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The 'Menshikov Palace' () is a Petrine Baroque edifice in Saint Petersburg, situated on Universitetskaya Embankment of the Bolshaya Neva on Vasilyevsky Island.^[1] Since 1981 it has served as a public museum, branch of the Hermitage Museum.
The palace was founded in 1710 as a residence of Saint Petersburg Governor General Alexander Menshikov and built by Italian architect Giovanni Mario Fontana and, later, German architect Gottfried Johann Schädel. It was opened in 1711, but the construction continued until 1727 (assisted by Domenico Trezzini, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Georg Johann Mattarnovy and Jean-Baptiste Le Blond), when Menshikov with his famly was exiled to Siberia and his property was confiscated.
In 1731 Cadet Corps were established and occupied the palace and neighboring buildings. In the end of the 19th century the Menshikov Palace was restorated and became the museum of the Corps. In 1924 its collections were moved to the Hermitage and other museums. In 1956-1981 the Menshikov Palace was restorated again and finally opened to the public as a branch of the Hermitage Museum with a collection of Russian art of the late 17th – early 18th century.

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1. It is not to be confused with the Menshikov Palace in Oranienbaum, Russia, built by the same architects around the same time. ''Menshikov Palace'' can also refer to the Lefort Palace in Moscow.

Sources

Калязина Н. В. Меншиковский дворец-музей. 2nd ed. Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1989. ISBN 5-289-00467-X.