Military Gallery of the Winter Palace

The top-lit, barrel-vaulted hall in which the gallery is accommodated was designed by architect Carlo Rossi and constructed from June to November 1826. It replaced several small rooms in the middle of the main block of the Winter Palace - between the White Throne Hall and the Greater Throne Hall, just a few steps from the palace church. The gallery was opened in a solemn ceremony on 25 December 1826. ==Burning and reconstruction==

Less than ten years after its completion, it was destroyed by fire in 1837. The fire burned slowly and Dawe's portraits were saved from the flames. The architect Vasily Stasov recreated the hall exactly as it had been before. ==Description by Littauer==

As a cadet of the , Vladimir Littauer was posted in 1912 to stand night-time guard in the Military Gallery. He describes the experience as an eerie one, standing under the rows of portraits in the "huge hall" lit only by a single bulb over a cluster of banners. The isolation of the solitary sentry was emphasized by the two to three minutes that footsteps could be heard down halls and corridors before the replacement guard arrived in the gallery. ==Soviet additions==

During the Soviet era, the gallery collection was enhanced by four portraits of Palace Grenadiers, the special ceremonial unit created in 1827 from veterans of the Patriotic War of 1812 to guard the entire building. The portraits were also painted by George Dawe, in 1828. More recently, the gallery acquired two paintings by Peter von Hess from the 1840s. ==Museum exhibit==

Today, as part of the Hermitage Museum, this room retains its original decoration. Copies by Dawe and his workshop of the portraits of Boris Vladimirovich Poluektov, Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn and Boris Vladimirovich Poluektov are now in the collection of the Pushkin Museum. ==Gallery==

File:Alkruger.jpg|Alexander I of Russia File:Franz II. (HRR) Eremitage St. Petersburg.JPG|Francis II of Austria File:Frid-Wil III Kruger.jpg|Frederick William III of Prussia File:Barclay de Tolly (Dawe).jpg|Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly File:Konstantin Pavlovich by G.Dawe (1834, Hermitage).jpg|Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia File:Kutuzov2 by Daw.jpg|Mikhail Kutuzov File:Wellington by Daw.jpg|Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington File:George Dawe - Portrait of General Pyotr Bagration (1765-1812) - Google Art Project.jpg|Pyotr Bagration File:Kulnev.jpg|Yakov Kulnev File:Dawe, Mikhail Vorontsov.jpg|Mikhail Vorontsov File:Иван Федорович Паскевич.jpg|Ivan Paskevich File:Alexei-jermolov.jpg|Aleksey Yermolov File:Platov.jpg|Matvey Platov File:Prince Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky.jpg|Peter Volkonsky File:Bennigsen.jpg|Levin August von Bennigsen File:Михаил Андреевич Милорадович.jpg|Mikhail Miloradovich File:Ivan Ivanovitch Dibich by George Dawe - Hermitage.jpg|Hans Karl von Diebitsch File:Rajevskij N N.jpg|Nikolay Raevsky File:Tormasov.jpg|Alexander Tormasov File:Saint-Priest E F.jpg|Guillaume de Saint-Priest File:Adam Petrovich Ozharovsky.jpg|Adam Ożarowski File:Madatov.jpg|Valerian Madatov File:Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken.jpg|Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken File:Antoine-Henri Jomini.jpg|Antoine-Henri Jomini File:Pjotr-christianowitsch-wittgenstein.jpg|Peter Wittgenstein File:Saksen-Koburg Leopold-2a.jpeg|Leopold von Saxen-Koburg File:Ostermann-tolstoi.jpg|Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy ==See also==