The first house for the
Stroganovs was built on the site probably in the 1720s. It was a one-storey building. Architect
Mikhail Zemtsov erected a second, two-storey house on the site in the 1740s. In 1752, Baron Sergei Stroganov commissioned the palace design from Italian architect
Bartolomeo Rastrelli, then at work extending the
Catherine Palace and building the
Smolny Convent for
Empress Elisabeth. Since the Stroganovs were the richest family in Russia and were related to the Empress by marriage, Rastrelli could not turn down the commission and hastily prepared a design for the
townhouse. Like the
Vorontsov Palace (also designed by Rastrelli for Stroganov's in-law
Mikhail Vorontsov), the Stroganov Palace was not rapidly built. In the 1790s and 1800s decades, architect
Andrei Voronikhin was charged with refurbishing the interiors in
Neoclassical style. Voronikhin's mother was the Stroganovs' serf, and it was rumored that his father was Alexander Stroganov. After Alexander Stroganov died in 1811, the palace passed to his son
Pavel. Pavel Stroganov had four daughters, but his only son was killed in the
Battle of Craonne. He then established the
Stroganov entail, i.e., a non-divisible estate which would pass to the oldest family member. This chain of ownership was preserved until 1919 when the last Count Sergei Stroganov sold his rights to the entail. A new apartment was decorated for Aglaida Pavlovna Stroganov by Carlo Rossi in 1820 (it later disappeared almost totally). After the
October Revolution in 1917, the remaining Stroganovs emigrated from Russia, and the palace was nationalized. The palace was handed over to a botanical institute. The Ministry of Shipbuilding occupied the premises for half a century, starting in 1939. In 1988 the palace was given to the
Russian Museum and became a branch housing some of its exhibitions. The dilapidated building underwent a thorough and painstaking restoration process between 1991 and the present moment. In keeping with Rastrelli's original design, its walls are now painted light pink (rather than dark green, as they were in the mid-20th century). It is one of the few Baroque structures on Nevsky Prospect to preserve its original appearance. == Architecture ==