Tauride Palace () is one of the largest and most historically important palaces in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Construction and early use

Prince

Grigory Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (A number of dates as late as 1742 have been found on record; the veracity of any one is unlikely to be proved. This is his "official" birth-date as given on his tombstone.) was a Russian mi ...

Tauride The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as ''Tauris'', ''Taurica'' (), and the ''Tauric Chersonese'' (, "Tauric Peninsula"), begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast ...

commissioned his favourite architect,

Ivan Starov Ivan Yegorovich Starov (; 23 February 1745 – 17 April 1808) was a Russian architect from Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, and many other towns in Russia and Ukr ...

, to design his city residence in a rigorous Palladian style. Starov's design called for an extensive

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

, later the

Tauride Garden The Tauride Garden () is a park in the Tsentralny District, Saint Petersburg, Tsentralny District of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located behind the Tauride Palace, and near the Smolny Cathedral. History The garden was laid out between 1783 a ...

, and

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

in front of the palace, which would be linked with the

Neva River The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth-l ...

by a canal. Building work began in 1783 and lasted for six years. The 13-bay front of the palace has a Tuscan portico and is topped by a shallow dome. A square vestibule leads to an octagonal hall, with the huge "Catherine Hall" beyond. This had eighteen Ionic Greek columns on either side and opens into a large, enclosed

winter garden A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime. History The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility constructed large conservatories that housed tropical and subtropical pla ...

with a central circular colonnade. Considered the grandest nobleman's residence of 18th-century Russia, Tauride Palace served as a model for innumerable manors scattered across the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Shortly before his death, on 28 April 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 by

Gavrila Derzhavin Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin (, ; 14 July 1743 – 20 July 1816) was one of the most highly esteemed Russian poets before Alexander Pushkin, as well as a statesman. Although his works are traditionally considered literary classicis ...

in the longest of his

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

compositions.

Imperial acquisition and use

Several months after the owner's death,

Catherine II Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

purchased his palace and ordered architect Fyodor Volkov to transform it into her summer

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

. Volkov was responsible for many improvements in the grounds, including the construction of the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

in the east wing and the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the west wing. In the garden, he designed the Admiralty Pavilion, gardener house,

orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

, glass-houses, bridges, and ironwork fences. The sculpture named the ''

Venus Tauride The Venus Tauride or Venus of Tauris is a 1.67 m high sculpture of Aphrodite. It is named after the Tauride (Tavrichesky) Palace in St Petersburg, where it was kept from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth. It is now in ...

'' (now in the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

) 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 columned gallery with a

. The decoration of every major room – including the Chinese Hall and the Tapestry Parlour – was destroyed after 1799, when

Emperor Paul Paul I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted ...

, who detested all the things his mother liked, gave over the palace to his favourite cavalry regiment to be used as

stable A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...

s and

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

. In the 19th century, the palace was refurbished by Carlo Rossi and

Vasily Stasov Duke Vasily Petrovich Stasov (Russian: Васи́лий Петро́вич Ста́сов; 4 August 1769 – 5 September 1848) was a famous Russian architect, born into a wealthy noble family: his father, Pyotr Fyodorovich Stasov, came from ...

as a residence for minor royalty. It was then used to host

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

s and exhibitions until 1906, when it was transformed into the seat of the first Russian

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, the Imperial

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

Use during the Russian revolution

Immediately after the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

of 1917, Tauride Palace housed the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...

and the Petrograd Soviet, in opposite wings of the palace. (In early March the Provisional Government moved to the Marinsky Palace.) The abortive

Russian Constituent Assembly The All Russian Constituent Assembly () was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., , whereupon it was dissolved by the Bolshevik-led All-Russian Central Ex ...

held its meetings there in 1918. In May 1918

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

used the building to hold their 7th Congress, where they first named themselves the

Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

Post-revolutionary uses

From 1920 to 1991, the Tauride Palace was used for the High Party School. Since the 1990s, Tauride Palace has been home to the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

(IPA CIS). On this account, a large glass-covered annex was erected immediately behind the palace, in the Tauride Gardens.

References

Works cited *Dyachenko L.I., Krotov M.I. ''Tavrichesky dvorets: proshloe i nastoyashee.'' SPb, 2002. *Shuysky V.K. ''Tavrichesky dvorets.'' SPb, 2003.

External links

Tauride Palace in Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg

Official website
{{Coord, 59, 56, 52, N, 30, 22, 33, E, type:landmark, display=title Carlo Rossi buildings and structures Houses completed in 1789 Palaces in Saint Petersburg Royal residences in Russia Government buildings in Russia Russian Provisional Government Legislative buildings in Europe Palladian architecture Neoclassical palaces in Russia Seats of national legislatures 1789 establishments in the Russian Empire Government buildings with domes Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg State Duma of the Russian Empire February Revolution Lensovet Commonwealth of Independent States