Kamenny Island Palace, Neoclassical palace on Kamenny Island, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Kamenny Island Palace is a long, two-story neoclassical palace with a pale yellow facade and white trim, standing on a pale stone base beside the Malaya Nevka. A row of tall white columns forms a portico across the front, and a wide white balustrade tops the central block under a low green roof. The plan is a stretched letter P, with wings set at right angles to the central block.
Empress Catherine II commissioned this palace in 1776 as a symbol of enlightened rule and imperial wealth. Architect Yury Felten began the project, but Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi completed the building in 1782, giving it its final form.
The palace is named for Kamenny (Stone) Island, granted by Peter I to Chancellor Gavriil Golovkin and later given by Catherine II to her son Paul. The wooden Kamenny Island Theatre in the park was built in just 40 days. Alexander Pushkin had two of his children baptised in the nearby Gothic-style Church of St. John the Baptist.
The palace is closed for major repairs, so it cannot be visited inside. It stands on the south-western promontory of Kamenny Island, where the Malaya Nevka and Bolshaya Nevka meet; the facades with the six-column and eight-column porticoes can be seen from the embankments. The palace garden and the nearby wooden Kamenny Island Theatre are outdoor points of interest.
The palace plan forms a stretched letter "P", with Giacomo Quarenghi's wings set at right angles to the central block. The garden facade carries a six-column Tuscan portico with a pediment, while the Neva front has eight Doric columns topped by an attic. A staircase of Finnish granite leads to the main entrance.
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