The Yusupov Palace
Yusupov Palace was the first palace I visited when I arrived in Saint Petersburg, and I remember how amazed I was to see so much beauty at once. This place is magic. You can't come to Saint Petersburg without visiting the Yusupov Palace. It reveals how far the refinement went during the Russian Empire; even the photographs are not as beautiful as the real palace, and there are so many details in the interior decorations that you could spend hours contemplating. I love this place.
The palace is located two minutes by walk from the Mariinsky Theater. Even though it is located on the Moika embankment, the visitor entrance is on the other side.
I will try to make it short, but there is so much to write about, and I have so many photographs.
The Palace is known in history not only because of its renowned ancestors, the Yusupov family, but also because it's the place where Grigory Rasputin, the mystical spiritual mentor and friend of the family of Emperor Nicholas II, was assassinated. The murder was orchestrated by the young Prince Felix Yusupov on the night of December 17, 1916, a night when the destiny of Russia changed.
“The grandiose ensemble of the Yusupov Palace must remain untouchable and be, for the future generation of historians and specialists but also for the masses, an example of the Lords’ life in its utmost, almost royal splendor.”
Acclaimed as the "Encyclopedia" of St. Petersburg's aristocratic interior, the Yusupov family's luxurious living quarters, which included State rooms, Art Gallery halls, a home theater, and a church, are one of the few surviving and well-preserved aristocratic mansions in St. Petersburg.
The site of a wooden palace originally belonged to Tsarevna Praskovia Ivanovna, niece of Peter the Great. Count Peter Shuvalov bought the site and in 1770, his heir Andrei Shuvalov commissioned the French architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, designer of the Small Hermitage, Gostiny Dvor and the Academy of Sciences, to build a new palace. Vallin de la Mothe, Andrey Mikhailov II, Bernard de Simon, Ippolit Monighetti, Vasily Kenel, Aleksandr Stepanov, Andrey Vajtens, Andrey Beloborodov—all these names all contributed to the beautification of the palace.
In 1830, the palace was purchased by Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, and until 1919 (the Russian Revolution), five succeeding generations of the Yusupov princely dynasty owned the estate.
The Yusupov family was immensely wealthy, richer than the Tsar, with assets totalling more than 1 billion roubles (they owned over fifty palaces), as were the Stroganov family, and the Sheremetev family. They were known for their philanthropy and art collections; more than 40,000 works of art, including works by Rembrandt, jewelry, and sculptures, decorated the palace.
If you want to know more about what happened to Felix Yusupov, and his wife, Irina, I recommend you read this press article. I loved it !
N’arrêtons jamais de rêver !
*Let's never stop dreaming !
