5. Юсуповский Дворец – царская резиденция князей Юсуповых/The Yusupov Palace – the imperial residence of the Yusupovs, 1760s

Authors: architects - an unknown architect (the mid.of 18^th cent.), I.-B. Vallin de laMothe (1760s), A.A. Mikhayloov (1830 - 1838), I.-A.. Monigetti (1858 - 1859), A.A.Stepanov (1892- 1894), A.-P. Veitens and A.Ya. Beloborodov (1910)Address: naberezhnaya reki Moyki, 94

In early I8'^h cent., a small Palace was built for Princess Praskovya. Peter the Great's niece, on the left bank of the Moyka River. In 1726 Praskovya gave her estate to the Semyonovskiy Royal Guard Regiment, which made the Palace its headquarters until 1742. In the mid. of 1740s the Palace was merged with a larger estate belonging to Count Pyotr Shuvalov who wielded enormous influence in the government throughout Elizabeth's reign. The birth of Tsarcvich Paul was marked with a luxurious fancy-dress ball at Shuvalov's Palace on the Moyka in 1754.Pyotr Shuvalov's son Count Andrey sold his father's mansion. A young and ambitious aristocrat favored by Catherine II. A. Shuvalov planned lo build another palace to his taste father up the Moyka River. The new Palace designed by a celebrated architect J.-B. Vallin de la Mothe was built in 1760s, The architect placed the front entrance inside the courtyard, surrounded with a fence of 7 m high adorned with an elegant Classical colonnade.The government purchased the Moyka mansion from Shuvalov's descendants and Empress Catherine II gave it as a gift to Countess Alexandra Branitskaya in 1 795. On 5 March 1830 she sold the mansion to her nephew Prince Boris Yusupov for 250 000 roubles. A new owner commissioned A. Mikhaylov with the reconstruction of the edifice in Classicism. The architect built up a three-storey block to the eastern wing of the mansion and placed the largest room of the future Palace - the Banquet Hall there. The Palace wings were reconstructed and united in a complex that accommodated the Picture Gallery (from Moscow Prince B. Yusupov brought his father's priceless collection of pictures, marble pieces and china-ware) and the Theatre. The territory of the Yusupovs residence was decorated with a greenhouse, a garden pavilion and a landscape garden. The apartments of the Palace were decorated in the Russian Empire Style. A new-residence of Princes Yusupov turned into a spacious magnificent Palace lavishly decorated after seven years of the reconstruction. The Palace soon became a very popular place in Saint-Petersburg often visited by the most high-ranking people of that epoch. The hostess of the Palace was Princess Zinaida Yusupova born Naryshkina that was often called the star of the first magnitude - being a very charming lady she had among her admirers Nicholas 1 and Napoleon 111.In 1840 - I860 the interiors of the Palace were designed by B. Simon and I. Monighetii who decorated the Theatre, the winter garden, the musical salon, dining-rooms, refreshment rooms, libraries and bedrooms in a new romantic style of Russian architecture - Historism, In early 1890s the Yusupovs inviied architect A. Sicpanov who designed the Moorish Siuing-Room, the Oak Dining-Room and the miniaiure Theatre. In early 20^th cent. A. Beloborodov redesigned the apartments of the first floor for Felix Yusupov and his wife Irina in Neoclassicism and the Modem Style. By that time Princes Yusupov had become the biggest landowners and very successful manufacturers in Russia who owned brick-yards, saw and textile mills, plywood factories and mines. The Yusupovs were owners of the priceless collection of objects of art and luxurious palaces in Moscow, Arkhangcl'skoye. Crimea and Saint-Petersburg. In 1900 the Yusupovs made the will according to which their property would become property of the Slate in case the family ended. On 21 March 1915 the last representatives of the Yusupov family (born in Russia) - Irina Feiiksovna Yusupova was born in the Palace, having received Nicholas 11 and widowed Empress Mariya Fyodorovna as god­parents.The Yusupov Palace went down in history also as the scene of one of the most notorious crimes of 20^th cent. - the assassination of Grigoriy Rasputin"' that took place in the left wing of the Palace where the apartments of a young couple Felix and Irina were situated. In 1914 A. Bebborodov redesigned that part of the edifice that comprised several rooms separated from the other part of the Palace by a Small Hall, thus the apartments of a young couple formed so called guixonerie a private apartment of a young Prince Felix Yusupov. It comprised a semicircular antechamber, an octagonal mirror dressing-room, the study and the bedroom located on the first floor and the dining-room situated in the basement under the study. That very dining-room became the scene of crime, in the night of 16 - 17 December 1916 when G. Rasputin was invited by F. Yusupov to the private parly. The four conspirators among which there was Nicholas It's cousin Grand Duke Dmitriy Pavlovich, planned to poison G. Rasputin by potassium cyanide that was added to wine and cakes served to him. While the conspirators were waiting in the study. Felix Yusupov was vis-a-vis with Gngoriy Rasputin in the dining-room on the ground floor. Nowadays one can follow the dramatic events of that night visiting a special exposition in the Yusupov Palace created in 1993 - 1996 and based on the memoirs of K. Yusupov himself and different archive historical documents. Grigony Yefimovich Rasputin (Sovykh) (1872 - 1916) - a Russian peasant from Tobol'sk region who claimed to be a prophet and a healer. Having arrived in S-Petersburg he became a favourite of Nicholas ll's wife Alexandra Fyodorovna (he was the only person who could cure her younger son suffering from haemophilia - a serious disease in which (he blood is unable to clol) and had strong influence on Ihe Slate affairs. G. Rasputin was known for his immoral sexual behaviour and unusual strength (when ihc monarchists planned to assassinate him they had great difficulty in doing lhaL - at first the conspirators poisoned him with the cakes and wine. then shot twice, beat with a rubber stick and finally threw him to the Ne\a River. Three days laier when his body was found Rasputin's lungs turned out to be full of water i.e. he was still a!i\c when thrown to the river).