Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia - Vladimir's Palace

Vladimir's Palace

By the time of his marriage, construction has already been completed in Vladimir's own residence and he moved there with his wife. Named the Vladimir Palace, it was the last imperial palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg. Grand Duke Vladimir appointed architect Aleksandr Rezanov responsible for the project because of his knowledge of ancient Russian architecture. Rezanov was assisted by a team of architects: Vasily Kenel, Andrei Huhn, Ieronim Kitner and Vladimir Shreter. The foundation stone was laid on July 15, 1867. Construction work lasted five years, from 1867 to 1872. The furniture was designed by architect Victor Shroeter.

The site chosen for the palace was the Embankment near the Winter Palace in the center of St Petersburg. It had been previously been occupied by the house of Count Vorontsov Dashkov which had been bought by the treasury. The lot was enlarge by purchasing the neighboring house of Madame Karatinga. The total construction and furnishing cost of Vladimir palace was 820.00 rubles, a much modest amount than the one spent building previous palaces for other grand dukes a decade earlier.

The Vladimir palace stands, like the Winter Palace and the Marble Palace, on the Neva at Dvorstsovaya Embankment. The façade, richly ornamented with stucco rustication, was patterned after Leon Battista Alberti's palazzi in Florence. The main porch is built of Bremen sandstone and adorned with griffins, coats-of-arms, and cast-iron lanterns. Other details are cast in portland cement.

The palace and its outbuildings contain some 360 rooms, all decorated in eclectic historic styles: Neo-Renaissance (reception room, parlor), Gothic Revival (dining room), Russian Revival (Oak Hall), Rococo (White Hall), Byzantine style (study), Louis XIV, various oriental styles, and so on. This interior ornamentation, further augmented by Maximilian Messmacher in 1881-1891, is considered a major monument to the 19th-century passion for historicism. Grand Duke Vladimir decorated his apartments with his collection of Russian painting by the best artist of his time such as : Ilya Repin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Feodor Bruni, Vasili Vereshchagin, Ivan Kramskoy, Mikhail Vrubel, Nicholas Sverchkov and Rudoplh Frenz.