The Marble Palace was built between 1768 and 1785 on the order of Catherine the Great for one of her favourites - Count Grigory Orlov, who played an integral part in the conspiracy against Emperor Peter III which brought Catherine to the throne.   The palace gets its name from the fact that it features a variety of marble in its design, both inside and out - 32 different types in total. The architect behind the palace was Antonio Rinaldi and there is a marble relief portrait of him by the parade staircase. 

  After Grigory Orlov the palace was given by Catherine to her grandson Konstantin Pavlovich in 1796 and Stanisław Poniatowski, the last king of Poland and a former favourite of Catherine, lived there from 1797 until his sudden death at the palace in 1798.  After Konstantin Pavlovich's death in 1921, Emperor Nicholas I gave it to his son Konstantin Nikolaevich, who engaged the architect Aleksandr Bryullov to carry out restoration work.  The palace then remained in the ownership of the Konstantinovichy branch of Romanov grand dukes up until 1917.

  After the Revolution the palace was nationalised and housed various ministries and then a branch of the Lenin Museum. Since 1992 the Marble Palace has been run as a branch of the Russian Museum predominantly displaying works of modern art and work of foreign artists in Russia.

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