Russian Winter Palace? dimensions?

In: Politics & Gov › World Governments

The first Winter Palace was a modest building of two main floors under a slate roof.[8] It seems that Peter soon tired of the first palace, for in 1721, the second version of the Winter Palace was built under the direction of architect Georg Mattarnovy. Mattarnovy's palace, though still very modest compared to royal palaces in other European capitals, was on two floors above a rusticated ground floor, with a central projection underneath a pediment supported by columns.[9]It was here that Peter the Great died in 1725. The Winter Palace was not the only palace in the unfinished city, or even the most splendid, as Peter had ordered his nobles to construct residences and to spend half the year there.[10] This was an unpopular command; Saint Petersburg was founded upon a swamp, with little sunlight, and it was said only cabbages and turnips would grow there. It was forbidden to fell trees for fuel, so hot water was permitted just once a week. Only Peter's second wife, Tsaritsa Catherine, pretended to enjoy life in the new city.[10] As a result of pressed slave labour from all over the Empire,[11] work on the city progressed quickly. It has been estimated that 200,000 people died in twenty years while building the city.[11] A diplomat of the time, who described the city as "a heap of villages linked together, like some plantation in the West Indies", just a few years later called it "a wonder of the world, considering its magnificent palaces".[12] Some of these new palaces in Peter's beloved Flemish Baroque style, such as the Kikin Hall and the Menshikov Palace, still stand.