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Contact information • History • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-225Last update of repository: 18 March 2020Gosudarstvennyi muzei-zapovednik “Petergof” (Petergof, Leningrad Oblast) (GMZ “Petergof”)Previous names
Building was begun on the palace and parks of Peterhof (Rus. Petergof) in 1709 by order of Peter the Great. The nucleus of the complex is the elegant imperial residence, the Great Palace, first designed by the architect Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre Le Blond. Subsequently, the main palace was enlarged in 1746–1751 by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli. Rastrelli was also involved in designs of the elaborate fountains and subsidiary palaces, some of which were designed by Johann Friedrich Braunstein, M.G. Zemtsov, and Niccola Michetti, among other architects. Nationalized after the Revolution, in 1918 Peterhof was organized as a palace-museum of historical daily-life and art. Frequently renamed during the Soviet period, during the 1930s it was principally known as the Peterhof State Museums and Parks. Many imperial treasures from the palace were confiscated at various points in the 1920s and 1930s, and unfortunately a large number were sold abroad. By 1941, only 11,700 books remained in the palace library. After the Nazi invasion in 1941, more than 8,000 exhibits and historical documentation were evacuated and some of the sculptures in the park were buried. From 1941 to 1944 Peterhof was occupied by the Germans and suffered extensive damage. The great palace was significantly destroyed as were many of the fountains. The Neptune fountain was looted by the Nazis and taken to Nuremberg, where it was found and returned by American forces after World War II. Restoration of the palace and park, renamed Petrodvorets in 1945, began immediately after the war, and by the 1960s was largely completed, although it was another decade before the Great Palace was reopened to tourists. Restoration work on some of the outbuildings in the parks still continues. The present name dates from 1992, when the Peterhof Museum-Preserve reverted to its traditional name. N.B. The prerevolutionary archive of the Peterhof Palace Administration (Petergofskoe dvortsovoe pravlenie) was transferred in 1953 to RGIA (B–3, fond 490—1732–1918). The administrative records of the museum for the years 1918–1921 and 1944–1974 are housed in TsGALI SPb (D–18, fond 312). Documentation on the fate of the 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). |
