Mikhailovsky Castle Exhibition

About exhibition

Mikhailovsky Castle is the largest architectural monument that concludes the history of 18th-century St. Petersburg architecture. It was erected on the site of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (arch. F. B. Rastrelli, 1740s), which was dismantled by order of Emperor Paul I immediately after the death of his mother, Catherine II. The overall concept for the castle and the first sketches of its layout belonged to Paul Petrovich himself. Work on the design of his future residence began in 1784. Contemporaries called the interiors of Mikhailovsky Castle a marvel of luxury and taste. The artistic decoration involved monumental painters P. Scotti, D. Scotti, A. Vigi, Ya. Mettenleiter; sculptors K. Albani, I. Prokofiev, P. Sokolov; and painters I. Akimov, A. Ivanov, among others. Like many aristocratic palaces of that era, the castle combined the functions of a ceremonial residence for the imperial family and a museum of art collections of ancient, Western European, and Russian art. The ticket price includes admission to the permanent exhibition and the temporary exhibition “Picture Book. 1920s–1980s”.