Pavilion 'Evening Hall'

About museum

The pavilion is used for temporary exhibitions and concerts. Construction of the building began in 1796 to a design by Pyotr Neelov, but it was completed only about fifteen years later according to plans by Luigi Rusca. It consists of a rectangular hall and two small chambers. The central risalit of the main façade was decorated with a portico of four Ionic columns, and caryatids were placed on low pedestals beside the windows. As a result of these alterations the pavilion lost the original appearance envisaged by Neelov and acquired features of late Classicism, tending toward broad expanses of wall enlivened by sculpture. The interior walls of the large hall were faced with artificial marble, which was lost during World War II. The upper tier was decorated with a painted frieze depicting deer and cupids in chariots against a park landscape. The frieze and the polychrome painting of the ceiling were restored after the war.