The Marble Palace

The Rooms of the Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov

1 Hallway
2 Library
3 The Musical Drawing Room
4 The Cabinet
5 Reception room
6 The Large Drawing room
7 The Small Drawing Room

In 1888 the palace was inherited by the son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (1858–1915) – one of the most prominent figures in Russian history of the turn of the 20th century, a senator and a president of the Academy of Sciences. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was an accomplished Russian poet, who wrote under the cryptonym K. R., and an excellent translator of Goethe, Schiller and Shakespeare’s works.

During his time there the Marble Palace became the centre of cultural life in the capital. Musical evening parties were held in the rooms of the palace. Intellectuals of the capital (Afanasy Fet, Apollon Maikov, Anton Rubinstein, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, etc.) gathered there, read and discussed the best works by foreign and Russian writers, staged performances in which Konstantin Konstantinovich, his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikeyevna and their children took part.

The rooms alongside Millionnaya street that belonged to Konstantin Romanov and his wife Elizabeth Mavrikeyevna were designed in the 1880s–1900s. The exhibition opened in the original interiors of the Small Drawing Room, the Cabinet and Music Drawing Room, tells about life and oeuvre of Konstantin Romanov.