The Palace of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich
by Greg King
In early 1894, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna was engaged to Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. This had been a hard-fought victory. Although both Xenia and Alexander were clearly in love, her parents had objections to the potential match. Empress Marie Feodorovna disliked the idea of anyone coming between her and her children. As for Emperor Alexander III, he knew of – and himself gleefully repeated – rumors that the Grand Duke’s mother, the former Princess Cecilie of Baden, was the illegitimate daughter of a Jewish banker named Haber. The Emperor deemed her “Auntie Haber.” The idea of his eldest daughter possibly marrying a man of Jewish descent annoyed and angered him, although he finally gave his permission for the union, which took place in July 1894.1
Despite his misgivings, Alexander III offered his daughter and son-in-law the Mikhailovsky Palace just off the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. An immense neoclassical building that had only recently become vacant with the death of Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna, it was imposing and suitably grand – too grand for the rather modest Xenia, who deemed it far too large to ever become a comfortable residence.2
Casting about for alternatives, the Emperor learned that the mansion of Countess M. V. Vorontsova, situated at No. 106 Moika Canal, was being sold. He arranged for the treasury to purchase it and presented it to Xenia and Alexander as a wedding present.3
Much of the area lining the Moika Canal was exceptionally fashionable, home to a number of impressive aristocratic and Romanov residences. But the Vorontsov mansion was directly across from the New Holland Arch, which marked the site of a former shipyard, a bit too far afield to be a really prominent address. It did, though, have one benefit which was often lacking in other Grand Ducal residences scattered across the capital: the site had a large garden, and the mansion was set back from the surrounding streets, not abutting other buildings, which insured a measure of privacy.
Under Peter the Great, Rear-Admiral Ivan Senyavin had first constructed a mansion on this site, close to the shipyard so that he would easily inspect various projects. After his death the house passed to his son Ivan, who greatly enlarged it. Over the next hundred years, the mansion changed hands several times, purchased by a succession of wealthy merchants who renovated the interior and added new wings and service buildings. In the 1850s Princess M. V. Vorontsova bought the property and hired architect Ippolit Monighetti to completely redesign the building.4
Born in Italy to a bricklayer who moved his family to Moscow, Monighetti studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts and graduated with honors. Imperial commissions soon came his way: he was appointed Chief Architect of the Imperial Palaces at Tsarskoye Selo, where he designed a Turkish Bathhouse and several bridges. At the time he accepted the commission from Vorontsova, Monighetti was also engaged in renovating and remodeling a number of rooms in the Yusupov Palace just down the Moika Canal; he would later renovate the Great Palace at Livadia in the Crimea and built the adjacent, Byzantine-style Church.
For Princess Vorontsova, Monighetti expanded the existing structure, adding a new wing, an attic, and a two-story winter garden. The rooms were richly decorated in a neo-rococo style, with columns and pilasters framing marble walls, stucco-relief ornaments adorning panels and ceilings, and elaborate ormolu and crystal chandeliers.5 Although the official reception rooms were suitably regal, after inspecting the mansion Xenia and her husband decided that to have the private apartments completely renovated and refurbished.
The couple hired two architects to undertake this work, Nicholas Sultanov and Count Nicholas de Rochefort. Sultanov had already completed a number of Imperial commissions, including construction and decoration of the church in the palace of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich on St. Petersburg’s English Embankment, and rebuilding the residence of the Governor-General in Moscow for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. He also helped in the restoration of the Moscow house belonging to the Yusupov family and had been given the commission for the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul at Peterhof. Sultanov preferred neo-Muscovite designs harkening back to the country’s medieval past, with colorful foliate designs on walls and ceilings and ornately twisted columns framing windows and doorways. He was given the task of redecorating several of the mansion’s rooms as well as building a new stable at the edge of the property.
By contrast, the work of French-born Count Nicholas de Rochefort looked toward the future, although it was a future often uneasily attempting to combine the historicism of the past. His largest Imperial commission had been the Imperial Hunting Lodge at Belovezh for Alexander III. An immense building of polychrome brick and elaborately carved wooden details, the lodge’s interiors relied heavily on coffered ceilings, paneled wainscoting, and rustic beams. These rooms hovered somewhere between baronial and art nouveau, with lighter woods and chased bronze lighting fixtures. It was this style that Xenia and Alexander asked Rochefort to bring to their private apartments in the mansion on the Moika.6
Work on the mansion ended in 1895, and Xenia and Alexander duly took up residence. Because it now had Imperial owners, the building was given the appellation of palace, which was reserved for residences belonging to members of the Romanov Dynasty. The reconstruction and renovation left intact much of Monighetti’s elaborate decoration, including bas-reliefs, columns, stucco ornaments, and intricate tiled stoves. The palace contained a variety of eclectic interiors: French rococo, Elizabethan, Moorish, and art nouveau rooms opened onto each other, leaving a slightly chaotic impression.7
The finished palace was unusual among Imperial residences in the capital, with a rather modest appearance and a complicated layout that disguised just how large it really was. Viewed from the Moika, the palace seemed to be little more than a single story atop a raised ground floor, with a steep Mansard roof pierced with dormers on either side of a central, two-story projection capped with a scrolled, ornamental cartouche which partially hid a belvedere. This was the original mansion. It was dwarfed by the building behind it, a long, two-story structure of nondescript architecture, which itself sat atop a raised ground floor. Because of the disparity between the two structures – one small, refined, with delicate decoration, and the other unadorned and rather institutional looking – they seemed to be two entirely different buildings. In fact, they were one, the larger southern portion having been added on to the smaller existing mansion to the north.
An elaborately worked wrought-iron fence fringed the property along the Moika Canal: tall gates, decorated with Imperial eagles and the initials KA for the Grand Duchess in Cyrillic, opened from the embankment to a paved square in front of the original mansion. A double, curved stone staircase ascended to a small, balustraded terrace at the center of the northern façade. Anyone passing the property would assume that the three tall French windows opening to the terrace formed the palace’s main entrance. In fact, the main entrance was located on the eastern side of the original mansion.
Set beneath a wrought-iron canopy of intricate scrollwork, oak doors set with etched glass upper panels opened to a small vestibule. Ahead, a wide archway revealed a white marble staircase, which ascended in a straight line to the principal floor. Between granite Ionic columns set with bronze capitals, the walls of the staircase were adorned with bas-reliefs. The arches of the ceiling were adorned with sculpted plaster foliate designs dotted here and there with putti and clusters of grapes. Windows on one side rose from marble basins, which Xenia kept filled with flowers and palms.8
Because the building had been added onto several times, the interior layout was complex. At the center of the principal floor’s northern façade was the Oval Hall, whose three French windows opened to the terrace overlooking the Moika. This was the most formal room in the palace, whose white walls were adorned with pilasters framing panels decorated with stucco relief rocailles, foliage designs, and cupids. A suite of white and gold Louis XVI-style furniture, commissioned from the St. Petersburg firm of Meltzer, stood about the inlaid wooden floor.9
Two smaller formal halls occupied the spaces to the east and west of the Oval Hall. The Green Reception Room was faced with oak wainscot, above which hung green silk ordered from Lyon framed in carved and gilded moldings. This was balanced by the Crimson Drawing Room, named for the color of the Lyon silk upon its walls. A suite of furniture from the St. Petersburg shop of M. I. Noskov, elaborately carved and adorned with ormolu ornaments, stood atop a crimson patterned carpet purchased from the Dufaux Company. Above the white marble mantelpiece, carved with floral designs and depictions of musical instruments, crystal and ormolu candelabra flanked a marble bust of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.10
The largest of the interiors was the Concert Hall, also known as the Venetian Hall owing to its decoration. Being situated in the middle of the house, this lacked any exterior windows, and relied on a leaded glass skylight two stories above the inlaid floor for illumination. An elaborate stucco-relief frieze surrounded the skylight, with foliate designs picked out in gilt. Ionic pilasters with ormolu capitals circled the marble walls, supporting a second-floor musicians’ balcony. In the corners stood immense bronze lamps, whose electric lights was reflected in the numerous mirrors around the hall.11
A series of smaller reception rooms occupied much of the first floor. A Flemish Room, whose style was adopted from Peter the Great’s small seaside palace of Monplaisir at Peterhof, was a symphony in oak, with carved panels on the walls and a ceiling surrounded by carved floral garlands, acanthus leaves, and putti. In keeping with the theme, the furniture, also of oak, was modeled after Dutch and Flemish designs of the Seventeenth Century, covered in leather or dark tapestry, while pieces of blue and white Delft porcelain stood on tables and lined a bracketed upper shelf circling the room. The Orange Drawing Room, like the Concert Hall, also lacked any exterior windows, and was lit by a glass skylight, which was illuminated by concealed electric bulbs at night. An Oriental carpet spread across the parquet floor, and the furniture was reflective of Turn of the Century eclectic tastes, with heavily carved overstuffed sofas and chairs hung with Victorian fringe fighting for primacy with a multitude of potted palms and gilded ornaments. The White Drawing Room, carried out in the Louis XVI-style, served as a semi-formal reception room, and was decorated with Romanov portraits. This suite of rooms ended with a Winter Garden, with two marble fountains, boxed orange trees, palms, and a variety of tropical flowers grown in the palace’s adjacent greenhouse.12
The private apartments were scattered along the eastern and southern sides of the original mansions first floor and continued in the eastern wing built in the early Nineteenth Century, which also held the rooms for the couple’s children and quarters for servants.13
Just off the upper vestibule opening from the Grand Staircase was the Grand Duke’s Moorish Study. This had originally been designed in the Moorish style by Monighetti and Xenia and Alexander kept most of the intricate decoration intact. A paneled wainscot circled the lower walls, topped with a shelf on which pieces of porcelain and assorted objects purchased by the Grand Duke on his numerous travels were displayed. The upper walls, richly ornamented with traditional Islamic carvings in stucco, contained small niches displaying works of art. A heavily carved and gilded frieze circled the ceiling, and fine blue silk carpet, given to Alexander Mikhailovich by the Emperor of China, covered the parquet floor. The furniture ranged from little tables inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory to heavily fringed overstuffed sofas and ottomans draped with Oriental carpets.14
The Private Dining Room, lined with carved oak panels, soon proved too small for the Imperial couple’s growing family of seven children. They eventually turned the nearby Billiard Room, lit by a skylight, into their regular dining room. A nearby pantry sported a dumbwaiter and a staircase linking it to the kitchen below. This had been specially outfitted by the Parisian firm of Brifo, with the most modern ovens, refrigeration units, and the latest in kitchen equipment.15
Adjoining the Moorish Study was the Library, an eight-sided room decorated in Jacobean style, with heavily carved bookcases and a dark green velvet carpet from France. The oak ceiling was carved and segmented into coffers and hung with bronze chandeliers. Beyond, the Grand Duchess had a drawing room, carried out by de Rochefort in a sort of vague art nouveau style, with wooden wainscoting of Karelian birch walls covered with a blue floral chintz, which was waxed to give it a sheen. The furniture, from the St. Petersburg firm of Meltzer, included a built-in corner sofa and a mirrored case holding vases, small carved animals by Faberge, and other precious objects.16
The main bedroom was lined with panels of light ash to a height of six feet; above this, the walls were hung in silk woven in Lyon at a cost of some 80,000 Francs. Two large beds stood side-by-side, opposite three tall windows looking to the south; a carpet of crimson silk, also from France, covered the floor. Beyond this were dressing rooms for the Grand Ducal pair, lined with wardrobes of ash, and their respective bathrooms. Xenia’s bathroom was divided by a mirrored panel, which concealed a marble soaking tub. A large stove of faience tiles stood in the corner. The Grand Duke had a similar bathroom, also equipped with a sunken tub lined by faience tiles.17
The last of the important spaces was the vaulted house church. Designed by Nicholas Sultanov, this was dedicated to St. Xenia of Rome, and featured frescoes done in the style of Andrei Rublev. An iconostasis of hammered copper set with enamel panels, separated the nave from the altar.18
Xenia and Alexander lived in their palace until the February Revolution. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, the Grand Duchess converted part of the building into an infirmary for wounded officers. The palace served as a bolt hole for the couple’s son-in-law Prince Felix Yusupov after he murdered Rasputin. It was here that he took refuge in the immediate aftermath of the crime, perhaps in the knowledge that, as an Imperial residence, it was safe from police investigations unless authorized directly by the Emperor, although he voluntarily spoke to authorities here when he came under suspicion.19
After the Revolution, Xenia and Alexander fled south to the Crimea with their children. Their palace on the Moika was confiscated by the Bolshevik Government in April 1918. The rooms were looted of their paintings, carpets, and antiques; the contents of the vast wine cellar disappeared, and the Grand Duke’s carefully assembled 20,000 volume library on naval history and studies was seized.20
In 1919, the former palace was given to the State Institute for Physical Education. Three years later, a disastrous fire swept through the building. When the smoke cleared, the original mansion built by Monighetti was nearly gutted. Most of the fine interior decoration had fallen victim to the flames: only the Grand Staircase and Upper Vestibule escaped complete destruction. Nazi artillery did further damage during World War II. Very little was left in 1954 as Soviet authorities set upon a haphazard and ill-conceived renovation.21
In so many palaces left devasted by the war, the Soviet were careful to restore interiors to their original condition. The residence of Xenia and Alexander, however, was deemed to be a mid-Nineteenth hodgepodge of disparate architectural elements that lacked any historical value. And so Soviet artists were brought in to cover the walls with murals depicting heroic athletes engaged in a variety of sports: pole-vaulting, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and basketball, replete with inscriptions declaring “Glory to our free Fatherland!”22
The former palace still serves as a headquarters for the now-renamed P. F. Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture. Occasionally tours are allowed, although there is little left to see of the original interiors. Ironically, aside from the Grand Staircase, it is the Church of St. Xenia that has survived in much of its original condition. For reasons unknown, Soviet officials left it alone, a bit of Orthodoxy hidden amid the Soviet murals.23
Source Notes:
1. Witte, 178.
2. Van der Kiste and Hall, 36.
3. Van der Kiste and Hall, 36; Frolov, 96; Zherikhina, 65.
4. Frolov, 97.
5. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Zherikhina, 66.
6. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html.
7. Frolov, 98; Zherikhina, 68.
8. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 99.
9. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 99; Zherikhina, 69.
10. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 99.
11. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 100; Zherikhina, 70.
12. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 100.
13. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html.
14. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 100-01.
15. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 98.
16. Van der Kiste and Hall, 48; https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html.
17. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 101.
18. Romanov News; https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Frolov, 101.
19. Van der Kiste and Hall, 95.
20. Ibid., 108.
21. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html.
22. https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html; Van der Kiste and Hall, 241.
23. Van der Kiste and Hall, 241.
Bibliography
Frolov, A. Velikogertsogskiye dvortsy. St. Petersburg: Glagol, 2008.
Van der Kiste, John, and Coryne Hall. Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II. Stroud: Sutton, 2002.
Witte, Sergei. The Memoirs of Count Witte. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1990.
Zherikhina, E. Usad'by ust'ya Moyki. St. Petersburg: Alaborg, 2011.
https://www.citywalls.ru/house34273.html
Romanov News, published monthly by Paul Kulikovsky, August 2015, No. 89.