The luxurious Ryumin Palace, located on Lausanne's atypically spacious Place Rippon, was never a residential mansion. It was built after the death of the last of the Bestuzhev-Ryumin family, 30-year-old Gabriel, whom his parents called Gabriel in Russian.
The Bestuzhevs-Ryumin moved to Lausanne before their son was born. Gavriil and his mother obtained Swiss citizenship after the death of the head of the family, Vasily Bestuzhev-Ryumin. When his mother passed away, Gabriel, who was less than 30 years old at the time, felt lonely. He had no one but the city of Lausanne, which had become his home. Leaving for another trip - to distant Constantinople, he left a will in favour of the city. The municipality of Lausanne received 1.5 million Swiss francs. According to Rumin's last will, this money was to be used to pay for the construction of a public building. The design of this mansion had to be approved by 10 respected members of society at once, including five professors from the local Academy.
Gabriel Bestuzhev-Ryumin did not return from Constantinople, and the city authorities built a luxurious Renaissance palace named after him in 1906 in his memory. Gaspard André was chosen as the building's architect.
Until 1980, the Palais Rümin was one of the buildings of the University of Lausanne. Now it is occupied by five museums, each of which is interesting in its own way. The most popular is the Museum of Fine Arts, which contains paintings dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries. Four other museums are dedicated to archaeology and history, geology, zoology and numismatics. The building also still houses the university library.
