The Palace was built in 1890-91 for the "National" Insurance Company at the site of a magnificient 1724-25 Baroque palace erected for Philip Otto Von Grumbkow, the Province President. That palace was in 1759 a birth place of Princess Sophie Dorothea von Wurtemberg, later known as the Empress Maria Fyodorovna, the wife of the Russian Emperor Paul I. The magnificent residence lost its splendour in the 19th century, to be demoblished in 1890. The "National" Insurance Company headquarters erected in its place are very imposing as well; the building's ornate sculpted decoration bears numerous symbols.