- Tauride Palace
Tauride Palace (Russian: "Tavrichesky dvorets", "Таврический дворец") is one of the largest and most historic palaces in
Saint Petersburg ,Russia .Potemkin
Prince
Grigory Potemkin ofTauride commissioned his favourite architect,Ivan Starov , to design his city residence in a rigorousPalladian style. Starov's design called for an extensivepark andharbour in front of the palace, which would be linked with theNeva River by a canal. Building work began in 1783 and lasted for six years. Considered the grandest nobleman's residence of 18th-century Russia, Tauride Palace served as a model for innumerable manors scattered across theRussian Empire .Shortly before his death, on
April 28 ,1791 , Potemkin used the palace to host unprecedented festivities and illuminations with the purpose of winning the Empress's waning affections. The ball was described byGavrila Derzhavin in the longest of his compositions. Notwithstanding all the expenses, Potemkin failed in his ambition and departed forIaşi in despair.Catherine II
After the owner's death several months later, Catherine II purchased his palace and ordered architect Fyodor Volkov to transform it into her summer
townhouse . Volkov was responsible for many improvements in the grounds, including the construction of thetheatre in the east wing and thechurch in the west wing. In the garden, he designed the Admiralty Pavilion, gardener house,orangery , glass-houses, bridges, and ironwork fences. The sculpture named the "Venus Tauride " (now in theHermitage Museum ) was kept in the palace from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth, and derives its name from it.The exterior appearance of the palace was rather plain and contrasted sharply with the riotous luxuriance of its interiors. The domed hall, one of the largest in Russia, was connected by a 75-meter-long columned gallery with a
winter garden . The decoration of every major room – including the Chinese Hall and the Tapestry Parlour – was destroyed after 1799, whenEmperor Paul , who detested all the things his mother liked, gave over the palace to his favourite cavalry regiment to be used asbarracks .Congresses and Assemblies
In the 19th century, the palace was refurbished by Carlo Rossi and
Vasily Stasov as a residence for minor royalty. It had been used to hostball s and exhibitions until 1906, when it was transformed into the seat of the first Russianparliament , the Imperial StateDuma .Immediately after the
February Revolution of 1917, Tauride Palace housed theProvisional Government and the PetersburgSoviet . The abortiveRussian Constituent Assembly held its meetings there in 1918. In May 1918Bolsheviks held here their 7th Congress, where they first named themselves theRussian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) .Since the 1990s, Tauride Palace has been home to the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS). On this account, a large glass-covered annex was erected immediately behind the palace, in the Tauride Gardens.References
*Dyachenko L.I., Krotov M.I. "Tavrichesky dvorets: proshloe i nastoyashee." SPb, 2002.
*Shuysky V.K. "Tavrichesky dvorets." SPb, 2003.External links
* [http://www.encspb.ru/en/article.php?kod=2804004262 Tauride Palace in Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg]
*ru icon [http://www.iacis.ru/html/?id=26 Official website]
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