The Great Palace of Tsarskoye Selo (the Catherine Palace)

The Great Palace of Tsarskoye Selo (the Catherine Palace)

The display of the Catherine Palace (known until 1910 as the Great Palace of Tsarskoye Selo) museum covers the almost 300-year history of this outstanding edifice and presents the work of architects involved in its construction and decoration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and also with the achievements of the restorers who returned the palace to life after the Second World War. Of the 58 halls destroyed during the war years, 32 have been recreated.

In 1717, while St Petersburg was being created on the banks of the Neva, the architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein started supervising the construction of the first masonry royal residence at Tsarskoye Selo that has gone down in history as “the stone chambers” of Catherine I. During the reign of Empress Elizabeth (the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I) in late 1742 or early 1743 it was decided to enlarge the building. From late 1748 until 1756 the construction of the Tsarskoye Selo residence was directed by Bartolomeo Francesco  Rastrelli (1700–1771), the chief architect of the imperial court. On 10 May 1752 Empress Elizabeth signed a decree on the complete reconstruction of the old building and on 30 July 1756 Rastrelli was already presenting his new creation to his crowned mistress and foreign ambassadors.

The next stage in the decoration of the state rooms and living quarters came in the 1770s. The new mistress of the residence, Empress Catherine II, was fascinated with the art of the Ancient World and wanted to have her apartments finished in keeping with current tastes. She entrusted the task to the Scottish architect Charles Cameron (1743–1812), an expert on ancient architecture. The interiors that he created in the Zubov Wing and the North Part of the Palace are marked by refined beauty, austere decoration and especially exquisite finishing. In 1817, on the orders of Emperor Alexander I, the architect Vasily Stasov (1769–1848) created the State Study and a few adjoining rooms that are finished in a commons style – all these rooms were devoted to extolling the brilliant victories that the Russian army won against Napoleon in 1812 and afterwards.

The last note in the symphony of palace state rooms was struck by the new Main Staircase created in 1860–63 by Ippolito Monighetti (1819–1878) in the “Second Rococo” style.

The Catherine Park

The Catherine Park is made up of two parts: the Regular Park – Old Garden – and the Landscape (English) Park. The Old or Dutch Garden is said to have been begun by Peter I himself.

Whatever the truth of that, it was the Dutch master gardeners Jan Roosen and Johann Vocht who laid out the Old Garden in the 1720s on three terraces in front of the imperial palace. At that same time the Mirror Ponds were created on the third terrace and on the stream called Vangaza that flowed down the hill two more ponds: the Upper (Great) Pond and the Mill Pond (later incorporated into the system of Cascade or Lower Ponds).

In the middle of the eighteenth century the garden was enlarged, remodelled and decorated with sculpture by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who designed the Hermitage and Grotto, and also a Coasting Hill. The great pond with a Lusthaus (amusement pavilion) on an island within it was given a hexagonal shape and surrounded by paths. Finally in the 1770s Vasily Neyelov and his son Ilya constructed in the garden the Admiralty complex, the Hermitage Kitchen, the Upper and Lower Bathhouses. The Longitudinal (Cascade) Canal extended along the boundary of the garden right to the Lower Ponds, incorporating twelve weirs.

At that same time an English landscape park was laid out in the area to the south of the palace around the Great Pond. The work begun unde r the supervision of Vasily Neyelov and was completed by the English master gardener John Bush. Now part of the new park, the Great Pond was reshaped and turned into a lake; the rectangular lines of the Lower Ponds were also softened. The Crescent Ponds appeared on the third terrace, where they remained right up to the reconstruction of that part of the park in the 1960s. It was at this time that the bodies of water, which occupy a fifth of the area of the Catherine Park became an important element in its appearance. The natural slope of the terrain towards the north-east made it possible to link all the bodies of water into a single gravity-driven system and include some small, but boisterous waterfalls.

Catherine II hastened to show enlightened Europe a garden that was not only laid out in the latest style, but also decorated with monuments that extolled the greatness of her reign. In honour of Russian victories against Turkey, for example, in the 1770s and 1780s she had erected the Tower Ruin, the Chesme, Morea and Crimean Columns, the Kagul Obelisk, the Turkish Kiosk and Turkish Cascade.

The fine taste of the Empress – enlightener and legislator – was demonstrated by the Cold Baths pavilion with the Agate Rooms, the Cameron Gallery, the Concert Hall and other Classical structures. The construction of the cast-iron Gothic Gate and a large number of metal bridges testified to the high level that Russian industry had attained. In turn the varied design and artistic treatment of the park pavilions and summer houses were a reminder that the garden was made for pleasure and relaxation.

In the early nineteenth century the number of monuments to martial glory increased with the “To My Dear Comrades” gate dedicated to the victory over Napoleon and in the middle of the century the Catherine Park ensemble was completed with the Turkish Bath pavilion. Finally, in 1865, on the lawn in front of the south façade of the Zubov Wing the Private Garden was laid out with a marble fountain and a pergola-veranda in the Italian style.

The Regular Park

The oldest, regular part of the Catherine Park was created in the first half of the eighteenth century in the Dutch style as a place for the crowned owners to relax and recuperate from the heavy burden of affairs of state. The small orchard that existed at Sarskaya Myza in the first years after it was given to Catherine I was replanned in the 1720s by the master gardeners Roosen and Vogt.

In the reign of Empress Elizabeth, during the reconstruction of the entire Tsarskoye Selo ensemble that began in 1743, the territory of the Old Garden was significantly enlarged. The work to create a new regular park involved the architects Kvasov, Chevakinsky and Rastrelli  to whose designs and under whose supervision the construction of the Great Palace was proceeding.

In the middle of the eighteenth Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli designed the Hermitage and Grotto pavilions, and also a Coasting Hill. In the 1770s Vasily Neyelov and his son Ilya constructed in the garden the Admiralty complex, the Hermitage Kitchen, the Upper and Lower Bathhouses.

The compositional arrangement of the regular park is based upon the symmetrical organization of the space around the palace, the strict, systematic placement of alleys, open areas, pavilions and park sculptures. Trees and shrubs were used in the regular park as a kind of building material; by giving them the shape of spheres, niches, arches and so on the gardeners skilfully turned the alleys into open-air green galleries and halls. The same sort of strict rules were followed in the selection and planting of trees, shrubs and flowers. Among the neatly trimmed foliage of the alleys rose amusement pavilions and sculpture that was placed in accordance with a graphic programme that sometimes conveyed an educational or moralistic “message”.

Some features of the Old Garden can sill be detected in the formal part of the Catherine Park that was recreated in the post-war years to a plan drawn up by the architect N.Ye. Tumanova on the basis of surviving drawings and documents left by Kvasov, Chevakinsky and Rastrelli.

At present the regular part of the Catherine Park occupies the area between the Catherine Palace, the Cascade Ponds and the Great Pond. The central alley of the Old Garden – the main compositional axis of the entire palace-and-park ensemble – connects the palace with the Hermitage pavilion. From in front of the palace you can clearly see the division of the area into two parts: the upper section (in front of the Catherine Palace) with descending terraces connected by flights of stone steps, and the lower section.

On the terrace that runs parallel to the façade of the Catherine Palace visitors’ attention is drawn to patterned parterre that resembles the parquet floors inside the palace. Such areas decorated with a sort of mosaic made up of crushed brick, coal, broken glass and sand of different shades were a typical feature of regular parks in the eighteenth century. The famous A. Akhmatova glorified the beauty of Tsarskoye Selo lime-trees in her poems.      
 

The Park Sculpture

For more than two centuries the regular part of the Catherine Park has been adorned by marble statues and busts created by Venetian sculptors of the early eighteenth century – Giovanni Bonazza, Pietro Baratta, Alvise Tagliapietra, Bartolomeo Modolo, Giuseppe Zeminiani, Giovanni Zorzoni and Antonio Tarsia.

The sculpture to beautify the reworked garden in front of the Catherine Palace – the Regular Park -- was brought to Tsarskoye Selo in the mid-1700s from St Petersburg, chiefly from the Summer Garden. It came from the collection that had been acquired in Peter the Great’s time.

The statues of mythological personages (Perseus and Andromeda, Hercules, Mars and others), allegories (Military Valour; Patriotism; Wisdom trampling on Vice; Magnificence; Peace; the months and seasons) were commissioned by Peter to glorify Russia’s victories and to instruct and educate his subjects, but acquired a purely decorative role in the garden of his daughter, Empress Elizabeth.

Nowadays works of Venetaian sculptors can be seen by the main and garden entrances to the Catherine Palace and also along the chief alley of the Old Garden.

Under Catherine II bronze busts and statues were placed on the Cameron Gallery, the portico of the Agate Rooms, the Ramp and in the Hanging Garden. These were copies of the most outstanding (by the standards of the time) works of ancient sculpture produced in the 1780s and 1790s mainly from models and casts brought from Italy by Ivan Shuvalov and Nikolai Yusupov. The casting was done in the Imperial Academy of Arts by the master-founders Gastecloux and Mozhalov under the supervision of the sculpture professor Fiodor Gordeyev. Besides that bronze copies were made of four allegorical busts by Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and of Canova’s Genius of Death and casts made of portraits of the Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov (by Fedot Shubin) and the British statesman Charles James Fox (by Nollekens). Among the mythological personages, ancient generals, poets, philosophers and Roman emperors Catherine placed two likenesses of her own contemporaries, thus granting them a special honour. On the Cameron Gallery there are also busts cast by V. Yekimov in the 1790s from models by Concesio Albani.

In the 1930s works by the mid-nineteenth-century Russian sculptors Brodzsky and Zabello were set up in the Private Garden of the Catherine Park along with a copy of Canova’s Dancers.

Mention should be made of the losses of the Second World War: at that time Tsarskoye Selo was deprived of colossal bronze statues of Niobe and her daughter and a sleeping Ariadne from the Flower Garden by the Cameron Gallery and also of a bust of Emperor Titus and a statue of Catherine II in the guise of Ceres.

The Hermitage

Pavilions like this with a name taken from the French language were a common feature of regular gardens in the eighteenth century. They were intended to enable the owner of the estate to rest and dine in the company of a select few and were located in the “wild” area of the park. In order to avoid the inhibiting presence of servants, such pavilions were usually fitted with mechanisms that enabled the tables to be raised and lowered.

The Hermitage pavilion in the Regular Park (the Catherine Park) at Tsarskoye Selo was originally designed by Mikhail Zemtsov. The laying of the foundations began in the spring of 1744 and was completed by autumn that same year. In 1749, however, the facades of the pavilion that was by that time built were reconstructed in accordance with a new project devised by Rastrelli. The unique signature of Empress Elizabeth’s chief architect is present in the exceptionally complex aspects that the building presents to the viewer when seen from close by.

Two years later, in keeping with Rastrelli’s concept, the master stucco-workers Giovanni Battista Giani and G.-F. Partier installed 68 large and small capitals on the columns of the Hermitage and 28 more on the pilasters. The architect also included sculpture in the external decoration of the pavilion: eight statues stood on the pedestals of the balustrade at the base of the octagonal dome, while four others crowned the roofs of the cabinets. The central dome was topped by a sculptural group depicting The Rape of Proserpine. The building was further adorned by sixteen statues placed between the groups of columns on the facades of the cabinets. These stood on pedestals embellished with rocailles and, judging by what can be seen on drawings and engravings, they were all different. Statues of Glory on large pediments supported a magnificent cartouche containing the Empress’s monogram.

In 1753 the stuccowork was covered in gilding and the facades were painted: the white columns and architraves, the golden mouldings and sculpture were strikingly set off by the blue-green “salady” colour of the walls. The roof, originally green, was painted white in 1755 and the statues and garlands adorning it glistened with gold. The decoration of the facades of the Hermitage was completed at the same time as its interior decoration, which was begun in 1748.

Placed on a terrace paved with black and white marble slabs, the pavilion was encircled by an elaborately shaped moat with two small bridges. The moat was bordered by a balustrade that was also decorated with statues and vases. The moat and the wild grove were intended to inspire a mood of melancholy solitude, put people in a contemplative frame of mind and inspire recollections. In the words of Christian Hirschfeld, an expert on the theory of park design, “the mysterious gloom and darkness of a spot, deep solitude and solemn silence, the magnificent features of nature will not fail to invest the mind with a certain feeling and oblige it to serious refelction.” The moat, however, was never filled with water, of which there was a constant shortage in Tsarskoye Selo (this fact is borne out by archive documents and archaeological research carried out in 2006) and in 1777 it was filled in on the orders of Catherine II, the new mistress of the residence.

The Hermitage pavilion was never reconstructed after the mid-eighteenth century and so its interior decoration has come down to us practically unaltered. The rectangular central hall is connected by four galleries leading diagonally from it to four “cabinets” with square floor-plans. The décor of the Hermitage’s main hall, created by Rastrelli, is particularly interesting. Thanks to the wide windows that also served as doors to the balconies, the hall is transfused with light. Between the windows Rastrelli placed mirrors in carved and gilded frames that merge with the surrounds of the painted dessus-de-portes. Originally the hall contained dining-tables with hoists. The purpose of the hall was indicated by the subject of Giuseppe Valeriani’s ceiling painting – Jupiter and Juno invite the celestials to a table laid and set with luxurious tableware. Valeriani took the subjects for the painted panels above the mirrors in the central hall from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Bacchus and Ariadne, Apollo Pursuing Daphne, Bacchus Crowning Daphne with a Crown of Stars and The Rape of Europa.

The Grotto

A grotto pavilion decorated inside with seashells and tufa (porous limestone) was an invariably feature in Western European regular parks of the eighteenth century.

The project for the construction of the Grotto on the bank of the Great Pond in the Catherine Park was drawn up by the architect Rastrelli. Most of the work to construct it was carried out in 1755–56 under Empress Elizabeth, but it was completed in the 1760s under Catherine II. 
Both the ground plan and the treatment of volumes – with rounded corners, niches for statues and large semicircular exedrae forming projections on the end walls – are typical of Baroque architecture. The rich opulence of the Baroque also characterizes the facades that are decorated with elaborately grouped columns supporting broken pediments. Rising above the central part of the pavilion is a dome with four lucarne windows that used to be topped by pyramidical figured pediments made of wood (the carving, produced by Okhta craftsmen, has survived and is in the stores of the museum-preserve). Masks of Neptune on the keystones of the windows, capitals with dolphins instead of volutes and figures of tritons underline the pavilion’s link to the watery element. But Rastrelli’s plan to decorate the interior of the Grotto with seashells and tufa was not implemented.

In 1771 a new project for the interior decoration of the pavilion was drawn up by the architect Antonio Rinaldi (1709–1794). The lightweight exquisitely drawn décor of the walls that was done to his designs has survived down to the present. In 1792 wrought-iron grilles embellished with ornament made of gilded sheet copper were installed on the windows and doors of the Grotto.

After it was decorated, in the 1780s, the pavilion became known as the Morning Hall. At that time, in accordance with Catherine II’s wishes, ancient sculptures and vases made of coloured stone were installed here, as well as Houdon’s statue of Voltaire that is now on display in the Hermitage. 

This pavilion was glorified by the Russian poet G. Derjavin in the 18th century.

The landing-stage in front of the Grotto was reconstructed in 1830 and 1872. During the Second World War it was almost completely destroyed and it was rebuilt in granite in 1971–72 to a new design.

The Morea Column

The Morea (or Small Rostral) Column was set up at the junction of three alleys in the regular part of the Catherine Park, by the cascade between the first and second Lower Ponds as a monument to successes in the Russo-Turkish Wars. The column was erected in 1771, on the orders of Empress Catherine II, to mark in particular the Russian victory won under the command of Count Fiodor Orlov at the Morea peninsula in the Mediterranean.

The relatively short (7-metre) column is impressive from a distance. Its pedestal stands on a square plinth raised slightly above the ground. The material for the pedestal and the shaft of the column is grey Siberian marble with white veins, while white Carrara marble was used for the capital and base. The column is topped with a small cone-shaped obelisk of pink Tivdiya marble embellished with the stylized prows of ships (rostra in Latin) as a reminder that the victory involved the navy.

A bronze plaque attached to the pedestal bears an inscription telling of the heroic battle: “On 17 February 1771, Count Fiodor Orlov approached the Morea peninsula in the Mediterranean by the port of Vitulo with two Russian ships, discharged land troops and himself proceeded to Modon to link up with Christians of that country. Captain Barkov with the Spartan Eastern Legion took Passava, Berdoni and Sparta. Captain Prince Dolgoruky and the Spartan Western Legion conquered Kalamata, Leoktari and Arcadia. The fortress of Navarino surrendered to Brigadier Hannibal. The Russian forces numbered six hundred men. They did not ask if the enemy were many, but where they were. Six thousand Turks were taken prisoner.” Ivan Abramovich Hannibal mentioned in the inscription was the grandfather of the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

The name of the person who designed the Morea Column has not been established for certain. It is likely to have been Rinaldi as is suggested by the parallels between the column and the Kagul Obelisk: the elegant shape of both monuments, the similarity of the stylistic devices and materials used. 
 

The Landscape Park

The landscape part of the Catherine Park begins immediately behind Cameron’s ensemble and extends between the Ramp Alley and the road that runs beneath the Caprice to the Vittolovo Pond, along the south side of the Great Pond and across the land to the west of it. The park has an area of 70 hectares.

The creation of the landscape park began in the 1760s, but the bulk of the work on it was carried out in the 1770s and 1780s during the reign of Catherine II. The original plan was implemented by the architect Vasily Neyelov, assisted by his two sons Ilya and Piotr and also by the master gardener Trifon Ilyin.

To enable him to create the landscape area of the Catherine Park Neyelov senior was sent to England where he studied the latest examples of the art of parks, the chief characteristic of which was the imitation of natural landscapes. An analysis of engraved depictions of English country estates shows that the creators of the landscape park at the Tsarskoye Selo residence were inspired by many of them.