Marble Palace

Marble Palace

The Marble Palace is a Neoclassical building located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, situated east of the Winter Palace, between the Palace Embankment and Field of Mars. This palace was constructed by Count Grigory Orlov, the favorite of Catherine the Great and one of the most powerful Russian nobles of the 1760s. Construction began in 1768 and was designed by Antonio Rinaldi, who had previously helped decorate the magnificent Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples.

The palace gets its name from the variety of magnificent marbles used. The rough-grained Finnish granite of the flooring contrasts subtly with the polished pink Karelian marble of the pilasters and the white Ural marble of the columns. Other materials include bluish-gray Ural marble and Tallinn dolomite. In total, 32 different shades of marble were used to decorate the palace.

The palace has a trapezoidal floor plan, and although its four façades are strictly symmetrical, each has a distinct design. One façade features a recessed courtyard that displayed Lenin’s armored car from the October Revolution between 1937 and 1992. Today, the courtyard houses a mounted statue of Alexander III, which was formerly located in front of Moscow Railway Station in Palace Square.

During the Soviet era, the building housed the Ministry of Labor (1917–1919), the Institute of Artistic Culture (1919–1936), and the Lenin Museum (1937–1991). It now hosts permanent exhibitions of the Russian State Museum, including “Foreign Artists in Russia (18th and 19th Centuries).”

Marble Palace

Must-visit reason: Saint Petersburg’s most magnificent marble palace building

Continent: Europe【Europe】

Country/Region: Russia[Russia]

Province/State: Saint Petersburg Autonomous City [Saint Petersburg]

City: Saint Petersburg [Saint Petersburg]