Maltese Chapel of the Vorontsov Palace. The Vorontsov Palace in Alupka is a luxurious creation of 19th-century architecture that has survived to this day. Description of the park surrounding the Vorontsov Palace


The wonderful Maltese Chapel of the Vorontsov Palace. It has been closed to the public for the second year.

Under Paul I, the Order of Malta was granted a palace, after which the Russian emperor naturally became the Grand Master of the Order of Malta. The Maltese Chapel is a Catholic church of the Order of the Knights of Malta, built by order of Emperor Paul I in 1800 by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. The chapel is part of the Vorontsov Palace. The extension on the eastern side of the building of the palace of the Catholic chapel for the chapter of the Order of Malta dates back to 1798-1800.
The chapel was built by his worthy brother and involuntary rival Francesco Rastrelli, one of the exponents of new architectural ideas - Giacomo Quarenghi.
The interior decoration of the chapel is a Corinthian order colonnade, the walls are lined with artificial marble.
The interior of the Maltese Chapel was restored for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

By creating this small building next to Rastrelli's palace, Quarenghi slightly violated his usual classical rigor. He attempted to soften the line of the facade by introducing rounded profiles at the junction of the new building with the old structure. Without deliberate emphasis, only with these seemingly insignificant details, he sought to connect the artistic appearance of the chapel with the architecture of Rastrelli’s building.
The interior decoration of the chapel is still well preserved - a colonnade of the Corinthian order, paintings, stucco decoration of the walls, lined with artificial marble. A thorough restoration of the chapel was carried out in 1927 by the architect N.P. Nikitin.

The hall of the Maltese Chapel, as well as the church hall in the palace, acquired special value as Quarenghi’s interiors, since almost all the others of this palace complex on Sadovaya subsequently underwent significant alterations or were completely destroyed.
In the Chapel, the “Walker” organ was restored for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, there was no way to get to it - the organist had the key to the door, which naturally was missing, since the chapel no longer accepts people since 2012 - that is, it is completely closed.

Vorontsov Palace.

Vorontsov Palace is a palace in the central part of St. Petersburg, located on Sadovaya Street opposite Gostiny Dvor. Built by the architect Count Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli in 1749-1757 for Chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov. The palace is distinguished by the rich, elegant decoration of its facades and luxurious interior decoration. The palace has more than 50 state halls and rooms. The palace is decorated with stucco, gilded carvings and other elements characteristic of the Baroque style.

Vorontsov Palace is the main building on the territory of the estate of Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, a noble nobleman, state chancellor, participant in the palace coup of 1741, which brought Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to power.

The construction of the palace was carried out according to the design of the court architect of Elizabeth Petrovna - Federico Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the period from 1749 to 1757.

The estate occupied a vast area between Sadovaya Street and the Fontanka River. Breaking the traditions of urban estate construction, Rastrelli placed the palace not near the river, but closer to Sadovaya, separating the building from it with an artistic fence.

The border of the extensive courtyard-garden, located behind the fence, is formed by the main building of the palace and its side wings. A similar layout with the letter “P” has long been called “peace” in Russia.

The main three-story building with a quadrangular courtyard is located in the depths of the estate. Two symmetrical two-story wings are brought forward and placed along the red line of the street. The central part of the main facade is decorated with double columns and pilasters, the windows are decorated with decorative frames.

The palace was built in the style of a magnificent and elegant Baroque. As you know, Rastrelli was a master of this style, which reached its peak in Russian architecture during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. This is evidenced by such names of this style of the mid-18th century as “Rastrelli Baroque” and “Elizabethan Baroque”.

Behind the main building there was a regular garden, stretching to the Fontanka, with numerous pools, fountains, alleys of trimmed trees, and other “ventures”.

Above the one-story building facing the park, there was an open terrace overlooking the river. From here it opened beautiful view to the fireworks displays held in the Anichkov Garden. The interiors, also decorated in Baroque traditions, were also luxurious. Fifty ceremonial halls were located in an enfilade pattern along the main facade and in the side buildings. In the central part of the Vorontsov Palace there was a large double-height hall; another spacious hall housed the Vorontsov Library, then one of the best in St. Petersburg.

In 1763, M.I. Vorontsov was forced to cede the palace to the treasury to pay off debts for 217,600 rubles, since construction required huge investments.

After the accession of Emperor Paul I to the throne in the late 1790s, the palace was transferred to the Order of Malta, and the chapter of Russian orders was also located here. The former Vorontsov Palace was ordered to be called the “Castle of the Knights of Malta.” The order's coat of arms was strengthened above the lattice gates of the palace: a white Maltese cross with four bifurcating rays on a red background.


Two churches were built on the territory of the estate - an Orthodox church and a Catholic chapel of the Order of the Knights of Malta (architect Giacomo Quarenghi).


Later, the Corps of Pages was located in the palace. For the needs of this educational institution, which was located in the palace from 1810 to 1918, the premises were rebuilt in 1827 according to the design of the architect Alexander Egorovich Staubert; At the same time, the previous baroque decoration of the interiors was lost.

Today at Maltese Chapel organ music concerts are held. The decoration of the interior of the chapel is well preserved - a colonnade of the Corinthian order, paintings, stucco decoration of the walls, lined with artificial marble. The restoration of the chapel was carried out in 1927 by the architect N.P. Nikitin.

After the revolution, the First Petrograd Infantry School for the command staff of the Red Army was located here, on the basis of which the Leningrad Infantry School named after. S. M. Kirov. In 1958, the building was completely given over to the Suvorov Military School.


Address: Russia, Republic of Crimea, Alupka, sh. Dvortsovoye, 18
Date of construction: 1840
Architect: Furasov P.I.
Coordinates: 57°19"07.5"N 43°06"40.4"E

Content:

Short story

The luxurious palace, named Vorontsovsky in honor of Count Vorontsov M.S., is a unique building that became the embodiment of the Romanticism era. It is located on the Crimean peninsula in the city of Alupka.

The beginning of its construction dates back to 1828, when Governor-General Vorontsov, responsible for the Novorossiysk region, chose the site for the construction of the future main building and drove pegs into it. However, the palace did not appear quickly - its construction took 20 years.

Initially, the project of the future Vorontsov Palace was developed in the style of strict classics, and the famous Italian architect named Francesco Boffo and his colleague from England Thomas Harrison worked on it.

The year 1829 was the beginning of the implementation of their joint project, and as all the preparatory work was completed, the foundation was immediately laid and the first masonry was made. However, an unpleasant surprise soon occurred - in the midst of preparing working drawings, architect Harrison died.

To keep the construction going, Boffo needed a new partner. It was Edward Blore, a young architect working in the romantic direction of English architecture.

Stone staircase with white marble lion sculptures

Why did Count Vorontsov choose him and decide to make changes to the project of the future palace in the Crimean Alupka? The fact is that in those years he was in England, and he was impressed by the local architecture and new fashion trends in the construction of buildings. Therefore, the count revised the already developed project and entrusted the new architect with adjusting it so that the result of the work would be a real castle, combining the rigor of English architecture and the luxury inherent in Indian palaces.

And since 1832, construction work on the construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea has already been carried out according to an updated project, but without distorting the previously completed stages. The execution of all work was entrusted to the best craftsmen - stonemasons, modelers, stone and wood carvers, artists, furniture makers and other workers, who approached the orders entrusted to them with all responsibility. As a result, the construction of the palace cost Vorontsov 9 million rubles.

From left to right: formal dining room, winter garden

Layout of the Vorontsov Palace

The entire palace complex, erected by order of Vorontsov, is represented by several solid buildings, designated as:

  • central;
  • dining room;
  • guest;
  • library;
  • economic.

The building intended for receiving guests was later called Shuvalovsky, since on the right side there was the room of Vorontsov’s daughter, who became Countess Shuvalova after her marriage.

Northern façade of the main building

Oddly enough, the construction of the palace began with the construction of the dining building, and this work took 4 years (from 1830 to 1834). The construction of the central building took 6 years - 1831 - 1837. From 1841 to 1842, work was carried out on the construction of a billiard room, which complemented the building with a dining room. The construction of the guest building, all the towers, outbuildings, outbuildings and the design of the Main Courtyard also took a lot of time (these were 1838 - 1844). And finally, the library building, built from 1842 to 1846, joined the palace complex.

The decoration of the central staircase were sculptures of lions, the production of which was entrusted to the Italian master Giovanni Bonnani. And the entire luxurious palace ensemble ended with a lion terrace, that is, many figures of lions.

Right - Clock Tower

Features of the architecture of the Vorontsov Palace

The Vorontsov Palace, which became the decoration of Alupka in Crimea in the mid-19th century, was a kind of innovation that violated some architectural and construction principles. In those days, it was customary to place the buildings of palace ensembles in a strict geometric grouping, but the architect Blore deviated from this rule and distributed all the buildings that were part of the Vorontsov Palace on the ground so that they stood in the direction from west to east, as if in accordance with the movement of the mountains. This approach allowed all the buildings to fit harmoniously into the local landscape - the Vorontsov palace complex found its place in the Crimean expanses.

Moving from building to building, you can clearly trace the stages of development of medieval architecture, starting from its earliest forms and ending with the traditions of the 16th century.

Shuvalovsky building

However, when developing projects for all buildings, the emphasis was still placed on the English style. Why is Vorontsov Castle in Crimea so attractive? Its peculiarity is its appearance, reminiscent of a castle-fortress from the ancient 8th - 11th centuries. When you find yourself in the courtyard of the utility buildings, you involuntarily come across blank walls and find yourself in confined spaces, and when you try to get to the central building you find yourself surrounded watchtowers round shape. Further general impression The inaccessibility is complemented by narrow loophole windows and high walls of rough masonry. But suddenly an openwork suspension bridge made of cast iron appears and adds a festive touch to this harsh composition. And so, as you move away from the arch of the western entrance, signs of the architecture of the following eras become more and more apparent.

West Entrance Towers

Having crossed the openwork bridge and getting rid of the feeling of enclosure, you can find yourself in the Front Courtyard, which offers a view of Mount Ai-Petri. But this is not just a view - it is a unique picture, because the landscape is, as it were, limited by an architectural frame represented by a clock tower, an eastern wing and a retaining wall with a fountain.

The architecture of the main building of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea is also interesting. Its walls are extended out of the plane at different levels, as required by the English Tudor style. The central part is decorated with a main entrance and decorated with bay window projections and side projections. The roofs of the towers are onion domes. The northern facade of the building is decorated with narrow polyhedral semi-columns, the crowns of which are pinnacles (decorative tops).

Chapel

Graceful pinnacles and battlements, domes and chimneys, decorated with flower-shaped finials, smooth out the roughness of the stone texture of the walls and their massive luggage.

Considering the carved stone decorations that decorate the Vorontsov Palace, it is worth noting their pronounced similarity with some elements of Western and Eastern architecture. Thus, true architecture connoisseurs immediately notice the Gothic chimneys and minarets of the mosque, and it is precisely this compatible incompatibility that makes the palace complex special. This similarity is especially acute as you move to the southern facade of the building, called the main one. In the rays of the sun, its outlines seem unusual and bizarre.

From left to right: formal dining room, winter garden, main building

But the main motive for the design of the palace is the arches of the various shapes- they are flat, and keel-shaped, and horseshoe-shaped, and lancet. And you can see them everywhere, from the balustrade of the balconies to the decoration of the portal of the southern entrance to the Vorontsov Palace. Besides, architectural ensemble, erected by order of the Governor-General, also has its own “zest” - these are 6 identical lines in Arabic, indicating that the winner is only Allah. You can see the inscription in a niche decorated with a Tudor flower and an Indian lotus.

Description of the park surrounding the Vorontsov Palace

During the construction of the palace, work was also carried out to lay out the adjacent park. But if the construction of the Vorontsov Palace took two decades, work on creating the park does not stop to this day. On an area of ​​40 hectares, a wide variety of plants brought from all over the world coexist harmoniously.

Shuvalovsky passage with a view of the openwork bridge

In general, the palace park is divided into Upper and Lower. Upper Park decorated with several glades – Kashtanovaya, Contrastnaya, Solnechnaya. And each of them is notable for its trees (Italian pine, oriental plane tree, yew berry, Himalayan cedar, Chilean araucaria, or monkey tree, etc.). In addition, on the territory of the Upper Park there is Swan Lake, where these beautiful birds actually live, the Upper and Mirror lakes and a waterfall.

In the Lower Park, surrounded by the most beautiful and rare representatives of the flora, there is a small tea house, which at one time was used by the Vorontsov family to spend holidays on the seashore. Then this place was often illuminated with fireworks and fireworks.

Shuvalovsky passage with a view of the western gate

Being here, you can really feel the holiday atmosphere, because it was not without reason that the architect chose the place to build the house here. Surrounded by many unique plants, it creates the feeling of being in a fairy tale, since the entire territory of the Lower Park is conducive to creating an enchanting mood. And the lower part of Vorontsovsky Park in Crimea is designed in the Italian style of a regular park.

Use of the Vorontsov Palace complex in different years

Since 1990, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka has become a palace and park museum-reserve. Several interesting exhibitions are located in nine state rooms. Thanks to their content, everyone can get acquainted with the way of life of the count’s family, who lived in the palace before the October Revolution, and the character of the palace’s interiors.

Exit from the yard

But in 1990, the opening of the Vorontsov Palace as a museum was secondary - its building was first used as a museum in 1921.

But with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War of 1941, valuable museum exhibits could not be saved, and the building itself was repeatedly threatened with destruction. However, thanks to the efforts of one of the museum employees S.G. Shchekoldin. The Vorontsov Palace Museum still survived. Of course, many artistic treasures were lost during the war, but after it ended, some paintings were still found and returned to the museum.

And our Golden Fleece 2017 quiz continues, and now we have a question - The architectural complex of this palace includes a Catholic chapel.

Answer options:

A) Stroganovsky
B) Tauride
C) Vorontsovsky
D) Anichkov

The correct answer to the question is C) Vorontsovsky

The Catholic chapel is part of the Vorontsov Palace complex in St. Petersburg. Built according to the design of the famous Rastrelli, it is distinguished by its exquisite architecture.

The Vorontsov Palace went to the treasury for debts in the second half of the 18th century. Paul, having accepted patronage of the Order of Malta, handed it over to the knights. The Order included both Catholics and Orthodox Christians. A separate Catholic Chapel was built for Catholics. For Orthodox knights, the house church served as a temple. And the Maltese Cross as a symbol of the Order.
Although in essence, types of the cross are already human fantasy. Orthodox, Catholic, Maltese - that's not the point. Christians worship not the form of the Cross, or even the Cross itself, but the power of Christ crucified on the cross.

The Alupka Palace, a masterpiece of Romanticism architecture, was built over almost 20 years, from 1828 to 1848, by order of the powerful Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, aristocrat and Anglomaniac Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. The Count personally chose the place for his Crimean residence on the picturesque stone cape at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri in the little-known Tatar village of Alupka. The Englishman Edward Blore, the author of Walter Scott's castle in Scotland and the court architect, managed to organically fit the palace building into the surrounding landscape british crown. In the architecture of the Vorontsov Palace, Blore combined different styles - English, neo-Moorish and Gothic, paying tribute to the secular fashion of that time for the novels of Walter Scott and oriental fairy tales.

History of creation

Initially, the famous Italian architect Francesco Boffo, who had already built a palace for the count in Odessa, was appointed to build the residence. The Englishman Thomas Harrison, an engineer and adherent of neoclassicism, was supposed to help him. Work began, and by 1828 the foundation, which was filled with lead for earthquake resistance, as well as the first masonry of the portal niche of the central building were ready. But Harrison died in 1829, and two years later the count decided to suspend construction of the palace, apparently abandoning the idea of ​​​​building a residence in the neoclassical style.

Vorontsov turns to the Englishman Edward Blore, a brilliant architectural historian, graphic artist and fashionable architect in his homeland. Most likely, Count Pembroke recommended him to Vorontsov. We had to wait almost a year for new drawings. But Mikhail Semenovich liked the result, and in December 1832 the construction of the buildings began. Blore brilliantly solved the problem from a historical perspective: the architecture of the palace demonstrates the development of medieval European and Moorish architecture, ranging from the forms of the early Middle Ages to the 16th century. The palace building is deployed in such a way that it repeats the outlines of the visible mountains. It is surprising that the architect himself, who so accurately integrated the building into the surrounding nature, never visited Crimea, but used only numerous landscape sketches and relief drawings that were sent to him in England.

The resulting castle could well serve as an illustration for historical novels: five buildings, fortified with defensive towers, different in shape and height, interconnected by many open and closed passages, stairs and courtyards.

The construction was carried out from local greenish-gray stone - diabase, which is not inferior in strength to basalt, which was taken from natural placers in Alupka. Processing it required considerable effort, since complex designs on the exterior of the house could be ruined by one wrong blow with a chisel. Therefore, Russian stone cutters who built white stone churches in Central Russia were invited to carry out the most complex stone cutting work.

The main decorative decoration of the Vorontsov Palace - the motif of a gently sloping pointed keeled arch - is repeated several times in the cast-iron balustrade of the balconies, and in the carved stone lattice enclosing the roof, and in the decorative decoration of the portal of the southern entrance, made in the Moorish style of the Alhambra Palace.

In the design of the seaward southern entrance, a Tudor flower design and a lotus motif are intertwined, which ends with the Arabic inscription repeated six times across the frieze: “And there is no winner but Allah,” just as it is written in the Alhambra of Granada.

In front of the façade is the Lion's Terrace and a monumental staircase in white Carrara marble by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Bonanni. On both sides of the steps there are three pairs of lions: the bottom left is sleeping, the bottom right is awakening, above is a pair of awake ones, and the third pair is roaring.

The rear façade of the palace and its western part, a variation on the theme of Tudor England of the 16th - early 17th centuries, are reminiscent of the harsh castles of English aristocrats.

By the way, this palace was one of the first in Russia to be equipped with hot water and sewerage.

The cost of building the palace complex amounted to about 9 million silver rubles - an astronomical amount for those times. But Count Vorontsov could afford it, since after his marriage in 1819 to Elizaveta Ksaverevna Branitskaya, he doubled his fortune and became the richest landowner in the Russian Empire. Elizaveta Ksaverevna, the same one with whom, according to one version, Alexander Pushkin fell in love in exile in Odessa, personally supervised the creation of the building’s interiors, took care of the artistic design of the park and often paid for the work.

Inhabitants of the palace

Mikhail Semenovich did not manage to live in the Alupka Palace for a long time. Another assignment followed - this time to the Caucasus. But in Alupka at the end of the 1840s, his daughter, Countess Sofya Mikhailovna, settled with her children. Then, after the death of Prince Vorontsov (he received the princely title in 1845), the palace, by right of primacy, passed to his only son, Semyon Mikhailovich. In 1882, his widow, Maria Vasilievna Vorontsova, went abroad and took many valuables from the palace. She had no children, the palace was abandoned, and to end of the 19th century centuries, the building, park and farm fell into complete disrepair.

In 1904, the castle received new owners - relatives along the Vorontsov-Dashkov line. The wife of the Tsar's deputy in the Caucasus, Countess Elizaveta Andreevna Vorontsova-Dashkova, née Countess Shuvalova, energetically got down to business. She rented out land for sanatoriums and boarding houses and built more than 120 dachas on the estate.

After the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Crimea, the lands of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs were nationalized. And on February 22, 1921, Lenin’s telegram arrived in Crimea: “Take decisive measures to truly protect artistic values, paintings, porcelain, bronze, marble, etc., located in Yalta palaces and private buildings, now allocated for sanatoriums of the People's Commissariat of Health...”

At the beginning of the 20s South Coast Crimea, museums were created in a number of the largest noble estates, among them the Alupka Museum. The museum's collection was seriously damaged during the Great Patriotic War: much was taken away by the occupiers, including 537 works of painting and graphics. Only a small part of the paintings were found after the war and returned to the palace.

In February 1945, during the Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the Alupka Palace became the residence of the British delegation. Meetings of the heads of the Allied powers - Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt - took place in the State Dining Room of the palace.

Later the palace became the state dacha of the NKVD. In 1952, a sanatorium was located there, and only in 1956, by decision of the Soviet government, the Crimean State Museum opened here visual arts. Since 1990, the palace has been part of the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve. Its collection today includes works of painting, sculpture and applied art, as well as documents, ancient drawings and lithographs that introduce the history of the construction of the palace.

English park

The English park of the palace is the work of the German gardener-botanist Karl Kebach, whom Vorontsov invited to Crimea in 1824, when there was no design for the palace itself. He eagerly set about creating a park, taking into account the relief, climate and local flora, combining, however, everything with the latest achievements of gardening art. About 200 species of trees and bushes were brought here from all over the world. Parcels with seeds and seedlings came from America, Italy, the Caucasus, Karelia, China and Japan. They said that more than two thousand varieties of roses bloomed here at the same time. The German gardener became so famous in Crimea that landowners began to invite him to create or improve their parks and gardens along the entire coast.

Karl Kebach clearly planned the park on the principle of an amphitheater, maintaining connections in its structure with the main palace and other architectural objects. The coastal highway (Yalta - Simeiz) divides the park into Upper and Lower.

The lower park is designed in the style of Italian Renaissance gardens with fountains, marble sculptures, Byzantine columns, vases and stone benches. The upper one was created according to the principle of English landscape parks of the Romanticism era - more natural and natural: in it, rocky debris, shady ponds and preserved areas of the Crimean forest alternate with picturesque meadows, a unique system of lakes, waterfalls, cascades and grottoes. Kebakh created the Upper Park as a place of contemplation of the sea and Mount Ai-Petri, towering above the park and palace, like the ruins of a giants’ castle.

A carefully thought-out drainage system and individual plant care did their job - many, even very rare and whimsical plants, took root well. In total, 250 species of trees and shrubs grew in the park by the end of the 19th century. The plants of Vorontsovsky Park were so popular that seedlings were even sold externally to other gardens and estates.

The glory of Vorontsov Park as a masterpiece of landscape architecture was strengthened by the artists who worked here on sketches: Isaac Levitan, Vasily Surikov, Aristarkh Lentulov... And the parks, gardens and vineyards that belonged to Count Mikhail Vorontsov and his relatives - the Naryshkins and Pototskys, completely changed the appearance of the coast from Alushta to Foros.

 

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