The Palace of Prince Menshikov
The palace of Prince Alexander Menshikov, the first General Governor of Saint Petersburg, was founded on Vasilevsky Island in 1710. It is one of the oldest buildings in the city.
The participation of famous architects to build a Palace
The unique appearance of the building and its courtyard took shape over the course of construction, which lasted for many years and involved European architects and artists: G. Fontana, J.-G Schadel, D. Trezzini, C. Rastrelli, G.-J Mattarnovi, J.-B. Le Blond.
Luxurious and spacious Palace
In the interior decoration masters used marble and painting to imitate marble, monumental decorative painting and moulding, antique and contemporary Italian sculpture, as well as Dutch cobalt painted tiles. This ‘most spacious and splendid palace’ (in the words of a foreign traveler who visited Saint Petersburg in 1721) housed collections of paintings, sculpture, works of applied art, books, coins and medals, and was the cultural center of the capital.
The transfer of the building of the Cadet corps
After Menshikov’s fall from grace, all his property was confiscated by the state. The palace on Vasilevsky Island was transferred to the First Cadet Corps, which produced many outstanding figures of the 18th and early 19th centuries: the military commanders Count Pyotr Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky, Count Alexander Suvorov, the dramatist and poet Alexander Sumarokov, the first Russian actor Fyodor Volkov and others.
The transfer of the building of the Cadet corps
In the 1880s a museum of the Cadet Corps was established in the palace, which functioned until 1924.
The original appearance of the palace was re-created in the course of restoration work undertaken in the 1970s, and the palace museum opened its doors to visitors in 1981. Today the Palace belongs to the Hermitage museum complex.
