The Zinaida Yusupova Palace on Liteiny Prospect in St. Petersburg is the cultural heritage of Russia, one of the best preserved mansions of the Russian aristocracy. Zinaida Yusupova and her house are covered in many legends and myths. Which of the legends that have come down to us is urban legends, and what is true is reliably unknown even to historians, but it is so pleasant when the mystery remains unsolved ...
Dreams and adventurer
Palace of Zinaida Yusupova on Liteiny Prospect, 42, is one of the many residences of the famous family. The hostess personally chose the project, monitored the progress of work and kept a careful record of funds, materials and workers. It was built for the residence of the princess after the death of her husband - Prince Boris Yusupov.
Born Naryshkina, Zinaida Yusupova possessed undoubted talents - she was brilliantly educated, had a sharp mind, observantness and a considerable share of adventurism in character. At least this is how her grandson Felix Yusupov describes her in his memoirs. She learned to create secrets around herself and envelop herself in a fleur of mystery early. According to historians, it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information about her biography, she carefully confused the traces. The date of her birth is considered to be November 2, 1809. So wrote her father.
According to the memoirs of relatives, she was distinguished by extraordinary beauty, charm and artistry. Some believed that she was not as beautiful as charming. Numerous portraits will convince any skeptic of her external data, and numerous contemporaries tell about the character. For the first time, she married Boris Yusupov, who worked hard to gain the favor of the young beauty and her parents. The age difference between the spouses was 16 years. He was 32 years old, and she was barely 16.
Family unions
The couple represented two opposites - the poetic, subtly sensitive, impressionable Zinaida seemed like a fairy to the light, and Boris, who was expressing his thoughts directly and was easy to communicate, was considered a limited person. The princess quickly became disillusioned with the marriage, comforted only by the birth of her son Nicholas. The second child died, barely born. This was the period when the young wife learned about the curse of the Yusupov family, which stated that in each generation only one male child would remain alive, and the rest would die before the age of 26. Allegedly, the curse dates back to the time of the Nogai Khan, who changed his faith during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The history of the family demonstrated the fulfillment of the curse.
Zinaida decided not to have more children and, giving her husband freedom, plunged into social life in search of romantic adventures. Legends were made up about the number of her fans, but no one can find and confirm the facts, so carefully the princess hid her personal life.
Her husband was extremely dissatisfied with the behavior of his wife, but could not do anything and began to devote the lion's share of his time to charity. He was not afraid of anything, boldly entered the barracks for cholera patients, invited doctors to them, set up hospitals. This killed him - he fell ill with typhus and died in 1848. After the death of her husband, Zinaida Yusupova went to France, where she conquered Paris with her beauty and made a mesalliance, having married a rootless officer. However, the title and palace were acquired to him, the piquancy of the situation was given by the fact that the princess had already celebrated her 40th birthday, and her young spouse was twenty years younger.
The marriage was not happy. The palace of Zinaida Yusupova at the time of the wedding of the newlyweds was already rebuilt, and there the sacrament was performed in the house church. But the young husband was not too attached to the countess and at the end of his short life gave the French estate to his beloved (or sister, whom he had the lady is unknown). However, all the property and condition remained in the hands of the princess. She very competently drew up all the papers, according to which the freshly baked Marquis de Serre had no right to dispose of him, as well as the state of his wife.
Princess Yusupova died at the age of 83 in Paris. A year before her death, she petitioned Emperor Alexander III, where she expressed a desire to return to her homeland. She received permission, but did not have time to do it.
Architectural Delights
The palace of Princess Zinaida Yusupova began to be built on two plots of land acquired in the property in the vicinity of Liteiny Prospekt and the current Nekrasov Street. The choice of the project was made from several proposals, the author of the option he liked was Ludwig Bonstedt. The landlady turned out to be a very practical person, delved into all the intricacies of the work, thoroughly knew what was happening and at what moment, gave practical advice to the architect. Changes to the start-up project were made before the start of construction. The princess carefully followed the schedule and demanded its exact implementation.
Zinaida Yusupova, of all the documents she left, kept the most thorough records regarding the construction of the palace. They took into account all the costs of purchased materials, recorded workers and craftsmen who performed the work, even those who were involved in garbage removal from the construction site. The only thing the princess did not intervene was the artwork that the architect was entirely engaged in, and this demonstrated her foresight. The palace of Zinaida Yusupova and today excites the imagination, thanks to the talent of Bonstedt.
The appearance of the mansion is not devoid of eclecticism, as was customary at the time of its construction. Here are readings of the Renaissance and elements of the German reading of the Baroque. The facade, according to the idea, was completely lined with Gatchina limestone, which was rare for Petersburg. The choice in favor of stone is due to the fragility of the plaster, which covered most of the buildings. The rarely used limestone by many contemporaries was mistaken for marble, which added value to the building in the eyes of the world.
In addition to the stone facade, the palace of Zinaida Yusupova on Liteiny Prospect was astounded by arched windows of an unprecedented size, sculptural groups, exquisite bas-reliefs, graceful caryatids and other decor. Thanks to the rows of window openings, the building seems almost weightless. In fact, the palace of Zinaida Yusupova has impressive dimensions, although it seems chamber. The avenue has a short-side facade, the main part of the house goes deep into the quarter, where there was a place for a vast courtyard, flower beds, two outbuildings.
Interior decoration
In St. Petersburg, the address is well known - Liteiny Avenue, 42. The Zinaida Yusupova Palace attracts tourists and citizens. The former - an unprecedented luxury of architecture, interiors and myths, and the latter - an internal sense of unity with its history and cultural events.
The rooms in the main building of the mansion are built in a suite, on the first floor there are living quarters, and on the second - front rooms. The interior decoration was designed as meticulously and scrupulously as the facade. In the interior there is everything that befits a rich and famous family - bronze art casting, numerous mirrors, gilding made in a limited or single copy of lamps, vases. The furniture was ordered from precious wood, the wall decoration elements are made of natural stone, in which the countess was known as an expert.
Unfortunately, almost all collections of paintings were taken from this palace and are in various museums in Russia, but you can see a small part reflecting the tastes of the hostess and her addiction in the large Yusupov mansion on the Moika or the Arkhangelskoye country residence.
The most extensive hall was allocated for balls and was called White because of the large number of white stucco moldings in the decoration of the room. There is a pink living room, a grand dining room, a library, a golden living room in the mansion. Each room has a special atmosphere, saturated with objects of art that the princess collected. Of all the surviving heritage, the main staircase is most well preserved. Even today she has remained almost the same as she was under the Yusupovs.
In addition to the master chambers and solemn halls, classrooms and the library, in 1861 a house church was consecrated in honor of the Protection of the Virgin. The author of the project was the architect A. M. Gornostaev, and the carpenter Lapshin designed and assembled the complex dome. The wall painting was carried out by the artist N. A. Maykov, he performed many artwork in the mansion, his paintings adorned the walls of many halls of the palace. The carved iconostasis was made according to the sketches of A. M. Gornostaev. The church kept family images, an ancient icon of the Iveron Mother of God and much more.
Technology
Technological innovations that began to appear always found practical application in the mansions of the nobility. Zinaida Yusupova’s palace was equipped with steam ovens, which made it possible to maintain a constant temperature in all rooms, the lighting was provided by gas lamps, and later electricity was supplied.
The main staircase surprised the contemporaries not only with luxury, but also with light lamps, technical innovations. A mechanism was built into the ceiling, thanks to which a massive chandelier was lowered and raised without delays and difficulties. Keeping it clean was not difficult. Today, the upper platform of the central staircase is decorated with a portrait of the mistress of the mansion - this is a copy of the painting “Portrait of Z. I. Yusupova”. The original was written by the artist C. Robertson tentatively in 1840.
Now you can only guess about all the interior and exterior solutions in the palace. After many years of misuse and neglect, a part of the stucco molding perished, a large fireplace lost its entire finish, with the exception of several elements. The scale of the work, the taste of the hostess can only be estimated from photographs and from a series of 30 watercolor drawings by V.S. Sadovnikov, commissioned by the princess.
Luxury without a host
The palace of Zinaida Yusupova was rebuilt in 1861, a grand housewarming party with the reception of numerous guests took place in February of the same year. The princess was already married to Count de Chaux and, having celebrated the wedding, went with her husband to France. Her brother Dmitry remained in the house on Liteiny Prospect. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, she should have sold all her property in her homeland, but Emperor Alexander II decided not to follow the letter of this code too rigidly.
According to the will, the house on Liteiny was inherited by the great-grandson of Princess Zinaida - Felix Yusupov. Until his adulthood, the palace was rarely inhabited, for the most part remaining in a preserved state, this lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. Sometimes it was leased to eminent aristocratic surnames, but the majority of Petersburg inhabitants considered it empty, composing numerous myths and fables. Some stories have survived to this day, and no one will be able to convince the townspeople of their failure.
Theatre club
The first theater troupe in the house of Zinaida Yusupova appeared after Felix entered into the inheritance rights. He passionately loved the theater, and in 1907 leased the main building and both wings of the palace to the theater club under the Union of Dramatic and Music Writers. So the mansion became a refuge for three theaters, the most famous of them were Meyerhold's Curved Seaside and the Crooked Mirror parody theater.
Club events gathered the entire color of the intelligentsia that created the Silver Age of Russian culture. Artists, poets and writers came, evenings were arranged noisy and drunk. But, despite the popularity of the place, luxurious interiors and the love of the public, the theater club moved out of the palace in search of a larger and more equipped venue. With the departure of theatrical bohemia, the elite of the society continued to visit the Yusupovs' house. In 1912, Prince Felix arranged the exhibition "One Hundred Years of French Painting" in the house. The outbreak of World War I filled the premises with completely different content.
War and revolution
In 1914, Prince Yusupov, freed from military service as the only son in the family, developed vigorous activity and supported the initiative of Empress Maria Fyodorovna to create hospitals and infirmaries. The genes of his great-grandfather Boris appeared in Felix, and he gave the palace of Zinaida Yusupova to the hospital for the seriously wounded. The dance hall became a huge hospital ward; medical rooms were arranged in the wings.
After nationalization in 1917, the mansion received a new purpose and name - "Palace of Construction Workers". In the former front and master rooms, a library, a dining room, and classrooms were opened. During this period, the need arose to create one large theater hall, which was decided by combining and redeveloping the front yard and conservatory.
Since 1918, the palace houses the Polish house to them. Yu. Markhlevsky. Nobody stood on ceremony with exquisite interiors - posters, advertisements and visual agitation with nails pounded right on the stucco molding. Sculptures, paintings and furnishings gradually left the walls of the palace, replaced by busts of the leaders of the revolution and slogans on plywood. In the halls performances are again given, musical evenings and costumed performances are held. The stay of the Polish House did not cause significant damage to the mansion, but he needed restoration.
Modernity
Today, many come to theatrical performances at 42 Liteiny Avenue (Zinaida Yusupova's Palace). The theater (St. Petersburg MMT), located in the large hall of the mansion, played the first performance in November 2015. The auditorium seats 600 people, 480 seats are allocated for the stalls, and 120 for the mezzanine. This hall has one feature - there is no orchestra pit, so the musicians are located on the upper level of the balcony.
At the present stage, the Musical Theater gives performances mainly under the phonogram, therefore more places are available for the public: ground floor, balcony and mezzanine. In intermissions for curious spectators, excursions are held in the halls of the mansion, there is a small buffet. Petersburgers expect that the palace of Zinaida Yusupova will soon be restored. The layout of the hall and theatrical stage indicates the chamberness of the theater and its obvious construction on the site of completely different rooms.
In addition to the Maly Musical Theater, the Yusupov Palace since 1951 has been the permanent location of the Knowledge Society of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. The organization conducts educational work, master classes, celebrations, seminars and exhibitions. Guides invite everyone to tour the palace, telling visitors about each hall, the mistress of the house, the myths and stories of the Yusupov family.
Myths and riddles
The persistent misconception associated with Princess Zinaida Yusupova is the myth that she was a type of Pushkin's Queen of Spades. It is also believed that the house on Liteiny Prospekt itself was a place where dramatic events unfolded. But the mansion became part of St. Petersburg when Pushkin was no longer alive.
Another mysterious story is connected with the house on Liteiny, which no one can confirm, but it is described in the memoirs of Felix Yusupov. He wrote that, while in exile in Paris, he read in a newspaper that the Soviet authorities, conducting searches in the princess’s palace, found a secret room. It was in 1925. Having opened it, they found a terrible find - the skeleton of a man in a shroud. He himself only wondered who it might be, and was inclined to think that this was one of his great-grandmother Zinaida's lovers.
Reviews
The Zinaida Yusupova Palace receives only enthusiastic reviews. Visitors like theatrical performances and the opportunity to spend some time in such a magnificent mansion. Everything is delightful in it, and the conducted excursions help to get to know the history of the Yusupov clan better , to imagine the former splendor of each hall.
Visitors regret that the palace has not yet been restored, but there is hope that this will happen in the near future. In 2017, the restoration work of the Yusupov Palace on the Moika ended , which became the main decoration in the crown of the theaters of St. Petersburg.