Yusupov Palace

On a quiet stretch of the Moika River stands a long yellow building, which was once the residence of the wealthy and respected Yusupov family and which saw one of the most dramatic episodes in Russia's history - the murder of Grigory Rasputin. In 1916 a group of the city's noble elite, including one of the Grand Dukes and led by the prominent anglophile Prince Felix Yusupov, conspired to kill the one man who they felt threatened the stability of an already war-torn Russian Empire. Grigory Rasputin, a peasant and self-proclaimed holy man, had gradually won favor with the Tsar's family through his alleged supernatural powers. His control over the decisions of the family and the Russian ruler himself, put him in a potentially manipulative position and posed a very real threat to their power. Consequently, Rasputin was murdered at the Yusupov Palace on the night of December 16-17 1916, and his death proved to be an almost greater mystery than his life had been. The palace, to be precise - its cellar, became the setting of the murder of one of the most scandalous figures in Russian history - Grigory Rasputin. Nowadays the cellar where the dramatic events took place houses the exhibition "Grigory Rasputin: Pages of Life and Death". The visitors can see the wax figures of Rasputin and plotters and other interesting exhibits.

In 1918, after the October Revolution, the Yusupov Palace was expropriated, and the art objects from the palace were sold or transmitted to the State Hermitage. Since 1925 the Teachers' House was housed in the palace. In 1958 the interiors of the palace were badly damaged by fire. It took several years to restore the rooms and the halls of the Yusupov palace. In 1987 the theater of the palace was opened to the public: it became the place for music concerts and literature evening arrangements. Nowadays the visitors can admire the splendor interiors of one of the most beautiful palaces in Saint Petersburg .

The Yusupov Palace features original interiors of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries. The rooms are decorated in various styles: baroque (the theater), Empire style (gala halls), Oriental style (the Turkish study), neoclassicism (some rooms of the ground floor) and others. The interiors amaze with rich decorations that includes paintings, carving, marble, mirrors, crystal chandeliers, silk, exquisite furniture and so forth. The Yusupov family possessed extensive collections of paintings, sculptures and applied art objects. Some of them are on the display in the palace exposition.

The palace is worth visiting not only as one of the best monuments of the palace architecture of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century but also from the historical point of view.