MENSHIKOV PALACE THE MENSHIKOV PALACE

 Alexander Menshikov  Alexander Menshikov ( ) was a good friend and companion of Peter the Great. He came from a very humble background, but was quickly promoted by Peter to become a duke (1707) and the Governor General of St. Petersburg.

 Being the Governor General, he commissioned a large palace on Vasilievsky Island, where he lived until The palace was the most luxurious house to be built in the city thus far and was therefore chosen to host various official functions.

 After Peter's death in 1725, Menshikov did his best to ensure that the throne would pass safely to Peter's wife Catherine I. For two years Menshikov effectively ruled the country. In 1727, a few weeks before his daughter's marriage to the heir to the throne, Menshikov was accused of treason and stealing government money and was exiled with his whole family to Siberia.

1710 Giovanni Maria Fontana Gottfried Johann Schädel  The Menshikov palace was founded in 1710 and built by Italian architects Giovanni Maria Fontana, and, later, German architect Gottfried Johann Schädel. It was opened in 1711, but the construction continued until 1727 (assisted by Domenico Trezzini, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Georg Johann Mattarnovy).

 The interior  The interior decoration used marble and painting to imitate marble, monumental decorative painting, antique and contemporary Italian sculpture, as well as Dutch cobalt painted tiles, Russian stove tiles, painted and stamped leather, textiles.

most spacious and splendid palace  This ‘most spacious and splendid palace' (in the words of a foreign traveller who visited Petersburg in 1721) housed collections of paintings, sculpture, works of applied art, books, coins and medals, and was the cultural center of the capital.

First 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, the leading high school in Russia.

museum of the Corps  At the end of the 19th century the Menshikov Palace was restored and became the museum of the Corps. In 1924, its collections were moved to the Hermitage and other museums. Hermitage Museum  From the Menshikov Palace was restored again and finally opened to the public as a branch of the Hermitage Museum with a collection of Russian art of the late 17th-early 18th