Publications in the Architecture section
Where did the Romanovs live?
Small Imperial, Mramorny, Nikolaevsky, Anichkov - we go for a walk along the central streets of St. Petersburg and remember the palaces in which representatives of the royal family lived.
Palace Embankment, 26
Let's start our walk from Palace Embankment. A few hundred meters east of the Winter Palace is the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, son of Alexander II. Previously, the building, built in 1870, was called the “small imperial courtyard.” Here, all the interiors have been preserved almost in their original form, reminiscent of one of the main centers of social life in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century. Once upon a time, the walls of the palace were decorated with many famous paintings: for example, “Barge Haulers on the Volga” by Ilya Repin hung on the wall of the former billiard room. On the doors and panels there are still monograms with the letter “B” - “Vladimir”.
In 1920, the palace became the House of Scientists, and today the building houses one of the main scientific centers of the city. The palace is open to tourists.
Palace Embankment, 18
A little further on the Palace Embankment you can see the majestic gray Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace. It was erected in 1862 by the famous architect Andrei Stackenschneider for the wedding of the son of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich. The new palace, for the reconstruction of which neighboring houses were purchased, incorporated Baroque and Rococo styles, elements of the Renaissance and architecture from the time of Louis XIV. Before the October Revolution, there was a church on the top floor of the main facade.
Today the palace houses institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Millionnaya Street, 5/1
Even further on the embankment is the Marble Palace, the family nest of the Konstantinovichs - the son of Nicholas I, Constantine, and his descendants. It was built in 1785 by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi. The palace became the first building in St. Petersburg to be faced with natural stone. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, known for his poetic works, lived here with his family; in the pre-revolutionary years, his eldest son John lived here. The second son, Gabriel, wrote his memoirs “In the Marble Palace” while in exile.
In 1992, the building was transferred to the Russian Museum.
Admiralteyskaya embankment, 8
Palace of Mikhail Mikhailovich. Architect Maximilian Messmacher. 1885–1891. Photo: Valentina Kachalova / photobank “Lori”
Not far from the Winter Palace on Admiralteyskaya Embankment you can see a building in the neo-Renaissance style. It once belonged to Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich, the grandson of Nicholas I. Construction began on it when the Grand Duke decided to get married - his chosen one was the granddaughter of Alexander Pushkin, Sofia Merenberg. Emperor Alexander III did not give consent to the marriage, and the marriage was recognized as morganatic: Mikhail Mikhailovich’s wife did not become a member of the imperial family. The Grand Duke was forced to leave the country without living in the new palace.
Today the palace is rented out to financial companies.
Truda Square, 4
If we walk from the Mikhail Mikhailovich Palace to the Annunciation Bridge and turn left, on Labor Square we will see another brainchild of the architect Stackenschneider - the Nicholas Palace. The son of Nicholas I, Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder, lived in it until 1894. During his life, the building also housed a house church; everyone was allowed to attend services here. In 1895 - after the death of the owner - a women's institute named after Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of Nicholas II, was opened in the palace. Girls were trained to be accountants, housekeepers, and seamstresses.
Today, the building, known in the USSR as the Palace of Labor, hosts excursions, lectures and folk concerts.
English Embankment, 68
Let's return to the embankment and go west. Halfway to the New Admiralty Canal is the palace of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, son of Alexander II. In 1887, he bought it from the daughter of the late Baron Stieglitz, a famous banker and philanthropist, whose name is given to the Academy of Arts and Industry he founded. The Grand Duke lived in the palace until his death - he was shot in 1918.
The palace of Pavel Alexandrovich was empty for a long time. In 2011, the building was transferred to St. Petersburg University.
Moika River Embankment, 106
On the right side of the Moika River, opposite the island of New Holland, is the palace of Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna. She was married to the founder of the Russian Air Force, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, grandson of Nicholas I. They were given the palace as a wedding gift in 1894. During the First World War, the Grand Duchess opened a hospital here.
Today the palace houses the Lesgaft Academy of Physical Culture.
Nevsky Prospekt, 39
We exit onto Nevsky Prospekt and move in the direction of the Fontanka River. Here, near the embankment, the Anichkov Palace is located. It was named after the Anichkov Bridge in honor of the ancient family of pillar nobles, the Anichkovs. The palace, erected under Elizaveta Petrovna, is the oldest building on Nevsky Prospekt. Architects Mikhail Zemtsov and Bartolomeo Rastrelli participated in its construction. Later, Empress Catherine II donated the building to Grigory Potemkin. On behalf of the new owner, architect Giacomo Quarenghi gave Anichkov a more austere, closer to modern look.
Starting from Nicholas I, mainly the heirs to the throne lived in the palace. When Alexander II ascended the throne, the widow of Nicholas I, Alexandra Feodorovna, lived here. After the death of Emperor Alexander III, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna settled in the Anichkov Palace. Nicholas II also grew up here. He did not like the Winter Palace and spent most of his time, already as emperor, in the Anichkov Palace.
Today it houses the Palace of Youth Creativity. The building is also open to tourists.
Nevsky Prospekt, 41
On the other side of the Fontanka is the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace - the last private house built on Nevsky in the 19th century and another brainchild of Stackenschneider. At the end of the 19th century, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich bought it, and in 1911 the palace passed to his nephew, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. In 1917, while in exile for participating in the murder of Grigory Rasputin, he sold the palace. And later he emigrated and took the money from the sale of the palace abroad, thanks to which he lived comfortably for a long time.
Since 2003, the building has belonged to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation; concerts and creative evenings are held there. On some days there are excursions through the halls of the palace.
Petrovskaya embankment, 2
And while walking near Peter’s house on Petrovskaya embankment, you should not miss the white majestic building in the neoclassical style. This is the palace of the grandson of Nicholas I, Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger, the supreme commander in chief of all land and naval forces of the Russian Empire in the early years of the First World War. Today, the palace, which became the last grand ducal building until 1917, houses the Representative Office of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District.
Baron Stieglitz, in addition to the title, inherited from his father the huge fortune of the trading house "Baron Stieglitz and Co", including factories and manufactories, 18 million rubles and the share of the court banker - since treasury loans and many trade operations of state importance were guaranteed by only one collateral - named after Stieglitz.
In accordance with his high status, the heir decided that he needed a suitable mansion. It was decided to build it on the Promenade des Anglais on the site of two previous houses. Architect A.I. Krakau received unlimited freedom in imagination and means.
The mansion of Baron A. L. Stieglitz on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg
Stieglitz settled in his house on the Promenade des Anglais (now house 68) immediately after finishing the decoration of the premises, in 1862. The banker did not have any children of his own and he adopted a girl, presumably the illegitimate daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Nadezhda Mikhailovna Iyuneva.
Five years after the completion of construction work, Baron Stieglitz invited the Italian artist Luigi Premazzi to capture the grandeur of his palace.
The artist beautifully depicted each room in watercolor paintings. In total there were 17 watercolors, enclosed in a leather album. Today, Premazzi's drawings are kept in the Hermitage.
After her father’s death in 1884, Nadezhda inherited a mansion on the Promenade des Anglais, and three years later sold it to Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich. The mansion stood empty for several years, because its cost of three million rubles was not affordable for everyone.
Three years later, it was bought by the royal family as a wedding gift for Prince Pavel Alexandrovich and Princess Alexandra Georgievna of Greece. From that moment on, this building began to be called the Novo-Pavlovsk Palace. The new owner began to remodel the interiors to his own taste, which, according to some experts, destroyed their integrity.
In 1918, Pavel Alexandrovich was shot. The palace was nationalized. At first it housed an orphanage, and then a design shipbuilding bureau with a staff of 1,500 people. Year after year the building deteriorated.
The first restoration of the Novo-Pavlovsk Palace was planned back in 1988. Then large-scale work was carried out with the archives, but restoration work stopped. In the 1990s, the owner of the building was the Lukoil company, but even then no one undertook its restoration. It was only a few years ago that the restoration of the city’s ancient architectural heritage began, and completion of the work is scheduled for the end of 2017.
What the result will be is unknown, but for now, thanks to the watercolors of the artist Luigi Premazzi, we can look into the mansion of the manager of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, Baron Stieglitz, on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg.
Dining room, 1869
Library, 1870
Blue Drawing Room, 1870
White drawing room, 1870
Golden Drawing Room, 1870
Living room, 1870
Main office, 1869
Office of Baroness Stieglitz, 1870
The Stieglitz mansion, empty for more than 10 years, is once again changing hands. This is one of 160 monuments of federal significance included in the list of controversial objects that the Federal Property Management Agency does not agree to transfer to the ownership of the city. Without waiting for the resolution of this dispute, on which the possibility of further privatization of monuments depends, the second investor abandoned the Stieglitz mansion - the Moscow company Sintez-Petroleum, which, following the previous tenant - LUKOIL - did not dare to invest about $50 million in the restoration of the ownerless object. Now Smolny is transferring it to the balance of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, which is subordinate to the city, although it is possible that, having received ownership of the mansion, the authorities will return to the original intention of placing the Wedding Palace in it. As Igor Metelsky, the chairman of KUGI, confirmed yesterday, in the near future the Stieglitz mansion will be transferred for free use to the Museum of History..
Vacant for over 10 years Stieglitz mansion once again passes from hand to hand.
This is one of 160
monuments of federal significance included in the list of controversial objects that the Federal Property Management Agency does not agree to transfer to the ownership of the city.
Without waiting for the resolution of this dispute, on which the possibility of further privatization of monuments depends, Stieglitz mansion The second investor - a Moscow company - refused Sintez-Petroleum, which, following the previous tenant - LUKOIL- didn’t dare to invest about $50 million in the restoration of an ownerless object.
Now Smolny transfers it to the balance of the subordinate city Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, although it is possible that, having received ownership of the mansion, the authorities will return to the original intention of placing the Wedding Palace in it.
As confirmed yesterday Igor Metelsky chairman KUGI, in the near future Stieglitz mansion will be transferred for free use to the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, which is based in and currently has 8 branches, including.
In the press service museum This event is being commented on cautiously for now. According to her employees, the official notice of the transfer of the mansion they didn't receive, but they are aware of the impending deal. According to the museum, the city is now preparing the documents necessary for the transfer. It is not yet known how exactly the building will be used.
According to one version, a new one could be located there matrimonial Palace.
It occupies the site where, at the beginning of the 18th century, there were three separate plots. The first of them belonged to Vasily Artemyevich Volynsky, the son of the cabinet minister of Empress Anna Ioannovna. After his father's execution, he sold the house to the treasury. The next owner of the Volynsky stud plot was artillery second lieutenant Pyotr Ivanovich Ivanovsky. From him the territory passed into the possession of Johann Matveevich Bulkel, and then the wife of the Dutch merchant Login Petrovich Betling.
The neighboring plot, located downstream of the Neva, belonged to the builder of the Vyshnevolotsk canals, merchant Mikhail Serdyukov. From him the house went to the English merchant Timothy Rex.
These two houses were rebuilt before 1822, when a single building of the court banker Baron Ludwig Ivanovich Stieglitz already existed here. In 1848, the baron's entire fortune went to his son Alexander. Despite the unstable financial condition, at the end of the 1850s, Alexander Ludvigovich decided to enlarge and rebuild his St. Petersburg house. To do this, he purchased the neighboring mansion of State Councilor A.I. Bek.
The first owner of the A.I. Bek site at the beginning of the 18th century was the shipwright Ivan Nemtsov. After Nemtsov's death, the territory went to his son-in-law, architect Savva Ivanovich Chevakinsky. Later, the house was owned by the court chamberlain S.S. Zinoviev, Major General Pleshcheev, eminent citizen Bland, A.I. Bek. From the latter the house passed to A.L. Stieglitz.
The new Stieglitz mansion on the Promenade des Anglais was built by the architect A. I. Krakau. The project was ready in 1859, construction of the building was completed three years later. Krakau also built a complex of buildings on the Galernaya Street side. There was A.L.'s office there. Stieglitz (No. 71), ministerial house (No. 71), two apartment buildings (No. 54 and 69).
The wealth of the owner of the mansion was emphasized by the elegant front facade in the style of historicism. The magnificent interiors were preserved in watercolors by St. Petersburg artists. Stieglitz built a real palace for his family. All decorative and applied decorations of the house were created according to Krakau’s drawings. The interior details were paintings ordered through the artist V.D. Sverchkov.
The White Hall opened the enfilade of ceremonial rooms along the Neva. Behind it was the Front Room, decorated with two canvases by the Munich landscape painters brothers Albert and Richard Zimmermann. A small passage room led to the Blue Living Room with a white marble fireplace and a lampshade “Cupid Leads Psyche to Olympus” by the German artist Hans von Mare.
The walk-through living room connected to the Dining Room. It contained three paintings, one of which ("Courtyard with a grotto in the Munich Royal Residence" by Hans von Mare) is now in the Hermitage. Two paintings for the Stieglitz mansion were painted in the studio of Carl von Pilotti. The banker’s art collection included works by such German painters as Anselm Feuerbach and Albert Heinrich Brendel. All these paintings were not just part of the collection. They were specially ordered for specific rooms and were full-fledged and integral parts of the interior. In addition to paintings, a collection of tapestries and tapestries was kept in Stieglitz’s house.
The largest hall in the palace of A.L. Stieglitz is the Dance Hall, decorated with French crystal chandeliers. On the second floor there were also the Black and Moorish living rooms. On the ground floor there were the owners' living quarters.
Alexander Ludvigovich settled in his house on the Promenade des Anglais immediately after finishing the premises, in 1862. He lived on rent from an annual income of three million and was involved in charity work. He kept his huge capital only in Russian banks, which was rare for that time (and for today too). Stieglitz financed the construction of railways, founded the School of Technical Drawing in St. Petersburg and its branches in other cities. Stieglitz donated a number of decorative and applied arts from the mansion to the school as exhibits.
Having no children of his own, Alexander Ludvigovich adopted a girl, probably the illegitimate daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Nadezhda Mikhailovna Iyuneva. She married a member of the State Council A. A. Polovtsov. The wedding gift from Stieglitz was a million rubles and a mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya Street (house no.). After her father’s death in 1884, Nadezhda inherited a mansion on the Promenade des Anglais, and three years later sold it to Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich.
The Grand Duke first saw Stieglitz's house on November 5, 1886, when he visited it with his brother Sergei. The Grand Duke and A. A. Polovtsov conducted the auction through Vice Admiral Dmitry Sergeevich Arsenyev. The owners wanted to get at least two million for the palace, while Pavel Alexandrovich expected to spend a maximum of one and a half. As a result, they agreed on a price of 1,600,000 rubles in gold.
The purchase of the palace by the Grand Duke took place before his first marriage - to Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna. She died after her second birth. In Europe, Pavel Alexandrovich secretly married Olga Valerianovna Pistolkors. The family did not accept Morganatic Bran; Grand Duke Nicholas II was forbidden to return to Russia for some time. But after the death of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, permission to marry was given. The Grand Duke's wife received the title and surname of Countess Hohenfelsen, and in 1915 the title and surname of Paley. The palace on the Promenade des Anglais was maintained in good condition even during the long stay of its owners abroad.
When selling the house, Polovtsov advised Pavel Alexandrovich to live here without altering the interiors for at least some time, to get used to the house. The advice was not accepted. Architect M.E. Messmacher was immediately invited to work on the new interiors of the mansion. He refinished the living rooms on the east side of the first floor. Until recently, there was an Office with a carved oak ceiling and a fireplace. Somewhat later, the architect N.V. Sultanov built a church on the second floor of the courtyard wing. It didn't survive.
In 1898-1899, the Grand Duke's private rooms in the western part of the first floor were remodeled by the English company Mape and Co. The Office, Library and Billiard Room were redesigned. The firm of F. Meltzer renovated the parquet floors in the Concert Hall and Reception Hall.
After 1917, paintings from the Stieglitz Palace were transferred to the All-Union Association "Antiques". With few exceptions, their fate is unknown.
In 1918, Pavel Alexandrovich was shot. Princess Paley and her children went to Paris. The palace was nationalized. For a long time it housed various institutions. In 1968, he was taken under state protection.
In 1988, restoration of the building began. It was intended to be used for museum purposes. But the revolutionary events of the 1990s prevented these plans. The palace again passed into private hands and was empty for a long time. The interiors have fallen into disrepair and are in urgent need of restoration. In 2011, the house of A. L. Stieglitz was transferred to St. Petersburg State University.
The princes and grand dukes of the Romanov dynasty owned palaces and estates in different parts of the vast country: the Ilinskoye estate near Moscow, which belonged to Sergei Alexandrovich, the Crimean estates of Dulber and Ai-Todor, which belonged to Pyotr Nikolaevich and Alexander Mikhailovich, respectively, as well as the Brasovo estate, which was owned by Mikhail Alexandrovich and others, others, others. On the banks of the Neva there is a magnificent palace where Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich lived. The Palace of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, or Novo-Pavlovsk Palace, is located at English Embankment 68 (formerly Red Fleet Embankment). In that corner of St. Petersburg that is called Kolomna.
The appearance of the palace shows the influence of Italian Renaissance architecture. This is expressed in the accentuation of the main facade with a two-column Corinthian portico, in the treatment of the walls with deep rustication, and in the framing of windows with sandstones of various designs. The upper part of the façade is completed with a wide frieze decorated with moldings. The courtyard, which had access to Galernaya Street, was also designed in Baroque forms. The first owner of the mansion was Baron A.L. Stieglitz, on whose order it was erected in 1859-1862 by the architect A.I. Krakau, partially using the walls of two old residential buildings. But first things first. Initially, on a plot of land along the Promenade des Anglais, on the site of the mansion there were two residential buildings. One of them was built in 1716 and was the first stone house on the Promenade des Anglais. It was built by Ivan Nemtsov, a shipwright. After him, the house was owned by his son-in-law, the famous architect S.I. Chevakinsky. The second house was owned by the merchant Mikhail Serdyukov, the builder of the canal system in Vyshy Volochyok. In 1830, the site already belonged to the Stieglitz barons, a native of the German principality of Waldeck. May the readers forgive me for a free digression, but I cannot help but talk about the barons. Nikolai Stieglitz, having moved to Russia at the end of the 18th century, founded the St. Petersburg trading house. In 1802, his brother Ludwig came to visit him; He engaged in export-import trade, soon made a significant fortune and became a court banker. In 1807 he accepted Russian citizenship, and in 1826 he was granted the title of baron. Ludwig Stieglitz was one of the founders of the Black Sea Shipping Company and the organizer of the Odessa loan. The Stieglitzes quickly grew rich, and the old mansions located on this site no longer corresponded to their status. Baron Alexander Ludwigovich Stieglitz, son of Ludwig, ordered the then fashionable architect Krokau in St. Petersburg to build a palace on this site. Alexander Ludvigovich inherited from his father a huge fortune of 18 million rubles and the entire financial empire of the Stieglitzes, which was then already engaged in organizing external loans for Russia. The new palace had to correspond to all this. Stieglitz gave the architect complete freedom of creativity and an unlimited budget. A huge sum by those standards was spent on construction - 3.5 million rubles. Until 1887, the palace belonged to Baron Alexander Ludwigovich Stieglitz, the son of Baron Ludwig von Stieglitz. The palace stood out from everything that had been built so far on the Promenade des Anglais. Designed in the spirit of the then fashionable Italian palazzo, the facade has not changed and has reached us in its original form. The interiors of the palace combine all the ideas of the mid-19th century about style, beauty and comfort. Five years after completion of construction, approximately 1859-1862, Alexander Stieglitz commissions the famous Italian artist Luigi Premazzi to capture the interiors of the palace in watercolors. Premazzi painted seventeen watercolors, which very accurately reflected the smallest details of the interior; all of them were enclosed in a leather album on the cover of which there was the coat of arms of the Stieglitz barons. Now this masterpiece is in the Hermitage collection. Thanks to this, we can accurately appreciate all the luxury with which the palace was designed inside, in addition, we can see the richest collection of paintings that Stieglitz owned. Alexander Lyudvigovich built railways and produced paper, was a banker and a large-scale philanthropist - he built schools, colleges and museums. Later he retired from entrepreneurial activity and headed the State Bank. Soon the baron became related in a certain way to the Imperial family... According to contemporaries, the banker was an unsociable person. He often gave and took millions of sums without saying a word. It was also strange, according to some fellow financiers, that Stieglitz placed most of his capital in Russian funds. To all skeptical remarks regarding the imprudence of such an act, the banker replied: “My father and I received our fortune in Russia: if it turns out to be insolvent, then I am ready to lose all my fortune with it.” .On June 24, 1844, at the Stieglitz dacha in Petrovsky, near St. Petersburg, a richly decorated basket appeared in which lay a baby girl. There was a note in the basket indicating the girl's date of birth, her name - Nadezhda and the fact that her father's name was Mikhail. According to the Stieglitz family legend, the girl was the illegitimate daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the younger brother of Nicholas I. The girl was given the last name Juneva, in honor of that beautiful June day when she was found. Baron Stieglitz adopted her and made her his heir, since he had no children of his own and was the last in his family. Baron Alexander Ludvigovich died in 1884, leaving the lucky foundling a simply grandiose fortune of 38 million rubles, real estate, financial structures... and including a palace on the Promenade des Anglais, the price of which, together with the collection of works of art in it, was then 3 million rubles However, Nadezhda Mikhailovna Juneva lived in another house on Bolshaya Morskaya, together with her husband Alexander Polovtsev. This house was also given to her by Alexander Stieglitz. They decided not to move into the palace and put it up for sale. However, only a select few could afford such an expensive purchase, and the palace stood empty for three years.
We return to the palace. A strong draft emphasizes the division of the façade into two floors. The walls of the lower floor are rusticated. The plaster on the walls of the upper floor imitates ashlar cladding. The platbands of the first floor with straight sandals on the brackets are simple and strict in design. In the mezzanine, the platbands have the form of porticoes consisting of two columns on pedestals supporting a triangular pediment.
The interiors of the house are of artistic value. Among them, the ceremonial white marble staircase, the walls of which are decorated with Corinthian pilasters at the level of the second floor, stands out in terms of the richness of its compositional design. The former Living Room, arranged in five axes and decorated with caryatids, is not inferior to it in decoration. Nearby is the Dance Hall - the most elegant room of the palace, decorated with Corinthian fluted columns. The exit to the street from the staircase is designed in the form of an arch decorated with columns.
The door from the second floor landing leads to the central room of the front suite - a room facing the Neva. It was a reception room, next to which there was a large living room with five axes, decorated with caryatids. Three wide openings connected the Cariatic with the dance hall, the most spectacular and spacious room, decorated with Corinthian fluted columns.
Damask draperies, gilded molding and carvings were widely used in decoration. The library room was decorated in oak. Fireplaces made of white and colored marble with sculptural details played a significant role in the decorative design of state rooms. In the concert hall, on padugas, in oval medallions, Krakau placed sculptural portraits of composers. One of the luminaries of Russian painting, F. A. Bruni, executed sketches of the picturesque panels “The Four Seasons” for interiors. .....
And here before your eyes are those same watercolors
Luigi Premazzi 4 - 1 - Dance hall 2 - Dinner hall
3 - Concert hall
6 - Library in the palace of A. L. Stieglitz 5- Living room Office of Baroness Stieglitz. 7 - Dining room 8- White living room 9 - main office
10 - Blue living room 11 - Golden Hall 12 - Dining roomAnd so in 1887, the palace was purchased for Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, and “only” for 1.6 million rubles. The palace was purchased on the occasion of the upcoming wedding of Pavel Alexandrovich and the Princess of Greece, Alexandra Georgievna. The wedding reception took place on June 6, 1889. Since then, the palace has officially received the name Novo-Pavlovsky. The young couple did not make any special changes to the interior; the same changes that were made were carried out by the architect Messmacher. The only major change was the installation of a church in the palace. On May 17, 1889, the house church was consecrated. The church, built according to the design of the architect N.V. Sultanova, is located on the second floor of the transverse courtyard wing. It was decorated in the Old Russian style. Her gilded zinc iconostasis with 35 imageswas an exact copy of the iconostasis of one of the Vladimir churches of the 17th century.The idea to build a church in this style was suggested by Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The architect entrusted the finishing of the church to the workshop of K. E. Morozov. They completed the iconostasis and also restored the royal gates from Medvedkovo near Moscow. The stylized utensils were made by Ovchinnikov’s workshop. The room was illuminated by an antique copper chandelier; the utensils were brought from Greece. Reproducing the decoration of the Trinity-Spassky Monastery in Moscow, the walls were covered with ornamental paintings and images of saints. In 1897, the façade of the church was decorated with stucco figures of angels and evangelists by M. P. Popov.Church of the Martyr Queen Alexandra at the Palace of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich.
In 1891, after giving birth, Alexandra Georgievna died. By that time they already had a daughter, Maria Pavlovna, but the birth of their son Dmitry ended tragically for the mother. Only in 1902 did the Grand Duke marry a second time, but how... Contrary to the will of the Emperor, he married the divorced Olga Karnovich, after her first husband von Pistolkors... But it’s not worth talking about Paley and her descendants here. We mention her only because it was precisely because of his marriage to her that the Grand Duke could not live in his palace, but was forced to live in France. OnlyNicholas II finally forgave his uncle only with the beginning of the Great War, when Pavel Alexandrovich asked to go to Russia to serve the country. On February 18, 1917, the city palace, little used for many years, was sold to the Russian Society for the Procurement of Shells and Military Supplies. The church was moved to the Tsarskoye Selo mansion, where it was consecrated under the name Blagoveshchenskaya. House of Stieglitz A.L. (Palace of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich). Main building. South facade.During the years of Soviet power, the palace underwent major changes - in 1938-1939 - the right courtyard wing was added to one floor. 1946-1947 - one floor was erected above the Moorish hall. In a palace At first, an orphanage was located, and then a shipbuilding design bureau - at that time 1,500 people worked in the house.
As of October 2008, the Stieglitz mansion, empty for more than 10 years, once again changes hands. This is one of 160 monuments of federal significance included in the list of controversial objects that the Federal Property Management Agency does not agree to transfer to the ownership of the city. Without waiting for the resolution of this dispute, on which the possibility of further privatization of monuments depends, the second investor abandoned the Stieglitz mansion - the Moscow company Sintez-Petroleum, which, following the previous tenant - LUKOIL - did not dare to invest about $50 million in the restoration of the ownerless object . Now Smolny is transferring it to the balance of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, which is subordinate to the city, although it is possible that, having received ownership of the mansion, the authorities will return to the original intention of placing the Wedding Palace in it.