The Ice House (St. Petersburg)

Plan of the ice house St. Petersburg (1740).
Wedding of the Court Jester in the Ice House (Wedding at the House of Ice ; Valery Jacobi, 1878)
Der Eispallast in St. Petersburg - Figure illustrating a report on the Ice House in as German illustrated popular magazine (1740)

The Ice House (Russian: Ледяной дом) was an palace built of ice in the winter of 1739–40 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The palace and the surrounding festivities were part of the celebration of Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire. The Empress Anna Ivanovna ordered Alexis Tatishchev, a court functionary, to construct it on the river Neva between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace during the bitterly cold winter of 1739–40. It was 80 feet long, 33 feet high, and 23 feet deep, and cost 30,000 rubles. By June 1740, the palace had melted into mere blocks of ice floating in the river.[1]

  1. ^ Mina Curtiss, "The Empress Anna's Ice Palace." History Today (Feb 1973), Vol. 23 Issue 2, pp 122-127, online.