Yusupov Palace

(that chandelier is made of paper, actually)

Tuesday was visiting the Yusupov Palace, besides the usual classes and everything in the morning and early afternoon. Once again, Professor Golstein brought the son of one of his friends who was about our age. He was very nice and shy, but knew some English, which was helpful.

The palace was really cool, or at least I thought so. It was owned by four generations of Russian nobles and is along the Moika canal. There were so many amazing rooms and even a small theater where small concerts, operas, and even ballets are performed. The palace was also where Rasputin was murdered, for which it is notorious.

Each room is interesting and there are a lot of different styles. The house is well constructed and extremely spacious, with the theater built somehwhat down into the ground, and a beautiful ballroom that gives one the sense of a round room when its actually square (hard to describe).

The staircase was modeled after the one in the Hermitage. I really liked the palace because it was not only beautiful, but also felt like real people could have and still could live there.







I couldn’t really get a decent picture of the theater to show how cute and tiny it is. It only holds about 200 people, but it is designed exactly like a full size theater, with box seats, several balconies, a deep orchestra pit and all. It was amazing. It was as if everything were in miniature. The theater has incredible acoustics despite its small and box like size and shape, because the stage has the same square meters as the rest of the room.



This Moorish inspired room was interesting. After dinner guests would come in here to smoke and sit by a multi-colored fountain that was located in the center of the room. These vases were lit with incense. The lineage of the family was Moorish, but converted in the 17th century, so perhaps that explains the Moorish inspired room.



Incense vase:


The palace had some lovely art and sculpture, as of course the family members collected art. We saw some enormous tapestries given to the Yusupovs by Napoleon. The room was specifically built to house them.



Patty, you'll appreciate this:



The study was just like I’d imagine one with shelves and shelves of books one needs to get to by ladder. Our guide told us that when the palace was being cleaned out to be turned into a museum, they found 27 letters of Pushkin hidden in a secret compartment in the wall behind the books. The family had been friends with Pushkin and had hidden the letters before they fled the Revolution.

The son Felix organized the murder of Rasputin. Rasputin hung out with a lot of Petersburg nobles, not to mention the tsar and his wife and daughters. If you don’t know the story, people were getting fed up with Rasputin (a monk from Siberia) for his debauched behavior (his name even means dissolute). His own wife even said of his sexual escapades, “it makes no difference, he has enough for all.” Lovely. He was known for his lecherous acts, orgies, and whatnot and was rumored to be sleeping with the tsarina and/or her daughters. He became friends with the tsar and his family because Rasputin was supposedly able to stop the bleeding of their hemophiliac son. His friendship with the family, however, tainted their reputation and many blamed him for the flaws in the administration, believing that Rasputin held too much sway. Nobles and bourgeois society generally despised him, while the common folk tended to see him as making heard the voice of the people. But who knows. Rasputin said that if he were killed by the nobility, then the monarchy would fail to survive. Only a few months after his murder the February Revolution occured. So maybe he wasn’t so much of a phony.

In any case, Rasputin was lured here by Felix on the pretext of meeting Felix’s new, young wife. Because Rasputin was not an important personage, he was brought to the basement room for tea and various Russian desserts. Felix and his brothers conspired to poison Rasputin by lacing one of the pastries with cyanide. After two hours, however, Rasputin was still alive. Our guide said that this was probably due to some kind of chemical combination in the pastry that neutralized the poison—which gives you an idea of just how bad for you Russian food really is. When Rasputin didn’t die, it was decided that he would have to be shot. Rasputin was shot through the heart but didn’t die (maybe he was able to do his bleeding trick), so when Felix leaned over his body to see if he was dead, Rasputin proceeded to strangle him. Then Rasputin ran into the courtyard where he was shot another 4 times. The brothers then bound the body and threw it into the river. Because they failed to weigh it down the body was soon found floating. I’ve heard different things about how he actually died, like that he still wasn’t dead when thrown into the river and that he died from drowning (tough guy). Who knows. I’m not a fan of wax figures (they creep me out, especially after watching too many old horror films with Patrick), but here’s of a picture of the waxen Rasputin. I really don’t know what made him so popular with the ladies.



So after the palace most of us went with the young Russian guy (I can’t remember his name) to see the old ship building hard of Peter. We couldn’t get inside of it because it holds some kind of military buildings, but we were able to see the outside. It was very rundown, with trees growing between the buildings and in the walls. The place is surrounded by a moat. Seeing it reminded me of how in Petesrbug the architecture often echoes Rome, but looks a little strange here in this Northern climate (it must look even stranger in winter). Many of these types of Roman arches are scattered at random around the city and seem to open their windows to air and space alone. I’m not really sure of their purpose at times, but they are interesting. Of course this arch has a little more purpose, but if you’ve been here or ever do come here, you’ll see what I mean.

Fortress: