Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

(Ben Green) #1
ST PETERSBURG 151

Dark Corridor
The tape stries here include
the 17th-century Marriage of
Emperor Constantine,
made to designs
by Rubens.

Alexander Hall
Architect Aleksandr Bryullov
employed a mixture of Gothic
vaulting and Neo-Classical
stucco bas-reliefs of military
themes in this reception
room of 1837.


The Gold Drawing Room
Created in the 1850s, this
room was deco rated in the
1870s with all-over gilding
of walls and ceiling. It
houses a display of Western
European carved gems.

The White Hall was
deco rated for the wed ding
of Alexander II in 1841.

The French Rooms,
designed by Bryullov in
1839, house a collection
of 18th-century French art.

South façade
on Palace
Square

The Rotunda
connected the
private apartments on
the west side with the state
apartments on the north side.

The Gothic Library and
other rooms in the northwest
part of the palace were adapted
to suit Nicholas II’s bourgeois life-
style. This wood-panelled library
was created by Meltzer in 1894.

BARTOLOMEO RASTRELLI (1700–71)
The Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli
came to Russia with his father in 1716 to
work for Peter the Great. His rich Baroque
style became very fashionable and he
was appointed Chief Court Architect in


  1. During Elizabeth’s reign, Rastrelli
    designed several buildings, including his
    magnum opus, the Winter Palace, the
    dazzling Palace of Tsarskoe Selo and the fine Smolnyy
    Convent, all in areas around St Petersburg. Unlike
    Elizabeth, Catherine the Great preferred Classical simplicity
    and Rastrelli retired in 1763, after she came to power.


West Wing

STAR FEATURES

. Small Throne Room
. Main Staircase
. Malachite Room


Bartolomeo
Rastrelli
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