THE WINTER PALACE 
Dvortsovaya (Palace) Embankment, 38 
1754-62. Architect B.Rastrelli 
 
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 
city ’s 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 of the construction is quite interesting. During Peter I‘s 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 was 
erected on the bank of the Zimniaya Kanavka (Winter Canal) in 1711. In 1719 - 20 
the second, stone Winter Palace, was built on the site of the modern Hermitage 
Theater to a design by G. Mattarnovi, where Peter I moved with his family from his 
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 monumental building - the 
fourth Winter Palace existing now, which by far exceeds all the previous ones both in 
size and in the splendor of ornamentation. It is an outstanding example of the 18th - 
century Baroque architecture, created, in Rastrelli’s own words, “exclusively to glorify 
Russia”. 
The palace was designed as a closed quadrangle with a spacious inner court. 
Its facades face the Neva, the Admiralty and Palace Square; in the center of the 
square Rastrelli planned to put up an equestrian statue of Peter I. 
At present the Winter Palace Houses the Hermitage museum, which is one of 
the largest in the world.