Nevsky Prospect 86 is a neoclassical palace situated on the

Nevsky Prospect Nevsky Prospect ( rus, Не́вский проспе́кт, r=Nevsky Prospekt, p=ˈnʲɛfskʲɪj prɐˈspʲɛkt) is the main street (high street) in the federal city of St. Petersburg in Russia. It takes its name from the Alexander Nevsky La ...

in St Petersburg, Russia. It is also known as the Palace of Arts or the Palace of Zinaida Yusupova. The first palace on the site of the present palace was built in the middle of the 18th century, shortly after the founding of St Petersburg, by Prince Troubetzkoy. In the 1780s, his son, rebuilt and enlarged the original wooden structure in stone. At the end of the 18th century, the palace passed to the diplomat Prince Kurakin; it again changed hands during the first quarter of the 19th century, when it was sold to Colonel Fyodor Petrov-Solovovo. The new owner had the palace again rebuilt under the direction of the architect Mikhail Ovsyannikov. He created the neoclassical five columned centrepiece of the principal facade which is the

corps de logis In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal block of a large, (usually classical), mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture ...

of the palace today. The same architect further extended rear the building between 1829 and 1832. In 1835, the building had another new owner, Count Vladislav Branitsky; he employed the Swiss architect Gaspare Fossati to remodel and extend the palace. It was this architect who is responsible for the distinctive facade facing the Nevsky Prospect today. This facade is of nineteen bays, the central five bays are slightly projecting with

Doric columns The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

. Additionally, the facade is terminated at each end by slightly recessed bays containing a high segmented portal with a segmented window designed to be a pastiche of a

Venetian window A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian ar ...

. The principal entrance is on the ground floor at the centre of the facade. The palace comprises four floors, the two lowest, secondary floors, are a semi-basement and a mezzanine; both these floors form a rustic base to the two principal floors above. The third floor is a piano nobile and has tall casement windows; the fourth floor only has windows in the five central bays, the flanking seven bay wings at fourth floor level are adorned with heavy armorial bass relief panels. The central columned five bays are surmounted by a pediment, which once displayed the Branitsky arms, the coat of arms was defaced after the Russian Revolution, but the sculpted decoration which supported the arms remains. Branitsky sold the palace to a member of the Kalugin family, who then resold it to Dmitry Bernadaki. Between the beginning of the 20th century and 1917 the palace belonged to Princess

Zinaida Yusupova Princess Zinaida Nikolayevna Yusupova (russian: Зинаи́да Никола́евна Юсу́пова; 2 September 1861 – 24 November 1939) was an Imperial Russian noblewoman, the only heiress of Russia's largest private fortune of her t ...

, though she probably never lived there, as she is known to have lived in her larger St Petersburg residence, the

Moika Palace The Palace of the Yusupovs on the Moika (russian: Дворец Юсуповых на Мойке), known as the Moika Palace or Yusupov Palace, is a former residence of the Russian noble House of Yusupov in St. Petersburg, Russia, now a museum. ...

. In 1917, after the Russian Revolution, the building was nationalized. The building is listed as a cultural monument of federal significance (as either Petrovo-Solovovo House or Zinaida Yusupova House). It is also a part (together with the whole ensemble of Nevsky Prospect) of the World Heritage site

Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments is the name used by UNESCO when it collectively designated the historic core of the Russian city of St. Petersburg, as well as buildings and ensembles located in the immediate vi ...

References

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