Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble
Classical palace of the Rumyantsev and Paskevich families above the Sozh, with park, tower and chapel.
Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev received Gomel from Catherine II in 1775 and had a palace built above the right bank of the Sozh between 1777 and 1796, a compact block of two storeys with a square-domed centre and a giant Corinthian portico, usually attributed to Ivan Starov. Prince Ivan Paskevich bought the estate in 1834 and had it much enlarged by the architect Adam Idzkowski, who added a four-storey belvedere tower, a north wing and remodelled interiors in the 1830s and 1840s.
The palace was turned into a museum in 1919 and was gutted by fire during the Second World War; restoration work continued through the Soviet period and a full programme of repairs was finished in the 2000s. Displays occupy the state rooms and cover the history of the estate and its owners, decorative art, weapons and the natural history of the region. The surrounding park of about twenty-five hectares contains the Paskevich chapel-tomb, a winter garden in a former sugar refinery, the observation tower and the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Highlights
- State rooms and Corinthian portico of the late eighteenth-century palace
- Four-storey belvedere tower added for Prince Paskevich
- Chapel and burial vault of the Paskevich family in the park
- Winter garden housed in a converted sugar refinery
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