P109- Russia - The Winter Palace

The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia ( UNESCO WHS )

The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian Tsars. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and altered almost continuously between the late 1730s and 1837, when it was severely damaged by fire and immediately rebuilt.The storming of the palace in 1917 became an iconic symbol of the Russian Revolution.

The palace was constructed on a monumental scale that was intended to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia. From the palace, the Tsar and autocrat of all the Russias ruled over 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi) (almost 1/6 of the Earth's landmass) and 176.4 million subjects. It was designed by many architects, most notably Bartolomeo Rastrelli, in what came to be known as the Elizabethan Baroque style; the green-and-white palace has the shape of an elongated rectangle. It has been calculated that the palace possesses 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms and 117 staircases. Its principal façade is 500 ft (150 m) long and 100 ft (30 m) high. The rebuilding of 1837 left the exterior unchanged, but large parts of the interior were redesigned in a variety of tastes and styles, leading the palace to be described as a "19th-century palace inspired by a model in Rococo style."

In 1905, the palace was the scene of the Bloody Sunday massacre, but by this time the Imperial Family had chosen to live in the more secure and secluded Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, and returned to the Winter Palace only for the most formal and rarest state occasions. Following the February Revolution of 1917, the palace was for a short time the seat of the Russian Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky. Later that same year the palace was stormed by a detachment of Red Army soldiers and sailors—a defining moment in the birth of the Soviet state. On a less glorious note, the month-long looting of the palace's wine cellars during this troubled period led to what has been described as "the greatest hangover in history". Today, restored, the palace forms part of the complex of buildings housing the Hermitage Museum.

冬宮是俄羅斯聖彼得堡的標誌性建築，始建於1721年（彼得堡也始建於這一年），建成之初到1917年羅曼諾夫王朝結束一直是俄國皇帝們的皇宮。冬宮具有雙重性，早在彼得大帝的女兒伊莉莎白·彼得羅夫娜女皇在位期間（1741—1761年）就已經具有皇家博物館的屬性，伊莉莎白女皇是最早修繕、也是最大規模修繕冬宮的皇帝之一。葉卡捷琳娜·阿列克謝耶夫娜二世女皇在位期間（1762—1796年）極大的擴充了冬宮的館藏數量，並在冬宮內建立艾爾米塔什博物館（當時是她的私人博物館），埃爾米塔日博物館建立於1764年。當時收藏的是俄羅斯女皇葉卡捷琳娜二世從柏林商人戈茨科夫斯基手中獲得的225幅繪畫作品，及來自歐洲和北亞地區的藝術珍品。1917年俄國皇帝尼古拉二世（1895—1917年在位）宣布退位，冬宮結束了它作為皇宮的歷史。

博物館在12月17日慶況自己的建館日——這—天也是神聖葉卡捷琳娜日。埃爾米塔日博物館於1852年對公眾開放。

1940—1943年聖彼得堡被德軍圍困，冬宮受到很大破壞，但館藏的藝術珍品得到了列寧格勒（當時聖彼得堡被稱為列寧格勒）人民的妥善而及時的保護。1945年二戰結束，蘇維埃政府開始重修冬宮。

冬宮是一座主要建築。它是俄羅斯沙皇的宮邸，建於1754-1762年，因為這棟建築還提拔了設計師拉斯特雷利的作品。

現在的冬宮一般被稱為艾爾米塔什國立美術館，它和台灣的國立故宮博物院、法國的羅浮宮、英國的大英博物館、美國的大都會博物館並稱為世界五大博物館，以古文字學研究和歐洲繪畫藝術品聞名世界。

References sources : Wikipedia