Tauride Palace

Tauride Palace (Russian: Таврический дворец, romanized: Tavrichesky dvorets) is one of the largest and most historically important palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Construction and early use

Prince Grigory Potemkin of Tauride commissioned his favourite architect, Ivan Starov, to design his city residence in a rigorous Palladian style. Starov's design called for an extensive park, later the Tauride Garden, and harbour in front of the palace, which would be linked with the Neva River by a canal. Building work began in 1783 and lasted for six years.¹ The 13-bay front of the palace has a Tuscan portico and is topped by a shallow dome. A square vestibule leads to an octagonal hall, with the huge "Catherine Hall" beyond. This had eighteen Ionic Greek columns on either side and opens into a large, enclosed winter garden with a central circular colonnade.² Considered the grandest nobleman's residence of 18th-century Russia, Tauride Palace served as a model for innumerable manors scattered across the Russian Empire.

Shortly before his death, on 28 April 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 poetry compositions.

Imperial acquisition and use

Several months after the owner's death, Catherine II purchased his palace¹ and ordered the architect Fyodor Volkov to transform it into her summer . Volkov was responsible for many improvements in the grounds, including the construction of the in the east wing and the in the west wing. In the garden, he designed the Admiralty Pavilion, the gardener house, , glass-houses, bridges, and ironwork fences. The sculpture named the (now in the ) was kept in the palace from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth, and derives its name from it.