Tsarskoye Selo Park. Catherine's Park in Tsarskoye Selo

Tsarskoye Selo is a suburb of St. Petersburg, its southern outskirts. Tsarskoye Selo in 1937 became known as the city of Pushkin. Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo) is part of the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg. The State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo" is famous for the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where A.S. Pushkin studied, the magnificent Catherine Palace with a unique Amber Room and the Alexander Palace. The Tsarskoye Selo ensemble includes parks: Ekaterininsky, Aleksandrovsky, Babolovsky, Separate. Tsarskoe Selo in 2015 celebrated 305 years since its founding.

Catherine Palace.

The formation of Tsarskoye Selo as an imperial residence is associated with the image of Empress Catherine I. Initially, in June 1710, the estate was presented by Peter I to his future wife Ekaterina Alekseevna, who transformed it into stone chambers of 16 rooms with a small regular park in the Dutch style. The modern Catherine Palace is a late Russian baroque style. It acquired this appearance under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna thanks to the restructuring of the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (1752-1756). The work lasted four years, and the 325-meter majestic palace, named Ekaterininsky in memory of her mother, the first Russian Empress Catherine I, appeared before shocked foreign guests. Luxurious murals, inlaid halls and luxurious interiors of apartments were used for living, balls and masquerades were held, foreign ambassadors were received, and all the emperors of Russia celebrated anniversaries. These halls remember the light tread of the formidable Catherine the Great. Empresses Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine II loved to spend not only summer, but also winter time within the walls of the Catherine Palace. The Catherine Palace has another name - the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace. In 2016, the recognized masterpiece of world architecture, the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo celebrated its 260th anniversary.

Built on decorative contrasts and lighting effects, the chic architectural image of the Catherine Palace is complemented by the golden domes of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (1750 architect B.-F. Rastrelli, 1860 architect A. Vidov). Thousands of visitors come here every day to see and admire this creation of human hands and the ideas of crowned owners, embodied by the genius of architects. A huge number of snow-white pilasters, columns, huge windows, as well as gilded sculptural figures, stucco and countless carved decorations on the facade of the palace give the Catherine Palace the color of heavenly azure an unusually solemn and elegant look. Inside, the whole palace is also filled with golden radiance. Acquaintance with the interior decoration of the Catherine Palace begins with the Marble Grand Staircase. It was created in 1860 according to the project of the architect I. Monighetti. Fenced with a carved balustrade, wide steps made of white marble, surrounded by a bewitching volume of air and light, rush from two sides to the middle platform and from it climb in four flights to the second floor to the palace chambers. The majestic atmosphere of the palace continues in the sophistication of the halls of the "Golden" enfilade. The ceremonial rooms of the second floor are connected by carved gilded portals-doors, which form an enfilade going to infinity.

The Great (Throne) Hall is the main place in the "Golden" enfilade. From such a volume of gold is breathtaking! "Light Gallery" of the Throne Hall with an area of ​​860 sq. meters has an elongated shape and covers the entire width of the palace. The throne room is as if woven from countless windows and mirrors framed with gilded carvings, creating the effect of transparency, lightness and perspective with Catherine's regular park. The vault of the Throne Hall is decorated with the “Triumph of Russia” plafond, and the parquet shines with typesetting. The glass doors of the majestic Throne Hall lead tourists to three Antichambers. The White Front Dining Room, the Green and Crimson Pillar Rooms, the Portrait Hall, the Picture Hall, the Cavalier's Dining Room, the Chinese Blue Drawing Room - everything in the Catherine Palace delights the eye, and it seems as if you find yourself in a world of illusions.

The Amber Room (study) is the most famous apartments of the Grand Catherine Palace, which are part of the suite of ceremonial halls. Some of the amber mosaics were made in the early 18th century in Prussia, presented to Peter I, and in 1755 moved to Tsarskoye Selo. During the Great Patriotic War all the outfits of the Amber Room were taken by the Germans to Germany in the Koenigsberg castle. Since 1979, a program of recreating her unique mosaic panels and amber medallions has been launched in St. Petersburg according to the sketches of restorers. The revived Amber Room was opened for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg in 2003. Everything here was made from scratch. Came together in tandem scientific achievements, the creativity of decorators, the talent of stone carvers and the skill of artists. Six tons of amber created a miracle and turned the Amber Room into a jewelry masterpiece. Legends and myths about its exhibits are still circulating.

Ekaterininsky park. A photo.

A walk through Catherine's Park in Tsarskoye Selo is an excursion into Russia's imperial past. The variety of styles of gardening art changed depending on the time, fashion and tastes of its crowned owners. The regular park in front of the Catherine Palace in the style of French regular gardens with broken parterres is an early monument of the Tsarskoye Selo landscape. The layout of the regular park ends at the Grotto and the Cameron Gallery. Busts of gods and marble statues of antiquity greet guests in the main entrances and alleys of the regular park. In the middle of the 18th century, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered that the park be decorated with 60 statues. The sculptures "Galatea" and "Amphitrid" have become an integral part of the Tsarskoye Selo park ensemble. The imagination and perseverance of the architect Rastrelli erected in the park the turquoise pavilions "Hermitage", reminiscent of a fabulous golden toy, and "Grotto" in the spirit of a mysterious sea cave.

Under Catherine II, a park was created in the English style. The new pavilions in the classical style were complemented by unique landscapes with decorative bridges, romantic cascades, a system of canals, a Chinese village, a Creaky arbor. Here appeared the hydraulic structure Big Lake - a pond, the banks of which were decorated with the Turkish bath and the Marble Bridge, the Admiralty. The Hall on the Island Pavilion and the Chesme Column with an eagle sculpture by architect A. Rinaldi (1776) adorn the middle of the Big Pond.

Remarkable examples of park compositions in the spirit of the late Baroque were created by the middle of the 18th century in the royal summer residence, located south of the capital. Its owner, Elizaveta Petrovna, decided to outshine other suburban ensembles with the splendor of the new Tsarskoye Selo palaces and gardens.

The old estate, which belonged to Catherine I, was founded in 1708 on the site of the Swedish Sarskaya manor. In 1716, stone chambers, household yards were built, an orchard was laid, hunting grounds were arranged. In 1719-1723, garden masters J. Roosen and I. Fokht laid a regular pleasure garden with terraces, linden trellises, canals, two decorative pools and a pond on the Kuzminka River. The central alley of the garden and its continuation to the northwest from the palace to the Menagerie predetermined the main compositional orientation of the ensemble for many years to come.

The experienced architect M. G. Zemtsov developed a program for the radical reconstruction of the existing estate, but he was not destined to implement it. After Zemtsov's death, his students and followers A.V. Kvasov and S.I. Chevakinsky successfully built the palace and park facilities, as well as the New, or Upper, Garden, located between the palace and the Menagerie. The completion of the construction of the palace, and already in a new interpretation of its volumetric and spatial solution and the baroque decor of the facades, fell to the lot of F.-B. Rastrelli.

The completion of construction was marked by a holiday on July 30, 1756, which coincided with another event of great military and political significance - the victories of Russian troops in Prussia. War trophies were delivered to Tsarskoye Selo. From that moment on, its halls and parks began to testify not only to the achievements of Russian art, but also to the successes of the Russian army. In the future, a tradition developed to celebrate the numerous victories of Russian weapons by installing obelisks and other solemn monuments in the park.

Work was in full swing on the reconstruction of the Old Garden and the expansion of the entire park complex. The Old Garden, the Palace, the New Garden and the Menagerie were combined into one axial composition with a length of 1.2 kilometers.

The scope of work in the period 1740-1750s was enormous. Construction was carried out on many sites of the royal residence, hundreds of masons, diggers, garden workers, and carters worked on them. Russian serf masters worked in palaces and pavilions - sculptors, painters, carvers. They brought to Tsarskoe Selo construction material- brick, Ural marble, Tosno and Pudost stone, wood. Large-sized trees - lindens, oaks, maples, foreign exotic plants - were delivered here in a continuous stream on wagons. Thus, the largest palace and park complex arose near the capital.

The Tsarskoye Selo Hermitage is considered one of the masterpieces of Russian garden and park architecture of the mid-18th century. It clearly expresses all the most characteristic features of the mature Baroque era, which stylistically unites it with the main element of the ensemble - the Grand Palace. The Hermitage was set up in an open area, lined with chess-like marble, in the center of the intersection of ten radially diverging alleys, surrounded by a canal and balustrades, which formed an ornate figured frame in plan.

Four symmetrical "cabinets" adjoined the central two-storey volume of the main hall covered with an octagonal dome. The facades of the pavilion, extremely plastic, covered with complex architectural decoration, appeared before the viewer from different angles, and only part of the facade was revealed from each of the radial alleys. The Hermitage (architects M. G. Zemtsov, F.-B. Rastrelli, S. I. Chevakinsky) was a bright, festive sight, was generously decorated with sculpture, had rich polychrome coloring: white architectural details and gilded sculpture on a blue-green background . Large window openings reflected in numerous mirrors, wall and ceiling paintings, carved flower garlands, vases, picturesque images of architecture - all this connected the interiors with the park landscape, illusoryly dissolving one into the other. Together with its surroundings, the Hermitage was a magnificent example of the synthesis of architecture, sculpture, painting and gardening art.

In 1749, the Grotto was built on the banks of the Big Pond. The compositional role of this building (architect F.-B. Rastrelli) lies, first of all, in the fact that it organically connects the Old Garden with the space of the Big Pond, as if bringing its closed internal spaces along a new transverse axis to the wide expanse of the lake and at the same time accentuates southwestern "facade" of the garden. Sculptures of dolphins and nereids, a dome depicting a fountain, figures of sea deities - all this speaks of the water theme of this pavilion.

The appearance of alleys, bosquets and terraces in the Old Garden was constantly changing and enriching. But its planning structure remained unchanged. As before, the upper terrace adjoined the palace, which had a planar solution. Complicated flower parterres and roundabout roads dominated the field of view. Next were sheared bosquets, water mirrors in an elaborate baroque frame. The following terraces were planted mainly with fruit trees. The Hermitage birch grove completed the composition. However, the complex pattern of roads and alleys around the Hermitage, the cascades of the Lower Ponds and, of course, the pavilions shining with gilding gave the Old Garden a completely new, festive, ceremonial look. The functions of the Hermitage grove became more complex, it was no longer only a garden for solitude and reflection, but also a place for magnificent receptions and entertainment for the court nobility. The same applies to many other parts of the park - the Menagerie, the islands of the Big Pond.

In the 50s and 60s of the 18th century, large park pavilions dominated the space. The whole system of visual interconnections was different in those years than in more late period. The palace (like the Hermitage) was freely visible from many points of the still young garden. The entire space of the garden, including the Big Pond, was opened from the windows of the palace. On the other hand, dense bosquets created small chamber spaces, almost completely isolated, whereas today, despite the fact that the trees have grown, the eye freely penetrates into the under-crown space to a considerable depth. The leading species in the gardens of Tsarskoye Selo at that time was undoubtedly the linden, and the complementary species was the oak. Linden best suited the local climate, soils and at the same time perfectly tolerated shearing. Trellis made of yew and boxwood also played an important role.

Many white marble, lead and gilded sculptures from the parks of St. Petersburg, which previously belonged to disgraced courtiers and statesmen - A. D. Menshikov, A. I. Osterman and others, were brought to the Old Garden. It became, like the Summer Garden before, a museum sculptures. Figures of ancient goddesses and heroes executed in dynamic baroque forms satisfied the cognitive interests of the public and glorified civic virtues. Most of the sculptures were created by the best Italian masters - P. Baratta, L. Zordzoni, D. Bonazza and others. they were shaded.

At the same time, work was carried out in the New Garden. Its territory, square in plan, was surrounded by a deep canal. A stone wall with bastions at the corners surrounded the Menagerie. In the center of the Menagerie, according to the project of S. I. Chevakinsky, an elegant pavilion of Monbijou was built. Its compositional role is in many respects similar to that of the Hermitage: being located on the continuation of the main axis (but only in the opposite north-west direction) and at the intersection of 6 radial glades, it architecturally activated the entire space of the Menagerie. The pavilion also resembled the Hermitage in appearance: it was a two-tiered octahedral volume under a dome, with baroque decoration of interiors and facades. It was also surrounded by a canal.

The territory of the New Garden was divided into 4 bosquets measuring 200x200 meters, and each of them has its own appearance: in the Carousel bosquet there are artificial ponds, in the Mushroom bosquet there are 37 pavilions, the Parnassus bosquet is still decorated with a high artificial cone-shaped mountain, the central place in the theater occupied the fourth bosquet.

The boundaries of the park ensemble are expanding and moving to the Vangazi stream. Work was also undertaken to further develop the water system through the use of springs 6 km northwest of the palace. For this, the Vittolovsky Canal had to be dug. This made it possible not only to raise the water level and increase the area of ​​the Big Pond, to give it clearer geometric contours, but also to create a number of reservoirs, including a chain of cascading ponds behind the Hermitage, on the stream below the old dam.

On the northern shore of the Pond, Rastrelli is building the entertainment pavilion of Katalnaya Gora. The famous inventor A.K. Nartov chose the place and developed the technical part of this complex structure. It was placed on a hill, open towards the pond, had two special "rolling" force, to which V. I. Neelov later added a third, reaching the island in the center of the pond. The rolling mountain was unique and had no analogues in Europe.

The further transfer of design into the hands of A. Rinaldi, I. V. Neelov, D. Quarenghi, C. Cameron did not lead to a sharp break with the plans of their predecessors. Catherine's period of formation of the ensemble was marked by its territorial development, the emergence of new elements. From the regular principle to the landscape one, from the desire to subdue, streamline nature with the help of architecture to the idealization of "nature", imitation of it - such were the ways in which Tsarskoye Selo was formed in the 60-90s of the 18th century.

The dominant of the ensemble - the Grand Palace retained and strengthened its dominant position. The central planning axis "north-west-south-east" passing through it, more than a kilometer long, continued to play a leading role in the plan of the huge palace and park complex. But the new that was created here gave the ensemble great stylistic and landscape diversity, artistic and historical depth.

In the 1770s, a number of new park structures appeared on the banks of the Bolshoi Pond, converted “to look like nature”. Their position and role in the ensemble was predetermined by V. I. Neyelov. According to his project, the Palladium Bridge (the old name is the Siberian Marble Gallery), the Admiralty complex are being built. The architect Y. Felten erects the monumental tower Ruin, designed to celebrate the victory in the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. From its upper platform, located at a height of 21 meters, a wide view of the park opened. A. Rinaldi installs the Chesme, or Rostral, column, as well as the Cahul obelisk and the Morea column. These buildings and monuments completed the creation of one of the most interesting architectural and landscape compositions of the Tsarskoye Selo ensemble.

In the second half of the 1770s, the focus of the park organizers again shifted to the Old Catherine's Garden. Fortunately, it has not undergone a radical restructuring, retaining a generally regular layout. But many new features in the spirit of the times appeared in it: the stone wall of the garden was replaced by a canal (this made it possible to reveal views of the front facades of office buildings located along the Embankment Street), the banks of two small ponds on the third terrace were made more sloping, cascades were arranged on the Lower Ponds, next to them is the Trifonov Hill (named after the master who worked in Tsarskoye Selo in 1740-1770, Trifon Ilyin). This artificial hill is planted with tall trees, and in their shade a “Chinese” pavilion is arranged on top. I. V. Neelov (V. I. Neelov’s son) is building the Upper and Lower Baths in the Old Garden, as well as the Hermitage Kitchen at the southern entrance to the garden.

To the west of the Grand Palace there is an architectural and landscape complex, made in a fashionable Chinese style. It included the Great Caprice, the Chinese Village, the Creaking Gazebo, the Chinese Theatre, Chinese bridges on the Cross Canal and other garden structures (projects by V. I. and I. V. Neyelov, Y. Felten, A. Rinaldi, C. Cameron, implemented mainly in 1782-1798). Ten stylized guest houses formed the “village” street, and an octagonal pagoda (“observatory”) was located on the central square, the walls of which were ornamented in an oriental style.

The complex of "Chinese" buildings was the product of a passion for art that was widespread in Europe in those years. Far East, had a strong influence on Russian park construction. Tsarskoe Selo was the largest example of the creation of garden pavilions in the chinoiserie style. At the first stages of the development of landscape planning, such buildings were considered almost obligatory for a palace or manor park.

Of the “Chinese” buildings that have survived to this day, the Great Caprice is of the greatest interest - an earthen mountain in the form of an embankment with large and small arches and a pavilion-pagoda in the central part. This monumental structure is closely linked with the layout of the entire park: a large arch fixes the direction to the Grand Palace, and a small one is oriented to the transverse axis of the New Garden, which was later fixed by the portico of the Alexander Palace. Thus, this park structure plays the role of a connecting element between the two architectural dominants of the ensemble.

At the same time, a number of garden structures were being built on the adjacent southern territory of the D. Quarenghi park, among them the Concert Hall, a bathhouse, the Ruin Kitchen, a hall on the island (reconstruction), the Gatchina Gates (together with A. Rinaldi).

In the summer of 1779, Catherine II, who dreamed of a Greco-Roman “rhapsody” in her royal garden, attracted the Scottish architect Charles Cameron, who had studied ancient Roman and Renaissance buildings in Italy for two decades, to work on the reconstruction of the palace and park. This choice is not accidental, it fully corresponds to the already conscious change in style. A remarkable architect-historian, Cameron showed a subtle understanding of park art, landscape patterns. Simultaneously with the work on Tsarskoye Selo, he is building in neighboring Pavlovsk, on the banks of the Slavyanka, the Temple of Friendship, the Apollo Colonnade and the palace of the heir to the throne, and in all his works he shows the new possibilities that open up in the artistic interaction of strict forms of classical architecture with a picturesquely organized landscape. Cameron worked in close contact with the botanist, horticulturalist and master park expert Johann Busch, who had a direct relationship with the landscape compositions of both Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk. The Bush family, including his assistant son and daughter, who married Cameron, had been in Tsarskoye Selo since 1775.

Cameron is immediately entrusted with the project of the Concert Hall on the island of the Big Pond. Immediately after this, he proceeds to the construction of baths like the ancient ones.

Of great importance for the Tsarskoye Selo ensemble were other works on the expansion and restructuring of the Catherine Palace, in particular the construction of the Agate Pavilion and the ramp (1780-1795). The complex transformed the southern part of the palace and the adjacent park area. It was a qualitatively new level of interconnection between architecture and the surrounding landscape space, based on their interpenetration. An open light gallery for walks with a wide magnificent staircase, a terrace of a hanging garden and a long ramp most directly connected the palace with a pond, an oak ramp alley leading to the Gatchina (Orlovsky) gates, opening spectacular views of the new landscape park and the terraces of the Old Garden.

An important factor in the further development of Tsarskoye Selo was the construction of the Alexander Palace (1792-1796) according to the project of D. Quarenghi, which later determined the structure of the entire northern part of the ensemble. The palace, with its austere and simple (compared to the Catherine Palace) facade overlooking the transverse clearing - the "blazir" of the New Garden, fixed almost the only transverse compositional axis of the ensemble in the direction from northeast to southwest and was the center of a new planning area park, mastered a little later, at the beginning of the 19th century. However, this palace, unlike Catherine's, no longer subjugates the space of the garden, but only complements it compositionally. The majestic semi-rotunda on the western facade effectively closes the perspective of a wide alley, but the architect does not set himself the goal of turning the palace into another dominant of the park, arguing with the Rastrelli Palace. This technique is typical of a period when the idea of ​​subordinating nature to architecture had already been rejected.

A serious stage in the development of the ensemble was the formation of landscape gardens surrounding the Alexander Palace from the west, north and east, according to a project developed with great skill by I. V. Neyelov in 1792 (tree plantings were made by I. Bush). The main event was the construction of three interconnected ponds with free smooth outlines, surrounded by picturesque groves and lawns.

The ensemble is also developing territorially due to the laying of new parks. So, in 1783-1785, I. V. Neelov built the Babolovsky Palace to the west of Tsarskoye Selo near the village of Babolovo near the Kuzminka River and set up a landscape garden with a pond around it. Later, a large park with an area of ​​over 300 hectares will be created here.

In the long history of the Tsarskoye Selo ensemble, periods of upsurge were followed by years of decline and ruin. After the death of Catherine, Paul I extended his dislike for his mother and her favorite summer residence. All unfinished work in Tsarskoye Selo has been suspended since 1796, many decorative items are transferred to the Mikhailovsky Palace, Gatchina and Pavlovsk. The Chinese village is partially dismantled for building material. Many of the statues that previously adorned the park have disappeared without a trace. The collection of antique statues, mounted on a ramp, was transferred to Pavlovsk, which is now becoming the center for the development of Russian park art.

The Great Catherine Palace is located in the park of the same name. Catherine's Park consists of two main parts: the regular English Garden and the Landscape Park. In the middle of all this, numerous buildings and sculptures are scattered. We continue our walk around Tsarskoye Selo.

In the summer, to get into the park, you need to buy a ticket at the box office for 100 rubles. At the entrance you can see the map and the main attractions:


The territory of the park is quite large - its area is just over a hundred hectares. Therefore, during a joint inspection of the palace and a walk in the park, it is necessary to allocate a whole day.

Here you can find a large number of sculptures:

Close to the Catherine Palace adjoins the Cameron Gallery. It was originally built in 1784-1787 according to the project of the architect C. Cameron according to the idea of ​​Catherine II for walking.


The Cameron Gallery is located on a hillside, on the border of the regular and landscape parts of the Catherine Park. The height of the Cameron Gallery coincides with the Catherine Palace, but due to the fact that it stands on a gentle slope, the height of its lower floor, as it moves away from the palace, increases significantly due to the gradual increase in the basement.


The lower floor serves as the base of the colonnade of the second tier, consisting of 44 white fluted columns with Ionic capitals. The enlarged window openings of the glazed hall in the central part of the second floor of the building give transparency.


The maid of honor's garden is located in the courtyard of the gallery.









Another group of Asian tourists is photographed against the backdrop of the palace:


The Upper Bath Pavilion is located on the bank of the Mirror Pond. In the 18th century, the Upper Bath was called "Their Highnesses' Soap". It was built in 1777-1779 by architects V.I. and I.V. Fir-tree in the style of early classicism. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Upper Bath retained its original purpose and consisted of six rooms: a vestibule, a dressing room, a bath, a bathhouse (steam room), a stoker's room (hot water) and a central octagonal lounge for relaxation. The pavilion is currently used to host temporary exhibitions.


From this hill, a part of the landscape English park is clearly visible:






Sculptural allegory "Wisdom (Virtue), trampling vice":

Sculptural allegory "Patriotism":




The Humpback Bridge is thrown across the Rybny Canal, which flows into the Big Pond:


On the bank of the largest reservoir in the park, and in the city - the Big Pond, there is a Grotto. It was built in 1753-1757 by architect F.B. Rastrelli. The Cameron Gallery is visible in the background:


The Hall on the Island pavilion is located, in accordance with its name, on the island of the Big Pond. It was built in the late 1740s according to the project of S.I. Chevakinsky. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the pavilion, intended for concerts and recreation for boaters, was occasionally used for court dinners. To do this, a small kitchen was built next to it, destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century. Currently, restoration work is underway in the pavilion, after completion of which the "Hall on the Island" will be used to host temporary exhibitions and concerts.


The Chesme column was placed in the middle of the Big Pond in honor of the victory of the Russian fleet in 1770 in the Battle of Chesme over the Turkish fleet. It was built in 1771-1776 by architect A. Rinaldi and sculptor I. G. Schwartz. A 22-meter column made of Olonets pink marble stands on a four-sided granite base. The trunk of the column is completed with an allegorical sculpture: a bronze eagle breaks the Turkish crescent. On the opposite bank - Turkish bath.


One of the pavilions of the Admiralty, built in the Dutch style in 1773 according to the project of V.I. Neyolov for Catherine II, possibly in memory of the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to Russia. Now these pavilions are used to host temporary exhibitions.

In front of the Admiralty there is a sculptural composition "Night Watch" based on the painting of the same name by Rembrandt. Soldiers are more like musketeers:


Perhaps this is D "Artagnan, who had already rubbed his left hand to a shine:






Another sculptural composition is recreated based on the painting by the Dutch artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder - "Blind":


Let's go further around the Big Pond. Occasionally there are benches for rest.




The Turkish bath - the last built pavilion of the Catherine Park, was erected by the architect I.A. Monighetti in 1852.


The bath was erected in memory of the war between Russia and Turkey in 1828-1829.



While walking through the park, you can meet an unusual building - a pyramid. It was built in 1770-1772 according to the project of V.I. Neyolov. In 1774 it was dismantled and rebuilt in 1782-1783 by C. Cameron. According to some information, on the opposite side from the entrance, at the foot of the Pyramid, three favorite dogs of Catherine II are buried: Tom Anderson, Zemira and Duchesse. The burial places were marked with white marble boards with epitaphs carved on them, which have not survived to this day.


The upper ponds, dug in the early 1770s in the landscape part of the Catherine Park, communicated with the Big Pond. The water, freely flowing down the slope of the hill in the direction of the pond, began to wash out the hollow, and in order to prevent the Upper Ponds from drying out, it was decided to create a system of dams on the channel. This was done by engineer I.K. Gerard.


A number of his projects of cascade dams have been preserved, allowing maintaining a constant water level in the Upper Ponds. Among the implemented ones is the Red (Turkish) cascade, which is a dam with two "Gothic" turrets tapering upwards on the sides.



Near the Big Pond, there is the Marble (Palladiev) Bridge, or the Siberian Marble Gallery. It is placed over a narrow channel that connects the Big Pond with several ponds dug in 1769-1770. The bridge is a copy of the Marble Bridge from Wilton Park in England. The construction of the foundation of the Marble Bridge dates back to 1773. A year later, in 1774, the bridge was assembled from finished parts in Tsarskoe Selo by master V. Tortori.






Soon the road led me to the so-called Big Caprice. It is located at the junction of two parks: Ekaterininsky and Aleksandrovsky. Big Caprice is a bulk mountain - a ramp with an arch thrown over the Babolovskaya road.


The Great Caprice was built in 1772-1774 according to the general plan of the architect A. Rinaldi, subsequently carried out by V. I. Neyolov under the direct supervision of the work of the engineer I. Gerard.

Unfortunately, the passage along Caprice was closed, so we only had to look around.


The main archway is 5.25 meters wide and 7 meters high.

The Chinese gazebo, also called the Squeaky Arbor, was built from 1778 to 1786. Work on the construction of this atypical pavilion for the park began at the same time as the construction of the Chinese Village. The architect V. Neyolov supervised the construction, and the project itself was developed by the architect Y. Felten.








Having examined the Chinese gazebo, we will go further.


There are also headless sculptures in the park:

In fact, this is all that remains of the Kitchen not far from the Concert Hall. The kitchen was designed by G. Quarenghi in 1785-1786.

Entrance to the Concert Hall itself is free. It was built in the 1780s by the architect D. Quarenghi.

Initially, the pavilion was called the "Temple of Friendship", but since 1788, at the request of Catherine II, it became known as the "Music" or "Concert" hall.


Let's look inside. The interiors of the pavilion are made in accordance with the canons of strict classicism.





And here you can find headless sculptures.

Statue of Nerva - Roman emperor. Cast in 1852.


We will end our walk in Catherine's Park near the fountain "Girl with a Jug". The statue was made in 1816 by the famous sculptor P.P.Sokolov based on the plot of J.Lafontaine's fable "The Milkmaid, or the Jug of Milk" and cast in bronze in the workshop of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Now the bronze original of "The Girl with a Jug" is placed in the funds of the museum-reserve, and a copy cast in 1990 is installed in the park.

To be continued...

A short walk in the park. The park is beautiful, but I couldn’t get around everything, and yet, despite the cold autumn day and the sculptures closed for the winter, the beauty of the park was fascinating.

The Fish Canal separates the Lower Garden from the Hermitage section of the park. This first of the park's artificial canals was opened in the 1720s. It connects the Bolshoi Pond with the Cascade Canal, which runs along the border of the park with a residential area. The channel got its name because it was originally intended for breeding and catching fish. A number of slender firs along its shore were planted after the Great Patriotic War to replace the dead, which, according to legend, were planted here by Peter I. A metal bridge is thrown across the canal.

upper garden

The Lower Bath Pavilion was built according to the project of the architect I. V. Neelov in 1778-1779 and was intended for the courtiers. The building is displaced from the axis of the alleys of the Old Garden; its facade is half hidden by trees and shrubs: the outbuildings intended for the courtiers were thus hidden from the views of park visitors. I. Neelov, who built the bath, chose an intricate shape in the form of a central cylindrical volume covered with a dome with a large bath inside and adjoining six low round cabinets with three small round windows each.

Massive marble baths stand along the walls of all sections of the Bath - a round middle hall and four, also round bathrooms on the sides, the floors of the rooms are mosaic. Rectangular rooms on both sides of the pavilion housed two boilers-water heaters, which had separate entrances. Here, the water was heated and supplied through pipes to the baths and rooms with baths. The interior decoration of the pavilion has not survived to our time. In some rooms, the walls and plafonds were painted; the lounge and cloakroom were heated by marble fireplaces, and a balustrade surrounded a round tin-plated brass bath. Over time, the pavilion will be partially covered by a group of trees, as in late XVIII century.

The Upper Bath Pavilion is located in front of the eastern facade of the Catherine Palace on the banks of the Mirror Pond. Two rectangular ponds on the lower terrace along the sides of the Hermitage Alley were dug back in 1719-1722. In regular gardens, ponds framed by green slopes served to create the effect of reflecting architectural structures. And now you can admire how the Upper Bath pavilion is reflected in the mirror of one of them. Its name comes from its location - on the top terrace of the park. It was built in 1779 by the architect V. Neyelov. The building is made in the style of early classicism. In 1811 the pavilion was rebuilt by Bettencourt. The artistic design of the outer facades of the Upper Bath is quite modest, but the interior decoration was distinguished by elegance and sophistication. For example, the walls of the lounge were painted from top to bottom by the decorator A.I. Belsky using the motifs of the painting of the Golden House of Nero in Ancient Rome. The central plafond conveys the plots of the myth about Phaethon, the son of the sun god.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the Upper Bath served as a bath for the imperial family ("Their Highnesses' Soaphouse"). In six rooms there were a dressing room, an octagonal lounge, a swimming pool, a steam room, a boiler room and a canopy. During the Great Patriotic War, the Upper Bath was destroyed, but by 1953 it had been restored, including the interior decoration. Today the pavilion hosts temporary exhibitions.

In the 1720s, the garden master I. Foght cultivated a section of the Upper Garden with three terraces, since the gently sloping terrain is not convenient for laying out a regular park. On the upper terrace, a flower garden was laid out and trellis curtains of cut shrubs were planted. Now there are two stalls. Their patterns are formed from coal, crushed bricks and colored sand. The ornament of the parterres is close to the patterns of baroque Rastrelli parquets. Similar stalls made of "dead" materials were arranged in parks until the middle of the 18th century. You can truly appreciate the beauty of this decorative idea by looking at it from above, from the windows of the palace.

Through the trees you can see the Cold Baths and the Cameron Gallery.

The building of the Cold Bath and the Agate Rooms are part of the Cameron Ensemble. It was built in the classical style by 1794. As in the entire complex, the contrast between the finishes of the lower and upper floors immediately catches the eye. The massive first floor is trimmed with rough Pudost stone. On the first floor of the pavilion there was a "cold bath", which included a Bathing Hall, a warm bathroom and a Russian steam room. The architect tried to reproduce the layout of the ancient Roman baths, but the peculiarities of the northern climate were not conducive to a long pastime in such a bath.

On the second floor there are six lounges. Quite a large amount of money was spent on the decoration of these rooms. Cabinets and halls are lined with jasper, marble, porphyry. And in terms of the richness of modeling, painting, parquet and decor, the Agate Rooms are not inferior to the decoration of the Catherine Palace itself. The facades of the second floor are cut with niches and decorated with sculptures and bas-reliefs. When viewed from the side of the hanging garden, the Agate Rooms are perceived as a full-fledged one-story building.

By 1794, on the south side of the Catherine Palace, a whole complex of structures was created in the then fashionable antique style designed by the Scottish architect Charles Cameron: Cameron Gallery, Cold Baths with Agate Rooms, a hanging garden and a ramp.

The walls of the first floor of the gallery are cut through by large arched window openings. The piers between the windows are lined with Pudost stone (from the village of Pudost in the vicinity of St. Petersburg). The first floor consists of a middle corridor with small rooms of ladies-in-waiting on both sides, so the garden near the gallery on the side of the palace is called the maid of honor. The New Pudostsky (Freilinsky) Gates, located at the Cold Baths, lead to the garden. They were built from Pudost stone by the stonemason S. Kopylov according to the project of V.P. Stasov in 1819. The two abutments of the gates were conceived by the author in the form of quadruple Doric columns, covered with an entablature and crowned with cast-iron images of altars. The gates of a simple and strict design consist of a number of spears connected at the top with wreaths.

The owners of the palace wanted to have buildings in a new style, in order to keep up with the artistic trends of Europe.
Catherine II wrote to the sculptor E. Falcone about her passion for antiquity: "I would like to have a project of an antique house, planned as in antiquity ... I am able to build such a Greco-Roman rhapsody in my Tsarskoye Selo garden." Her wish was fulfilled by C. Cameron, invited to Tsarskoye Selo from Scotland, about whom the Empress wrote to M. Grimm: “Now I have taken possession of Master Cameron, a Scot by birth, ... a great draftsman who is saturated with the study of the ancients and is known for his book “On the Ancients bathhouses". We are making here in Tsarskoye Selo a garden with terraces, with bathhouses below and a gallery above. It will be lovely." So the customer's fashionable desire to "have... an antique house", which coincided with the architect's scientific research, led to the creation of an amazing building, which can be called "Cameron's Baths".

Powerful pylons rise on both sides of the stairs, decorated with bronze figures of Hercules and Flora, made in 1786 according to the models of the sculptor F. Gordeev

The Cameron Gallery is perceived especially well from the side of the Big Pond from the regular part of the park. It seems that the colonnade is floating in the air. On each side the gallery is decorated with a four-column portico.

The contrast between the heavy basement and the light colonnade is immediately striking. In the basement there were small rooms for court ladies and ladies-in-waiting. It currently hosts temporary exhibitions.

Along the colonnade of 44 Ionic columns there are busts of ancient gods, prominent figures of various eras - philosophers, generals, politicians, scientists - idols of Catherine II. There are 69 busts in total, among which there is an image of a great figure Russian science M.V. Lomonosov

Luigi Premazzi - Landscape with the Cameron Gallery and the Zubov Building

A massive ramp leads to the Cameron Gallery from the south. This gentle rise was created in 1792 by order of Catherine II. The ramp, like the basement of the Cameron Gallery, was built of Pudost stone. Seven arched spans are decorated with mascarons of mythological characters.

In the 18th century, there were 14 sculptures of muses and ancient gods and goddesses along the entire descent, and the ramp began to be called the "Ladder of the Gods". But after the death of Catherine II in 1799, Emperor Paul I ordered the statues to be transported to Pavlovsk. In 1826, cast-iron altars with bowls for flowers appeared in their place.

At the foot of the ramp until 1941 there were two huge bronze vases, which disappeared during the Nazi occupation. In 1811 the ramp was moved slightly to be on the same axis as Ramp Walk.

You can see the Zubovsky Corps through the trees. It began to be erected symmetrically to the Church building in 1779 according to the project of Yu. M. Felten. The facade of the building is executed in classical forms with a colonnade of a large order of marble columns placed in pairs, covering the second and third floors. Catherine II, a fan of the new style, ordered to arrange her own chambers in this part of the palace. The construction of the building was completed in 1785.

The southern facade of the Zubovsky wing overlooks the Private Garden, on the second floor of which were the apartments of Empress Catherine II. On the first floor of this wing, personal rooms of Emperor Alexander II were arranged. During the Great Patriotic War, these interiors were destroyed and have not yet been restored.

In such a beautiful place, it is very pleasant to do physical exercises.

Yellow Kitchen building designed by architect V. I. Neelov.

Adjoining the side wings are one-story service buildings, which are two colossal arcs - circumferences. Erected in 1744 - 1745 according to the project of A.V. Kvasov, they determined the size and configuration of the front yard. They housed the services of the palace, workshops and rooms for visitors.

The circumference is completed by a wrought iron grate with a gate and the coat of arms of Russia.

Three gates lead to the parade ground of the Front Court. Two of them are located between the palace and the circumferences, and the main ones - "Golden" - along the axis of the palace, in the gap between the buildings of the circumferences.

As an example of the use of forged metal in Russian architecture, the gates of the Catherine Palace have no equal. Overhead gilded details made of hammered iron turn the pattern of the gate into a light black lace, through which the front facade of the palace is visible. Due to the abundance of gilded details, the gates are called "golden". In 1756, about a hundred kilograms of gold were spent on gilding the gates, vases, statues, stairs, facades, and interiors of the palace.

In addition to the central, "Golden" gates, two side ones also lead to the front yard. The most interesting are the "Iron" ones, adjacent to the Church building. They are made according to the drawing by F.B. Rastrelli in 1749 as locksmith Cordoni.

The history of the construction of the Catherine Park

Ekaterininsky Park is the most beautiful monument of world gardening art of the 18th-20th centuries, it is part of the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum-Reserve. Walking through the park, you will experience a lot of pleasant emotions and enjoy its picturesque nature. The park got its name from the Catherine Palace located on its territory.

The Catherine Park consists of two parts: the regular Old Garden and the landscape English Park. According to legend, the Old (Dutch) Garden was founded by Peter I himself. In the 1720s, the Dutch masters of landscape gardening J. Roosen and I. Focht planned the territory of the Dutch (Old) Garden in front of the Catherine Palace. In the middle of the 18th century, the garden was expanded, the pavilions "Hermitage" and "Grotto", the Big Pond were created. In the 1770s, according to the project of architects V. I. and I. V. Neyelov, the Admiralty complex, the Hermitage kitchen, the Upper and Lower baths were built in the garden.

In the same period, under the leadership of V. I. Neelov, work began on the creation of a landscape (English Garden). Catherine II wanted to show not just a garden laid out in the modern style of that time, but also decorated with monuments glorifying the greatness of her reign. In honor of Russian victories in the Russo-Turkish wars, the Ruin Tower, Chesme, Moreiskaya, Crimean columns, the Cahul obelisk, the Turkish kiosk and the Turkish cascade were erected in the 1770-1780s.

In the regular part of the park there are white marble statues of mythological heroes made by Italian masters. There you will meet an Amazon leaning on a shield carved with an image of an eagle fighting a lion (a symbol of Russia's victory over Sweden); a statue of Hercules, in the guise of which Peter I was depicted. At the facade of the Catherine Palace you will see sculptures of characters from ancient mythology: Iola - the beloved of Hercules, Sibyl - a prophetess; as well as allegorical statues - Love for the Motherland, Wisdom, Peace and Splendor. You will meet on your way the figure of a bronze girl sitting on a large stone with a broken jug from which water is pouring. This stranger is the heroine of the plot of La Fontaine's fable about a young peasant woman who broke a jug of milk on her way to the market.

Walking through the Catherine Park in summer and autumn, you will enjoy the view of flowering alleys, artificial reservoirs, inhale the fragrant smell of pine needles, blooming lilacs and wild roses. Well, meeting with squirrels, ducks and other "our smaller brothers" will give you an unforgettable pleasure. In the Catherine Park there are many unique buildings and historical monuments:

• Gate "To my dear colleagues",
• creaking gazebo,

It is made in the Baroque style and is the compositional center and one of the main decorations of the park. Its azure facades are 300 meters long. It took about 100 kilograms of pure gold to gild the exterior and interior decorations. The palace facades are decorated with columns, figures of Atlanteans, various stucco decorations based on the models of the sculptor I. Dunker. The construction of the Tsarskoye Selo residence from the end of 1748 to 1756 was headed by the chief architect of the court F.-B. Rastrelli.

Catherine Palace Apartments:

• Amber Room (it took 5 years to create the best masters from different countries),
• white front dining room,
• Crimson and Green Pillar,
• Throne room,
• Picture Hall (it contains more than 100 paintings from the works of Western European masters of painting of the 17th - early 18th centuries of various national schools),
• green dining room,
• Waitress,
• bedchamber,
• Blue and Chinese blue living rooms.

The editors of the site Pushkin. RU