The Mikhailovsky Palace in Saint Petersburg was commissioned for Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I. Carlo Rossi drew up the designs in 1817. Construction began on July 26, 1819, and the palace was officially completed on September 11, 1825. Total construction cost 7,875,000 rubles, about four million of it for decoration.
The style is Empire neoclassicism. A rusticated lower floor supports a piano nobile and a loggia with an eight-column Corinthian colonnade under a triangular pediment. Two Medici lions flank the entrance staircase. Adam Menelaws laid out the garden.
Nicholas II acquired the palace for the state in 1895, and the Russian Museum opened here in 1898. Bombs struck the Benois wing in November 1941, and restoration ran from 1947 to 1963.
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