Tour of the Summer Palace. History of Dutch gardens in Russia

Which was founded in the first years of the city's founding large group architects and gardeners. Peter I dreamed of creating a garden in the Versailles style. At first, he rested in his house and monitored the progress of work, and then lived here with his family in the summer.

Opening hours of the Summer Palace of Peter I in 2019

The museum is only open during summer period. Estimated start date: May 2019.
Visiting is possible only as part of a group, sessions at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 for 15 people. Check the exact schedule and availability on the official website.

Cost of tickets to the Summer Palace of Peter I in 2019

Full ticket – 400 rubles
For students and pensioners – 200 rubles
For children (under 16 years old) - free

How to get there

On the second floor of the building, in addition to the kitchen, dressing room and room for ladies-in-waiting, there is a throne room, bedroom and children's room, as well as a dance room. Particularly attractive is the Green Cabinet, decorated with picturesque inserts, modeling and gilding.

Current page: 1 (book has 37 pages total) [available reading passage: 25 pages]

Victor Abramovich Korentsvit
Summer Garden of Peter the Great. A story about the past and present

Design by artist Ya.A. Galeeva

The series “All about St. Petersburg” has been published since 2003

Project manager Eduard Sirotkin

Introduction

In memory of architects A.E. Gessen and N.E. Tumanova, the authors of the project for the restoration of the Summer Garden of the 1970s.

Somehow I came across a fantastic story. The author (unfortunately, I didn’t remember his last name) looked into a bright future in which there were more writers in his native country than readers. The writers knew their reader by sight, loved him already for the fact that he himself does not write books, but only reads, they asked and demanded his attention. Libraries organized meetings with the wonderful reader, and writers with their books lined up to get his autograph. This funny scene came to my mind more than once when I was thinking of starting a book about the Summer Garden, about which, by my count, 12 books and an uncountable number of articles have already been written. This, of course, is a record for our city, and, perhaps, for the whole country. And there is a wave of new publications related to restoration ahead historical ensemble. How to avoid endless retellings of a long time ago without the risk of boring the reader known facts? But what if it’s the other way around: not to avoid, but to focus on the errors that migrate from one publication to another? Some of the oddities: you can only smile when you read that the Summer Palace was erected where the Fontanka flows into the Neva, and in the garden there was a birdcage measuring 20 x 20 fathoms, despite the fact that the entire width of the garden is a little more than 110 fathoms! Others are not so harmless. Consider the assertion that the restorers committed a crime by turning the Summer Garden, which had long since become landscape, into a semblance of a regular garden.

When was the royal residence founded? What is known about the wooden royal mansions that preceded Summer Palace? Who is the author of the Summer Palace project, and what did the building originally look like? Who owns the garden layout? What kind of fountains were there in the garden, who made them? What was the cause of the death of Peter's water cannons? What was the imperial residence like during the time of Peter I and his immediate successors? Who is the author of the Neva fence? What are they, imaginary and real, problems of restoration? We hope to clarify these and other questions on the basis of archival documents and archaeological excavation data.

October 1974. “Sad time” - no best time for excavations, especially in open to visitors Summer Garden, but the architect Alexander Ernestovich Gessen was unable to obtain permission for excavations before the fall. A.E. Gessen brought with him a group of volunteers who worked with him in the palace of A.D. Menshikova on Vasilyevsky Island. In those years there were enthusiasts who were ready to participate in the restoration of monuments through free personal labor. Their numbers have decreased, but they have not disappeared, and now they more often call themselves volunteers. In those conditions, it was simply impossible to do without their help. Around the restorers, circles of volunteer assistants formed, people of different ages and specialties: schoolchildren and pensioners, workers and scientists.

Once we laughingly discovered that a small fountain in Oak Grove was being dug with me in the evening after work by two candidates and a doctor technical sciences. In the Summer Garden there is no passage for the curious. But there was no shortage of assistants: to the group A.E. Gessen was joined by students from Leningrad University and the Academy of Arts, and schoolchildren from the Palace of Pioneers. I returned from vacation, which I spent on excavations ancient city Olbia on the shores of the Bug Estuary, and as a researcher at the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments, an archaeologist by training received an order from his leadership to lead the excavations.

Archaeologist V.A. Korentsvit and schoolchildren from the local history club “Leningradets” at the Palace of Pioneers at excavations in the Summer Garden. 1975

Already the first archaeological season of 1974 showed that it was impossible to count on the help of volunteers alone. On the initiative of the head of the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments I.P. Sautov in the Special Research and Production Association “Restorer” in 1975, a sector of Architectural and Archaeological Research was created, in which I, a graduate of Leningrad University, became its only employee. He put aside his dissertation “The Influence of Greek Religion on the Religious Ideas of the Scythians” and for 30 years connected his work with what eventually became known as “The Archeology of St. Petersburg.” But already in retirement, I nevertheless published an article about human sacrifices in the ancient fortified city of Ilurat, which is 17 km from ancient capital Bosporan kingdom Panticapaeum (Kerch) 1.

SNPO "Restorer" was a unique enterprise for its time, in which architects, designers, and scientists worked together with specialists from all restoration professions. It became possible to organize systematic archaeological research both in the city and in suburban areas. palace and park ensembles: Peterhof, Oranienbaum, Strelna, Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk. I remember with gratitude the regular participants in our excavations, students of the wonderful teacher Vladimir Ilyich Axelrod. The head of the Leningradets club of the Palace of Pioneers first brought his students to excavations in the Summer Garden back in 1974. Former pioneers and pioneer women are already retired, have raised children, some have grandchildren. IN AND. Axelrod is still young, full of strength and enthusiasm.

Summer garden. Archaeological excavations 1974–1975 Master plan of the pits

For the first time, the question of the need for scientific restoration of the Summer Garden was raised in connection with the liquidation of the consequences of the catastrophic flood of 1924. But the scale of restoration work throughout the city was so great that it was necessary to limit ourselves to only planting new trees to replace the fallen ones. At the beginning of 1941 T.B. Dubyago defended her PhD thesis on the topic “Restoration of the Summer Garden.” The project involved recreating four fountains on the Main Alley and the Grand Parterre at the Swan Canal, installing trellises on the sides of the alleys, and resuming topiary trimming of trees. The dissertation materials formed the basis for the monograph by T.B., published in 1951. Dubyago "Summer Garden", but the project did not come to full implementation, only a flower garden of a random design appeared on the Grand Parterre. In the 1960s. architect A.E. Hesse carried out the restoration of the Summer Palace, and in the early 1970s. together with N.E. Tumanova began developing a project for the restoration of the Summer Garden. With the names of architects N.E. Tumanova and A.E. Gessen is associated with the wonderful pages of the Leningrad school of restoration. The main work of N.E.’s life Tumanova (1931–1995), student of Professor T.B. Dubyago, began many years of work on the restoration of the famous parks of Tsarskoe Selo - Ekaterininsky and Alexandrovsky. With the creativity of the oldest Leningrad architect-restorer A.E. Hesse (1917–2001) is familiar to all residents and guests of our city. According to his designs, the house and Summer Palace of Peter I in St. Petersburg, the Monplaisir and Marly palaces in Peterhof, the facades of the Kazan Cathedral, Marble Palace and other objects. From the institute bench A.E. Hesse volunteered for the war. He fought near Leningrad and in the Caucasus. He was seriously wounded. Until the end of his life, Alexander Ernestovich bravely endured the suffering that befell him, since surgeons were unable to remove numerous small fragments of an exploding mine from his body.

Already the first results of excavations started on the initiative of A.E. Hessen, became a sensation: it turned out that at a depth of about 1 m the remains of Peter the Great’s fountains were preserved. It became obvious that the garden restoration project needed adjustment, because problems arose about how to preserve the ruins and display some of them. For a number of reasons, restoration never came to fruition. However, the materials of our research were useful; they formed the basis for a new project for the restoration of the Summer Garden, carried out 35 years later, developed by the creative team of the Lenproektrestavratsiya Institute and Rest-Art-Project LLC. Chief architect of the project N.P. Ivanov.

Restorers must live a long time to see the results of their work. Architects N.E. Tumanov and A.E. The Hessen passed away before the idea of restoring the Summer Garden was brought to life. In memory of A.E. Gessen and N.E. I dedicate this book to Tumanova.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the author of the Summer Garden restoration project, architect Nikolai Petrovich Ivanov, for his assistance in working on the book; Head of the Department of Western European Art of the State Hermitage Sergei Olegovich Androsov; the chief curator of the gardens of the Russian Museum, Olga Albertovna Cherdantseva; researcher Boris Sergeevich Makarov.

Thank you general director LLC "Pallada" of Konstantin Viktorovich Likholet, whose sincere interest in seeing this book see the light contributed to its appearance.

Notes

1 Korentsvit V.A. Sanctuary in Ilurat. Bosporan phenomenon: sacred meaning of the region, monuments, finds: Materials of the International Scientific. conf. St. Petersburg, 2007. Part 1, pp. 159–167.

Peter's Summer Garden

Chapter first
Letnesadovskie tales

When archaeologists came to the garden, they heard familiar stories about treasures, underground passages and dungeons, where the skeletons of tortured prisoners lay on the floor next to clay bowls, and iron rings sticking out of the walls to which the unfortunates were chained - in a word, everything that that they usually talk about places that are truly interesting to archaeologists.

Nevertheless, there is a rational grain in the legends about the secrets of the Summer Garden. And during the war, when the lawns crossed the trenches and cracks, and in Peaceful time When laying all kinds of communications, we often came across mysterious masonry. Brick collectors, through which water was supplied and discharged from fountains, are like underground passages! You can crawl along them on all fours or crawl, and in other places you can walk at full height. The basement of the Great Stone Greenhouse could be mistaken for prison dungeons.

Even the amazing stories about skeletons and iron rings are based on real facts. Bones, however, not of people, but of animals, are found quite often. And the cast-iron mooring rings sticking out of the stonework were remembered by eyewitnesses of the Gavanets excavations near the Summer Palace in 1964.

Curious passersby could observe how, while digging trenches, workers removed from the ground fragments of painted majolica vases, Dutch tiles, Chinese porcelain, overseas shells, coins, smoking pipes, fragments of statues and architectural details. All this gave rise to rumors about hidden treasures, including museum exhibits buried during the war and not found until now.

“The Summer Palace stands where the Fontanka flows into the Neva”

It turns out that this misconception has a long history. The author of the very first description of St. Petersburg in 1710 (Gerkens) made an inaccuracy, saying that the Tsar's Majesty had a residence near the river that flows into the Neva 1. The mistake of a foreigner, who probably wrote the book from memory, is excusable (although, in essence, he is right: the Fontanka flows from the Neva and flows into it), but where did the editor look when reading from I.E. Grabar that the Summer Palace “was built on a cape formed at the confluence of the Fontanka into the Neva” (however, the editor of the publication was I.E. Grabar himself) 2 .

Popular urban legend, as if the Moika was born in a certain swamp and “did not have its own current”, it still lives. Its creator was the “first historian of St. Petersburg” A.I. Bogdanov: “The Moyka is a river that came out of the above-mentioned Fontanka river, which was previously deserted, but in 1711, when canals were made at the Summer House, this river was connected to the Fontanka” 3. Modern authors do not doubt the existence of “impassable swamps” (impassable, of course, what else!) in the area of the future Campus Martius" 4. It’s easy to see by looking at Swedish maps of the 17th century. and early plans of St. Petersburg that the Moika is a branch of the Fontanka. In place of the Champ de Mars there was a fir forest edge, increased in size to create a parade ground for fireworks and military parades (Big Meadow). Peter I preserved the remains of the spruce forest along the banks of the Neva, prohibiting the cutting of trees in the protected Spruce Grove.

In parentheses, we note the slip of the tongue of the famous historian P.N. Petrov, who called the spruce forest pine. It would not be worth mentioning this error if it had not been repeated by the author of the brochure on the Campus of Mars 5 . The spruce forest thinned out when the Postal Yard was built on the banks of the Neva in 1714, and in 1719 the Gallery in the Spruce Grove was built. The grove still existed in the middle of the 18th century, judging by the report of the death of several trees in it during a flood in 1744.

“Old people remember,” wrote I.G. Georgi, - that in the places where the Stable Yard and the Kazan Church are now, there was an alder swamp forest and roads paved with brushwood" 6.

In 1999, while carrying out work to improve the square near the Kazan Cathedral, we discovered the foundation of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (the first Kazan Cathedral). At a depth of 1.8 m in a layer of marshy soil, bast shoes, leather shoes and other objects of the first inhabitants of the Perevedenskaya Sloboda are well preserved. And finds of hazelnut shells indicate hazel thickets in an “impenetrable” swamp.

How St. Petersburg legends are born is evidenced by the history of the mythical Lebedinka River. “In 1711,” writes P.Ya. Cannes, - on the site of the Lebedinka River they dug the Swan Canal” 7. On P.Ya. Kanna is referred to by the author of the major monograph “Prehistory of St. Petersburg” A.M. Sharymov: The Lebyazhya Canal is named after the ancient Lebedinka River, which formerly flowed from the Moika area to the Neva River. Let us forgive the author of this outstanding work for an involuntary reservation: in such a place, below the Fontanka, the river could not flow into the Neva. By what miracle was it possible to reverse its movement, turning it into a canal?!

However, G.I. Zuev does not doubt at all the possibility of such a miracle and even clarifies that the small Lebedinka river originated in the same huge swamp as the Moika. “The vast swamps then came close to the swampy area, on which, by order of the Tsar, specialists contracted from abroad created the first Summer Garden - the summer residence of Emperor Peter Alekseevich” 9. And Peter settled the poor queen right in the middle of an impassable swamp!

If there was such a river, it could only flow out of the Neva. Where did it go? The notorious swamp would immediately turn into huge lake, more precisely, into the lagoon Gulf of Finland. One can say this: if there had been the Lebedinka River, there would have been no St. Petersburg. But it worked out. Where did the mythical Swan come from? According to P.N. Petrov, in his time (1880s) this was the name of the Lebyazhya Canal. “In addition to the grotto,” wrote the historian of St. Petersburg, “a canal was started from the Neva to the Moika, near the Summer Garden, now called the Lebedyanka River” 10.

For his residence, the king chose a unique natural conditions, quite a high place. This is possible only in the delta of a high-water river: the Fontanka flows from the Neva almost at a right angle. And again, the Moika flows out of it at almost the right angle. All that remained was to connect the Neva and Moika with a canal to create an island on which Peter decided to establish his estate.

When was the Summer Garden founded?

The founding date of the Summer Garden is considered to be 1704. Its official character is reinforced by the celebration in 2004 of the three hundredth anniversary of the oldest regular garden in Russia. Let's open the encyclopedia "St. Petersburg", which was published just in the year when the significant anniversary was celebrated. It turns out that “the construction of the Summer Garden began during the construction of the stone Summer Palace of Peter I (1712), and was completed in 1725.” eleven . The “Manual on the History of the City,” intended for students, reports that the garden “was established by decree of Tsar Peter I in 1711” 12. Here is F.A. Polunin wrote that the royal garden was built in 1711, at the same time as the construction of the Summer Palace 13. However, there is a lot of evidence that the garden had already been planted by that time. Suffice it to recall the often quoted diary of the Danish envoy Just Juhl, in which on May 27, 1710 it is written: “... seeking peace and quiet, he retired to a house built in his newly laid out garden, where there are more than 30 large marble statues of artistic work, including including busts of the late King Sobieski of Poland and his wife” 14.

The relative location of the House and the Summer Palace of Peter I on the banks of the Neva

The “official” date is based on the fact that on March 25, 1704, Peter I sent a letter from St. Petersburg to Timofey Streshnev with a request to send seeds and flower seedlings from the village of Izmailov near Moscow: “How will you receive my letter, if you please, without missing time, all sorts of send flowers from Izmailovo not little by little, but more of those that smell, with the gardener to St. Petersburg” 15. In response, on June 29, Streshnev writes that “according to your letter, your sovereign sent flowers to St. Petersburg with a gardener. And how many things have been sent, and what will be sent in the future, and why they have not been sent, and I wrote about this to Alexander Danilovich for real” 16. “June has come, no matter what,” says popular wisdom. Streshnev’s letter reached the Tsar in July, when his thoughts were not occupied with flower seedlings, but with the storming of Dorpat. And the story didn’t begin with planting flowers. summer residence Peter I. Archaeological excavations have shown that the laying out of the garden was preceded by adding soil and correcting coastline Not you. If in the spring of 1704 there was talk of planting flowers, then it means that preparatory work on planning the garden began back in 1703. So A.D. Menshikov (should he not know!) showed that the Summer House was “built in 703” 17. The testimony of such an authoritative person is indisputable, but, one wonders, when exactly was the residence founded? In preparation for the capture of the Swedish fortress of Nyenschanz, “on the 28th day (April 28, 1703, old style) in the evening, the Sovereign, as Captain of the Bombardment, with 7 companies of the guard, including 4 Preobrazhensky, and having mastered 3 Semenovsky, went by water to 60 boats past the city to inspect the Neva estuary and to occupy it from the arrival of the enemy from the sea" 18. Nyenschanz capitulated on May 1, and the very next day Peter again sailed along the Neva all the way to the seaside, pondering where to build a fortress, a shipyard, and where to settle himself. The king needed shelters on both banks of the river. The Swedish estate attracted attention primarily for its unique location on the cape formed by the Neva and its branch. On the other bank of the Neva, on May 13 (24) - 15 (26), the Tsar’s wooden house, “Red Mansions,” which has survived to this day, was built. However, the sovereign did not immediately settle in it. “Throughout May and June 1703,” writes Sharymov, “Peter I signed both letters and decrees during all this time, “from the camp, at Schlottburg,” as the location of the regiments on both Okhtas, at Nien-Schanz was called” 19 . It is not known exactly when, in 1703, the royal mansions were erected in the former Konau estate, but, of course, it was no coincidence that both royal houses on the banks of the Neva ended up opposite each other.

According to legend, A.D. Menshikov suggested that the Tsar move a Swedish house from among those that had survived in Nyen to Gorodovoy Island. Undoubtedly, this was in the order of things. However, Peter did not follow his advice. He attached symbolic significance to the foundation of his house, and therefore pine trees cut down in the same place were used for it. The cape, which Peter liked at the source of the Fontanka, was formed by nature itself, and, therefore, the choice of place for the house on Gorodov Island was predetermined. If the tsar deliberately placed his two houses facing each other, then a logical conclusion can be drawn: the mansions on the Vyborg side appeared after Peter chose a place for his residence on the opposite bank of the Neva.

Menshikov built his mansions on the banks of the Neva in exactly the same manner: some on Vasilyevsky Island, the second exactly opposite, on the Admiralty Side.

Konau Manor

In the Novgorod scribes and salary books of the late 15th – early 16th centuries, the Russian village Usadishche is mentioned on the site of the Summer Garden. It was probably a notable settlement, since the name was transferred to the estate of a Swedish citizen, German merchant Bernhard Steen von Steenhusen. In 1638, the Swedish Queen Christina gave him vast lands in the lower reaches of the Neva, on its left bank. Swedish researchers have established that after Bernhard's death in 1648 or 1649, the estate passed to his daughter Maria Elisabeth, who married a native of Germany, Joachim von Konau. In 1662, the estate was inherited by their son Erich-Berndt von Konau. At the age of 20, he left his service in the Swedish navy and settled on his estate, where, as researchers say, he laid out a garden “in the Dutch style” 20 . On the Swedish map of the Neva banks by Karl Eldberg (1701), the estate “Konos hoff” is shown on the site of the future Summer Garden. The local name “Konova Manor” sounds completely Russian; It is no coincidence that there was a legend that a certain Swedish major Konau was in fact a Russian nobleman Konov, who went into the service of the Swedish king, which was allowed under the terms of the peace treaty between Russia and Sweden concluded in 1613 in the village of Stolbovo. When Russian troops approached Nyenschanz, Erich-Berndt von Konau fled to Sweden and settled in Stockholm. His grandchildren, having received the Swedish nobility, are represented in the Knight's House under the surname "Konov". Surnames ending in “ov” are not uncommon among the Germans: Rakov, Bryulov, Belov, Treskov... By the way, Peter I was familiar with a certain Hamburg merchant Peter Kononov, from whom, by personal imperial decree in 1724, “Piedmont marcial waters” were ordered » 21. The fate of the Konau manor house is not known for certain. It is possible that Peter I ordered the mansions abandoned by the owners to be moved to the very bank of the Neva, to the place where the Summer Palace was later built.

Peter I

The Summer Garden is the oldest garden in St. Petersburg.

Already in the spring of 1704, Peter I wrote to boyar Streshnev with instructions to send flowers to St. Petersburg for his estate.

He built it on the banks of the Neva, on the site of the estate of the Swedish major Konau, overgrown with spruce trees.

Peter himself drew a plan for the future park. At first it was planted only with annual flowers, that is, “letnik”. That's why they called it Summer.

The garden originally occupied about a quarter of its current area.

Le tny garden in 1717

Probably already in 1704, a wooden manor house was built for Peter I on the banks of the Neva - the future Summer Palace . Its construction was entrusted to Ivan Matveevich Ugryumov. He planted flower beds here, and in 1706 he began to install fountains in the Summer Garden (the first in Russia).

A. Benoit. Peter 1 on a walk

18 August 1710 architect Domenico Trezzini began construction of the stone Summer Palace.

The Havanese was dug out on its southern side, and the water came close to the walls. That is, the building was washed on three sides by water, and it was possible to enter it only from a boat.

Behind the servants' house there was a water cocking tower, the roof of which was crowned with a gilded two-headed eagle.

In 1714, on the same line with the Summer Palace, the architect G. I. Mattarnovi erected three open galleries (“lustgauses”). We rested here in bad weather.

A. Benoit. Summer Garden under Peter the Great. Postcard

In the middle of the galleries there was a marble statue of the goddess Venus. This sculpture was given to Peter I by Pope Clement XI. By order of the king, Venus was guarded by a sentry so that no one would harm her. Venus became the first public image of a naked female body in Russia.

Venus in the Summer Garden

The galleries, like the Summer Palace, stood on the very banks of the Neva. The shore was fortified with piles. Later it was moved deeper into the river.

In 1711-1716, to drain the territory, the Swan Canal was dug, separating the Summer Garden from the Amusement Meadow (now the Field of Mars). Approximately in the middle of the Summer Garden from the Lebyazhy Canal to the Fontanka in 1716, another canal was dug. The territory to the north of it became the First, to the south - the Second Summer Garden. At the same time, the Moika and Fontanka rivers were connected. Since then, the Summer Garden has been located on the island. The territory south of the Moika, including the modern Mikhailovsky Garden .

In the northwestern corner of the Summer Garden, close to the Neva and the Swan Canal, there was a one-story wooden Second Summer Palace. Behind it, along the ditch, there was a bathhouse. In the Third Summer Garden, on the banks of the Moika, Catherine’s wooden Summer Palace and the houses of her servants were built.

In 1718, according to the design of J.B. Leblon, an Aviary was built not far from the Summer Palace. Not only birds lived here (black storks, eagles, cranes, swans, pigeons, pelicans), but also rare animals (porcupine, blue fox). Near the Poultry House, where the monument to Krylov is now located, the Dolphin Cascade was built. This was the name of a fountain decorated with vases in the shape of dolphins.

Summer Palace of Peter I

In the first half of the 18th century, regular parks were in fashion, and it was on this principle that the Summer Garden was organized. Straight alleys were laid across its territory. Trees and bushes were carefully trimmed into the shape of a cube, ball or pyramid. The garden work was supervised by the Dutchman Jan Roosen.

A pond was dug in the southern part of the Summer Garden, where different breeds of fish began to be bred. Most often, carps were released here, which is why the pond began to be called Karpiev. In addition to fish, a tame seal also lived here for some time. An Oval pond was dug on the territory of the 1st Summer Garden.

On the territory of the 2nd Summer Garden, the architect M. G. Zemtsov built a Labyrinth - a complex system of paths surrounded by walls of bushes. The paths to the Labyrinth were laid along bridges. There were joker fountains installed here, under the jets of which visitors to the Summer Garden often fell.

About the appearance of moralizing fountain sculptures in the Summer Garden in 1735, Jakob Stehlin wrote this:

The Swedish gardener Schroeder, while decorating the beautiful garden at the Summer Palace, by the way, made two curtains or small parks, surrounded by high trellises, with seating.

The Emperor often came to look at his work and, having seen these parks, immediately decided to do something instructive in this place of entertainment.

He ordered the gardener to be called and told him: “I am very pleased with your work and the handsome decorations. However, do not be angry that I will order you to redo the side curtains. I would like people who walk here in the garden to find something instructive in it. How can we do this? “I don’t know how to do this otherwise,” answered the gardener, “unless your Majesty orders the books to be placed in places, covering them from the rain, so that those walking around can sit down and read them.”

More than six dozen fountains decorated with sculptural characters from Aesop’s fables were placed in the Summer Garden. At the entrance there was a sculpture of the fabulist himself. Each fountain had a sign explaining the content of the fable.

Initially, the water-lifting mechanism that supplied the fountains was horse-drawn. In 1718, it was replaced by the first steam engine in Russia, designed by the French engineer Desaguliers. Water for this machine was taken from Nameless Erik, which has since become known as Fontanka.

View of the Fontanka River from the Grotto and the Reserve Palace

In 1721, according to the design of A. Schlüter and G. Mattarnovi, a Grotto was built on the banks of the Fontanka - a garden pavilion with columns and a high dome. This pavilion was divided into three rooms, each of which contained a fountain. Organ music sounded as they worked. The organ was powered by jets of fountains. After the death of Peter I, the nude Venus was moved here from the Gallery. Later she found herself in Tauride Palace, and is now exhibited in the Hermitage.

Stone greenhouses were built on the border of the 1st and 2nd Summer Gardens. Southern plants were grown here, including tropical milkweed, oranges, lemons, tulips and Lebanese cedars. In summer, these plants were displayed along the garden alleys.

According to the plan of Peter I, the Summer Garden was to be decorated with allegorical sculptures. All sculptures were selected on four themes: the nature of the universe (1), collisions from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2), an ideal model of the Earthly world (3) and its real embodiment (4). To implement this plan, special agents were sent to Italy: P. Beklemishev, Y. Kologrivov and S. Raguzinsky. They purchased both antique sculptures and works of the late 17th - early 18th centuries. Many sculptures were made to order. By 1725, more than a hundred busts and statues were installed in the Summer Garden; by 1736 there were already more than two hundred.

Since 1721, when the main landscaping work was completed, the Summer Garden became the royal residence.

Peter I often held holidays in the Summer Garden; here he held the famous Peter the Great assemblies. The expressions “penalty” and “drink to the bottom”, widely known in Russia, began precisely at these assemblies. It was then that the latecomer began to be given a “penalty” cup of wine, which he had to drink “to the bottom.”

Peter's Assembly

City residents were notified of the start of the next holiday by cannon shots from the bastions. Peter and Paul Fortress. Guests arrived at the Summer Garden along the Neva and disembarked from boats onto a wooden pier. Behind the pier there was an alley and two platforms. Dances were held on the Ladies' Square, and on Shkiperskaya there were tables with chess, checkers, tobacco and wine.

Under Empress Anna Ioannovna, bear, wolf and boar baiting was organized in the Summer Garden. Animals scampered around the garden, breaking sculptures and trampling plants. At the end of the “fun,” the animal corpses were given to the St. Petersburg meat aisles.

A.Benoit. Empress Anna Ioannovna chases a deer on horseback

IN AND. Surikov. Empress Anna Ioannovna in the Peterhof Temple

It was under Anna Ioannovna that the tradition of hiding winter time sculptures in wooden boxes.

From the middle of the 18th century, the Summer Garden became a place for a select public to walk. Since May 1756, by decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, decently dressed visitors were allowed to walk here on Thursdays and Sundays.

Under Catherine II, days for walking became more frequent.

Since May 1773, pupils of the Smolny Institute began to walk in the Summer Garden; for the first time they were taken outside the educational institution. The newspaper “St. Petersburg Vedomosti” then noted that the girls were accompanied by “a crowd of gawking revelers” who had conversations with the girls about “various matters” and noted their “noble lack of shyness.”

Levitsky D.G. Portraits of Smolyanok.

In the 1760s, according to the design of Yu. M. Felten, the Palace Embankment. On the side of the roadway, in 1771-1784, a fence was built near the Summer Garden (designed by Yu. M. Felten and P. E. Egorov), which became one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.

For the fence, 36 “pillars of wild sea stone” were used, mined in Finland. The pillars turned into columnsThey were stonemasons from the village of Putilov, Shlisselburg district, and the lattice was made by Tula craftsmen.

There is a legend that tells about an Englishman. He was very rich, heard a lot about St. Petersburg, and one day in his declining years he decided to visit it. On one of the white nights, his yacht sailed to St. Petersburg and stopped at the Summer Garden. Having looked at the fence, the Englishman decided not to go ashore at all, since, according to him, he could not see anything more beautiful anyway. After some time, the yacht took the opposite course.

19.07.2013

House of Peter I- the first building in St. Petersburg. Peter ordered the house to be erected for himself on May 27 (June 5), 1703. The Tsar indicated a place for its construction: on the left bank of the Neva, not far from the fortress, on Berezov Island.

Initially, the royal “mansions” resembled a rectangular Russian hut with six walls. Raw resinous logs were not immediately cut down and painted to look like bricks, but only after they had dried. “Dutch” windows, elongated horizontally, with small square sashes, were common in the construction of that time. The high wooden (shingle) roof was also not immediately painted to match the bright turquoise tiles. Carved wooden mortars and two “flaming bombs” (lost in the 17th century) were installed on the roof ridge. The mortars were a reminder that a captain, a bombardier, lived in the house.

Seven wide windows framed with lead frames shimmered with the rainbow glow of “moon” glass. The door jambs and window frames were decorated with flower garlands on a black background, and the door panels were decorated with landscapes. The shutters, painted with rich cinnabar, were hung on figured gilded hinges. At night, the windows were shuttered and bolted. The ceilings in the rooms are low 2.5 meters. The doors of the House of Peter I, decorated with two metal ornamental plates, are reminiscent of the doors of Moscow chambers of the 17th century. Above the door on the left is a bronze plate indicating the height of Peter the Great - 2 m 4 cm.

The Tsar's first St. Petersburg house was small. Its length is 12 m, width 5.4 m, height 5.8 m. There was a small vestibule in the center. As in all Russian huts, they divide Peter's House into two halves. The room to the right of the entryway served as an office where the sovereign did business and received dignitaries, and to the left was the dining room, to which a kitchen was attached. From the dining room a door leads into a cramped bedroom.

The architecture of the House resembles a Dutch building.

Initially, the House of Peter I stood on a cape, from which a panorama of the opposite bank of the river opened, as well as a view of Peter and Paul Fortress. Later, due to the strengthening of the low and often flooded river bank, the cape disappeared, and Peter's House found itself at some distance from the Neva.

Under Emperor Nicholas I, a chapel was built in the House, where they placed an image of the Savior in a carved wooden frame, which was with Peter I on campaigns, and hung the prayer “Our Father,” personally copied by Peter’s daughter Elizabeth.

After the Winter and Summer palaces were built, the sovereign never returned here. In 1714, a wooden “cover” in the form of a gallery was created over the House according to the design of D. Trezzini.

Autumn with floods and winter with snow drifts showed the impracticality of an open gallery, and on the instructions of the king, the architect Trezzini developed new project. In August 1723, by special decree of Peter I, they began to erect a stone gallery over the House in order to preserve it “for future years.” The construction of the stone casing recognized the urban planning and historical significance of the city's first house. Since that time, the House of Peter I has become a memorial; it is protected and carefully passed on from generation to generation as a witness to the heroic era, which became a turning point in the history of Russia.

House of Peter I after the death of the Tsar

In 1765, architect S.A. Volkov carried out landscaping of the surrounding area and surrounded the house with a front garden. The Tresini case stood until 1784.

After the flood of 1777, Catherine II ordered: “To enclose the House of Peter I with a stone cover on a solid foundation with a roof covered with roofing iron.” The old cover was dismantled, and a new one was erected in 1784 on the foundation of the previous one, preserving it architectural appearance. This building has not survived to this day.

House of Peter I in the 19th century

In 1833, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich ordered the installation of piles near the shore adjacent to the House, and the construction of a front garden and trellis, which was carried out under the supervision of the architect Williams.

In the period 1841-1844. The garden was laid out according to the design of architects R.I. Kuzmin and Reimers. This time, it was proposed to make a high shaft of cobblestones, lined with moss and earth, around the gallery along the line of the garden, and at two corners to build an auxiliary slope of large stone, which, for strength, should be laid on moss so that the first shafts would break against it. A shaft was built around the garden with a height of 1 arshin (71 cm) on the north side (from Petrovskaya Street), 2.5 arshins on the Neva side, and from 1 to 1.5 arshins on the two sides.

At the same time, they laid out the garden, paved and compacted paths, brought in soil for five flower beds, lined the lawns with turf, and planted flowers from the Tauride greenhouses. A new palisade was made along the slope line. In connection with extensive work on the construction of a new case over the House, which began in the summer of 1844, the garden master Kuznetsov, in order to preserve the shrubs and flowers, transplanted them into the Summer Garden. In place of the previous gallery, a new stone cover was built, consisting of 16 brick pillars with arcades, with plastered brickwork and wide windows with fine glazing. The area near the house is planned with the planting of trees, bushes and the construction of a polygarden.

Vaulted tunnels were laid under the House, which served as water collectors. In 1889, according to the design of the architect N.M. Salko built two unique “pockets” on the northern and southern sides. In plan, the building took the shape of a cross. Almost a hundred years later, in 1971-1972, restoration was carried out and the case was measured. Research has shown that, despite previous reconstructions, the case retained the proportions and dimensions of the Trezzini gallery.

In the second half of the 19th century, a garden was laid out on the territory adjacent to the House from the Neva (architects R.I. Kuzmin, Reimers and garden master Kuznetsov), which was surrounded by a cast-iron patterned fence made with private donations.

In 1875, at the entrance to the garden, a bronze bust of Peter I was installed, cast according to the model of the sculptor P.P. Zabello and surrounded by a cast iron grate. The fence and bust of Peter have survived to this day.

Garden around the House of Peter I

In the autumn of 1889, after the completion of the reconstruction of the case, the garden was also redesigned. 500 hawthorn bushes were planted along the fence, paths were made from brick chips rolled with a hand roller, along which today's visitors walk, and the lawns were laid out with meadow turf. Caring for the garden required water, and in the spring of 1890, the city's first water supply network, created specifically for irrigation, appeared here.

In 1889, the central gate from Petrovskaya Street was redone. They became three-part. On the sides of the gate, two street lamps were installed on cast iron poles, which have remained unchanged to this day.

Petrovskaya embankment

The coastline of 1874, the location of which is reminiscent of the second garden lattice closest to the Neva, existed until late XIX centuries. Modern look Petrovskaya embankment acquired in 1901-1903 as a result of reconstruction according to the design of architect L.I. Novikov and engineer F.G. Zbrozeka.

The House of Peter I, damaged by bombs and shells during the siege of Leningrad, was restored in 1944. After the blockade was lifted, it became the first museum open to the public. In 1971-1976, according to the design of architect A.E. In Hesse, extensive restoration work was carried out.

In 1999, a comprehensive restoration was carried out with the reconstruction of the historical layout of the site and the fence of the external garden. The internal fence has been restored, recreating all the lost details and original coloring.

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