loads of up to 1,100 tons. In order to unload the monolith, they even built a new pier.
Gradually, the embankment became better and better: it was dressed in granite and made convenient descents to the river. By the way, until the mid-18th century, all St. Petersburg embankments were wooden. Palace Embankment became the first stone street. However, in the 20s of the 19th century, the area around Winter Palace remained unkempt. The construction of the General Staff building was planned here and therefore there were working materials, piles of sand and boards everywhere, as well as all kinds of warehouses and barns. Nicholas I commissioned the architect Carlo Rossi to put this place in order. Rossi developed a project for a beautiful descent to the Neva, decorated with sculptures of Dioscuri and lions. But the emperor was not impressed by the sculptures of young men holding back horses, so they were replaced with porphyry vases. Subsequently, in connection with the construction of the Palace Bridge, the pier with the lions was moved to the Admiralty Embankment.
Palace Embankment has always been famous for the fact that famous and influential people lived here: the Romanov dynasty, poet Ivan Krylov, Count Sergei Witte.
Publications in the Architecture section
Where did the Romanovs live?
Small Imperial, Marble, Nikolaevsky, Anichkov - we go for a walk along central streets Petersburg and remember the palaces in which representatives of the royal family lived.
Palace Embankment, 26
Let's start our walk from Palace Embankment. A few hundred meters east of the Winter Palace is the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, son of Alexander II. Previously, the building, built in 1870, was called the “small imperial courtyard.” Here, all the interiors have been preserved almost in their original form, reminiscent of one of the main centers of social life in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century. Once upon a time, the walls of the palace were decorated with many famous paintings: for example, “Barge Haulers on the Volga” by Ilya Repin hung on the wall of the former billiard room. On the doors and panels there are still monograms with the letter “B” - “Vladimir”.
In 1920, the palace became the House of Scientists, and today the building houses one of the main scientific centers of the city. The palace is open to tourists.
Palace Embankment, 18
A little further on the Palace Embankment you can see the majestic gray Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace. It was erected in 1862 by the famous architect Andrei Stackenschneider for the wedding of the son of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich. The new palace, for the reconstruction of which neighboring houses were purchased, incorporated the Baroque and Rococo styles, elements of the Renaissance and the architecture of the times Louis XIV. Before the October Revolution, there was a church on the top floor of the main facade.
Today the palace houses institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Millionnaya Street, 5/1
Even further on the embankment is the Marble Palace, the family nest of the Konstantinovichs - the son of Nicholas I, Constantine, and his descendants. It was built in 1785 Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi. The palace became the first building in St. Petersburg to be faced with natural stone. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, known for his poetic works, lived here with his family; in the pre-revolutionary years, his eldest son John lived here. The second son, Gabriel, wrote his memoirs “In the Marble Palace” while in exile.
In 1992, the building was transferred to the Russian Museum.
Admiralteyskaya embankment, 8
Palace of Mikhail Mikhailovich. Architect Maximilian Messmacher. 1885–1891. Photo: Valentina Kachalova / photobank “Lori”
Not far from the Winter Palace on Admiralteyskaya Embankment you can see a building in the neo-Renaissance style. It once belonged to Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich, the grandson of Nicholas I. Construction began on it when the Grand Duke decided to get married - his chosen one was the granddaughter of Alexander Pushkin, Sofia Merenberg. Emperor Alexander III did not give consent to the marriage, and the marriage was recognized as morganatic: Mikhail Mikhailovich’s wife did not become a member of the imperial family. The Grand Duke was forced to leave the country without living in the new palace.
Today the palace is rented out to financial companies.
Truda Square, 4
If you walk from the Mikhail Mikhailovich Palace to Blagoveshchensky Bridge and turn left, on Labor Square we will see another brainchild of the architect Stackenschneider - the Nicholas Palace. The son of Nicholas I, Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder, lived in it until 1894. During his life, the building also housed a house church; everyone was allowed to attend services here. In 1895 - after the death of the owner - a women's institute named after Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of Nicholas II, was opened in the palace. Girls were trained to be accountants, housekeepers, and seamstresses.
Today, the building, known in the USSR as the Palace of Labor, hosts excursions, lectures and folk concerts.
English Embankment, 68
Let's return to the embankment and go west. Halfway to the New Admiralty Canal is the palace of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, son of Alexander II. In 1887, he bought it from the daughter of the late Baron Stieglitz, a famous banker and philanthropist, whose name is given to the Academy of Arts and Industry he founded. The Grand Duke lived in the palace until his death - he was shot in 1918.
The palace of Pavel Alexandrovich was empty for a long time. In 2011, the building was transferred to St. Petersburg University.
Moika River Embankment, 106
On the right side of the Moika River, opposite the island of New Holland, is the palace of Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna. She was married to the founder of the Russian Air Force, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, grandson of Nicholas I. They were given the palace as a wedding gift in 1894. During the First World War, the Grand Duchess opened a hospital here.
Today the palace houses the Lesgaft Academy of Physical Culture.
Nevsky Prospekt, 39
We exit onto Nevsky Prospekt and move in the direction of the Fontanka River. Here, near the embankment, the Anichkov Palace is located. It was named after the Anichkov Bridge in honor of the ancient family of pillar nobles, the Anichkovs. The palace, erected under Elizaveta Petrovna, is the oldest building on Nevsky Prospekt. Architects Mikhail Zemtsov and Bartolomeo Rastrelli participated in its construction. Later, Empress Catherine II donated the building to Grigory Potemkin. On behalf of the new owner, architect Giacomo Quarenghi gave Anichkov a more austere, closer to modern look.
Starting from Nicholas I, mainly the heirs to the throne lived in the palace. When Alexander II ascended the throne, the widow of Nicholas I, Alexandra Feodorovna, lived here. After the death of Emperor Alexander III, the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna settled in the Anichkov Palace. Nicholas II also grew up here. He did not like the Winter Palace and spent most of his time, already as emperor, in the Anichkov Palace.
Today it houses the Palace of Youth Creativity. The building is also open to tourists.
Nevsky Prospekt, 41
On the other side of the Fontanka is the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace - the last one built on Nevsky in the 19th century a private house and another brainchild of Stackenschneider. At the end of the 19th century, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich bought it, and in 1911 the palace passed to his nephew, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. In 1917, while in exile for participating in the murder of Grigory Rasputin, he sold the palace. And later he emigrated and took the money from the sale of the palace abroad, thanks to which he lived comfortably for a long time.
Since 2003, the building has belonged to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation; concerts and creative evenings are held there. On some days there are excursions through the halls of the palace.
Petrovskaya embankment, 2
And while walking near Peter’s house on Petrovskaya embankment, you should not miss the white majestic building in the neoclassical style. This is the palace of the grandson of Nicholas I, Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all land and naval forces The Russian Empire in the first years of the First World War. Today, the palace, which became the last grand ducal building until 1917, houses the Representative Office of the President Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District.
A gallery was built here for the king to relax. Peter I, while in St. Petersburg, visited the gallery every day from 11 to 12 noon. At this time, anyone could submit a petition to the king. After 12 o'clock Peter had lunch; there were no visitors except for particularly important matters. Sometimes celebrations were held in the gallery.
According to Meyer's atlas, a swimming pool was located here in 1725, and a guardhouse in 1731. In 1750, the architect F.B. Rastrelli built a wooden two-story Opera House building on this site. This establishment was famous for its decorative decoration. Rastrelli created two tiers of theatrical boxes in it, an imperial box with three armchairs trimmed with gold. The auditorium was equipped with wooden chairs and benches. The opera house was also called the “Bolshoi Theatre”, which was considered a court theater. Noble audiences attended the theater for free. French and Italian opera ballet troupes performed here.
In 1755, the first Russian opera “Cephalus and Procris”, composed by A.P. Sumarokov, was given at the Opera House. In 1757, the building was rented by an Italian troupe, which charged admission. After this, many places began to be purchased with a subscription for the entire season. The entrance fee was quite high. In 1759, a ticket costs 1 ruble. In the last years of Elizabeth Petrovna's reign, tickets were distributed primarily to the courtiers. The opera house stopped operating in 1763, after which the Italians left for their homeland.
Until 1770, the Opera House was empty. Later, for two years, it was occupied by officers and servants of the court department. In 1772, the Opera House was demolished [Ibid].
On the site of the opera house in 1784-1787, by order of Catherine II, a mansion was built for Ivan Ivanovich Betsky, who settled here only two years later. The author of the project of this building is unknown. Historians have suggested that the architect here could have been J. B. Vallin-Delamot or I. E. Starov. The second of them was the chief architect of the Office for the Construction of Her Majesty's Houses and Gardens, headed by Betsky.
Some researchers of the history of St. Petersburg claim that initially there were two houses on this site. On the side of the Palace Embankment, the building was built back in 1774-1775 by J. B. Vallin-Delamot; the daughter and son-in-law of I. I. Betsky lived in it. On the side of Millionnaya Street, the building was built in 1784-1787 by Yu. M. Felten, V. I. Bazhenov or I. E. Starov, and Betskoy himself settled in it.
I. I. Betskoy is known for his role in the development of education in Russia. He was director of the Land Noble Corps and president of the Academy of Arts. Ivan Ivanovich, as well as his neighbor Saltykov, was the educator of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Konstantin Pavlovich.
The mansion was often called a palace. With its modest interior decoration, it looked much richer in appearance than many residential buildings; the building included a hanging garden. The house consisted of a three-story building on the Neva side and a two-story building on the Tsaritsyn Meadow side, connected by a one-story outbuilding and a covered gallery on the Summer Garden side.
The owner of the palace did not organize balls or masquerades; he had a significant collection of works of art here. The French philosopher Diderot and the Polish king Stanislav Augustus visited Betsky. Sometimes evenings were held here for students of educational institutions subordinate to Betsky.
At the age of 75, Betskoy adopted a graduate of the Smolny Institute, Glafira Ivanovna Alymova, and settled her in his house. He did not have paternal feelings for her, which Alymova herself did not hide. When she married senator and chamberlain Alexei Andreevich Rzhevsky, Betskoy settled his adopted daughter’s husband here. Later, Rzhevsky built his own house on Fontanka and moved there with his wife.
In June 1787, Betsky’s house was visited by Francisco de Miranda, a participant in the war for the independence of the British colonies, who later became one of the founders of the Venezuelan Republic.
The mansion was so large that some of its rooms were rented out. In 1791-1796, I. A. Krylov lived in Betsky’s house. The writer opened his own printing house here, where he published the magazines “Spectator” and “St. Petersburg Mercury”. In addition to them, over the six years of the printing house’s existence, 21 books and a lot of small printed materials (posters, notices) came out of it. In March 1792, the following announcement was placed in the St. Petersburg Gazette:
“In St. Petersburg, in the printing house of Krylov and his comrades, in the new house of His Excellency Ivan Ivanovich Betsky, near the summer garden, a monthly publication called The Spectator is published: it contains both satirical, critical, and poetic works, imitations and translations. This publication began in February 1792. ...If anyone, for the sake of goodness, decides to honor this publication by sending his work, then it will be included with gratitude.”
Ivan Andreevich Krylov was seen here not only working on the magazine. In the mornings, he loved to walk around his room playing the violin completely naked. The windows of his room overlooked the Summer Garden. The sounds of music attracted ladies walking in the garden, who often became indignant when they saw a naked man in the window. It came to the intervention of the police, who ordered the fabulist “draw the curtains down while he plays, otherwise you can’t walk around the garden (in this part)”.
The historian G. Zuev in his book “The Moika River Flows” gives extremely contradictory information about the presence of Krylov’s printing house in the house of I. I. Betsky. On one of the pages he writes that the printing house operated here from 1791 to 1796. He is supported by local historian V.S. Izmozik, who indicates the same years in the book “Walking along Millionnaya”. Local historian T. A. Sokolova does not agree with the first two, naming in her work “Palace Embankment” other periods of stay in the house of Betsky I. A. Krylov - 1791-1793. What confuses the situation is that G. Zuev already on the next page gives information that already in May 1792 the police came to Betsky’s house and carried out a search. According to its results, Catherine II took away Krylov’s printing equipment, and the journalist had to leave St. Petersburg. He returned to the capital only in 1803, that is, he could not continue working here until 1796.
After Betsky’s death in 1795, the house passed to his daughter Anastasia Ivanovna Sokolova, who was married to the builder of Odessa, Admiral O. M. de Ribas. De Ribas could only live here until December 2, 1800, the date of his death.
In 1822, Anastasia Sokolova died. Her daughter Ekaterina, granddaughter of Ivan Ivanovich, began to own the house on the Neva side. She was married to officer Ivan Savvich Gorgoli, who three years later became a senator. The house on the Millionnaya Street side belonged to another granddaughter of Betsky, Sofia, the wife of Prince M. M. Dolgorukov.
In 1830, Nicholas I summoned his nephew, Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg, to Russia. He began serving in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. On this occasion, the house of I. I. Betsky was purchased by the treasury and presented to Pyotr Georgievich. For the prince in the 1830s, the architect V.P. Stasov combined two independent buildings into one. The Hanging Gardens were removed, and in their place, on the side of the Swan Canal and the Field of Mars, a new floor was built, where a dance hall was located. Stasov also created a Protestant chapel here in the name of Christ the Savior (Stasov and the owner of the house were Protestants).
The next reconstruction of the mansion was carried out in the 1850s. As a result, its height became the same on all sides. The attic of the southern facade was decorated with a sculpture created by M. I. Kozlovsky. The prince kept records of alterations in the palace, his notes are preserved in the Public Library:
“In the pastry shop, install an oven that would heat the corner of my office near the new extension, the pink office, the main floor and the small living room. Install air vents for the windows themselves. Use an oven to heat the dance hall and the office and the corner room downstairs opposite the Summer Garden; in in the princess's office, break down the wall near the closet; in the small living room, convert the stove into a fireplace; heat up part of the staircase near the fountain; in the living room, fix the stoves and change the beams; illuminate the corridor above the stable from above; bring the temporary wooden shed into decent shape and create a skylight in the same stable "[Cit. from: 3, p. 261].
Pyotr Georgievich Oldenburgsky, like Betskoy, became famous in the field of education. In 1834 he left military service and took up public projects. First of all, the prince bought a nearby house on the Fontanka for the School of Law, which he founded. Pyotr Georgievich was his lifelong trustee. As a professional lawyer, the prince took part in the peasant and judicial reforms of the 1860s. He headed the management of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor and contributed to the creation of the Committee for the Management of Women's Educational Institutions. At his own expense, P. G. Oldenburgsky created a women's gymnasium and opened several public schools. From 1844 to 1881, the prince was in charge of the Imperial Lyceum, which moved from Tsarskoe Selo to Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt.
The House of Oldenburg was famous for its musical evenings. After military parades on the Field of Mars, Pyotr Georgievich’s colleagues in the Guards Corps and other officers were received here.
In the 1830s, Count Nikolai Nikolaevich Novosiliev, the illegitimate son of Count A. S. Stroganov, rented an apartment in the house of the Prince of Oldenburg. Here he spent the last years of his life, which ended in 1838.
After the death of Pyotr Georgievich on April 28, 1881, the mansion came into the possession of his son Alexander. After his marriage to Princess E. M. of Leuchtenberg, an Orthodox church in the name of Holy Mother of God. Magnificent receptions were often organized in the house of Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg. He continued his father's work and was involved in charity work. He founded the Institute of Experimental Medicine, a hospital for the mentally ill at Udelnaya station, People's House Emperor Nicholas II.
The Oldenburgskys' personal life was overshadowed by the problems of their son Paul. He was known as a passionate card player. In society they tactfully said that he “was not interested in ladies.” In 1901, Peter was married to Nicholas II’s sister Olga, they settled in a mansion on Sergievskaya Street (now house No. 46-48 on Tchaikovsky Street). The groom spent his wedding night playing cards.
In September 1917, Alexander Petrovich Oldenburgsky sold the house for 1,500,000 rubles to the provisional government, which in turn gave it to the Ministry of Education. The collection of works of art stored here was transferred to the Hermitage. After October 1917, communal apartments were set up here. In 1921, the Central Pedagogical Museum was opened in the Oldenburgskys’ house, and a circle named after them worked. M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrin.
Since 1962, Betsky’s house belonged to the Leningrad Library Institute. Currently the building belongs to the St. Petersburg State University Culture and Arts. It is connected to the neighboring Saltykov house, also owned by the university, by internal passages.
In memory of the Oldenburgskys and their charitable activities On July 20, 2000, a memorial plaque was installed on the facade of the house from the Palace Embankment.
