Museum Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts / Prince Golitsyn Family Estate

Over the three centuries of its history, the estate of Princes Golitsyn on Volkhonka Street repeatedly changed its appearance. The original project was conceived by a famous St. Petersburg architect Savva Chevakinsky. In 1774, the estate was rebuilt and became the central part of the Prechistensky Palace, which was built after a project by Matvey Kazakov for Catherine II.

This place was visited by many famous people. Alexander Pushkin often attended magnificent balls here. He was going to get married to Natalia Goncharova in the Prince Golisyn’s family chapel; however, the wedding ceremony was organized in the Great Ascension Church at the Nikitskiye Gates. In 1877, Alexander Ostrovsky settled in the main building. Here he finished working on his play “The Last Victim” and wrote “Without a Dowry”, “Heart Is Not A Stone”, “Talents And Admirers”. In 1885, the adjacent unit was taken by Ivan Aksakov, one of the leaders of the Slavophile Movement.

In 1865, a free access museum consisting of family collections was opened in the five halls of the main building of the Golitsyns’ estate. The museum was divided in three sections – Western European paintings, sculpture, and arts and crafts; ancient monuments, and a library. The hosts’ painting collections included works by Brueghel, van Dyck, Veronese, Canaletto, Caravaggio, Perugino, Poussin, and Rembrandt. One year later, due to financial difficulties, the museum collection was sold to the Hermitage. After the revolution, towards the end of the 1920s, the main building of the estate housed the Communist Academy and was supplemented with two floors, which resulted in the loss of the fronton. The massive gates with the Golitsyns’ coat of arms on the top are the only original detail remaining.

After the reconstruction, the former central building of the Golitsyns’ estate will house the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art Gallery, which will display works by prominent masters of the second half of the 19th – early 20th century: Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse and the Fauves, Picasso and the Cubists from the collections of famous pre-revolutionary Moscow collectors Schukin and Morozov.

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