Sadovaya ulitsa 2
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Mikhaylovskiy Castle or Mikhaylovsky Castle (Saint Michael's Castle) also known as Engineer's Castle was built in 1797- 1801 under supervision of architects Vasiliy Bazhenov and Vincenzo Brenna. Mikhaylovskiy Castle was constructed for Russian Tsar Paul I who was obsessed of fears of assassination. His fears were probably influenced by unexpected death of his father Emperor Peter III. Additionally Emperor Paul loved romantic image of medieval period. He ordered construction of his new residence on a new location. He strategically choose a site of Saint Petersburg where Moyka (Moika) river and Fontanka river created natural barrier to a new palace that looked more like a medieval castle rather than a palace. Additionally Mikhaylovskiy Castle was surrounded by moats and drawbridges. Military guard would raise the bridges at night thus turning the land under the Mikhaylovskiy Castle into an island. Additionally engineers constructed a secret passageway to the military barracks on the Field of Mars.
The Mikhailovsky Castle owes its name to the church of Michael the
Archangel, the patron of the Romanov dynasty, located in it, and the
whim of Paul I, who took the title of Grand Master of the Order of
Malta, to call all his palaces “castles”; the second name -
"Engineering" came from the Main Engineering School located there since
1819.
A number of memoirists claim that the name is associated
with the appearance of the Archangel Michael or his envoy to the guard
soldier at the place where the castle was subsequently erected. At
least, this is how contemporaries interpreted the urgent demands of the
sovereign to call the castle "Mikhailovsky" immediately after the
laying. It is possible that the legend of the vision was deliberately
spread by the emperor in order to substantiate the very dubious need for
the urgent construction of a new residence by the saint's instructions.
The only known case in the history of Russian architecture when a
secular architectural structure was named not after the owner, after the
name of the territory or destination, but after the saint.
The general idea of creating the castle and the
first sketches of its layout belonged to Paul himself. Work on the
project of the future residence began in 1784, when he was the Grand
Duke. During the design process, which lasted almost 12 years, he
turned to various architectural models that he saw during his
foreign trip in 1781-1782. One of the possible places for the
construction of a new palace was called Gatchina. By the time
construction began, the emperor's project folder included 13
different options for the future palace.
The decree on the
construction of the castle - a long-term dream, was issued in the
very first month of the reign of Paul I, on November 28 (December
9), 1796: “to build a new impregnable palace-castle with haste for
the permanent residence of the sovereign. He should stand in the
place of the dilapidated Summer House.
The building was
erected on the site of the wooden Summer Palace of Elizaveta
Petrovna, created by the architect Rastrelli, where on September 20
(October 1), 1754, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to
Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and where, during the coup of 1762, his
mother was proclaimed empress.
The castle was built in
1797-1801, its first stone was laid on February 26 (March 9), 1797.
The first project of the palace based on the drawings of the
emperor, developed by A. F. G. Violier, was carried out by the
architect V. I. Bazhenov. But already two weeks after the laying of
the building, Bazhenov, due to inadvertently expressed critical
remarks about Pavel's project, was removed from all work. Further
development of the project and construction was led by the architect
V. Brenna.
In addition to Bazhenov and Brenna, the emperor
himself took part in the creation of the project, having composed
several drawings for him. Brenna's assistants also included Fyodor
Svinin and Karl Rossi. Paul I accelerated the construction, Vincenzo
Brenna received the rank of state councilor, Charles Cameron and
Giacomo Quarenghi were sent to help him. In addition, E. Sokolov, I.
Girsh and G. Pilnikov worked together with Brenna, and even at the
stage of creating the project, Pavel attracted A. F. G. Violier. To
speed up the work, building materials were transferred from other
construction sites: decorative stone, columns, friezes and
sculptures from Tsarskoye Selo and the Academy of Arts (several
pavilions in Tsarskoye Selo and the palace in Pella were
dismantled); from the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral
according to the project of Rinaldi - marble, including a frieze
with an inscription, which was placed above the main gate; from the
Taurida Palace - type-setting parquet.
Famous artists of that
time were involved in painting the ceilings in the front rooms of
the castle: Italians Carl Scotti and Antonio Vigi, Pole Francis
Smuglevich, German Johann Mettenleiter. The interiors of the castle
were decorated with paintings by the largest Russian artists of the
era: I. A. Akimov, A. E. Martynov, G. I. Ugryumov, V. K. Shebuev, as
well as the Englishman D. Atkinson, who lived in Russia. The art
collection of Paul I, partly located in the castle, included works
by prominent artists: Rubens, Greuze, Tiepolo and Marguerite Gerard.
In addition, the original interiors of the castle were lavishly
decorated with marble and other ornamental stone, antique statues
(both originals and copies), sculptures created by contemporaries of
Emperor Paul (including Houdon), huge vases of ornamental stones,
bronze clocks, mirrors , gold-embroidered velvet curtains. According
to a contemporary playwright August Kotzebue, the interiors of the
palace made a somewhat awkward, but very solemn impression on the
visitor.
By order of the emperor, construction was carried
out day and night (by the light of lanterns and torches), as he
demanded that the castle be rebuilt in the same year. The number of
workers working at the construction site reached 6 thousand people
at the same time.
On November 8 (20), 1800, on the day of St.
Michael the Archangel, the castle was solemnly consecrated, but work
on its interior decoration still continued until March 1801.
After the assassination of the emperor, 40 days after the
housewarming, the Mikhailovsky Castle was abandoned by the Romanovs
and fell into disrepair for two decades. When Alexander I needed
silver for a luxurious service - a wedding gift to his sister Anna
Pavlovna, Queen of the Netherlands, the silver gates from the palace
church were melted down. Nicholas I ordered the architects to
"quarry" marble in the palace for the construction of the New
Hermitage.
In 1819, the castle was occupied by the Main
Engineering School, from which its second name came - "Engineering".
In the premises of the imperial bedroom, where Paul I was killed, in
1858, at the direction of Emperor Alexander II, the church of St.
Chief Apostles Peter and Paul.
In 1820, Carl Rossi re-planned
the area around the castle. The drawbridges were removed and the
canals filled in. In subsequent years, the castle gradually lost its
original appearance. Then Tommaso (Foma Leontievich) Adamini
supervised the construction. In the years 1829-1835, the interiors
were rebuilt and redevelopment for the needs of the engineering
school (architect A. Ya. Andreev). In 1893-1894, the castle was
rebuilt by the architect N. L. Shevyakov.
From 1918 to 1941
and since 1945, the castle housed a military engineering school
(Leningrad Military Engineering School). During the Great Patriotic
War, a hospital was located in the Mikhailovsky Castle. In 1951, the
shipbuilding and special faculties of the Dzerzhinsky Naval
Engineering School were transferred to the castle for the period of
repair and restoration in the Main Admiralty. From 1957 to 2018, the
Central Naval Library was located in the castle. In 1960, the
military department vacated (with the exception of TsVMB) the
castle, which was transferred to the Leningrad Council of the
National Economy to house technological institutes. The main tenant
was the Central Bureau of Technical Information of Leningrad
(TsBTI). In the 1980s, the castle housed the Leningrad Center for
Scientific and Technical Information (LenTSNTI), the Leningrad
branch of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Technical
Aesthetics (VNIITE), the All-Union Design Institute
GiproNIInemetallorud, the Leningrad State Institute for the Design
of Power Engineering Plants Lengiproenergomash, LPO computer
technology and informatics, SKB "Indicator".
In 1988, tenants
began to gradually vacate the premises of the castle. Due to the use
by various institutions of various departments for a long time, the
state of the castle left much to be desired: the palace halls were
partitioned up and down, ceiling lamps and wall paintings were
roughly painted over.
In 1991, a third of the castle premises
were transferred to the State Russian Museum, and the entire
building (with the exception of the premises of the Navy Library)
was transferred to the museum in 1994. By the 300th anniversary of
the city, the castle was restored, many interiors were restored in
the form they were under Paul, as well as the inscription on the
facade (previously covered with sheet iron) and the statues from the
side of the Summer Garden. Fragments of the Resurrection Canal and
the Three-Span Bridge, preserved underground, were reconstructed and
opened - part of the engineering and fortification structures that
surrounded the castle. The grand opening of the Mikhailovsky Castle
took place on May 27, 2003.
Permanent exhibitions are open in
the halls of the castle - "Antique scenes in Russian art", "The
Renaissance in the work of Russian artists", "The history of the
castle and its inhabitants" and "The Open Fund of Sculpture".
The house church of the Mikhailovsky Castle was consecrated on
November 21, 1800 in honor of the Archangel Michael of God. In 1918,
the temple was closed, valuable art objects were transferred to the
museum fund. The premises were used as a warehouse, later it housed
design organizations. However, the temple was taken under the
protection of the state. St. Michael's Church was the first building
of the Engineer's Castle, transferred to the Russian Museum for
exhibitions. It opened after a restoration in 1991. Since 1993,
divine services for museum staff have been held in the church from
time to time. The temple is considered to be attached to the temple
of Saints Simeon and Anna on Mokhovaya Street. On November 24, 2019,
Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga consecrated the
home church of the Archangel Michael and led the Divine Liturgy in
the newly consecrated church.
An examination of the
foundations of the foundations of the Mikhailovsky Castle was
carried out in 2002 under the guidance of Professor V. N. Bronin.
The castle stands on rubble masonry in the form of a solid slab
2.1-3.9 m thick. The grillage is made of two rows of coniferous tree
trunks. Under the slab there is a continuous pile field. Piles
6.4-10.7 m long. It is recommended not to deepen the channel
surrounding the castle, so as not to lower the groundwater level and
so that the piles do not rot.
In plan, the Mikhailovsky Castle is a square oriented
to the cardinal points with rounded corners, inside of which there is an
octagonal (octagonal) front courtyard. The main entrance to the castle
is from the south. Three bridges located at an angle connected the
building with the Connetable Square in front of it, modeled on the
square of the same name in Chantilly, the possession of the princes of
Condé, which the future emperor Pavel Petrovich examined during his trip
abroad in June 1782. In the center of the square in Chantilly, there is
an equestrian statue of the constable Henri II Montmorency, and between
the pavilions there is a drawbridge. These features are seen in the
planning of Paul's estate in Gatchina and the Mikhailovsky Castle in St.
Petersburg. The first plan of the St. Petersburg castle, drawn by the
hand of the emperor himself, and then developed by A. F. G. Violier, is,
as it were, a double triangle of the plan of the palace in Chantilly
from the album with views of Chantilly, presented to Paul by Prince
Conde in the same year.
A wooden drawbridge was also thrown
across the moat that surrounded the Connetable Square with a monument to
Peter I established by order of Paul I in 1800, with cannons on both
sides. Around the circle were also bastions with guns. Behind the
monument, as in Chantilly, there is a moat and three bridges, and the
middle bridge was intended only for the imperial family and foreign
ambassadors and led to the main entrance.
The building is located
at the source of the Moika River from the Fontanka. Initially, it was
surrounded by water on all sides: from the north and east, the Moika and
Fontanka rivers, and from the south and west, the Voskresensky and
Church canals (now covered) separated the castle from the rest of the
city, turning the territory into an artificial island. It was possible
to get into it only through bridges guarded by sentries. The canal on
the south side (recreated in 2003) comes close to the plinth, and one
gets the impression that the castle grows right out of the water. The
approach to the building began from the Italian street through the
triple semi-circular gates, the middle passage of which was intended
only for members of the imperial family. Behind them was a wide straight
alley, along which the buildings of the stables and the arena (exercise)
were built. It ended at the three-story pavilions of the guardhouses,
behind which the fortifications began.
At the end of 1798,
Emperor Paul appointed himself Grand Master of the Order of Malta. The
appearance of the Mikhailovsky Castle combines romantic moods and
Maltese symbols. The closed volume of the building, rounded corners,
associated with round corner towers, create a severe image of the
impregnable citadel of the Knights of Malta. The development of the
composition of the new imperial residence through a number of options
led to a square building with an octagonal courtyard, which resembles
both the round courtyard of the Farnese Palace in Caprarola and its
five-sided external silhouette (Giacomo da Vignola, 1559). In total,
there were 12 or 13 projects of 8 sheets each. Brenna, probably,
connected different options, conditionally called "Western European" and
"Bazhenov". The association with the knight's castle is strengthened by
the gilded spire of the Church of St. Michael, crowned with a Maltese
cross. The imperial standard was raised on the flagpole on the opposite
side. The semi-rotunda of the church, which was located in the middle of
the facade in the Chantilly castle, is marked by a semicircular ledge of
the apse in the western part of the building and is symmetrically
repeated on the opposite side of the St. Petersburg building: thus, the
building, which did not have corner towers, was given an even greater
resemblance to a medieval fortress.
The influence of the French
school of megalomaniacs, headed by K.-N. Ledoux through V. I. Bazhenov,
who studied in Paris, and then removed by Catherine II from work in
Tsaritsyn. It was Bazhenov who was initially instructed by Emperor Pavel
to lead the construction, but two weeks after the laying of the
building, on March 4, 1797, he was suspended from all work.
In
the composition of the main, southern, facade of the Mikhailovsky
Castle, one can guess the outlines of the triumphal arch of Saint-Denis
in Paris, erected in 1672 according to the design of Francois Blondel
the Elder, the founder of French academic classicism. The colonnade of
the large order of the side parts of the southern facade is reminiscent
of the "Colonnade of the Louvre" - the work of C. Perrault in Paris. On
the sides of the portal, as in the arch of Saint-Denis, two obelisks
with Roman military fittings and the monograms of Paul I are leaning
against the facade.
It is also known that in 1782, while
traveling through the countries of Western Europe, the heir Pavel
Petrovich was in Parma (Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy) and met there
with the French architect E.-A. Petito. The project of the main facade
of the palace of Duke Ferdinand I of Bourbon (Palazzo Ducale) in Parma,
created by Petito, is an original combination of the composition of the
Saint-Denis arch, with two obelisks and fittings on the sides, and the
traditional facade of the urban palazzo with a triangular pediment. The
facades of the palace in Parma and the castle in St. Petersburg almost
completely coincide.
The spectacular octagonal courtyard of the
Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg has prototypes not only in the
classical architecture of Italy (the palace in Caprarola), it goes back
to the octagonal early Christian baptisteries. Here, despite the seeming
innovation, deep Christian traditions of St. Petersburg construction can
be traced.
Eight statues located in the niches of the southern
facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle: Strength, Abundance, Victory, Glory
and others, probably associated with the Maltese symbolism, personify
the virtues of an ideal monarch. The architecture of the colonnade of
the main passage through the southern gate and the main staircase of the
Mikhailovsky Castle (V. Brenna) correlates with similar compositions of
the Western European Baroque, for example, the Royal Palace in Caserta
near Naples (L. Vanvitelli, 1752-1774).
The western (church)
facade of the castle looked the most elegant. It was decorated with a
stucco cornice and allegorical sculptures of Faith and Hope. In place of
the windows on the third floor, which did not exist under Paul, there
were medallions made of white Carrara marble with images of the four
evangelists (John, Luke, Matthew and Mark). Now these images are on the
inner walls of the temple. The attic was completed with marble
sculptures of the holy apostles Peter and Paul by Paolo Triscorni. In
the tympanum of the southern pediment, above the obelisks, there is a
relief “History brings the glory of Russia to its tablets”, made by the
sculptor P. Ch. Stadzhi. On the attic of the building, two figures of
Glory held a shield with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire. On the
parapet of the roof there were statues symbolizing the Russian provinces
(not preserved). Eight statues meant eight main provinces, this number
corresponds to the eight provinces of the Order of St. John.
The
northern facade of the castle, facing the Summer Garden, is highlighted
by a wide staircase leading to the entrance loggia with a Tuscan marble
colonnade. On high pedestals on the sides: bronze replicas of the
statues of Hercules and Flora of the Farnese (Emperor Paul ordered these
statues to be transferred from the Cameron Gallery in Tsarskoye Selo).
The mixture of classical and baroque motifs in the architecture of the
Mikhailovsky Castle refers this building to a transitional period in the
history of architectural styles in Russia. Classical elements, along
with romantic ones, form a special “costume architecture” in the
Mikhailovsky Castle, anticipating the Empire style of the early 19th
century. Sometimes the turn of the 18th-19th centuries in the history of
Russian art is called pre-romanticism, but in this case it would be more
accurate to say that the unique appearance of the Mikhailovsky Castle is
not only pre-romantic or romantic architecture, but, above all, is an
architectural portrait of the emperor himself - the tragic figure of the
Russian stories.
The complex of buildings of the castle included:
Castle
Resurrection Canal (filled in, part under the Three-Part
Bridge restored)
three-part bridge
Gornverk, on which the monument
to Peter I was erected (modern Peter the Great Square, formerly
Connetable Square)
maple street
Two pavilions of the Guardhouse of
the Mikhailovsky Castle
Enfilade of the state rooms of Emperor Paul I
The
Resurrection Hall (other names are Bolshoy, Bely, Kavalergardsky) was
the first in the enfilade of the state rooms of Emperor Paul I and was
intended for official receptions, as well as balls on holidays. From
March 20 to March 23, 1801, the body of the late Emperor Paul I was put
up for farewell in the Resurrection Hall.
After the departure of
the imperial family from the castle, the hall was used as a warehouse,
“astronomical instruments” were stored here. Later, the hall housed the
office, archive and book depository of the Commission of Theological
Schools. In the 1820s, the hall housed the Office of the Engineering
Department. At the beginning of the 20th century, the hall was used "for
the occupation of the junkers." In the early 1950s, a gym was set up on
the premises. In the 1960s, the hall was converted into a book
depository of the Central Naval Library.
The huge (348.5 sq.m.)
two-height Resurrection Hall is located above the Resurrection Gates of
the castle. The windows of the hall overlook the southern facade of the
castle and the southern side of the octagon of the large courtyard. The
interior of the hall was designed by Vincenzo Brenna. The walls of the
hall are finished with yellow artificial marble with dark spots. in the
lower part of the walls there is a stucco wall panel with inserts of
artificial marble, with diamond-shaped panels. Two fireplaces “on six
Doric columns” located on the end walls, profiled door frames, balcony
openings and window frames of the first tier were made of natural "gray
Siberian marble". The fireplaces were restored during the restoration
according to the measured drawings of the early 19th century. The flat
ceiling of the hall with a hollow is decorated with polychrome painting
(tempera glue on plaster).
Initially, 6 paintings depicting
scenes from Russian history were placed on the walls of the hall, the
subjects of the paintings were personally determined by Emperor Paul I.
After the restoration, the originals of two paintings painted for the
Mikhailovsky Castle by Grigory Ugryumov were returned to their
historical places in the Resurrection Hall: “The Capture of Kazan on
October 2, 1552 troops of Ivan the Terrible" (1797-1799) and "The
calling of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the kingdom on March 14, 1613"
(no later than 1800). The paintings by J. A. Atkinson “The Baptism of
Prince Vladimir”, “Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikov Field”, which are
stored in the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), have been replaced by
full-size photocopies. Mirrors were placed in place of the paintings
“The Battle of Poltava” by V.K. The ceiling of the hall was decorated
with an 8-coal plafond, which was listed in the inventory of 1822 as an
"allegorical octagonal plafond representing the Encouragement of
sciences and commerce." F. S. Fontebasso (“Mr. Fondepas”) is considered
the author of the ceiling. During the restoration of the hall, a late
plafond (circa 1910) was restored on the ceiling, with the symbols of
the Engineering School (an image of a white Maltese cross with a crown,
a fortification and the monogram of Emperor Nicholas I included in it)
in a stucco octagonal frame. The hall was illuminated by four large
bronze lanterns with convex glass.
The Grand Throne Hall of
Emperor Paul I was intended for official ceremonies and grand audiences.
After the departure of the imperial family from the castle, the hall
became one of the premises occupied by General P.K. Sukhtelen; the
general’s library was located in the hall. In the 1820s, the Archive of
the Engineering Department was located in the hall, two-tier bookcases
were placed along the northern wall of the room (they have survived to
this day). After 1957, the premises housed the reading room of the
Central Naval Library.
The double-height Throne Hall is located
in the eastern wing of the southern building of the palace, its windows
overlook the Resurrection Canal. The interior of the hall was designed
by Vincenzo Brenna. In accordance with the original design, the walls of
the hall were covered with green velvet with gold embroidery. In the
center of the ceiling, decorated with stucco, there was a painting by G.
Valeriani, painted on canvas, consisting of two parts and representing
the “Allegory of Peace” and the “Allegory of Victory”. In the frieze,
which ran under the ceiling along the perimeter of the hall, there were
76 pictorial inserts with images of the coats of arms of Russian cities
and provinces. In the niches above the doors there are six antique white
marble busts of Roman emperors and their wives. Near the western wall
there was an oven lined with artificial marble, crowned with a bronze
eagle and decorated with gilded bronze overlays. The emperor's throne
was located in the back of the hall, near the eastern wall, on a rise of
eight steps under a crimson canopy. In the process of restoration, the
velvet decoration of the walls was recreated, the ceiling plafonds were
restored, 32 surviving coats of arms of Russian cities and provinces
were restored and the missing ones were recreated, the stove was
recreated, copies of the busts of emperors were installed in niches
above the doors.
The oval hall is part of the enfilade of the
ceremonial chambers of Emperor Paul I. The double-height hall is located
in the ledge of the eastern facade of the castle, facing the Fontanka,
next to the St. George's Hall. Two windows and a balcony door overlook
the Fontanka embankment. The decoration of the hall was designed by the
architect Vincenzo Brenna. The lower tier of the walls of the hall (at
the mezzanine level) was decorated with 8 pairs of semi-columns of the
Ionic order of artificial marble. Above the cornice separating the upper
and lower tiers of the walls, there are eight pairs of caryatids made by
the master K. Albani, supporting the vaulted ceiling. Between them were
five stucco bas-reliefs and three windows in one mirror glass. The
ceiling of the hall is a flattened elliptical dome with an oval panel in
the central part. On the picturesque plafond by A. Viga, the gods of
Olympus were depicted, the rest of the ceiling was coffered.
In
the middle of the 19th century, during the construction of model rooms
of the Engineering School, the oval hall was divided into two floors,
the cornice and desudeportes were knocked down, and one of the
bas-reliefs was removed, in place of which a door was made. During the
restoration at the end of the 19th century, the ceiling was dismantled,
the decor of the hall was restored, and a commemorative plaque was
installed in place of the fifth bas-relief, where a doorway was made
during the construction of the mezzanine floor.
St. George's Hall
(other names Marble Gallery, Maltese Gallery) was part of the enfilade
of the emperor's ceremonial chambers, adjoined the Maltese throne room
of the emperor and served as a guardhouse for knights of the Order of
Malta. The hall was intended not only for order rituals, but also for
secular holidays: on February 2, 1801, during a masquerade ball in the
Maltese Gallery, dances were arranged. The decoration of the gallery was
designed by the architect Vincenzo Brenna. The walls of the hall were
lined with multi-colored marble. Along the western wall were three
fireplaces made of white marble, inlaid with lapis lazuli, jasper, and
decorated with gilded bronze overlays. The doors of the hall were
decorated with gilded bronze plates. The hall was decorated with ancient
marble sculptures, gilded bronze and wooden lamps. After the departure
of the imperial family from the castle, fireplaces, bas-reliefs and
columns, parquet floors, fireplace mirrors and sculptures were removed
and used to decorate the interiors of the Pavlovsk, Tauride and
Mariinsky palaces [34]. All the marble cladding of the walls was
removed, colored marble was transported to the New Hermitage. The hall
was repeatedly rebuilt in the 19th-20th centuries, while the original
appearance of the hall was lost. The most significant changes took place
in 1843. In 1953-1954, restoration work was carried out in the hall, its
original appearance was partially reconstructed, while recreating many
elements of historical decoration. In 2007, the builders completely
reconstructed the attic floor. The work carried out within the framework
of the project "Economic Development of St. Petersburg" was financed by
the Ministry of Culture with the participation of the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development.
The Small Throne Room of
Emperor Paul I (other names are “Maltese Throne Room”, “Crimson Throne
Room” (the name is associated with the color of the upholstery of the
walls); “Round Throne Room”) was intended for official ceremonies and
grand audiences. In the decoration of the hall, in the design of the
furnishings, as follows from the documents, there were no Maltese
symbols. Therefore, the name "Maltese throne room" is associated with an
indication that in the adjacent Marble Gallery, through which they
passed to the Throne Room, there was a "guard of the Maltese Knights".
On February 24, 1801, the only official audience was held in the Small
Throne Room with the Danish minister, Major General 2nd Rank Count
Levendal.
Round in plan, the Small Throne Room is located in the
northeastern corner of the palace, next to the St. George's Hall (the
guardhouse of the Maltese cavaliers). Paul I planned to place the
Tronnaya in a room located in the opposite corner of the building from
the Main Stairs, so that before getting into this hall for an audience,
the visitor had to make a long journey and go through a number of huge
and luxuriously decorated apartments. The entrance to the Thorn Hall was
decorated with a majestic end niche, which ends with the vast Marble
Gallery stretched along the facade. Hall area - 115 sq.m., total height
- 10.5 m.
The Common Dining Hall was part of the enfilade of the
state rooms of Empress Maria Feodorovna. The hall is located in the
central part of the northern facade. Five balcony doors lead to an open
terrace facing the Summer Garden. Lunches and dinners of the imperial
family were held in the hall. Young Grand Dukes liked to play in the
Dining Hall, and, in order to avoid misfortunes, the lower parts of the
glass doors to the balcony, by order of Maria Feodorovna, were laid with
soft pillows. In the evenings, chamber concerts were held here. The last
concert in the Common Dining Hall, where Madame Chevalier performed,
took place on March 10, 1801. And on March 11, 1801, the last dinner of
Emperor Paul I took place in this hall, after which, on the night of
Monday 11 (23) March to Tuesday 12 (24) March 1801, he was killed in his
bedroom.
The decoration of the hall was carried out according to the
project of the architect Vincenzo Brenna in 1799-1801. In the center of
the end walls there were two fireplaces made of Siberian porphyry, above
which there were huge mirrors in carved gilded frames. The hall was
illuminated by 2 chandeliers with fifty candles, made according to the
drawings of G. Quarenghi and originally intended for the St. George Hall
of the Winter Palace. Porphyry vases, bronze ornaments and carved gilded
furniture upholstered in crimson velvet were used in the decoration of
the room.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Common Dining Hall
was divided into three independent rooms, which housed the classes of
the Main Engineering School. In the process of carrying out restoration
work in 2002-2003, the original volume of this hall was restored.
The throne room of Empress Maria Feodorovna was designed by Vincenzo
Brenna in 1799-1801. The walls of the room in which the throne stood
were covered with crimson velvet. In the center of the ceiling,
surrounded by partially gilded and painted moldings, there was a plafond
"The Judgment of Paris" by the artist J. Mettenleiter, which glorified
the beauty of the mistress of the castle in allegorical form. In 1859,
according to the project of K. A. Ukhtomsky, in the eastern wall of the
hall (near which the throne was previously located), a semicircular arch
was arranged, uniting the former throne and pre-throne rooms of the
Empress, in which the Model Hall of the Main Engineering School was
arranged. The restoration of the Throne Maria Feodorovna was carried out
in 2002-2003.
In total, there were five throne rooms in the
Mikhailovsky Castle: two - the sovereign-emperor himself, then the
empress, Grand Duke and heir Alexander Pavlovich and his brother
Konstantin, who had the title of crown prince.
The front
bedchamber of Empress Maria Feodorovna was part of the enfilade of the
empress's front chambers. The bedchamber is located in the eastern ledge
of the northern facade of the castle. The windows of the bedchamber
overlook the Summer Garden, the glazed balcony door of the bedchamber
opens onto an open terrace-loggia. From the Empress's Ceremonial
Bedchamber there was an exit to the Common Dining Room. The decoration
of the bedchamber was designed by Vincenzo Brenna. The walls of the
bedchamber are finished with artificial marble, on the walls there are
huge mirrors in carved gilded frames, with inserts of glass panels
painted with floral patterns. The ceiling of the hall is decorated with
fine gilded stucco. The doors of the bedchamber, with colored (blue)
glass, are decorated with gilded bronze plates. Opposite the windows
overlooking the Summer Garden, there is a shallow niche, highlighted by
Corinthian columns of colored marble with gilded capitals that support a
cornice richly decorated with stucco. The room was illuminated by two
crystal chandeliers with 26 candlesticks. Additional side lighting was
provided by bronze lamps and girandoles, decorated with a crystal
addition and female figures. A suite was ordered for the bedchamber,
which included a bed, armchairs, canapés and stools. Everything was
upholstered in blue brocade with silver embroidery. A canopied carved
wooden bed with gilding, decorated with four plumes of white and blue
ostrich feathers, was placed behind a massive silver balustrade, in a
niche against the southern wall. Shortly before the end of the
construction of the castle, Paul I ordered the return of Vincenzo
Brenna's suite and its cost, 45,000 rubles, to be withheld from the
architect's income.
Fearing palace coups, Pavel did not want to stay in
the Winter Palace, deciding to build himself a new residence. There is a
legend that a young man, surrounded by radiance, appeared to a soldier
who was standing at the clock in the Summer Palace at night, who said:
“Go to the emperor and convey my will - so that a temple and a house in
the name of Archangel Michael will be erected on this place.” The
soldier, having changed his post, reported the incident to his
superiors, then to the emperor. So allegedly the decision was made to
build a new palace, so the name was given to him - Mikhailovsky.
It is curious that according to one of the family legends, state
councilor I. L. Danilevsky, admiring the beauty of the newly built
Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg, petitioned Pavel to add
“Mikhailovsky” to his surname. His son, Alexander Ivanovich
Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, became a famous military historian.
The
emperor planned to hold meetings and solemn ceremonies of the knights of
Malta in the castle, which was reflected in the decoration of his state
apartments. The only ceremonial reception was an audience with the
Danish minister, Count Levendal, given on February 24 in the Maltese
throne room.
On February 1 (13), 1801, Pavel and his family moved
to the new palace. On the day of St. Michael the Archangel, at 9:45 am,
Paul I, together with members of his family and retinue, began a
ceremonial procession from the Winter Palace towards the castle. Guards
regiments were placed along the entire route. The solemn procession was
accompanied by the firing of cannons and the music of regimental bands.
In the castle of the sovereign, persons of the first five classes, the
highest military leaders, as well as foreign ambassadors and ministers,
were already waiting. Pavel I moved to the Mikhailovsky Castle when the
walls of the new building had not even had time to dry and, according to
eyewitnesses, there was such a thick fog in the rooms that despite
thousands of wax candles that barely flickered through the haze,
darkness prevailed everywhere, "" there were traces of dampness and in
the hall, in which large historical paintings hung, I saw with my own
eyes, despite the constant fire in two fireplaces, strips of ice an inch
thick and several palms wide, stretching from top to bottom in the
corners. The next day after the solemn move, a masquerade took place in
the castle.
The last concert in the Common Dining Hall took place
on March 10, 1801, in particular, Madame Chevalier performed at it (who
once managed to hurt the emperor's heart by singing in a dress the color
of the walls of the Mikhailovsky Castle). And on the night of March
11-12 (24), 1801, Pavel was killed in his own bedroom. After the death
of Paul, the royal family returned to the Winter Palace, the castle lost
its significance as a grand residence, came under the jurisdiction of
the Ministry of the Imperial Court and gradually fell into disrepair.
There are legends associated with the murder of Paul in the castle:
they say that a few months before the death of the emperor, a holy fool
appeared in St. Petersburg (according to some versions, Xenia of
Petersburg), who predicted that he would live as many years as the
letters in the inscription over the Resurrection Gate of the new palace
. There are forty-seven symbols in the biblical aphorism "THE HOUSE IS
SUITABLE FOR THE HOUSE OF THE LORD IN THE LONGITY OF DAYS". Paul was
forty-seven years old when he was killed. In 1901, in essays published
for the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg, V. M. Sukhodrev mentions
this text as existing, V. Ya. Kurbatov repeats the same thing in 1913.
In 1925, the inscription was dismantled at the request of the Leningrad
military school. At present, during the last reconstruction, the
inscription has been restored.
The text “THE HOUSE IS SUITABLE
FOR THE HOUSE OF THE LORD IN THE LONGITY OF DAYS” is a modified
quotation from the 92nd Psalm of David: “Holiness is fitting for your
house, O Lord, in the length of days.” Copper letters were made for the
Resurrection Cathedral of the Smolny Monastery, then transferred to the
construction site of St. Isaac's Cathedral, and under Paul moved to his
residence. The mysterious inscription really had a symbolic meaning in
the plans of the emperor regarding his new home, but it is still
impossible to reliably answer what exactly. The coincidence of the
number of letters and the years lived by the emperor is most likely an
observation made in hindsight, we do not have any reliable data on the
prediction.
Another, more famous legend says that the ghost of the
emperor killed by the conspirators could not leave the place of his
death. The ghost of the king began to be seen by a platoon of soldiers
of the capital's garrison, transporting military equipment, the new
inhabitants of the palace - the breeding corporal of the school Lyamin,
and passers-by who noticed a luminous figure in the windows.
The
legend traces the appearance of the ghost of the Mikhailovsky Castle to
the time immediately following the death of Emperor Paul I here.
However, rumors about the ghost appear no earlier than the end of the
1840s.
The image of a ghost was actively used, if not created, by
the senior cadets of the Nikolaev Engineering School, which settled in
the Mikhailovsky Castle, to intimidate the younger ones.
Fame for
the ghost was brought by an entertaining, but fully demystifying story
by N. S. Leskov “The Ghost in the Engineering Castle”, the purpose of
which was to draw attention to hazing that reigned in the school.
In the 1980s, members of the Commission on Anomalous Phenomena at
the Russian Geographical Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences
conducted a limited and informal study of alleged anomalous activity in
the building. The study consisted of interviewing individual employees
of the Patent Library (located at that time in the Mikhailovsky Castle),
filming the premises with a film camera and measuring the magnetic
field. A method known as dowsing was also used
One of the legends of the Mikhailovsky Castle is
connected with the color of its walls: according to one version, it was
chosen in honor of the glove of the Emperor's favorite Anna Gagarina
(Lopukhina). According to another, it was the traditional color of the
Order of Malta. Following the choice of the king, the color came into
fashion, and for some time the facades of some St. Petersburg palaces
were repainted in the same color.
According to legend, when the
construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, named after St. Archangel
Michael, the heavenly patron of the Romanov dynasty, was nearing
completion, at one of the palace balls, Anna Lopukhina, excited by
dancing, suddenly dropped her glove. Paul I, who turned out to be
nearby, demonstrating chivalrous courtesy, was the first of the men
present to pick it up and was about to return it to the owner, but
suddenly drew attention to the strange, unusual, yellow-orange color of
the glove. Thinking for a moment, the emperor immediately sent it to the
architect Brenna as a sample for drawing up the color of the palace.
When the Russian Museum began the restoration of the palace, the
walls of the castle were of a brick-red color, to which the townspeople
had long been accustomed, considering it to be the original one,
especially since it coincided with the colors of the Order of Malta. But
the restorers found remnants of the original paint under the plaster of
the palace facade, and this hard-to-identify color
(pinkish-orange-yellow) was very different from the usual colors,
confirming the story of the glove.
In the courtyard of the castle and in front of its
main facade, at intervals of 203 years, monuments to two Russian
emperors were erected.
In 1800, a monument to Peter I with the
inscription “Great-grandfather, great-grandson” was erected on
Connetable Square in front of the castle, cast in 1745-1747 according to
the model of the sculptor B.K. Rastrelli, made during the life of Peter
I. The pedestal lined with marble was carved by the architect F.I
Volkov. Bronze bas-reliefs “The Battle of Poltava” and “The Battle of
Gangut”, created by young sculptors V.I.
In 2003, a monument to Paul
I by the sculptor V. E. Gorevoy, architect V. I. Nalivaiko was erected
in the courtyard of the castle.
On March 15, 2017, Marka JSC issued a postage stamp
under the Europe program with the image of the Mikhailovsky Castle on
it.
On July 5, 2017, the Bank of Russia issued commemorative silver
coins with a face value of 25 rubles "Vincenzo Brenna" of the
"Architectural Masterpieces of Russia" series. The coin features a
portrait of the architect Brenna and an image of the Mikhailovsky
Castle.
On March 1, 2022, Marka JSC issued a postal card with the
letter “B”, also dedicated to the Mikhailovsky Castle.