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Contact information • History • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-223Last update of repository: 18 March 2020Gosudarstvennyi khudozhestvenno-arkhitekturnyi i dvortsovo-parkovyi muzei-zapovednik “Oranienbaum” (Lomonosov, Leningrad Oblast) (GMZ “Oranienbaum”)Previous names
The palace of Oranienbaum (the town was renamed Lomonosov in 1948 in honor of M.V. Lomonosov), originally belonged to Prince A.D. Menshikov, and was one of the finest Russian estates of the eighteenth century. The Great Palace was built in 1713–1725 by Giovanni Maria Fontana and Gottfried Schädel, but later rebuilt in the 1770s by Antonio Rinaldi. In 1723 Oranienbaum was taken over by the state and became an imperial residence (1743–1761—the summer residence of Grand Duke Peter [Piotr] Fedorovich, later Emperor Peter III; and after 1832—Grand Duke Michael [Mikhail] Pavlovich and his heirs), but from the end of the nineteenth century through 1917 it was owned by the Dukes of Mecklenburg-Strelitskii. From 1780 to 1796 and from 1802 to 1848 Oranienbaum was considered a city administrative district (uezdnyi gorod) within St. Petersburg Guberniia. A museum was founded in August 1918 on the basis of the park and palace complex, which had been nationalized by the state under the Administration of the Oranienbaum Palace and Parks. In 1927 Oranienbaum became a raion center in Leningrad Oblast, but from 1927 to 1939 and from 1941 to 1945 the museum was under the control of the Administration of the Peterhof Palace-Museums. During that period only the Chinese Palace was open to the public, since the main Oranienbaum Palace was territorially located in a frontier zone where special permission was required for entry. The so-called Oranienbaum Corridor did not fall under German occupation during World War II, and for this reason the palaces, museums, and parks were only partially damaged. Restoration work began in 1944, and in 1953 the Palace of Peter III was opened to the public. This was followed in 1959 by the opening of the Switchback Pavilion (Katal'naia gorka). After the war a number of the palaces and other buildings were used for various non-museum purposes, and consequently restoration work continues to the present. The Oranienbaum State Palace-Park Preserve reverted to its traditional name in 1993, but as of the end of 1998, the town itself retains the name of Lomonosov. N.B. Prerevolutionary records of the Oranienbaum Palace Administration for the years 1796–1917 are held in RGIA (B–3, fond 492—2,472 units), which also includes the documents and records of the Oranienbaum Administrative Office under Peter III (1748–1796). The administrative records of the Oranienbaum museums for the years 1940–1974 are held in TsGALI SPb (D–18, fond 102). Documentation on the fate of palace during and after World War II can be found in the fond of the Central Repository for Museum Fonds of the Leningrad Suburban Palaces under the Cultural Administration of the Leningrad City Executive Committee (Tsentral'noe khranilishche muzeinykh fondov Leningradskikh prigorodnykh dvortsov Upravleniia kul'tury Lengorispolkoma) (TsGALI SPb, fond 387; 1943–1956). For the Museum of the History of the Town of Lomonosov (Oranienbaum), which also holds materials relating to the palace museum-preserve, see H–205. |
