Katharinenpark
The Katharinenpark ( Russian Екатерининский парк ) is located in Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), about 25 kilometers south of Saint Petersburg . It is one of the five landscaped parks in the city and houses the Great Catherine Palace ( Большой Екатерининский дворец ) on its territory . This was once the Russian tsar's residence , was rebuilt as true to the original as possible after the most severe destruction in the Second World War and contains the reconstruction of the Amber Room as a special attraction .
history
The area of Ingermanland , in which Tsarskoe Selo is located, fell to Sweden in 1617. In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) he was incorporated into the Russian Empire again. At that time there was a small Russian estate called 'Sariza' on the site of today's Catherine Palace. The Swedes had changed the usage of 'Sariza' to 'Zaritzhof' to indicate that there was a manor house on it. The Finnish population who settled here renamed 'Saritzhof' to 'Saaris Mojs' - 'Mojs' was the Finnish equivalent for 'Hof'. 'Saaris Mojs' means: 'Dairy on the hill' (Tsarskoe Selo is 65 meters above sea level).
The architecture of the palace
The external appearance today shows essential elements of Rastrelli's architecture, even if the palace is an almost complete reconstruction after the destruction by German troops in World War II. The facade, stretching over a length of 85 axes, is rhythmized by inserted risalits , which softens the extraordinarily monumental overall impression. The height of the roof and eaves also varies while the three-storey structure remains the same (two full storeys and a mezzanine ). As in other Rastrelli buildings, the upper floor and mezzanine are combined in a colossal order . The whole facade is covered with an abundance of sculptures and structural elements. Columns and pilasters appear less structured in their close-knit arrangement than ornamental. The strong colors of the turquoise-blue facade correspond to the original and emphasize the decorative overall impression. This ornamental abundance can be seen as an approximation of old Russian traditions.
Owner of the palace and its changes
Empress Catherine I.
Tsar Peter I the Great (1672–1725) distributed land near his new capital St. Petersburg to relatives and friends in order to promote the development. In 1707 he gave his colleague Alexander Menshikov 'Saaris Mojs', which was soon called 'Saarskaya Mysa' in Russian.
In 1710, Menshikov's property was taken away after the Tsar decided to give part of Menshikov's possessions to his future wife, Katharina Alexejewna . Like other farms, the property was used to supply the royal family and the court.
At the arch, which today leads over Gartenstrasse and connects the Catherine Palace with the Lyceum, there was still a one-story wooden mansion in 1702. Katharina Alexejewna, restored and refurnished, initially used this as a preferred place to stay when she visited Saarskaya Mysa.
In 1717, Catherine I commissioned the German architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein , who was mainly active in Peterhof and Kronstadt , with the construction of a small, two-story stone house. Work began in 1718 and lasted until 1724.
Inside, the castle housed sixteen rooms on both floors, which is why it was nicknamed the Palace of Sixteen State Rooms . The tsarina's private living quarters were on the ground floor; the parade rooms and the relatively small assembly hall were on the second floor. The architects Foerster and Domenico Trezzini were commissioned to furnish the castle in the Dutch style . The furnishing of the rooms was extremely reserved, it exuded an almost bourgeois atmosphere. After Catherine I became empress in 1725, she stayed more frequently in Peterhof, which seemed more suited to the ruler's need for representation than the modest palace in Saarskaya Mysa. From this time on, the palace was used regularly as a hunting lodge. Catherine I loved the estate mainly because of the good air.
Empress Elisabeth I.
After the death of Catherine I in 1727, the Saarskaya Mysa fell indirectly to her daughter Elisabeth Petrovna, who later became Empress Elisabeth I Elisabeth, just like her mother, a passionate hunter. The Grand Duchess was forced to thrift because of her low income. Maintaining the castle, gardens and greenhouses was extremely costly. For eighteen years Elisabeth lived on the income from the estate and supported her court from it. The only thing she allowed herself to do during this time was the establishment of the small Church of the Annunciation. The church was built on the site where, in the time of Catherine I, there was a wooden Chapel of the Annunciation. The foundation stone was laid in 1734. The church was not completed until 1747.
When Elisabeth Petrovna became empress in 1741, she finally had the means to adapt the palace to the new tastes of the time. After her accession to the throne, she renamed Saarskaya Mysa "Tsarskoye Selo" and made it her annual summer residence. She commissioned Mikhail Semzow , one of the most sought-after architects in Russia, to enlarge and rebuild the modest castle. Zemzow died in 1743, however, before the work had even really started. Andrei Kwassow , a student of Zemtsov, was commissioned to carry out the plans. In 1744, Kwassow began building two narrow, two-story galleries that led to two stone buildings. One of them contained a small chapel, the other a ballroom and a greenhouse. After Kwassow had left the construction business, the management of the construction work was initially transferred to Giuseppe Trezzini and later to Seva Tschewakinsky .
Over the galleries that connected the castle church and the orangery with the palace, Tschewakinsky laid out "hanging gardens", which were completed in 1748, based on the model of the hanging gardens of the Semiramis of Babylon . However, there was water damage in the rooms below. The repair work on the vaults under the "Hanging Gardens" was carried out under the direction of Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli , who was appointed head of all construction work in Tsarskoye Selo in 1749.
The Grand Palace, completed in 1751, was not approved by the Empress. On May 12, 1751, she gave Rastrelli the order to redesign it again. By overbuilding the galleries, Rastrelli brought the entire palace building to a uniform height of three floors. The facade was combined into one front , similar to that of the Winter Palace . The previous core structures divided the facade with protruding risalits.
The modest house of Catherine I had now been transformed into a large, representative palace. Intimacy and modesty had given way to the lively and cool pomp of Rastrelli. Elizabeth came here less and less frequently and only for short periods during the second half of her reign, when the palace had taken on its present appearance.
The palace church was consecrated on July 30, 1756 and the palace was shown to the empress, the court, the ministers and foreign diplomats. The castle was richly gold-plated inside and out - between 1746 and 1760, over 100 kg of gold had been used for it. The cornices, reliefs, caryatids, atlases that are now painted with a dark ocher color were then gilded. The tinplate roof was adorned with statues of naked youths and naiads as well as vases that were also gilded. Elisabeth visited Tsarskoye Selo for the last time on September 8, 1761.
Empress Catherine II the Great
Peter III , who was emperor from 1761 to 1762, stayed with his court in Tsarskoye Selo for only one week. Only Catherine II came here regularly again.
The gilded decorations of the Catherine Palace and the pavilions under the Elizabeth I proved to be less durable due to the climate. All statues, ornaments, cornices that were previously gilded were given a simple, ocher-colored paint. Only the domes of the palace church remained gilded.
The architect Jurij Veldten was entrusted with numerous redesigns inside the palace. He replaced z. B. the Rastrellis Chinese Hall in the middle of the castle through a large staircase. In addition to Veldten, the members of the Nejelow family were mainly active in Tsarskoje Selo. They built the marble bridge, the brick buildings of the admiralty, the pyramid, the Hermitage kitchen, the Great Kaprice (a huge arched passage between artificial mountains, crowned by a pavilion with Chinese features), the Chinese village, the cross bridge, the upper and the lower bath, the Chinese theater, the Alexander wing (which was later redesigned by Stassow to accommodate the lyceum) and the evening hall.
Catherine II wanted a thermal bath based on the Roman model. She chose Charles Cameron as the architect . He built her the cold bath with the agate rooms. In 1784, while the work on the cold bath and the agate pavilion was still in progress, Catherine II commissioned Cameron to build a foyer, a kind of hall of fame for ancient military leaders, poets and thinkers, which Catherine II particularly admired. 44 Ionic columns decorate the gallery on the upper floor, from whose narrow sides a curved double staircase leads down into the garden. It is flanked by the statues of Heracles and Flora standing on high pedestals. The bronze statues were created by Fyodor Gordejew in 1786 and are copies of ancient statues from the Villa Farnese in Rome.
In the Catherine Palace, Catherine II initially entrusted Cameron with the redesign of the apartments of her son, Grand Duke Paul , and his wife Maria Fyodorovna . Cameron redesigned eight rooms, including the Green Dining Room, Blue Salon, and Blue Chinese Salon. From 1779 to 1783, Cameron finally designed the private rooms of Catherine II. Cameron had Rastrelli's parade stairs removed, as well as two of the five antechambers that led to the Great Hall, and built new rooms in their place. At the same time, Giacomo Quarenghi redesigned the garden facade of the Subov wing in a classical style. Rastrelli's idea of directing the court ceremony was completely destroyed by these alterations and installations. None of Cameron's rooms were like the other, each with its own characteristics. In addition, there was the delicate harmony of the materials: marble, stucco, colored glass, lacquer work, Japanese and Chinese porcelain and exquisite fabrics, combined with Italian paintings and French handicrafts. All of this was destroyed or disappeared during World War II and has not yet been restored.
The park under Empress Catherine II.
Catherine II took decisive measures for the further redesign and development of the Tsarskoye Selo park and for its expansion. First of all, the flower gardens, which sloped in terraces to the Hermitage, were removed and the park wall to Gartenstrasse was demolished and replaced by a canal with cascades and stone quay walls. With the appointment of English gardeners, Catherine II initiated the conversion of the park in the English style, as a landscape park. She hated straight avenues, fountains and canals, and in her opinion statues belong in buildings. Instead, the beauty of nature itself should come into its own in the park.
Court life under Empress Catherine II.
Tsarskoye Selo was the Empress's favorite of all her residences. From 1763 onwards, with the exception of two or three years, she spent the spring and most of the summer here, and did not move back to St. Petersburg until late autumn, when it began to get cold. Katharina almost always celebrated her birthday in Tsarskoye Selo. She usually came with a small entourage. The tsarina spent most of her time on business of state, only occasionally indulging in distractions. Every day she took an early morning walk in the park. Occasionally the court cavaliers and maidservants were invited to her in the grotto by a trumpet, where the tsarina loved to have breakfast in company after her morning work was finished. In later years, the tsarina was accompanied by her grandchildren on her morning walks. On November 6, 1796, the Empress got up at the usual hour. She spoke to Plato Subov , her last lover, and dictated to the secret scribes. After that she was left alone. Since nothing moved in their rooms for a long time, the servants became restless; they listened at the door. When a servant came in, he found the Empress lying motionless on the floor in a corridor that led to her dressing room. Katharina had suffered a stroke. She lived for a few more hours, but consciousness never returned. Catherine II died in Tsarskoye Selo at the age of 68.
Emperor Paul I.
Paul I hated his mother and transferred this hatred to Tsarskoye Selo, which had been the favorite residence of the empress. After the death of the Empress Tsarskoye Selo, he only entered once again in May 1800. The architect Vincenzo Brenna , the builder of Michael’s Palace in St. Petersburg , was ordered to transport everything that was necessary to decorate this palace and the palaces in Pavlovsk and Gatchina Palace from Tsarskoye Selo: paintings, statues, bronzes, antiquities and furniture . The “Chinese village” was to be demolished and the stones used to build the aforementioned castles. For some reason the ukase was not carried out, but all facade decorations were removed. Several other small pavilions and park structures were also destroyed. The collection of ancient statues kept in the grotto has been scattered to the wind. The bronze vases that adorned the twin stairs of the Cameron Gallery were removed. Tsarskoye Selo was destroyed piece by piece.
Emperor Alexander I.
In the early years of Alexander I's reign , it seemed as if he had forgotten about Tsarskoye Selo. The court spent the summer on Yelagin Island in St. Petersburg or in Peterhof. In 1808 the emperor stayed briefly in Tsarskoye Selo. As a result, he had some bronze statues and bronze vases, which his father Paul I had removed, brought back here. At the same time, the granite terrace was being built on the spot where the rubble from the broken slide had been piled up.
The Alexanderpark was laid out on the site of the former animal enclosure from 1818 by the Scotsman Adam Menelaw , who had lived in Russia since 1779. A nature park was created with many quiet paths, some of which wind through dense bushes. Compared to the old Katharinenpark, there are only a few small buildings here. The stone walls around the zoo were torn down, the stones were used to build a farm, a Gothic chapel and the so-called llama house.
After a fire on May 12, 1820, some rooms in the Catherine Palace were redesigned by Stassov in the style of "Alexandrian Classicism" in the 1920s and 1930s . These included the personal rooms of Alexander and the rooms of his mother Maria Fjodorovna , who however never lived in Tsarskoye Selo, but preferred her palace in Pavlovsk.
Court life under Emperor Alexander I.
In the second half of his reign, Alexander I stayed regularly in Tsarskoye Selo. Here he was looking for rest and relaxation from his countless journeys and from courtly compulsion in St. Petersburg. In Tsarskoye Selo, Alexander I was able to concentrate fully on his government business. In the last years of his life, the Tsar withdrew more and more to Tsarskoye Selo over the winter in order to escape the obligations of receptions and balls in St. Petersburg, which had become a burden for him. He lived in three small rooms in the church wing. His wife, the weak and sickly Empress Elisabeth Alexejewna , spent the winters from 1822 to 1825 in Tsarskoye Selo with her husband. She had also only moved into three rooms in the church wing; the windows looked out onto the lyceum and the castle courtyard. Elisabeth Alexejewna loved to stay near her beloved husband, although she complained that the view was worse than in her summer apartments and that on one side the window curtains had to hang down from morning to evening to protect against the curious glances of the high school students . Already seriously ill at the time, Elisabeth Alexejewna was able to hear mass without leaving the room, simply by opening the door to the church choir. In 1825 Alexander I stopped for a night's rest in Tsarskoye Selo on the way to Taganrog , where he wanted to undergo a cure. It was his last stay in this residence.
Emperor Nicholas I.
When Nicholas I stayed in Tsarskoye Selo, he mainly lived in the Alexander Palace, which he had redesigned according to his wishes and ideas:
- 1826: Installation of tiled stoves in the previously unheatable palace.
- 1827: The private rooms in the west wing were redesigned by the architect Vasily Petrovich Stassow .
- 1837: Conversion of Alexander I's parade bedroom into the Red Salon. The architect is Konstantin Thon , whom Nicholas I overwhelmed with commissions, especially in the second half of his reign (mainly in Tsarskoye Selo and Moscow); Cladding of the tiled stoves with Delft tiles .
- 1838: Two groups of statues by Stephan Pimenow ("Playing Children") are erected in front of the palace facade.
- 1840: The apartments of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (wife of the future Tsar Alexander II ) were redesigned ; Installation of a kitchen in the palace basement (with refrigerators and running water); Installation of toilets.
- 1843: Comprehensive restoration of the parade halls by Nikolai Efimov ; Replacement of stucco chimneys with marble chimneys; Renewal of pillars and floors; Installation of a false ceiling in the large library; Installation of double window panes; The engineers Kroll and Jacoby installed the world's first electromagnetic telegraph apparatus in the cabinet of Nicholas I, which was connected to apparatus in the cabinet of the chief of traffic routes and public buildings in St. Petersburg .
- 1845: The apartments of Tsarina Alexandra Fjodorovna were redesigned by Andrej Stakenschneider; Conversion of Alexander I's blue study into a memorial chapel for Alexandra Nikolajewna, who died young (by Nikolaj Jefimow); Installation of the first showers.
- 1846: Alexander Brüllow and Hippolyth Monighetti add two iron balconies to the facade on the garden side.
- 1848: construction of a wrought iron fence around the palace.
- 1849: The palace receives running water.
The Nikolaus I apartments in the Alexander Palace no longer exist; they were completely redesigned by Robert Melzer for Nicholas II around 1900. The same applies to the rooms of the heir to the throne Nikolaj Alexandrovich, who died early, in the Catherine Palace, which were furnished around 1840–1860. In 1915 a military hospital was set up in its place. The rooms typical of their time are recorded on drawings by Eduard Hau . The era of Nicholas I is present in Tsarskoye Selo today mainly in the form of furniture: you can see a long series of sets made of redwood , walnut and the then emerging birch wood, which is characteristic of the Nordic countries. The furniture was initially made according to Stassow's designs: hundreds of different sofas, richer or simpler, with smooth or ornamented handle rests, with bronze inlays or gilded wood, filled the halls, guest rooms and official apartments. The possibilities for variation were endless. The following, bourgeois epoch after Stassov's death (1848) shone more for quantity than quality. The clumsy carvings on the back of the bed, sofas, tables, etc. seem rather unpleasant today.
In redesigning older parks and creating completely new complexes, Adam Menelaws still achieved excellent things in old age, and he also had the opportunity to prove himself as a master builder. Instead of Rastrelli's Monbijou Castle in Alexanderpark, he built the Gothic-style arsenal, and not far away he built the chapel, a Gothic church ruin and the White Tower in 1837. Outside the actual park area, Menelaws decorated the entrance to the city with the Egyptian Gate, the sculptural decoration of which was created by Wassilij Demuth-Maljanowskij. Nicholas I also commissioned the construction of several bridges in the palace gardens. But while he had the park of Peterhof enriched with countless new accents, he hardly changed anything in Tsarskoye Selo during the same period. In the late years of Nicholas I's reign, however, another building was built that attracts everyone's attention due to its picturesque location on the lake, the "Turkish Bath" (1852), the last pavilion to be built in the Katharinenpark. The architect of the bath was the hippolyth Monighetti, who grew up in Moscow and who had spent many years in Italy.
Emperor Alexander II
Between 1860 and 1861, Hippolyth Monighetti redesigned Cameron's parade staircase in the style of the second rococo (stuccoing of the walls and the ceiling in the style of the 18th century, Japanese and Chinese porcelain). In 1880, Alexander II's wife , Maria Alexandrowa, daughter of Ludwig II of Hesse, passed away in Tsarskoe Selo . Only one and a half months after the Empress's death, Alexander II secretly married his long-time partner, Princess Katharina Dolgorukowa (1847–1922), with whom he had three children, in the castle church of the Catherine Palace, in a morganatic (= improper) marriage.
Emperor Alexander III
Alexander III hardly stayed in Tsarskoye Selo, he preferred the Great Palace of Gatchina as his summer residence . When the Tsar stayed in Tsarskoye Selo, he lived in the left wing of the Alexander Palace. In 1887 Tsarskoye Selo was the first city in Europe to be fully supplied with electricity.
Buildings in the park
The Hermitage
All of the main paths in the “Old Garden” lead to the Hermitage. The first architect of the small castle was Michail Zemzow, who was able to complete the shell in autumn 1744, but died soon afterwards. Wind and weather penetrated the pavilion for two years before work on it was continued, this time under the direction of Rastrelli, who was able to complete the building in a completely modified form according to his plans in 1756.
The first floor of the Hermitage was intended for the servants. A narrow staircase led to the first floor, which was almost completely furnished by a large hall with an illusionistic ceiling painting by Valeriani, "Banquet in Olympus". The ceilings of the four laterally arranged cabinets painted father and son Valeriani, Gradizzi and Peresinotti with scenes from the Metamorphoses of Ovid from. The room was furnished with a hydraulic table that could be lifted into the hall from the kitchen on the ground floor with winches. Twelve workers were needed to operate the complicated lifting mechanism, which was hidden in the basement. After the meal, the table was sunk and a ballroom was created.
The pleasure garden
A "pleasure garden" was associated with Tsarskoye Selo from the start. Elisabeth had the garden, which was still of modest size under Catherine I, expanded considerably and redesigned it in the French style . In the 18th century, a princely palace garden was understood as a "continuation of the ballroom outdoors". The eastern part of the park was called the "Old Park" because it went back to Catherine I. Elisabeth had stepped terraces laid out and divided into regular areas by tree-shaded paths; she had fully grown trees with dense crowns imported from Holland, Germany or Italy. Thick hedge walls served as a background for statues.
If there were certain indications for the design of the “Old Garden” from the time of Catherine I, the “New Garden” between the Catherine Palace and the zoo had to be created “out of nothing”. Work began in 1745. After the work was stopped when Elisabeth died in 1761, the "New Garden" was later integrated into the landscaping of the Alexanderpark .
The grotto
Rastrelli built a grotto on the edge of the pond in 1753–1757 . An unspecified Councilor Rossi from Italy directed the work and the interior decoration of the pavilion. Back then it was modern to decorate some rooms in the castles and individual pavilions in the parks with shells and tuff. Such a sala terrena was also located in the Catherine Palace, but it was removed due to the ingress of moisture, and the mussels were installed in the new pavilion.
The lyceum
Web links
- Tsarskoye Selo
- www.tzar.ru - website of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum with detailed information about the Amber Room (English and Russian)
- Exhibition of Court Carriages (Pushkin (City))
- On the destruction in January 1944 - Excerpt from the Nuremberg Trial in English, 1946
- The Amber Room in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg Bibliographic database of international literature
Coordinates: 59 ° 42 ′ 57.4 ″ N , 30 ° 23 ′ 44.1 ″ E