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The Stroganov Palace area 5 434,2 sq. m.
Buiding volume 45 500 cube m.
The Stroganov Palace is the one single monument on the town's main street to mid-eighteenth century residential architecture. It is three-storeyed building on the Nevsky Prospect and the Moika Embankment corner and from the very beginning it stood out among philistine development not only with its sizes but also with richly decorated facades. Even now, surrounded by buildings of no less architectural or physical presence, the palace continues to stand out, both in the perspective of Nevsky Prospekt and from the far distances beyond the bend of the Moika Canal. Seven generations of Stroganov barons and counts succeeded one another in the palace from the middle of the eighteenth century right up until 1918. Every owner has brought some changes in its architectural image.
Major changes to the palace's outer face were introduced by perhaps the most eminent of all the Stroganovs - Count Alexander Stroganov (1733 - 1811), full Privy Councillor, oberkammerherr, president of the Academy of Arts, director of the Public Academy and art patron and collector. He gave the majority of the interiors a classical finish. New rooms and studies also appeared - the Corner Hall, the Mineral Room, the Picture Gallery, the Dining Room, the Little Library and the State Bedroom. Such talented architects as Fyodor Demertsov, Andrei Voronikhin, Pyotr Sadovnikov and Ivan Kolodin all laboured on their creation. The wonderful decor of the rooms was set off with sumptuous fittings: period furniture, lamps of various kinds, drawings and sculptures, display cabinets and show-cases containing collections of old coins, rare fossils and minerals. The well-stocked library contained works by ancient and modern authors, both Russian and foreign, on art, history, archaeology, mining and many other
Conception of the Stroganov Palace museification
"Private collections in the Russian Museum"
Systematic restoration work in the Stroganov Palace have been carried out since the moment of its transferring to the Russian Museum in 1991. To the present time we have recreated the ground floor interiors with lowering of the floor to historical marks. There have been restored and commissioned for exposition and exhibition work the State Dining Room (the Corner Hall), New Reception Room, Large Ballroom (Rastrelli Hall).
Taking into account the fact that among all the palaces transferred to the Russian Museum only the Stroganov Palace was built as a private house and its owners - the Stroganovs - were the most significant collectors in Rus the main idea of museification conception will be exhibiting private collections that since earliest times belonged to the Russian Museum and that were gifted not so long ago.
In the exposition that is located in the suite of gala halls (the State Dining Room, Old Reception Room, Hubert Robert Hall, Arabesque Drawing Room, Mineral Cabinet, Picture Gallery, Physical Cabinet) could be shown collections that historically were part of the museum collection - those of A. B. Lobanov-Rostovsky, A. N. Argutinsky-Dolgoruly, M. P. Botkin, N. P. Kondakov, N. P. Likhachev, M. N. Tenisheva et al., as well as collections given to the museum in the last decades - gifts of collectors A. G. Eder, K. B. Okuneva, J. A. Rzhevskaya and I. R. Rzhevsky, that present different aspects of national art.
"History of the palace, the Stroganovs' family history" section will present divers materials of document character and the palace archaeology that will allow to show the stages of building and its repeated rebuilding. Considerable part of the exposition will be devoted to the old and noble family of Stroganovs that has played an important part in Russian history.
The manuscript sector and the Russian Museum scientific archive that are provided with up-to-date equipment for preservation and with a reading-hall will be placed in the Western Wing second floor.
In the former service room of the building's northern wing that was built for count P. A. Stroganov by the architect P. S. Sadovnikov will be located Stroganovs' apartments. Baroness Helene de Luedenhausen, nee Stroganov, has founded the Charity Stroganovs' Fund in order to support financially the palace restoration. There have been already realized a number of considerable projects. In present time the Large Ballroom furniture suite is under recreation process.
The Palace's museification is impossible without transferring to the Russian Museum the house No 19 on the Nevsky Prospect (the former Stroganovs' house). At the expense of internal rooms there will be created an entrance group, electric substation will be removed from the monument building and the unique interior will be safe as the exposition historical and life section that has a peculiar significance for the palace will be considerably enlarged. House No 19 will be exhibition complex that will include a lithographic workshop with functioning pressroom, the photography museum on the Contemporary art department base and a conference hall for scientific and educational work. Through the former servants' apartments is revealed originally existing passage from the palace, thus in the house No 19 ground floor will be created the museum's production trading zone that is particularly effective for the museum located in the very center of tourists' routes.
For the period from 1991 to 1998:
There were restored enfilades from the ground floor 13 halls along the Moika River Embankment and the Nevsky Prospect and parade halls of the first floor with the total area 1138 sq. m. costing Cost of the works - $ 4 900 000
To 2003:
Restoration of parade interiors with the area 3 295 sq. m., the roof reconstruction with the area 3 966 sq. m., restoration of the facade with the area 5 114 sq. m.
Cost of the works - $ 7 100 000
Total cost of the works - $ 22 600 000
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