Winter Palace of Peter I

Brief Information

The Winter Palace of Peter I does not stand as a separate palace: its remains are located inside the building of the Hermitage Theatre. This changes how the place is perceived. What we have before us is not a reconstructed set on an empty plot, but an early Petrine residence that was later literally built into another building. During the construction of the theatre, Giacomo Quarenghi preserved the walls of the palace’s basement and ground floors and used part of the royal chambers as the foundation for the auditorium and stage.

That is why the main point here is not scale, but the convergence of two monuments within one volume. Beneath the theatre, fragments of the ceremonial courtyard, the rooms of Peter I’s “Small Chambers,” and the living quarters of Catherine I along the Winter Canal have survived. Since 1992, a permanent exhibition with Peter I’s belongings and recreated interiors has been operating in the restored rooms.

What to Notice First

It is worth comparing the materials of the courtyard: the area by the facade is paved with clinker brick, as it was under Peter I, while the higher section is paved with cobblestone from the mid-18th century. This juxtaposition shows not a single “historical style,” but different moments in the life of the site. The arcades of the surrounding galleries around the discovered part of the ceremonial courtyard help one imagine that hidden beneath the theatre stage is not a basement, but a fragment of palace space.

On the walls, the rustication and medallions are important: these decorative elements survived beneath later plaster and suggested how the walls should be painted during restoration. In the rooms of the “Small Chambers,” note the Dutch tiles, marquetry parquet, oak shutters, and window frames. In Peter I’s study, the stove and fireplace have survived; their tilework was restored “in the Dutch manner,” so this domestic detail speaks of the owner’s taste no less than the ceremonial halls do.