Vladimir Palace
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The Vladimir Palace (Russian: Влади́мирский дворе́ц, Vladimirsky dvorets) was the last imperial palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was designed by a team of architects (Vasily Kenel, Aleksandr Rezanov, Andrei Huhn, Ieronim Kitner, Vladimir Shreter) for Alexander II's son, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia. Construction work lasted from 1867 to 1872.
Like Winter Palace and Marble Palace, Vladimir Palace fronts Palace Embankment, because water frontage on the Neva was extremely prized by the Russian aristocracy. The façade, richly ornamented with stucco rustication, was patterned after Leon Battista Alberti's palazzi in Florence. The main porch is built of Bremen sandstone and adorned with griffins, coats-of-arms, and cast-iron lanterns. Other details are cast in portland cement.
The palace and its outbuildings contain some 360 rooms, all decorated in disparate historic styles: Neo-Renaissance (reception room, parlor), Gothic Revival (dining room), Russian Revival (Oak Hall), Rococo (White Hall), Byzantine style (study), Louis XIV, various oriental styles, etc. This interior ornamentation, further augmented by Maximilian Messmacher in 1880-1892, is considered a major monument to the 19th-century passion for historicism.
[edit] References
- Памятники архитектуры Ленинграда. 4-е изд., перераб. Л., 1975.
