Saltykov Mansion
Coordinates: 59°56′46″N 30°19′50″E / 59.946189°N 30.330473°E
The Saltykov Mansion (особняк Салтыкова, Palais Soltikoff) is a Neoclassical palace at the crossing of the Palace Embankment and Millionnaya Street in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was designed by Giacomo Quarenghi in the 1780s. Several months before her death, Catherine the Great presented the palace to Prince Nikolai Saltykov, the tutor of her grandsons.
History
Catherine the Great initially granted the land to her personal secretary Pyotr Soimonov who soon sold it to the merchant Philipp Grootten (1748-1815). The latter asked Giacomo Quarenghi to build him the mansion whose neo-classical façade is still seen from across the Neva.[1]
In 1793 Philipp Grootten sold the mansion to another merchant, Thomas Sievers, who sold it in 1793 to the princess Ekaterina Petrovna Bariatynskaia.[1]
In 1796, the mansion became the property of Count (later Prince) Nikolai Saltykov (Nicholas Soltikoff).[1] For more than a century (from 1796 to 1918) the mansion was the property of the Saltykov family.[1]
In 1828 the Saltykov family rented out the mansion fully furnished. It was leased by the Austrian government as its embassy in the Russian capital.[1] Since September 1831, the Saltykov Mansion was during eleven years the residence of the Austrian ambassador Charles-Louis de Ficquelmont (1777-1857).[1]
The Saltykov Mansion became the setting for two of the most famous salons of the period : in the evening the one of Filquemont's wife Dolly (1804-1863) and in the morning the one of her mother Elisabeth Khitrovo (Kutuzov's daughter).[1] The count was recalled to Vienne in 1840, but the Austrian government rented the Saltykov Mansion until 1855.[1]
After, the second and the third floors were rented by the Danish diplomat Otten Plessen.[1] In 1863, the British government rented the Saltykov Mansion that became the British Embassy until 1918.[1]
Architecture
The Saltykov Mansion is set in central St-Petersburg, it lies on Suvorova Square by Trinity Bridge between the banks of the Neva and the Field of Mars. Its official address is Palace Embankment 4. The Palace fronts Palace Embankment and back Millionnaya Street; water frontage on the Neva was extremely prized by the Russian aristocracy while Millionnaya Street was considered one of the Russian Empire's grandest addresses.
The façade is a remarkable example of Palladian architecture in Russia. This style, imported by foreign architects, especially during the reign of Empress Catherine II, had become very fashionable with Russian nobility by the 1780s when the palace was built.
The façade is shaped with great simplicity, combining harmonic proportions and a moderate ornamentation that highlight few decorative elements, such as the piano nobile balcony facing the Neva and the Palace's pediments.