The Mikhailovsky Palace

The Mikhailovsky Palace, the main building of the Russian Museum, is situated on Square of Arts in the centre of the city. The State Russian Museum is the first state museum of Russian Art in the country. It was founded by decree of Tsar Nicholas II in St Petersburg in 1895. The museum solemnly opened its doors to the public on 7/19 March 1898.

Built to the design of the celebrated architect Carlo Rossi between 1819 and 1825, the palace is a masterpiece of Russian Neoclassical architecture. The Palace was named after Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich — the fourth son of Emperor Paul I. In 1895 the building was acquired by the crown and granted to the Emperor Alexander III Russian Museum. In 1895–1898 the inner premises of the palace were rebuilt and adjusted for the museum. The project was made by the architect Vasily Svinin.

The Mikhailovsky Palace, the Benois Wing and the Rossi Wing contain the main museum exposition. They house a permanent display of works by the most prominent Russian artists – Andrei Rublev, Dionysius, Fedot Shubin, Dmitry Levitsky, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Karl Brullov, Fidelio Bruni, Orest Kiprensky, Alexander Ivanov, Ilya Repin, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ivan Shishkin, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, Pavel Antokolsky, Boris Kustodiev, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Pavel Filonov, Marc Chagall and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin.

The collection of the Russian Museum numbers 400000 exhibits and covers all historical periods and tendencies of development of Russian art, all its main forms and genres, styles and schools throughout the last 1000 years: from the 10th century to the 21st century.

The Russian museum is a unique depository of art values, a well-known restoration centre, an authoritative academic and research institute, one of the biggest centres of cultural and educational work and academic and methodical centre of museums of art in the Russian Federation, curating the work of 260 Russian museums of art.