Russia - Table of Contents
............... Architecture Around the
World
Hermitage Theatre of Classical Russian Ballet
St. Petersburg, Russia
Established 1783
Official Website
The
Hermitage Theatre, one of the oldest theatres in Russia, was built by
order of Catherine the Great in 1782-1785 to a design by the architect
Giacomo Quarenghi. It was constructed in the austere Neoclassical style
on the site of what was once Peter the Great's Winter Palace. Its unusual
auditorium was designed to resemble an amphitheatre, the walls and
columns decorated with colored imitation marble. Statues of Apollo and
the nine Muses are placed in niches, with bas-relief portraits of famous musicians and poets above them.
From 1852 until after the Revolutionthe Hermitage Museum's entrance was under the portico supported by ten 16-ft. tall high atlantes of grey Serdobol granite from Finland in the middle of the southern facade of Catherine II's New Hermitage building.
Proscenium stage. Curtain details below: Curtain Russian state symbol: two-headed eagle on curtain. The double-headed eagle was adopted by Ivan III in 1472. |
Plaster ceiling ornamentation |
Neoclassical style Its unusual auditorium was designed to resemble an amphitheatre, the walls and columns decorated with colored imitation marble. Statues of Apollo and the nine Muses are placed in niches, with bas-relief portraits of famous musicians and poets above them. Roman (smooth) Corinthian columns. Statues of Apollo and the nine Muses are placed in niches, with bas-relief portraits of famous musicians and poets above them. Modified Corinthian pilasters uses Greek muses masks instead of typical fleurons |