Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

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

1738. 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