Karl Marx St., 1/1, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197760
One of the main attractions of Kronstadt is located on Makarovskaya Street — the Italian Palace, one of the oldest buildings in the city. It was built between 1720 and 1724 according to a design by Braunstein. In the early 19th century, the palace acquired a second name — the "Palace of Alexander Danilovich Menshikov," linked to the fact that the stone palace of the sovereign was erected on a site where the wooden chambers of the illustrious prince once stood. This mistaken attribution can still be found in modern guidebooks and scholarly literature. After reconstructions by Anert and Akutin in the mid-19th century, the building’s appearance changed beyond recognition. None of the original Peter the Great Baroque interiors have been preserved.
The building is one of the oldest in Kronstadt — construction began in 1717, with the German architect Johann Braunstein as the chief architect. According to one version, the Italian Palace got its name because many Italians, including architect Giovanni Fontana, were among its creators. Another opinion is that the building’s style itself determined its name. The Italian Palace in Kronstadt was a three-story building decorated with pilasters, bas-reliefs, and vases, with a balustrade and sculpture crowning the roof. The palace’s decor was done in the style of Peter the Great Baroque. A pond with a dozen fountains was built in front of the building. Throughout its history, the Italian Palace was repeatedly rebuilt; a fourth floor was added, which came to be called the "navigator’s tower." The most significant changes occurred in the mid-19th century, after which the Peter the Great Baroque style was completely lost.
Between 1717 and 1727, a pond was constructed in front of the palace’s western facade, also called the Italian Pond. It was intended to facilitate the entry of merchant ships from the Merchant Harbor to a more convenient unloading area. Construction was overseen by Lein. Initially, the pond almost reached the building, but later, when a driveway was arranged along the facade, the pond’s shore was pushed back. In the mid-19th century, the pond’s banks were faced with granite.
Until the mid-1740s, the palace was called the Own House of His Imperial Majesty within the precincts of the Gostiny Dvor. The modern name Italian House or Italian Palace appeared, according to one version, because Italian craftsmen were brought in by the governor of Ingermanland. However, it is more likely that the palace was called Italian because of its style, similar to Italian, since the architect and builders were Germans Braunstein and Schedel. The name Menshikov Palace appeared only in the early 19th century, as a reminder of the wooden palace of the prince that previously stood on this site. The real stone palace of Prince Menshikov was located on the other side of the dock canal (in literature called the Minikh Palace, to which it was given after Menshikov’s exile). In 1764, the palace was transferred to the Admiralty Board, which tried not to occupy it, leaving it for the occasion of the Emperor’s stay in Kronstadt.
From 1771, the Naval Cadet Corps was housed in the palace, relocated here from St. Petersburg after a fire destroyed its building. The palace was rebuilt again, with a tower added for an astronomical observatory. The first accurate depiction of the palace (by artist Barishev) dates from this period. After the 1783 fire, it was decided to transfer the St. Petersburg Admiralty to Kronstadt. The Naval Corps, whose number of cadets had greatly increased, was planned to be moved to a new building in the northeastern part of the island, but this was prevented by the war with Sweden. The Naval Cadet Corps remained in the Italian Palace for over a quarter of a century. Outstanding navigators and fleet commanders graduated from its walls: Kruzenshtern, Bellingshausen, Golovnin, Sarychev. At the end of 1796, Emperor Paul I ordered the Naval Cadet Corps to return to St. Petersburg. That same year, half of the cadets were transferred to the Russian capital, the rest moved in autumn 1798. The Italian Palace was handed over to the newly established Navigator School (renamed the Navigator Company in 1826, and on March 10, 1827, the First Navigator Half-Crew).
By the beginning of the 19th century, the building had greatly deteriorated and needed reconstruction. On May 19, 1843, a reconstruction project by architect Akutin was approved to adapt the building for the needs of the Navigator School. The recommendations of Stasov played a significant role in this. Two three-story extensions were added to the northern and western wings, a new three-story covered corridor connecting the western and eastern wings was built, and arches were laid along the gallery of the first floor on the side of the parade courtyard. In 1845–1846, the southern wing was topped with a fourth floor and an octagonal wooden tower for the naval telegraph. The main entrance was moved to the middle of the southern wing, where a cast-iron staircase was installed. Between 1847 and 1849, the service yard was developed — a bathhouse, a three-story laundry, icehouses, stables, and stone fences were built. From 1849 to 1851, on the west side, where the former anchor yard was located, the Cadet Garden with a "gymnastics" area was laid out. A fence made at Berd’s factory was installed.
On February 15, 1870, the Public Children’s Library was solemnly opened in the school building’s dining hall (2nd floor of the western wing) on the initiative of I. P. Belavens, head of the compass observatory, with the assistance of the school’s head Zeleny.
In 1872, the Engineering School of the Naval Department was moved to the Italian Palace, merging it with the Navigator-Artillery School under the name Technical School of the Naval Department. In the 1890s, the Admiralty Garden was laid out on the site of the parade courtyard, named so because of the admiral’s apartments located on that side of the building.
The next major reconstructions date to 1898–1900, when the building was significantly enlarged for the Naval Engineering School of Emperor Nicholas I (formerly the Technical School) according to a project by Novikov. Later, military engineer Walter was responsible for project development and repair-construction works. In 1903, a boulevard with a row of bushes and a cast-iron fence was laid out in front of the building’s southern facade.
On March 2, 1921, a meeting of the Kronstadt garrison and workers was held in the school’s dining hall (2nd floor of the western wing), where the Temporary Revolutionary Committee was created. In 1922, for unknown reasons, a significant part of the building burned down. After repairs in 1926, the House of the Red Army and Navy and other institutions (including the Baltic Fleet Theater) began operating in the building. At the start of the war, the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet was also located here. In 1947, the House of the Fleet was renamed the Kronstadt Officers’ House.
In 1950, a mareograph pavilion appeared at the corner of the building near the Blue Bridge. In 1976–1977, July Street (along the southern facade of the palace) underwent significant reconstruction, with the pavement replaced by asphalt. The white balustrade along the Italian Pond was demolished. In the early 1980s, the building finally lost its unique appearance: oak vestibules of the entrances, the boulevard fence, and the navigator’s tower with its mast were destroyed. Since 1993, the place of the Officers’ House has been occupied by the Sailors’ Club. In 1994, the Kronstadt State Historical and Local Lore Museum was located on the first floor, and the Baltic Fleet Theater named after V. Vishnevsky, relocated from Liepaja, was on the second floor. In autumn 2008, the headquarters of the Leningrad Naval Base was relocated to the palace.
Since December 1, 2011, the building has been transferred to the branch of the Naval Museum "Kronstadt Fortress," where, after renovation, a museum exhibition dedicated to the history of the fortress was planned. On June 6, 2018, the Popov Memorial Museum, relocated from the former Mine Officers’ Class building, was opened in the Italian Palace (1st floor of the southern facade, former apartment of the head of the Naval Engineering School).
The palace is located between the Obvodny Canal and the Petrovsky Dock Canal. Although the tide gauge service has operated here since 1707, the mareograph building on the side of the Obvodny Canal near the Blue Bridge has stood only since 1951. Since 1886, a monument to P. K. Pakhtusov, a graduate of the Navigator School and explorer of Novaya Zemlya (sculptor N. I. Laveretsky), has stood in front of the entrance. In 2007, a monument to Aivazovsky (sculptor Gorevoy) was installed opposite the Admiralty Garden. Aivazovsky’s paintings were kept in the imperial apartments of the palace and later in the rooms of the Naval Engineering School museum. In 2018, a project was developed to install a monument to artist Vereshchagin (created by sculptor Gorevoy in 2011) opposite the entrance to the Popov Museum. After Gorevoy’s death in 2019, this issue has not been raised again.
Sources:
https://petersmonuments.ru/russia/memorials/italyanskiy-dvorets-kronshtadt-s-peterburg/
Naimushin I. N. Italian Palace in Kronstadt: A Brief History of the Building. St. Petersburg, 2011
