page_title: Mikhailovsky Palace
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Mikhailovsky Palace / Design
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Михайловская площадь (Площадь искусств) и Михайловский дворец в Санкт-Петербурге в 19 веке, литография по рисунку И. Шарлеманя English: Mikhailovskaya square (Arts Square) and the Mikhailovsky Palace in St. Petersburg in the 19th century lithograph after a drawing by Charlemagne
context_page_description: The Mikhailovsky Palace is a grand ducal palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located on Arts Square and is an example of Empire style neoclassicism. The palace currently houses the main building of the Russian Museum and displays its collections of early, folk, eighteenth, and nineteenth century art.
  It was originally planned as the residence of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I. Work had not yet begun on the Mikhailovsky Palace, when Paul was overthrown and killed in a palace coup that brought Michael's elder brother to the throne as Alexander I. The new emperor resurrected the idea for a new palace by the time Michael was 22, and plans were drawn up by Carlo Rossi to develop a new site in Saint Petersburg. The palace, built in the neoclassic style, became the centrepiece of an ensemble that took in new streets and squares. It was lavishly decorated, with the interiors costing more than the main construction work. It was gifted to Grand Duke Michael and his new wife, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, by the Emperor in 1825. The grand ducal family had comfortable apartments furnished to their individual tastes.
context_section_description: The palace consists of a central block with two wings, housing the service spaces. The western wing was termed the Freylinskiy wing, or the ladies-in-waiting wing, and the eastern, the Manezhny wing, or the riding hall wing. A separate outbuilding by the Manezhny wing was used for stables, with another outbuilding, the Laundry House, placed at the corner of Inzhenernaya and Sadovaya streets. The palace faced Mikhailovsky Square, now Arts Square. Its facade consists of a rusticated lower floor below the piano nobile portico, a loggia with a three-quarter eight-columned Corinthian colonnade supporting a triangular pediment with armour decorations by Stepan Pimenov and Vasily Demut-Malinovsky.  The entrance staircase is flanked by two Medici lions, specially cast for the palace in 1824. The arches and windows of the first floor are decorated with stone lion heads. The facade facing the Mikhailovsky Garden consists of a large loggia-colonnade, while Corinthian colonnades decorate the building's wings. 
  The lower floor contains the private apartments, the first floor held the official suites, ballrooms and staterooms. There was a house chapel to the Archangel Michael in the south-east corner of the mezzanine floor and kitchens on the ground floor. The entryway leads into a large vestibule with a bas-reliefs, a Corinthian colonnade, plafond and skylight. The design of the palace became internationally renowned and respected. After hearing reports from his ambassador to Russia, Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, King George IV of the United Kingdom asked the Russian emperor for a model of the palace. One was duly built by Nikolai Tarasov, measuring two metres in length and two in width, which was delivered to the king by Tarasov's brother Ivan.
  The Blue Gallery was entered through a doorway flanked with caryatides by Stepan Pimenov, which led on to the large dining room, with a vaulted ceiling with grisaille coffers. The passageway led through a marble-decorated dancing Hall to the sitting rooms, and then the staterooms. While those of Grand Duchess Elena were particularly luxurious, the staterooms of Grand Duke Michael were more spartan. Ambassador Leveson-Gower wrote that "The only place the Grand Duke allowed splendour and luxury was in a rich and varied collection of weapons, armour, helmets, equipment, artillery and other guns in perfect condition." Albert Nikolayevitch Benois noted that "In the [Grand Duke's] Study and Library were collections of rare books, gravures, numismatics, lots of magnificent art ... The walls of the hall were hung all over with trophies, mostly sabres, swords, banners, canvases of military subjects and portraits". Among the trophies were the three cannons which had played an important role during the accession crisis of 1825, when they were used to clear the Decembrists from Peter's Square. They were gifted to the Grand Duke by his brother, Emperor Nicholas I.
caption: The palace in the nineteenth century, with Mikhailovskaya Square in the foreground
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