Italian Palace (Kronstadt): A Historic Imperial and Naval Educational Complex
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Russia
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page11 sections
History
The Italian Palace (Kronstadt) in Russia is a large historic complex founded in 1717 and constructed between 1720 and 1724 under Peter the Great. Designed by the German architect and engineer Johann Friedrich Braunstein, it originated in the early eighteenth-century Petrine Baroque period and later acquired its present Classicist character through extensive rebuilding. One of Kronstadt’s oldest buildings, it has served imperial, naval, educational, military, revolutionary, and cultural purposes.
Imperial House and the Menshikov Name
Until the mid-1740s, the building was known as the Emperor’s Own House, standing within the enclosure of the Gostiny Dvor. It was recorded in 1724 as belonging to the imperial family. The name Italian House, later Italian Palace, is traditionally connected with Italian craftsmen commissioned by Alexander Menshikov, a close associate of Peter the Great and a leading statesman and military commander of the early Russian Empire. The building’s Italianate appearance is a more probable explanation, however, since Braunstein and the other builders were Germans, including Georg Johann Schädel.
A substantial extension was added in the late 1720s, and the ceremonial hall was finished with fine Italian marble. The name Menshikov Palace became common only in the early nineteenth century. It recalled a wooden palace that had once stood on the site, rather than Menshikov’s actual stone palace, which was located across the Dock Canal. After Menshikov’s exile, that stone residence became associated with Field Marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich.
Admiralty Administration and Naval Education
In 1764 the palace was placed under the Admiralty Collegium, the central institution responsible for administering Russia’s navy and naval affairs. The building was largely kept unoccupied for possible imperial visits to Kronstadt. From 1771 it housed the Naval Cadet Corps, which trained officers for the Russian navy and had been transferred from Saint Petersburg after a fire in its previous building. Alterations during this period included the construction of a tower for an astronomical observatory.
After another fire in the Saint Petersburg Admiralty in 1783, the Naval Cadet Corps was intended to move into a new building in northeastern Kronstadt. The war with Sweden prevented that relocation. An order issued on 8 December 1796 transferred the corps back to Saint Petersburg, and its last cadets left the palace in 1798. The building was then assigned to the Navigational School, which remained there until 1872.
The school also became the setting for a public children’s library, ceremonially opened on 15 February 1870 through the initiative of Ivan Belavenets and with the assistance of the school’s director, Alexander Zelenoy. In 1872 the Naval Engineering School moved into the palace and was combined with the Navigational and Artillery School under the name Technical School of the Naval Department.
Nineteenth-Century Rebuilding
The palace was substantially transformed during the nineteenth century. Rebuilding carried out for the Navigational School in 1843–1848 followed plans by Alexander Akutin and recommendations from the architect Vasily Stasov. Two three-storey extensions were added to the north and west wings, while a new three-storey covered corridor connected the west and east wings. The arches of the first-floor gallery facing the parade court were filled in during this work.
In 1845–1846 the south wing received a fourth storey and an octagonal wooden naval-telegraph tower. The main entrance was moved to the centre of the south wing, where an iron staircase was installed. Between 1847 and 1849, the service yard was built up with a bathhouse, a three-storey laundry, icehouses, stables, and stone fences. Between 1849 and 1851, a Cadet Garden with a gymnasium was laid out on the west side in the former anchor yard.
In the 1890s, the former parade court was converted into Admiralty Garden after apartments for admirals occupied this side of the building. Major enlargement and rebuilding followed in 1898–1900 for the Naval Engineering School of Emperor Nicholas I. The work followed a design by Leonid Novikov, while the military engineer Vladimir Walter later prepared additional designs and directed repairs and construction. In 1903 a boulevard with shrubs and an iron fence was laid out along the south facade.
Revolutionary and Twentieth-Century Uses
On 2 March 1921, the garrison and workers of Kronstadt met in the dining hall on the second floor of the west wing and established the Temporary Revolutionary Committee. A substantial part of the building burned in 1922 for an unexplained reason. Repairs completed in 1926 enabled the palace to return to institutional use as the House of the Red Army and Navy. Other organizations also occupied the complex, including the Baltic Fleet theatre.
During the Second World War, the palace housed the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet. In 1947 the House of the Fleet was renamed the Kronstadt Officers’ House. The Sailors’ Club replaced the Officers’ House in 1993. The Kronstadt State Historical and Local-Lore Museum occupied the first floor from 1994, while the Baltic Fleet Theatre named after Vladimir Vishnevsky moved into the second floor from Liepaja.
The administration of the Leningrad Naval Base was transferred to the palace in autumn 2008. From 1 December 2011, the building was assigned to a branch of the Kronstadt Fortress Museum, where a fortress-history exhibition was planned after repairs. On 6 June 2018, a memorial museum dedicated to Alexander Popov opened on the first floor of the south facade, in the former apartment of the head of the Naval Engineering School. The palace is a federally significant cultural-heritage object of the peoples of the Russian Federation, a status that supports the protection of the historic complex.
People Commemorated at the Palace
The palace is associated with Pyotr Pakhtusov, a graduate of the Navigational School who became a naval officer and explorer of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. A monument to him was erected in front of the entrance in 1886. A monument to the marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky was installed opposite Admiralty Garden in 2007. Aivazovsky’s paintings had been kept in the imperial apartments and later in rooms of the Naval Engineering School museum.
In 2018 a project proposed placing a monument to the painter Vasily Vereshchagin opposite the Alexander Popov Museum. The work had been created by the sculptor Vladimir Gorevoy in 2011, but the proposal was not pursued after Gorevoy’s death in 2019.
Remains
The Italian Palace is a large palace complex in central Kronstadt, positioned on Makarovskaya Street between the Obvodny Canal and the Peter Dock Canal. Its architectural style is classified as Classicism, a tradition emphasizing symmetry, proportion, and forms derived from classical antiquity. The original interiors reflected Petrine Baroque, the early eighteenth-century style associated with Peter the Great, but that decoration has not survived. Later additions and reconstructions reshaped the building into an extensive institutional complex of wings, courts, yards, gardens, and service structures.
Palace Wings and Courtyards
The late-1720s extension enlarged the original palace, whose ceremonial hall received Italian marble. The rebuilding of 1843–1848 added three-storey extensions to the north and west wings and linked the west and east wings with a three-storey covered corridor. Along the parade court, the first-floor gallery originally had a continuous series of arches; these were filled in during the nineteenth-century work. The south wing was raised to four storeys in 1845–1846, and its main entrance was relocated to the centre and fitted with an iron staircase.
The former parade court became Admiralty Garden in the 1890s. The west side contained the Cadet Garden, created between 1849 and 1851 on the former anchor yard and equipped with a gymnasium. A fence manufactured at the Berd works was installed around the garden. The service yard was enclosed and developed between 1847 and 1849 with a bathhouse, laundry, icehouses, stables, and stone fences. The enlargement of 1898–1900 further increased the complex for the Naval Engineering School of Emperor Nicholas I.
South Facade and Historic Setting
The south facade received a boulevard with shrubs and an iron fence in 1903. Major reconstruction of July Street along this side in 1976–1977 replaced the paving with asphalt and removed the white balustrade along the Italian Pond. During the early 1980s, further historic elements were lost, including the oak entrance vestibules, the boulevard fence, and the navigational tower with its mast.
The first accurate depiction of the palace was made by the artist Mikhail Barishev. The building’s appearance today therefore reflects successive phases rather than the original Petrine design. The fire of 1922 caused substantial damage, while the repairs of 1926 made possible the complex’s later institutional reuse.
Tide-Gauge Installations
A tide-gauge pavilion was installed at the corner of the building near the Blue Bridge in 1950. The tide-gauge building beside the Obvodny Canal dates from 1951. A tide gauge, also called a mareograph, is an instrument and associated installation used to record changes in sea level and tides. Observations of tides at this location had operated since 1707, linking the later structures with Kronstadt’s long maritime and naval history.
Monuments and Memorial Spaces
The monument to Pyotr Pakhtusov stands in front of the entrance. His career connected the palace with the Navigational School and with the exploration of Novaya Zemlya. Opposite Admiralty Garden stands the monument to Ivan Aivazovsky, the nineteenth-century Russian marine painter known for works on the sea and naval subjects. The Alexander Popov memorial museum occupies the former apartment of the head of the Naval Engineering School on the first floor of the south facade. Popov was a Russian physicist and radio pioneer associated with early experiments in wireless communication.
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