Palace of Beloselsky-Belozersky

In 1797, Princess A. G. Beloselskaya acquired a small stone house from I. A. Naryshkin on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the Fontanka Embankment. The house was demolished, and in its place at the end of the XVIII century the architect F. I. Demertsov built the first three-story palace with a modest facade in a classical style. The appearance of this house is preserved in the drawing of M. N. Vorobyov ^[1] .

Construction of a modern palace

In 1847 - 1848, the palace was rebuilt by the architect A.I. Shtakenschneider , acquiring a modern look. The building after perestroika in the style of the new Baroque began to resemble the Rastrelli palaces. The Stackenschneider completed a project commissioned by Prince E. A. Beloselsky-Belozersky . As part of this work, not only the buildings that overlooked Nevsky Prospect and Fontanka were completely rebuilt, but also new outbuildings were erected in the courtyard of the house. Again, not only the appearance was created, but also the interior decoration of the building. It is believed that the prototype of the building was the Stroganov Palace , designed by architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli . In the decoration of the facades of the palace are widely used art techniques of Russian baroque of the XVIII century.

The sculptor D.I. Jensen was invited to finish the palace. According to his models, the figures of Atlantes and Caryatids were created. The interior decoration of the palace was carried out by the Stackenschneider, striking examples of such decoration were a wide front staircase and marble fireplaces. Along the stairs stood caryatids and sculptures supporting gilded candelabra, and the author placed graceful monograms from the owner's initials in the openwork lattice of the railing. The library of Beloselsky-Belozersky was beautifully decorated: the walls are upholstered with carved wooden panels and covered with silk, the fireplace is decorated with a relief pattern, a huge mirror in a gilded frame.

Hosts

The name "Beloselsky-Belozersky" is conditional: one of the heirs of the Butcher’s millions, retinue general Prince Esper Beloselsky-Belozersky ordered the building in the spirit of Rastrelli Andrei Shtackenschneider, but died when the foundation of the mansion was dug, in 1846. Wife Elena Pavlovna (nee Bibikova) moved to his mansion on Liteiny Avenue , having married Prince Vasily Kochubey . She did not leave the palace on Nevsky, using it for balls and social evenings. It was located next to the imperial Anichkov Palace , and royal people often came here.

In 1865, Nadezhda Dmitrievna (nee Skobeleva) married Konstantin Beloselsky - the adjutant outhouse , the son of Elena Pavlovna (in her second marriage, Princess Kochubey) from her first marriage and settled in the palace. The palace in that era continued to be considered the most secular place of the capital, the owners spoke Russian with a slight English accent - according to the latest fashion of the 1880s. At this time, a crisis occurred - the capitalization of the metallurgical enterprises of the Urals - the main assets of the owner - was rapidly declining: the reason for this was poor management, lack of investment in main production. Prince Kochubey tried to rectify the situation, for this he got loans from the state, but could not save the situation, and in the end was forced to pay off the treasury with this palace.

Since 1884, the palace was associated with the name of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich - the younger brother of Alexander III, becoming in some way a wedding gift for his marriage with Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt (Elizabeth Fedorovna). The palace received a new name - "Sergievsky".

Since 1891, the Grand Duke became the Governor-General of Moscow and the palace was empty.

In 1905, Sergei Aleksandrovich was killed by the rebel fighter Ivan Kalyaev , and everything changed in the mansion: Elizabeth became a nun, abbess of the Moscow Martha-Maryinsky monastery. Since she was childless, her adoptive children were her husband’s nephews - Dmitry and Maria . Their mother died in childbirth, and their father, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich , beat off his beautiful wife Olga , General Erich von Pistelkors , and married her. After this, the Grand Duke was exiled from Russia for a long time.

Maria Pavlovna married the Swedish prince, and Dmitry Pavlovich received from her aunt her Petersburg palace on Nevsky . Dmitry was the favorite of the last sovereign and the conqueror of female hearts. A master of horse-riding and dressage, he led the Russian horsemen at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, was a race car driver. In the last years of the empire, he cooled to the sovereign and sovereign, with Felix Yusupov carried out an assassination attempt on Grigory Rasputin . After the murder of the “elder,” the famous tsarist resolution followed: “No one is allowed to kill in Russia,” and he parted with the palace: Dmitry Pavlovich was sent to Persia . There is an assumption that he was able, in exile, to sell the palace to Ivan Ivanovich Stakheev, the owner of a large financial and industrial monopoly, but there is no documentary evidence of this.

During World War I, the Sergiev Palace housed an Anglo-Russian military hospital, inaugurated by the British Red Cross in the presence of the Empress on January 30, 1916 and lasted until January 1918. English staff worked under the leadership of Dr. Fleming. During his work in the hospital, about 6,000 Russian soldiers were treated.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace, like many others, was nationalized. Since 1920, there was a district committee of the Central Party, later - Kuibyshevsky District . The palace parted with the collection of paintings collected by the Beloselsky-Belozersky: it was moved partly to the Hermitage , and partly to the mansion on Krestovsky Island , also belonging to this family.

After the failure of the August coup of 1991, the CPSU district committee ended its existence and in 1992 the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace was transferred to the Committee on Culture of the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office and the state cultural institution Petersburg Cultural Center was located in it.

From the mid-1990s to 2004, the palace housed the Historical Wax Museum .

Since January 2003, the building was transferred under the jurisdiction of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. Much attention is paid to its technical condition. Recent restoration work was carried out in 2015. During the restoration, the Mirror (concert) hall and the Main dining room were returned with the original colors in the design, conceived by A.I. Shtakenschneider, all the paintings and panels built into the walls of the Main dining room were restored.

Original interiors have been preserved in the palace, among which there are ceremonial halls on the 2nd floor: Oak Hall (former library), used as a small concert hall, Picture Gallery, Main dining room, Beige lounge, Mirror (ball) hall with excellent acoustics, as originally intended for concerts and is still used as such, the Golden Raspberry Lounge. In all these and other halls, the artistic decoration of the mid-end of the 19th century was preserved: fireplaces, lamps, stucco molding, paintings, mirrors, furniture and much more.

This site on the left bank of the Fontanka has long gained the mystical halo of the “Area of ​​Doubles":

• At the time of the Trinity-Sergius Compound, which is located next to this palace, there was at one time a palace where the Empress Anna Ioannovna saw a double before her death.
• Not far from here lived Peter Andreevich Vyazemsky , and once, having come home, he saw in his office "himself sitting at the table and writing something."

Now, several organizations rent premises in the palace:

• St. Petersburg Cultural Center "Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace" (theater and concert events, sightseeing programs) [1]
• Channel One - St. Petersburg (Representation of Channel One [2]
• Museum of the Formation of Democracy in Contemporary Russia named after Anatoly Sobchak [3]
• Petersburg Real Estate Company [4]
• St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra
• Customer's office for construction and reconstruction of facilities in the North-West Federal District [5]
• Prime Advisory Advisory Group [6]
• Mir International (tour operator) [7]

• Official site of the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace. 3D galleries of the palace, history, poster of the concert and excursion program.
• History of the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace, interior photos