The Winter Palace, located in St Petersburg on the River Neva, was the former royal residence of the Russian tsars from 1732 to 1917. The present building is the fourth Winter Palace, which was restored following a savage fire in 1837, although the destroyed interior was largely redesigned.
The first Imperial residence on the site of the Winter Palace was built 1708 by Peter the Great, which was a modest wooden house in the Dutch style. The wooden building was later transported to the Petrovskaya Naberezhnaya and the first Winter Palace, designed by Domenico Trezzini, was built on the site in 1711. However, Peter soon got tired of the modest two storey palace under a slate roof and the second version of the Winter Palace was built by him in 1721, under the direction of architect Georg Mattarnovy, where he died in 1725.Peter the Great was succeeded by his widow, Catherine I and she in turn was succeeded by Peter’s grandson Peter II Alexeyevich, who got the palace redesigned and expanded to such an extent that the palace designed by Mattarnovy became merely one of the two terminating pavilions of the new and the third Winter Palace. However, shortly after the third palace was completed in 1728, the Winter Palace lost its status as the principal imperial residence, as the Imperial Court left St Petersburg for Moscow again. Following the death of Peter II in 1730, the throne passed to a niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ivonovna, who re-established the Imperial court at the Winter Palace and Saint Petersburg again officially replaced Moscow in 1732, as the capital of Russia. In the early 1730s, Empress Anna Ivonovna commissioned Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli to design a bigger residence, which was completed in 1735.
However, it served for only 17 years before Rastrelli was commissioned again, this time by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who requested renovations to create a palace of unparalleled opulence, as she regarded the palace as a symbol of national pride and prestige. As different plans for the proposed renovation was rejected by the Empress during the next two years, Rastrelli eventually decided to completely rebuild the palace and his new design was confirmed by the empress in 1754. Finally, the huge project began in 1754 and with more than 4,000 people involved in the construction of the fourth Winter Palace, known for its elegance and luxury and considered a masterpiece of Russian Baroque architecture, was completed in 1762, when Catherine the Great took the throne.
The three-storey building of the fourth Winter Palace, built around a quadrangle, is considered as a masterpiece of Russian Baroque architecture. The palace forms a square with an interior courtyard accessed via three archways facing the Palace Square. Although each of the four richly decorated facades are unique and represent different structural rhythms, they all featured white columns against a sandy pink background, with golden stucco moldings. The south facade of the palace entrance has three arches that lead to the front yard, from where, one can get to the main entrance to the palace.
The parapets are decorated with statues and vases. The palace attained a visible distinction in appearance by the conspicuous presence of the sculptured figures that lined along the roof. The interior decoration of the palace was skillfully done by a handful of prominent architects like, Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, Giacomo Quarenghi, Ivan Starov and Antonio Rinaldi, along with Rastrelli himself. Later, Rastrelli was dismissed from the project and much of the Baroque interior was replaced with neoclassical designs. However, the exterior design of the building, created by Rastrelli, remained almost completely unaltered.
Catherine constructed three large adjoining palaces, which including the Winter Palace, collectively came to be known as the Hermitage. To accommodate the huge art collection of Catherine, a second and larger extension of the palace was built, which eventually became known as the Old Hermitage. A third extension, the Hermitage Theatre, was also constructed, after demolishing the crumbling third Winter Palace.
The majestically massive Winter Palace is said to contain 1,500 rooms, 1,786 doors and 1,945 windows. The living quarters of the Imperial Family, known as the Piano Nobile, is on the first floor. The great state rooms, used by the court, are arranged in two rakes from the top of the Jordan Staircase. The new eastern wing, added to the second suite of state rooms, contained the great throne room, known as St. George’s Hall.
Unfortunately, the interior of the palace was destroyed by a ravaging fire and it took four years to complete the restoration work, when the neoclassical look was retained, added with many new designs. However, the slightly damaged exterior was rebuilt according to the original plan of Rastrelli.
The Winter Palace witnessed the Bloody Sunday Massacre on Palace Square on 22 January 1905, when peaceful march of the thousands of striking workers to the Winter Palace for presenting a deputation to the Tsar, faced the unexpected firing troops of the Tsar. Although Nicholas II was not responsible for the tragic incident, the serious blunder on the part of guard department acted as a catalyst for the 1905 Revolution. In 1914, during the early stage of WWI, the Winter Palace was to be stripped of much of its wealth and transformed into a temporary hospital for wounded soldiers. Ultimately, in October 1915, it was rechristened the Tsarevich Alexey Nikolayevich Hospital to become a full fledged hospital, its staterooms transformed into hospital wards, the Armorial Hall became an operating theatre and the small throne room was converted into a doctor's mess room.
After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the February Revolution of 1917, the Winter Palace, for a short time, became the seat of the Provisional Government under Alexander Krenskiy. Later in the year, in the month of October, the Bolshevik-led revolutionary forces besieged and then stormed the palace, when it was pillaged and devastated from top to bottom.
However, the Winter Palace was declared part of the State Hermitage Museum on 30 October 1917. During the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944, the palace was damaged considerably and was fully restored. Contrary to the Soviet rule, the Russian Government had restored the emblems of the Romanovs and today, the gilded and crowned double headed eagles again adorn the walls, balconies and gates of the Winter Palace.