Today, the restored Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia, forms a part of the complex of buildings, housing the Hermitage Museum.
The Malachite Room of the Winter Palace was designed in the late 1830s by the architect Alexander Briullov for use as an official drawing-room for the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, wife of Nicholas I.
Malachite (Copper Carbonate Hydroxide), or 'mallow-green stone', was used as a mineral pigment in paints from antiquity until about 1800 and as a stone for decorative work in the 17-18th centuries..
The unique malachite embellishment of the room includes columns, pilasters, fire-place trimmings and decorative vases. The interior looks particularly impressive due to the combination of the bright green stone, rich gilding and saturated crimson of the hangings. The big malachite vase and the furniture, produced in the workshop of Peter Gambs from sketches by Auguste de Montferrand, were saved during the fire of 1837.
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