Marble Palace

This eighteenth-century palace near the Neva takes its name from the many varieties of marble and granite used across its facades, an early Neoclassical experiment commissioned by Catherine the Great as a gift for a favourite. The subtle interplay of grey, pink and white stone marked a departure from the gilded Baroque of earlier palaces. Now a branch of the Russian Museum, it hosts collections of foreign and contemporary art within restored state rooms and a courtyard equestrian statue.