Mariinskyi Palace

The Mariinskyi Palace (Ukrainian: Маріїнський палац, romanized: Mariinskyi palats) is the official residence of the president of Ukraine. The Elizabethan baroque palace is sited on the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, Ukraine, adjoining the neo-classical building of the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine.

The palace was constructed by command of the Russian empress Elizaveta Petrovna in 1744; her architect was Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the most eminent architect working in the Russian Empire at that time. One of the students of Rastrelli, Ivan Michurin, together with a group of other architects, completed the palace in 1752. Empress Elizabeth, however, did not live to see the palace completed; the first senior-ranking member of the imperial family to stay in the palace was Empress Elizabeth's niece-in-law, Empress Catherine II, who visited Kyiv in 1787. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the palace was the main residence of the governors-general.

In the early 19th century, the palace burned down in a series of fires, and was in total disrepair and abandoned for almost half a century. In 1870, Emperor Alexander II had the palace reconstructed by the architect Konstantin Mayevsky, using old drawings and watercolours as a guide. It was then renamed after the reigning Empress Maria Alexandrovna. By her wish, a large park was established off the southern side of the palace. The palace was used as a residence for visiting members of the Imperial Family until 1917.

During the years of the Russian Civil War in 1917–1920, the palace was used as the Kyiv revkom headquarters, particularly during the Kyiv Bolshevik Uprising. In the 1920s, the building belonged to an agricultural school, soon after which it became a museum. The Mariinskyi was badly damaged during the Second World War, and was restored at the end of the 1940s. Another major restoration was completed in the early 1980s.

In June 2007, the reconstruction of the palace began, which was expected to be completed by 2011, but as of 2017, was still ongoing. On 5 April 2022 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the White Hall of the Mariinskyi Palace, where the state leadership receives heads of foreign states, would be called the White Hall of Heroes of Ukraine, and those who have been awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine would be awarded here.

Text adapted from “Mariinskyi Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Mariinskyi Palace ranks #263 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #2 of the 183 mapped in Ukraine. Founded 1752, it is older than 17% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 525 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 9,753 times in the last 60 days, more than 92% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Ukraine compares in the castle statistics.

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