View source for Palace Embankment

{{Coord|59.941232|N|30.312629|E|type:landmark|display=title}}
[[File:Дворцовая набережная через Неву.jpg|thumb|300px|The Palace Quay, as seen from the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]]]]

The '''Palace Embankment''' or '''Palace Quay''' (Russian: Дворцовая набережная, Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya) is a street along the [[Neva River]] in [[Central Saint Petersburg]] which contains the complex of the [[Hermitage Museum]] buildings (including the [[Winter Palace]]), the [[Hermitage Theatre]], the [[New Michael Palace]], the [[Saltykov Mansion]] and the [[Summer Garden]].{{sfn|Cross|2010|p=328}}

The embankment was wooden up to 1761, when [[Catherine the Great]] ordered court architect [[Yury Felten]] to build stone embankments. The street as seen nowadays was laid out between 1763 and 1767, when it used to be a preferred place of residence for the [[Russian Imperial]] Nobility. The street begins at the [[Palace Bridge]], where the [[Admiralty Embankment]] becomes the Palace Embankment, and the street ends at the [[Fontanka]], where it becomes the [[Kutuzov Embankment]].

The Palace Embankment is one of the main places of interest in the city as it offers a wonderful view of the Neva, the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]] and [[Vasilievsky Island]].{{sfn|Cross|2010|p=328-329}}

== Notable locations ==
[[File:St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, Russia (31630675618).jpg|thumb|220px|Vladimir palace (house No. 26), 1874]]
[[File:Spb 06-2012 Palace Embankment various 03.jpg|thumb|220px|Gagarina (Zherebtsova) mansion]]
* {{ill|Prachechny Bridge|ru|Прачечный мост}}
* [[Summer Garden]]
* [[Upper Swan Bridge]]
* No. 2 — {{ill|Mansion of Ivan Betskoy|ru|Дом Бецкого}}
* No. 4 — Saltykov Mansion
* No. 5/1 ([[Millionnaya Street|Millionnaya st.]]) — the [[Marble Palace]], built by [[Antonio Rinaldi (architect)|Antonio Rinaldi]] for [[Catherine the Great|Catherine's]] favourite [[Grigory Orlov]]. Since 1992 the palace is a part of the [[Russian Museum]].{{sfn|Shvidkovsky|2007|p=329}}{{full citation needed|date=February 2020}}
* No. 6 — {{ill|Service corps of the Marble Palace|ru|Служебный корпус Мраморного дворца (Санкт-Петербург)}}
* No. 8 — {{ill|Gromov's mansion|ru|Особняк Громова}}
* No. 10 — {{ill|Gagarina (Zherebtsova) mansion|ru|Доходный дом Жеребцовой}}
* No. 18 — [[New Michael Palace]]
* No. 26 — former Grand Duke [[Vladimir Palace|Vladimir Aleksandrovich palace]], 1860s, built by Alexander Rezanov. Nowadays it known as the [[House of Scientists (St. Petersburg)|House of Scientists]].{{sfn|Shvidkovsky|2007|p=339}}{{full citation needed|date=February 2020}}
* No. 30 — {{ill|Sklyaev Mansion|ru|Запасной дом Зимнего дворца}}
* [[Hermitage Bridge]]
* No. 32 — [[Hermitage Theatre]]
* {{ill|Great Hermitage|ru|Большой Эрмитаж}}
* {{ill|Small Hermitage|ru|Малый Эрмитаж}}
* No. 38 — the [[Winter Palace]]
* [[Gardens of the Winter Palace]]
[[File:SP panorama.jpg|thumb|center|1200px|Palace Embankment panorama]]

==Pushkin associations==

In his novel ''[[Eugene Onegin]]'', [[Alexander Pushkin]] depicted himself walking along Palace Quay with his hero, Eugene Onegin:

[[Image:Pushkin&onegin.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Pushkin's sketch representing himself and Onegin on Palace Quay]]
{{poemquote|
Filled with his heart's regrets, and leaning
Against the rampart's granite shelf,
Eugene stood lost in pensive dreaming
(As once some poet drew himself).
The night grew still... with silence falling;
Only the sound of sentries calling,
Or suddenly from [[Millionnaya Street|Million Street]]
Some distant droshky's rumbling beat;
Or floating on a drowsy river,
A lonely boat would sail along,
While far away some rousing song
Or plaintive horn would make us shiver.
But sweeter still, amid such nights,
Are [[Torquato Tasso|Tasso]]'s octaves' soaring flights.{{sfn|Pushkin|1995|p=27}}
}}

For the first edition of this chapter, the poet commissioned an illustration depicting him and Onegin walking together along the quay. Upon receiving the illustration, which represented him leaning on a parapet with his back turned towards the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exceedingly displeased with the result (which had little in common with his own preliminary sketch, illustrated to the right) and scribbled the following [[epigram]] underneath (here in translation by [[Vladimir Nabokov]]):

{{poemquote|
Here, after crossing Bridge Kokushkin,
With bottom on the granite propped,
Stands Aleksandr Sergeich Pushkin;
Near M'sieur Onegin he has stopped.
Ignoring with a look superior
The [[Peter and Paul Fortress|fateful Power's citadel]],
On it he turns a proud posterior:
My dear chap, poison not the well!{{sfn|Nabokov|1964|p=177}}
}}
{{Commons category|Palace Embankment (Saint Petersburg)}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
*{{cite book
 |last=Pushkin
 |first=Alexander
 |date=1995
 |title=Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owYUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 
 |location=Oxford
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |page= 25
 |isbn=0192838997
 }}
*{{cite book
 |last=Nabokov
 |first=Vladimir
 |date=1964
 |title=Eugene Onegin: Commentary and index
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l00OTAOKbesC&pg=RA1-PA177 
 |location=
 |publisher=Princeton University Press
 |page= 177
 |isbn=0691019045
 }}
*{{cite book
 |last=Cross
 |first=Anthony
 |year=2010
 |title=A Corner of a Foreign Field: The British Embassy in St Petersburg, 1863–1918
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRbB_xAhdogC&pg=PA328 
 |location=
 |publisher=MHRA
 |page= 328
 |isbn=9781907322037
 }}
{{Hermitage complex on the Neva}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Streets in Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:Odonyms referring to a building]]
[[Category:Art gallery districts]]
[[Category:1763 establishments in the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Hermitage Museum]]
[[Category:Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg]]