The Winter Palace was not only the main ceremonial residence of the Russian monarchs, but also a repository of priceless national treasures, which Catherine II began to collect. It performed a great variety of functions: representative, residential, cultural and administrative, which the book also pays special attention to. Over the years of its life, the Winter Palace has seen a lot: human happiness and sorrow, deaths, the rise and fall of statesmen, storming, change of interiors to please the new government, he survived the siege of Leningrad... The spirit of this place was woven from the events taking place in it, the people who lived in it, the secrets with which it was shrouded. A huge number of legends are associated with him, and he himself is a legend. In this book, the author tried to open the doors of the Winter Palace for the reader and show those old walls in which the lives of people passed, who largely determined the fate of the country: from risalits to facades, covering all three floors. The narration is accompanied by paintings, photographs and documents.