Ater 60 years of neglect, the Stroganov Palace is getting a much-needed facelift
Photo: SPP Archive. (Large jpg - 53K)
One of St Petersburg's forgotten palaces is now being restored to its former splendor thanks to the Russian Museum.
The Stroganov Palace, on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the Moika Embankment, has suffered 50 years of neglect since Stalin had it closed in the 1930s.
Ironically, the palace's last owner, Count Sergei Alexandrovich Stroganov, didn't have much time for it either. He spent most of his life either in France or Italy and rarely returned to St Petersburg's almost-forgotten palace.
The green Stroganov Palace on Nevsky Prospect, now open to the public, is one of the oldest palaces in St Petersburg. It was designed by the architect Rastrelli to the order of Baron Stroganov and was erected in an incredibly short time -- six weeks in 1753.
The Stroganov family were wealthy Tartar merchants and were among the richest noble families in Russia. They were famous for their colonizing activities in the Urals in the 16th and 17th centuries and were involved in trading in Siberia.
One famous Stroganov -- Grigory -- built and equipped ships for Peter the Great. Subsequent members of the family became statesmen to the tsars.
Most people know that the family was responsible for the famous dish Beef Stroganov, but the family's contribution to the arts as collectors was the greatest legacy they left.
The Stroganov palace once housed a magnificent collection of paintings by old masters such as Anthony Van Dyke, Claude Lorrain, Guido Reni and other famous painters.
This fine collection, which hung in the palace art gallery, was the result of years of collecting by the family. Alexander Benois called it "the soul of the Stroganov Palace."
The Stroganovs' collection of minerals, medals and coins were of no less value, and contemporaries admired the family's library.
The Stroganovs also became famous for their services to Russian artistic culture, and their patronage resulted in the building of many churches and the founding of the so-called Stroganov School of icon painting in the 16th and 17th centuries.
At the start of this century the palace was like an enchanted castle, which no one, including art historians, could enter. Count Sergei Stroganov, who was living in Paris, allowed it to stand boarded up and deserted for years and wouldn't let anybody get in.
People complained that the butler was "guarding the place like a Cerebrus," and despite the "open sesame" of the Count's permission to a chosen few, getting to know his collection was an excruciating experience for all.
Then came the Revolution, which handed over the Stroganov's 1,912,450 gold-rouble fortune to the people for nothing, and from 1919 the palace became the headquarters for the State Foundation for Museums. The foundation's employees were provided accommodation in 25 rooms of the building.
Opened to the public that year, the unfortunate palace attracted the attention not only of visitors, but also of robbers who sold off items from the collection. The state itself then began to disperse much of the house's treasures to other museums.
From 1929-31 the palace suffered the intrusions of the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and its employees which decided the remaining collections should be divided up.
The following years until the end of World War II are a sorry story of abuse and degradation by the Institute -- renamed the Institute of Plant Industry -- which used the palace for research. Although the tenants did some restoration work in 1934 and 1935, the war wrought blasts both within and without the building.
In the postwar period the policy was one of hole-patching, but the effects of years of bad tenants had caused catastrophic results and it was only in 1988 that the palace was finally wrought from its last owners, the Ministry of Defense.
So far only a handful of the rooms are restored to their former glory and restoration still has a long and painstaking way to go. The problem is made worse by the fact that original pieces of furniture, paintings and sculptures have ended up in private hands abroad or in other museums here reluctant to let their treasures go.
The year 1992 proved a turning point in the fortunes of the forgotten palace when it was handed over to the Russian Museum. Also that year the International Stroganov Foundation was formed in New York by the heiress to the Stroganov family, Baroness Helene de Ludinghausen.
It was this year that inspired the hope that the palace, after 60 years of degradation and oblivion, would see its former beauty revived and regain its glorious reputation as a center of arts.
To help fund the massive restoration program, an art shop "Mecenates" has been opened on its ground floor by the combined efforts of the Russian Museum, the Stroganov Foundation and a joint-stock company called PROK.
Vladimir Gusev, director of the Russian Museum, said, "This was one of several palaces shut to the public because of their links with various war offices. Now it has been returned to the public.
"Although we can't recreate the palace exactly as it was because so many paintings and items were sold off by the Soviets in the 1930s to private collectors abroad, we, with the help of the Stroganov Fund, hope to get some of these items back to once again grace this magnificent house."