Tauride Palace

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Tauride Palace

Tauride Palace (Russian: Tavrichesky dvorets, ??????????? ??????) is one of the largest and most historic palaces in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
, Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
.

Potemkin
Prince Grigory Potemkin of Tauride commissioned his favourite architect, Ivan Starov

Ivan Starov

Ivan Yegorovich Starov was a Russian architect from Saint Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and many other towns in Russia and Ukraine....
, to design his city residence in a rigorous Palladian style.

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Tauride Palace (Russian: Tavrichesky dvorets, ??????????? ??????) is one of the largest and most historic palaces in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
.

Potemkin

Prince Grigory Potemkin of Tauride commissioned his favourite architect, Ivan Starov

Ivan Starov

Park

A park is a Environmental protection, in its natural or semi-natural state or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment....
and harbour in front of the palace, which would be linked with the Neva River

Neva River

The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast and the city of Saint Petersburg to the Gulf of Finland....
by a canal. Building work began in 1783 and lasted for six years. Considered the grandest nobleman's residence of 18th-century Russia, Tauride Palace served as a model for innumerable manors scattered across the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
.

Shortly before his death, on April 28, 1791, Potemkin used the palace to host unprecedented festivities and illuminations with the purpose of winning the Empress's waning affections. The ball was described by Gavrila Derzhavin in the longest of his compositions. Notwithstanding all the expenses, Potemkin failed in his ambition and departed for Iasi

Iasi

Iasi , is a Cities in Romania and Municipality in Romania in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of Principality of Moldavia from the 16th century until 1861 and of Romania between 1916?1918 during World War I....
in despair.

Catherine II

After the owner's death several months later, Catherine II

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, called Catherine the Great .The Russian empress Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, reigned from 1762 to 1796. Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved in its administration, and underwent a dramatic policy of Westernization....
purchased his palace and ordered architect Fyodor Volkov to transform it into her summer townhouse

Townhouse

Historically in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries, a townhouse was a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city....
. Volkov was responsible for many improvements in the grounds, including the construction of the theatre

Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
in the east wing and the church in the west wing. In the garden, he designed the Admiralty Pavilion, gardener house, orangery

Orangery

An orangery was a building frequently found in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th century and given a classicising architectural form....
, glass-houses, bridges, and ironwork fences. The sculpture named the Venus Tauride
Venus Tauride

The Venus Tauride or Venus of Tauris is a 1.67 m high sculpture of Aphrodite. It is named after the Taurida Palace in St Petersburg, where it was kept from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth....
(now in the Hermitage Museum

Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest museums in the world, with 3 million works of art , and one of the oldest art gallery and museums of human history and culture in the world....
) was kept in the palace from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth, and derives its name from it.

The exterior appearance of the palace was rather plain and contrasted sharply with the riotous luxuriance of its interiors. The domed hall, one of the largest in Russia, was connected by a 75-meter-long columned gallery with a winter garden

Winter Garden

Winter Garden may refer to:* A winter garden, winter-hardy plants grown for winter interest and decoration, or to be harvested for food between winter and early spring....
. The decoration of every major room – including the Chinese Hall and the Tapestry Parlour – was destroyed after 1799, when Emperor Paul, who detested all the things his mother liked, gave over the palace to his favourite cavalry regiment to be used as barracks

Barracks

Barracks are living quarters for personnel on a military post. They are typically very plain and all of the buildings in the housing unit are often uniform structures....
.

Congresses and Assemblies

In the 19th century, the palace was refurbished by Carlo Rossi

Carlo Rossi (architect)

Carlo di Giovanni Rossi, was a Russian architect, of Italian origin, who worked the major portion of his life in Russia. He was the author of many classical buildings and architectural ensembles in Saint Petersburg and its environments....
and Vasily Stasov

Vasily Stasov

Vasily Petrovich Stasov , Russian architect, extensively travelled in France and Italy, where he became professor of St Luke Academy in Rome. On his return home, he was elected to the Imperial Academy of Arts ....
as a residence for minor royalty. It had been used to host ball

Ball

A ball is a round object with various uses. It is usually sphere but can be ovoid. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players....
s and exhibitions until 1906, when it was transformed into the seat of the first Russian parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
, the Imperial State Duma

Duma

A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament....
.

Immediately after the February Revolution of 1917, Tauride Palace housed the Provisional Government

Provisional government

A provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a previous administration or regime....
and the Petersburg Soviet. The abortive Russian Constituent Assembly

Russian Constituent Assembly

The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a democratically elected constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m....
held its meetings there in 1918. In May 1918 Bolsheviks held here their 7th Congress, where they first named themselves the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Since the 1990s, Tauride Palace has been home to the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States

Commonwealth of Independent States

The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics.The CIS is comparable to a confederation similar to the original European Community....
(IPA CIS). On this account, a large glass-covered annex was erected immediately behind the palace, in the Tauride Gardens.

Tauride Palace

Potemkin

Catherine II

Congresses and Assemblies

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