Photograph of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The building has three storeys and a small central pediment with three arched doorways below. The windows are interspersed with pilasters and there is a balustrade and a sequence of statues on the roof. There is a large cobbled courtyard in the foreground. The Winter Palace was the official residence of the Russian monarchs. It was begun in the early eighteenth century and altered by several monarchs, notably Catherine II. Alexander II was the last Emperor to use the Winter Palace as the main Imperial residence. He was assassinated in 1881 and his successor, his son Alexander III, was advised for security reasons to use the smaller Imperial palaces.