Государственный Эрмитаж

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• The Winter Palace is one of the most important Architectural monuments in Petersburg, as well as the Compositional center of the territory including the largest Citys ensembles. It belongs to the greatest achievements of Russian and world architecture of the 18th century, both from the point of view of art and that of urban design. ■ The history the construction is quite interesting. During Peters reign it was prohibited to allot land to People having no naval rank in the place now occupied by the palace. So Peter the Great, who wanted to build a palace for himself there, got a building permit as Peter Alekseyev. a shipbuilder. The first wooden Winter Palace n the bank of the Zimniaya Kanavka (Winter Cana) in 1711. In 1719—20 the second, stone Winter was built on the site of the modern Hermitage Theater to a desighn by G/Mattarnovi, where Peter 1 moved with his family from his Summer Palace .Summer Palace. In 1726—27. it was considerably enlarged. In 1732 the architect B.Rastrelli began the construction of the third Winter Palace facing the Neva and Palace Square. In 1754-62 ' he rebuilt it radically and created a new monumentalI building—the fourth Winter Palace existing now which by far exceeds all the previous ones both in size And in splendor of ornamentation. It is an outstanding of the 18 –century Baroque architecture, created, in Rastrellis own words, «exclusively to glorify Russia". The palace was designed as a closed quadrangle with a specious inner court. Its faзade face the Neva , the Admirality Palace Square; in the center of the square Rastrelli planned to put up an equestrian statue of Peter I.
• The description was provided by Vlada