Private rooms of the Winter Palace

[hikaru]

Yes this is the Gothic room.Your understanding is completely right .The room is facing riverside.
I took the Room No. from the Russian Hermitage web-site.
In Guide Book of 1959 it is no.16 too.
I have not recent guidebook with me here.
The color of the room is the same now and beutiful pillars are there too.

[BobG]

Thanks for clarifying that.  I have pieced together the location of Nicholas I's daughters room from the watercolors in The Winter Palace book, but it unfortunately doesn't have a plan of the ground floor, so I was excited to see Brian's posting.
Bob

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Thanks for clarifying that.  I have pieced together the location of Nicholas I's daughters room from the watercolors in The Winter Palace book, but it unfortunately doesn't have a plan of the ground floor, so I was excited to see Brian's posting.
Bob

glad i could help    

[hikaru]

I saw in one of my old books that the Gothic room in the Mariinsky Palace made by Shtakensneider was almost the same as in the Winter Palace. ( Winter Palace ' room made first) .Mariinsky Palace was made for the elder daughter of the Nikolay I Maria.
Maybe she liked that room in Winter Palace so much so asked to make almost the same thing?
I never went inside Mariinsky Palace ( it was governmental building, as it is now too) so I do not know if the room still there or not.
(Sorry, I have no scan, so I can not put the picture)
The pillars and general view  are the same.

[Ming]

Does anyone know anything about the Malachite room?  Where it was, how it was used, does it still exist, etc.?

Just wondering.

[BobG]

The Malachite room is in the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage) in St. Petersburg.  It is one of the first rooms of the private Imperial Suite on the Neva following the enfilade of The Antechamber, The Nicholas Hall, and the Concert Hall. It is named for the malachite Columns and decorations that were created by Alexander Briullov after the 1837 fire.  It still exists today.

[DanielB]

Adding to what Bob as written, this was the room where members of the Imperial Family assembled before a State occasion or Grand Ball. When everybody was ready, the doors to the Concert Hall were opened by the Court « Arabs » and the Imperial Family walked out in procession, lined up according to their degree of proximity to the Throne, behind the Emperor and Empress (or, when present, the Dowager Empress).

Fortunately, most of the pre-revolutionary decor and furniture of this beautiful room has survived. Here’s a link to a virtual tour :
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_1_62.html

[Robert_Hall]

It is a very beautiful room. I think it is also where Romanov brides were "dressed" with the train and heavy jewels.

[BobG]

The Malachite Coupe highlighted on the Hermitage site originally came from the Stroganoff palace and only came into the Malachite Room after the revolution.  

[Mike]

It is also the room where the Provisionary Government was arrested by Bolshevicks on 25.10/07.11.1917.

[Gavin.O]

Forgive me for asking what might seem like an ignorant question, but with the marvelous floor plans that have been posted, I'm wondering which rooms were used for "ordinary business." I'm not talking about formal events that would have taken place in the grand halls and ballrooms, but the day-to-day running of the government.

Thanks.

--Gavin.

[Arleen_Ristau]

Brian dear, Your room plans are so much appreciated.  But I am wondering if there are any plans that have the rooms written in.  I have no idea of any of the rooms.....and I would love to know what is what.
..Arleen

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Forgive me for asking what might seem like an ignorant question, but with the marvelous floor plans that have been posted, I'm wondering which rooms were used for "ordinary business." I'm not talking about formal events that would have taken place in the grand halls and ballrooms, but the day-to-day running of the government.

i think the day-to-day running of the government took place in another building.   government offices were, i believe, located across the square from the palace.

the Winter Palace was the residence of the monarch.   although, one could say Nikolai II's study &, to a lesser degree, the Gothik Library were the "center of the empire"  while he was in residence.

[amedeo]

Nicholas II lived almost always in the Alexander Palace.

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Nicholas II lived almost always in the Alexander Palace.

that's true.    however, one of his earliest homes with Aleksandra, were the rooms of the Winter Palace that his new sister-in-law, Elizaveta Feodorovna, had decorated for the newlyweds.   he and Aleksandra moved from his old bachelor's quarters in his mother's Anichkov palace, into those newly redecorated rooms of the Winter palace.   they continued to occupy those same rooms for many years, especially during the height of the Imperial Court's social season.    it was primarily after the birth of Aleksei that the truly began to withdraw, literally & figuratively, from the court life & the world in general.    as their stress & anxiety over Aleksei grew, the time they spent in the Winter Palace waned.    another reason for that, may have also been their desire to keep Aleksei's illness a secret.