Konstantinovsky Palace: a Renaissance Relic

The tireless ‘craftsman’ emperor, Peter I, was personally involved in construction. The Strelna park was his idea altogether. Credit for the park’s core design features also goes to Peter. He made sure the palace, the grottoes, the canals and the garden were built as an integral compositional whole. The architect who turned Peter’s vision and sketches into a graphically accomplished and harmonious project was Frenchman J.-B. Leblon.

Ground was broken for the main palace, in 1720 in Peter’s presence and with his active involvement, but his projected gala residence in Strelna never materialized. A fickle, inspirational person, Peter abandoned Strelna and devoted all his attention to a new project, Peterhof.

After Michetti went home, his apprentices, the talented Russian architects M. Zemtsov, T. Usov and P. Yeropkin, finished his job for him. This was the first building in the history of Russian palatial architecture where the gala rooms were positioned in a suite, one after the other. This layout would gain wide circulation in later epochs.

Construction in Strelna was frozen for lack of funds after Peter’s death, but his daughter Elizabeth resumed it. Anxious to realize her father’s project, she put her court architect F.-B. Rastrelli on the case, who made some additions to the palace’s spatial layout and interior artwork.

Paradoxically, neither Elizabeth, nor her successor Catherine II used Strelna as their royal residence.

Strelna was brought back from oblivion by Emperor Paul I, who gave it as a present to his son, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, in 1797. From then on, the palace would be referred to as Konstantinovsky, and would go down in history under that name. Its new reconstruction was entrusted to the architects F.-K. H. Wilster and A.N. Voronikhin. In 1804 and 1805, the former was replaced by L. Ruska, who created the belvedere above the palace, which really ties the faзade together. The Marble and Military gala halls were Ruska’s idea. Meanwhile, Voronikhin was working on interior finishing and rebuilt the terrace and the grottoes. Years later, A.I. Stackenschneider would dress Voronikhin’s famed staircases in white marble.

After Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich died in 1831, Nicholas I gave the Strelna estate to his son, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The palace went into reconstruction again in 1848, this time under the tutelage of celebrated architects H.F. Meier, A.I. Stackenschneider and G.E. Bosse, who made the pompous palace look less ‘heavy,’ turning it into a comfortable summer residence.

That was the last remodeling of the Strelna palace and park before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The complex, it seemed, had finally acquired a final, finished look. In the fateful year 1917, Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich, who had inherited Strelna after his father’s death in 1892, was executed, and the palace was nationalized.

For a while, the palace housed a school, then a penitentiary, a succession of sports societies, and, once again, a school for political propagandists. Needless to say, anything of any value was removed from the palace, and dereliction set in. During the Russian chapter of WWII, Strelna was in the middle of fierce fighting, and changed hands several times. The palace was badly damaged, but the walls survived: in Peter’s time, houses were built to last.

After the war, the estate was handed over to the Arctic exploration authority, Glavsevmorput, and a school for Arctic explorers moved in. Several decades later, the palace was remodeled without any regard for its architectural value, which almost completely eradicated its original interior layout. The Arctic school was closed down in 1991. Although in 1990, UNESCO put the Strelna complex on its list of the world’s most valuable historical landmarks, years of ruin and oblivion ensued.

Strelna is currently undergoing major restoration. In its new official capacity as the National Palace of Congresses, Strelna will host high-level guests, delegations and high-profile forums. The restoration is being carried out by Sixteenth Trust the third, administrative offices. There will also be a commercial/shopping area in the palace. A hotel + recreational complex will be built next to the palace, including a yacht club and some sports installations. This way, the restored Strelna complex will serve as both a historical architectural landmark, and a modern, comfortable convention center.

Струйно-нишевая технология сжигания топлива — решение проблем современных горелочных устройств.

Использование отработанных масел в теплопроизводящих установках.

Перспективная плазменная резка металлов.

Кириши — город солнца, город мечты.

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