The Palace Embankment or Palace Quay (Russian: Дворцовая набережная, Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya) is a street along the Neva River in Central Saint Petersburg which contains the complex of the Hermitage Museum buildings (including the Winter Palace), the Hermitage Theatre, the New Michael Palace, the Saltykov Mansion and the Summer Garden. The embankment was wooden up to 1761, when Catherine the Great ordered court architect Yury Felten to build stone embankments. The street as seen nowadays was laid out between 1763 and 1767, when it used to be a preferred place of residence for the Russian Imperial Nobility. The street begins at the Palace Bridge, where the

Admiralty Embankment The Admiralty Embankment ( (''Admiralteyskaya Naberezhnaya'')) or Admiralty Quay is a street along the Neva River in Central Saint Petersburg, named after the Admiralty Board. Between 1919 and 1944 the street was known as Roshal Embankment, named ...

becomes the Palace Embankment, and the street ends at the Fontanka, where it becomes the Kutuzov Embankment. The Palace Embankment is one of the main places of interest in the city as it offers a wonderful view of the Neva, the Peter and Paul Fortress and Vasilievsky Island.

Notable locations

* No. 5/1 ( Millionnaya st.) — the Marble Palace, built by Antonio Rinaldi for Catherine's favourite Grigory Orlov. Since 1992 the palace is a part of the Russian museum. * No. 26 — Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich palace, 1860s, built by Alexander Rezanov.

Pushkin associations

In his novel '' Eugene Onegin'', Alexander Pushkin depicted himself walking along Palace Quay with his hero, Eugene Onegin: For the first edition of this chapter, the poet commissioned an illustration depicting him and Onegin walking together along the quay. Upon receiving the illustration, which represented him leaning on a parapet with his back turned towards the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exceedingly displeased with the result (which had little in common with his own preliminary sketch, illustrated to the right) and scribbled the following

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

underneath (here in translation by Vladimir Nabokov):

References

Sources

* * * {{Authority control Streets in Saint Petersburg Odonyms referring to a building Art gallery districts 1763 establishments in the Russian Empire Hermitage Museum Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg