Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace
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Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace is a Neo-Baroque palace at the intersection of the Fontanka River and Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The mauve-colored palace mirrors the Stroganov Palace, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the 1750s and situated on the opposite site of the Nevsky.
The palace had its origin in an eighteenth-century house of Princess Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya. In 1799 she employed architect Fyodor Demertsov to renovate the structure in a restrained Neoclassical idiom. Upon the death of her son, the palace passed to his wife, who presently remarried Prince Vassili Kochubey, son of Viktor Kochubey.
Tourists are told that Kochubey wished her palace to rival the Rastrelliesque Stroganov Palace across the street and engaged Andreas Stackensneider and David Jensen to produce a replica of it. After their major renovations in 1847-48, the palace — complete with piano nobile, concert hall, Van Loo paintings, and palace church — acquired a dazzling Rococo appearance, which prompted Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia to purchase it as his principal residence in 1883.
Upon Sergei's assassination in 1905, his widow Elizaveta took the veil and presented the palace to her nephew, Dmitry Pavlovich. The latter sold it on the eve of the Russian Revolution; two years later it was nationalized and went on to house a regional Soviet until 1991, when it was designated a municipal cultural centre. Rococo interiors of the palace sustained considerable damage during World War II; they were restored to their original state in 1954 and now host chamber concerts for small audiences.
[edit] References
- Tselyadt M.P. Dvorets Beloselskikh-Belozerskikh. SPb, 1996.
