The Botanical Department, where the exhibition held, built to the east of the palace part of the estate and including a Cold Orangery ‘21 sazhens long and 14 arshins wide’, two greenhouses at the sides and the Palm (or the Muses’) and Erica Greenhouses opposite. Palm trees, erica, heathers and subtropical curiosities grew there. However, the Botanical Department did not last long: in 1832 Boris, the heir to Prince N.B. Yusupov, ordered it to be dismantled and the buildings demolished.
Nearly 200 years later the Cold Conservatory and greenhouses of the Botanica have been recreated on the old foundations, and their new purpose shifts the focus to another passion of the former owner, contemporary art. An aristocrat with an outstanding education, Yusupov was equally interested in antiquities, old masters and contemporary artists. Brought up in the Age of Enlightenment, he understood and keenly appreciated the art of his contemporaries; while travelling around Europe he visited the studios of painters and sculptors and bought their works or placed orders, he participated in auctions and followed the latest events in the art world.
The exhibition until October 31, 2022
