Palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov: A Historic Reception Residence in Tashkent
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Uzbekistan
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page18 sections
History
The Palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov is a historic residence in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, built in 1891 for Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov in an eclectic style that combined Russian, European, and Oriental influences. The palace was designed by Wilhelm Heinzelmann and Alexey Benois for the grand duke and his family after his exile to the Turkestan region, the Russian imperial administrative and colonial sphere across much of Central Asia.
Exile and construction
Nikolai Konstantinovich belonged to the Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp branch of Russia’s imperial dynasty. He was a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I and a nephew of Emperor Alexander II. Disgraced at court after being accused of stealing his mother’s diamonds, he was exiled in 1874 to Turkestan. His interest in Central Asia was also connected with his participation in the 1873 campaign against Khiva, a Central Asian khanate.
After settling permanently in Tashkent, Nikolai Konstantinovich became one of the city’s prominent citizens. He supported infrastructure and cultural projects, while his residence expressed both his imperial background and his interest in the region. The architects created a long, symmetrical building with a central two-storey section, lower wings, and a varied combination of historicist architectural forms.
Bequest and museum history
Shortly before his death, the grand duke left the palace and his art collection to the city of Tashkent on the condition that a museum be established there. He died in January 1918 from a rapidly developing inflammation of the lungs. In 1919, his collection of European and Russian paintings, brought from Saint Petersburg, formed the basis of the Tashkent Art Museum.
The building subsequently housed the Museum of Turkestan People’s University and, from 1924, the Republic Central Fine Arts Museum. It later served as the Republic Palace of Pioneers and the Museum of Uzbek Jewelry Art. A museum of antiques and Uzbek jewelry remained in the palace until the early 1990s. These successive uses kept the building connected with the cultural life of Tashkent while its original domestic purpose changed.
Governmental use and preservation
Since 1993, the palace has been repaired and adapted for reception ceremonies. It is used as a reception house by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan and has also been described as a reception and event building for the city administration and the ministry. The palace and its grounds are designated as an architectural monument. The Iosifo-Georgievskaya Church, which stood near the entrance to the grounds, remained there until 1995.
Remains
The surviving palace is a long, symmetrical structure arranged on a P-shaped plan, meaning that wings extend from a central block to form the shape of the letter P. The central entrance section rises two storeys above the lower wings and contains a large domed room. Each wing ends in a smaller pavilion. Fired gray-yellow brick, varied roof forms, towers, arches, and carved decoration give the building its distinctive mixture of pseudo-Russian, European, and Oriental features.
Exterior and grounds
Facades and towers
The entrance facade has bundled columns with Neo-Romanesque cushion-shaped capitals and a continuous round-arch frieze beneath the eaves. Large segmental and round-arched windows are combined with Gothic-style principal arches. The rear facade introduces castle-like forms, including two square corner towers with pointed roofs and small round turrets. Earlier descriptions also record round towers at the palace’s flanks.
Entrance drive and garden
A broad circular drive approached the porch facing Kaufman Prospect through a covered, glazed portico, a roofed entrance supported by columns. A tall decorative wrought-iron fence separated the grounds from the street, with separate entrance and exit gates. Between the fence and the drive stood a circular flowerbed enclosed by a clipped hedge. A metal fence was installed around the grounds in 1907.
The garden was laid out by I. I. Krauze, a Tashkent botanist and pharmacist. The grounds later included trees, some reportedly dating from the builder’s period, together with a fountain and lawns. Earlier descriptions also record a menagerie of Central Asian wild animals that opened to the public on Sundays. Bronze, life-sized deer with large branching antlers stood on marble plinths beside the entrance stairs. The entrance was also described as being flanked by bronze deer and hunting dogs, recalling the grand duke’s passion for hunting.
Winter and Japanese gardens
A spacious winter garden contained several varieties of palms as well as lemon, orange, tangerine, and bitter-orange trees. Beside its entrance was a Japanese garden with dwarf fruit trees, running streams, bridges with fence-like railings and tunnels, miniature houses, numerous figures of people and animals, and flowering arbors made from tropical plants.
Domestic arrangement
Service and residential spaces
The lower part of the building contained a spacious basement designed for habitation, along with a large kitchen, storage areas, and service rooms. The basement remained cool during hot weather. The grounds included servants’ quarters and decorative stables. The left wing held the grand duke’s apartments, while the right wing contained his wife’s apartments.
The first floor included the prince’s grand living quarters, a reception room, and a dining room. A vestibule gave access to the reception room. At the main entrance, broad carved double-leaf oak doors opened into a large circular hall finished in dark wood. An elaborate lantern hung from a cast-iron chain, and three doors led from the hall, one directly ahead and one on each side. The side rooms were interconnected.
Upper-floor rooms
A circular patterned iron spiral staircase led from the vestibule or hall to the upper floor. There, a large library and a billiard room formed part of the domestic sequence. Another substantially larger room connected with a smaller room whose sides contained arched decorative alcoves.
Decorative interiors and collections
European and Oriental rooms
The interior united European and Oriental treatments. A domed room on the western side followed an Eastern design, while a room on the eastern side used European forms. Facade-derived ornament and large arabesques, flowing decorative designs associated especially with Islamic art, enriched the interiors. Craftsmen from Namangan, Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent participated in decorating the eastern hall.
Halls and artworks
Three successive halls contained marble statues and paintings from Nikolai Konstantinovich’s collection. The paintings and sculptures are now held by the Art Museum of Uzbekistan. In a small drawing room near a large French window, sunlight made a statue of Venus appear pink and translucent. Another room displayed figurines, ivory toys, orders, medals, rings, bracelets, and silver and gold jewelry in glazed cabinets and showcases.
Eastern-style room and dining room
An Eastern-style room contained Bukhara, Afghan, Turkmen, and Persian carpets, together with firearms and edged weapons. Low couches were covered with carpets and textiles embroidered with silk, silver, and gold. Paintings by recognized artists depicted scenes of Asian life. The wood-paneled dining room had cornices decorated in gold and crimson and green Quranic inscriptions written in ink. Its furnishings included a long dining table, heavily carved leather-backed chairs, and cupboards holding family silver, dishes, crystal, and services made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
Khiva campaign hall
A small hall was devoted to the 1873 campaign against Khiva. It contained paintings, books, cast-iron figurines, and individual and group scenes. A model of Ichan Qala, the walled historic inner city of Khiva, depicted an assault by Turkestan riflemen. Hunting scenes featuring falcons and golden eagles formed part of the same display.
Stained-glass and ganch halls
A stained-glass hall in the western part of the palace retained its original appearance, with walls and ceilings painted from floor to floor. An adjoining hall decorated with white ganch, a traditional Central Asian gypsum plaster used for carved ornament, was restored in 1978–1980. During that work, a window was introduced beneath the carved decoration. The technique used in the hall had been developed by Usta Shirin Murodov, a decorative artist and ganch engraver.
