Neva Enfilade of the Winter Palace

Originally designed as a series of five state rooms by the architect Francesco Rastrelli in 1753, they were transformed into an enfilade of three vast halls in 1790 by Giacomo Quarenghi.

[2] By 1759, shortly before Elizabeth's death, an imperial palace truly worthy of the name was nearing completion; at that time, the Neva enfilade contained five principal state rooms.

[1] Following a disastrous fire which destroyed most of the Winter Palace's interiors in 1837, the halls were recreated in similar style by the architect Vasily Stasov.

[1] Until 1905, during the winter months, the Tsar and Tsaritsa were traditionally resident in the palace; this was the period of the Saint Petersburg social season and the first floor piano nobile would be in near constant use.

Etiquette dictated that all these ladies, regardless of age, wore white silk dresses with a low decolletage and a red or olive green velvet train with gold embroidery.

Queen Victoria's foreign secretary, writing to her in 1894 of a state procession through the enfilade, recorded of the Grand Duchesses' colours that one "is a particularly hideous shade of orange."

Overall, the splendour and size of the Winter Palace and its colourful and bejewelled ladies failed to impress the Foreign Secretary for he reported to the Queen that the Grand Church "was not very large" and that the assembled imperial court had "an absence of beauty as compared with that seen at one of Your Majesty's drawing rooms."

On these occasions, 100 palm trees were brought from the hot houses at Tsarskoe Selo; these would be scattered throughout the enfilade, and around them supper tables seating 15 people would be constructed.

While most St Petersburg balls did not conclude until 6am, at the Winter Palace, from 2am the Tsar would dismiss the musicians from the orchestra one by one, until only the pianist and a fiddler remained, by which time his guests had taken the hint and gone.

[7] The final imperial reception at the Winter Palace was a themed, fancy dress ball celebrating the reign of Alexei I, which took place on 22 January 1903.

The Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch recalled the occasion as "the last spectacular ball in the history of the empire...[but] a new and hostile Russia glared through the large windows of the palace...while we danced, the workers were striking and the clouds in the Far East were hanging dangerously low.

"[8] The entire imperial family, the Tsar as Alexei I and the Tsaritsa as Maria Miloslavskaya, all dressed in rich 17th century attire posed in the Hermitage's theatre, many wearing priceless original items brought specially from the Kremlin,[9] for what was to be their final photograph together.

The Concert Hall has an architrave seemingly supported by paired Corinthian columns, the capitals of which serve as plinthes for life-size statues of the various muses.

[3] At a given moment, four "massive Ethiopians", the Tsar's official bodyguards, fantastically dressed in scarlet trousers, gold jackets, white turbans and curved shoes, would ceremonially open the doors from the private Arabian Hall (2 on plan above) and the imperial procession would pass through the enfilade.

The largest room in the palace at 1,103 m2 (11,870 sq ft), it was originally simply known as the Great Hall, and was the setting for many imperial balls and receptions.

Today, as part of the State Hermitage Museum the halls of the Neva enfilade are preserved as "palace interiors" containing only minimal furniture they are used for exhibitions.