The Mariinsky Palace was built in 1750-1755 according to the project of the chief court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli by order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The daughter of Peter the Great personally chose the place for the construction of the palace in the Pechersk part of the city. In different years, representatives of the royal family and high nobility stayed in the palace during their visits to Kiev.
Throughout its long history the palace has been reconstructed several times, in 1870 after a fire that destroyed the wooden first floor, the second stone floor was added. In 1874, Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of Tsar Alexander the Liberator, stayed at the palace, and she suggested that a park be laid out in front of the palace. It was in her honour that the Mariinsky residence was later named.
After the 1917 revolution, the palace housed the Revolutionary Committee and the Council of Deputies, then the headquarters of the military district, the Agricultural Museum and the Shevchenko Museum. During World War II a bomb hit the palace, destroying the central part of the building, but after the war the building was rebuilt again. After Ukrainian independence was established, the Mariinsky Palace became the official residence of the president.
The palace complex has a strictly symmetrical composition. The main two-storey building and one-storey side wings form a wide courtyard. Important elements of the artistic design of the palace are decorative and applied arts, as well as furniture and chandeliers (antique and made by modern masters in the spirit of the 13-18th centuries), paintings by famous masters of painting. In some rooms, small fragments of wall paintings by the artist C. Alliaudi have been preserved.
