Tired of being remarkable just for their wealth, Russia’s super rich want to buy aristocratic class — and a development on the outskirts of St Petersburg offers just that.
There the elite of the country’s cultural capital can buy houses built to resemble famous palaces, such as Versailles in France and St Petersburg’s own Peterhof.
On 14 hectares near the Lahti bay on the Finnish gulf, about an hour’s drive from the city centre, work has begun on 50 miniature palaces, each modelled on a famous residence of British, French or Russian monarchs.
One house, the Pink Pavilion, designed to mimic the architecture of a classical British palace, has been completed.
Another three are under construction, one copying the Versailles Palace near Paris, and two resembling Mon Plaisir Palace and the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
The Pink Pavilion has been sold for $1,2-million, a spokesperson for the developers, Northern Versailles Palaces, said.
The project has raised eyebrows, not just because of its bizarre pretensions to royal wealth but also because of the disparity between the fortunes of the super-rich and the poor in Russia.
Many have found it odd that the elite should want to emulate two royal families who were executed by revolutionaries seeking to return their wealth to the people.
Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the thinktank Panorama, said it was a typically vulgar display by Russia’s rich. ”With the tastes these people have, I see nothing unusual in this”, he said.
The project’s managers said it was aimed at business people who had a flat in the city and a country house but wanted a peaceful suburban mansion they could commute to and from daily.
Anna Prozorova, head of real estate at Concord Management and Consulting, which is behind the project, said the designs were popular because modern architecture in Russia was so poor that classical buildings were in vogue.
”The buyers of our buildings associate them not with the sad story of their monarchic owners but with their high position, wealth, and splendour,” she said.
”We want to show the development of architecture over 100 years, from the baroque of the early 18th century to early 19th century classicism.”
A magazine advert for the complex says: ”The best ideas of Louis XIV and Peter the Great are realised in the unique complex of Northern Versailles.” – Guardian Unlimited Â