Since its debut in mid-2013, the Four Seasons Lion Palace St. Petersburg has introduced Imperial grandeur to the hotel guest experience. French architect Auguste de Montferrand constructed the Neoclassical yellow and white triangular “House with Lions” adjacent to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which he also built. The building was originally an apartment house of Prince Alexey Lobanov-Rostovsky and his wife, Princess Cleopatra Lobanova-Rostovskaya, opened to guests in 1820. The House with Lions went on to house the Ministry of War, a hostel, a school, and a state-owned architectural bureau, eventually falling into disrepair before a decision was made to restore the property into a hotel.
Project developer Tristar Investment Holdings and an international team restored and developed the property with the help of locally based Levkas, which completed the detailed restoration work; Strabag of Austria created additions to the property, including the glass-roofed Tea Lounge, reminiscent of a winter garden that floats over what was an open air courtyard; while ReardonSmith Architects of London oversaw the implementation of the project design. Cheryl Rowley Design crafted most of the interior public spaces, 177 guestrooms, and the spa; and Tokyo-based Design Studio Spin designed Italian fine dining restaurant Percorso, and Sintoho, an Asian retreat with a lively sushi bar.
Guests now enter the heritage portion of the palace between Paulo Triscorni’s two iconic stone lions made famous in Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman.” Inside, the restored barrel vaulted lobby with original marble columns faces a grand double staircase with granite steps and walls covered with silk damask and framed with inset marble.
Rowley, who has since retired, worked on the venture for four years. “The entry and grand stair were the significant, existing heritage elements,” she says. “There was no question they would be retained and restored to their original glory.” Adds Levkas director Valentina Kirillovich: “I went to the Carrara quarry in Italy myself to get the correct marble and selected and signed off every slab,” which were then cut in St Petersburg. As for regilding the ceiling, Levkas artisans manually applied layer upon layer of Russian gold leaf.
In order to ensure historical accuracy, Rowley explains, “we did an enormous amount of research about the Neoclassic period, which Catherine the Great mandated as the official style during her reign, the Russian Empire style during Peter the Great’s reign, and the city itself.”
The city’s pastel-colored palaces inspired Rowley’s color palette for the guestrooms, about half of which have unique combinations: sky blue and yellow with accents of crimson or melon and buttercup yellow with accents of blue. The suites feature a more regal teal blue and gold with russet accents. Accommodations all feature ivory painted moldings and custom-built cabinetry, along with warm walnut woods with gilt accents. “It has a lightness to it and a current attitude, but it’s definitely period,” says Rowley, who chose appropriately rich velvets, silk damasks, woven textures and window draperies, canopies and pillows with tassels and trimmings to add to the sense of period and place.
As for the public spaces, she adds: “The interior colors in the promenade area surrounding the Tea Lounge were inspired by the rosy pinks and milky-blues of the sky mirrored in the Neva River during St. Petersburg’s famous White Nights.” Xander Bar, a warm, wood-paneled, parquet-floored space is a tribute to Peter the Great’s passion for shipbuilding and woodworking. It showcases paintings of ships, maps, gilt bronze chandeliers, and a bar fronted with inlaid marble, typical of a mid-19th century Russian marble tabletop.
