Spare Palace - Kochubey Palace

In 1816, a land allotment in Tsarskoye Selo was given as a gift from Emperor Alexander I to the stately lady Kochubey (Vasilchikova). For her and her husband, a prominent statesman at the courts of Paul I, Alexander I, and Nicholas I — Count (from 1831, Prince) Kochubey — a country palace was built between 1817 and 1824, long known by their family name. The main architectural style of the building is Classicism. Externally, the building resembles 19th-century Italian villas, with an adjoining landscaped park.

It is believed that Alexander I personally supervised the design of the palace (leaving his notes on many drawings), consistently involving architects Neelov and Menelas in the construction, and later Stasov.

A year after Prince Kochubey’s death, in 1835, the building was purchased from his widow by the Department of Imperial Estates for the third son of Emperor Nicholas I — the four-year-old Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. During this period, the palace was called Nikolaevsky, and the complex of buildings was supplemented with service wings. However, shortly after his marriage, the owner sold it (in 1858) back to the Ministry of the Imperial Court and Estates, after which the palace officially (from 1859) became known as the Tsarskoye Selo Reserve Palace. In 1867, the palace suffered damage from a fire.

From 1875, the Reserve Palace was transferred to the ownership of the newly married Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, a military leader and well-known patron, collector, and trustee of the Rumyantsev Museum, and from 1876 president of the Imperial Academy of Arts (a position later inherited by his widow). The palace was restored by architect A. F. Vidov, and construction of utility annexes continued (Unter-Stallmeister wing, Carriage shed, Cavalry house, etc.). After Vladimir Alexandrovich’s death — from 1910, a bronze bust of him was installed in front of the palace (only the pedestal remains) and the highest permission was granted to rename the Reserve Palace as the Vladimir Palace. His widow continued to manage the palace until the revolutionary year of 1917.

During the February Revolution and the dual power period, the palace building was occupied by the Tsarskoye Selo Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. The executive committee of the united council (see II All-Russian Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies’ Soviets) was located here even after the October Revolution, and from 1926 the ensemble of buildings of the Reserve Palace was transferred to the House of Party Enlightenment.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Reserve Palace was destroyed: almost only the walls survived. In the 1950s, it was practically rebuilt with the participation of the youth of the city of Pushkin, and from 1958 to 1976 it housed the Pushkin House of Pioneers.

After that, for several years it housed a local history exhibition, which moved in the late 1970s to a new museum building. From 1990 to 2002, the Tsarskoye Selo branch of the Saint Petersburg State Academy of Theatrical Arts was located in the Reserve Palace building. Since 1996, on the territory of the palace estate — in its former utility buildings — the First Border Cadet Corps of the FSB of Russia has also been located. Since 2010, the Palace of Marriage Registration has been solemnly opened there.

Source:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Запасной_дворец_(Пушкин)