Where was Elizabeth's summer palace located? Lost St. Petersburg "Versailles" - Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. The further fate of the summer residence

With the coming to power of Emperor Peter I in Russia, a grandiose era of transformation began in the state, which became the impetus for changes in urban planning and architecture.

“Golden Mansions” by Catherine

In 1703, the emperor founded new town- St. Petersburg, and already 9 years later the construction of a small house for Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the monarch’s wife, begins. It was located on south coast The sinks represented small house with a turret that ended with a gilded spire. The structure was named “Golden Mansions”. Subsequently, this area received the name Tsaritsyn Meadow and became part of the Summer Garden - a large royal estate. On its territory they grew Exotic fruits: pineapples and bananas.

A few years after construction, it was decided to build a grandiose palace, which would be crowned with a tetrahedral dome, but the plan was not realized.

Failed construction

In 1730-1740 in power was Empress Anna Ioannovna, who, several years before her death, instructed the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build a palace on Tsaritsyn Meadow, and this should have been done in as soon as possible. However, the death of the empress did not allow the architect to begin executing her order. Her successor, Anna Leopoldovna, also wanted to build her own palace on this site; the construction was entrusted to the same Rastrelli. The architect prepared the necessary drawings in February 1741, but it was not possible to present them to the empress: in March a coup d'état was carried out, and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna came to power.

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli

Created Summer Palace Elizabeth Petrovna Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli is the greatest architect of the 18th century. He came from an Italian aristocratic family and held the title of count. His father was the sculptor Carlo Rastrelli, who worked for a long time at the court of the French Sun King Louis, and after the death of the latter was invited by the Russian Emperor to Russia.

From an early age, Bartolomeo was involved by his father in working on various projects, and went to study in Europe. Rastrelli's first documented work in Russia was the three-story palace of Dmitry Cantemir, built in the Peter the Great Baroque style.

In the 1730s, Rastrelli was engaged in the construction of the Rundāle Palace and the Palace in Mitau, which he built on the orders of the Duke of Courland. It was on the recommendation of Biron of Courland that Rastrelli became the court architect.

Architectural style of Rastrelli

Bartolomeo created a unique style in architecture. Thus, he began to use semi-circular window ends on the facades, and usually assembled half-columns in pairs and bundles. External columns usually did not play a constructive role, but were intended only for decoration. His palaces were characterized by huge state halls, covering the entire depth of the floor, and when decorating the interiors, he tried to avoid curved lines. All his buildings are characterized by flashy power, grandeur and solemnity, even pomp. Rastrelli abandoned the traditional for that time strip foundations, preferring platforms made of brick and stone based on piles, which, in turn, allowed partial redistribution of loads, and this was very important for the soft soils of St. Petersburg.

Creations of the great architect

The great architect, in addition to the Rundāle and Mitavsky palaces, built the following structures that became landmarks:

  1. Great Peterhof Palace.
  2. St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv.
  3. Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
  4. Vorontsov Palace.
  5. Hermitage Museum.
  6. Winter Palace.
  7. Royal Palace in Kyiv, etc.

Lost buildings of the architect

Some of his buildings this moment lost:

  • Kantemirovsky Palace.
  • Throne room on the Yauza.
  • Winter Palace of Anna Ioannovna.
  • Winter Kremlin Palace.
  • Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna.
  • Traveling Srednerogatsky Palace.

History of the construction of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna

The exact date of laying the foundation of the palace has not been preserved. According to one version, Anna Leopoldovna and her husband Prince Anton Ulrich were present during the laying of the foundation in July 1941; according to another, the laying of the foundation took place a month earlier. However, the spouses were not destined to live in the new palace.

Rastrelli received an order to finish the palace he had begun from Tsarevna Elizaveta Petrovna, who became the empress. Construction was completed in 1743 - this was the first palace of the Empress, built personally for her, and the Empress liked it so much that she doubled the architect's salary - to 2,500 rubles a year.

The Empress used the summer residence from May to September every year; she devoted this time to her relaxation, almost not engaging in important state affairs. In 1754, it was here that Grand Duke Pavel, the son of Ekaterina Alekseevna, was born, and here Elizaveta Petrovna staged celebrations to mark the end of the seven-year war and the conclusion of peace with Prussia. Then the empress began to visit the palace less and less, spending more time in Tsarskoe Selo, and the palace gradually began to deteriorate.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna: description

The architecture of the Summer Palace is such that it is simply impossible not to notice that the author of the project was impressed by the French Versailles. The building is characterized by the traditional Baroque closed ensemble of the front courtyard in front of the palace. Detailed description Rastrelli's brainchild was no longer there, but some memories of the imperial estate were found.

Thus, the summer residence of Elizabeth Petrovna consisted of 160 apartments, there were both the queen’s personal chambers and numerous halls, galleries and even a church. In order to enter the palace territory, one had to pass through wide openwork gates made of bars, crowned with gilded eagles. According to the architect, “everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as well as new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built on the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded.”

The room had two facades. The main one was facing the Moika River; flower beds and neat trees were placed in front of it, turning this area into a park. The second façade faced Nevsky Prospekt, where, by order of Bartolomeo, a wide road was laid along which were located numerous greenhouses with flowers and trees.

The first floor of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was made of stone, but the second was entirely wooden. The building is designed in pink tones, and the basement rooms are in gray. The ground floor was tiled with green granite. Inside the palace, all rooms were decorated with Bohemian mirrors, marble sculptures and paintings by famous artists. At the ground floor level, the Hermitage was built, where paintings of religious and biblical content were kept, some of which have survived to this day.

In the main building there was a Great Ceremonial Hall, against the western wall of which the royal throne was located. In order to get to the Throne Room, it was necessary to pass a series of living rooms and a huge grand staircase decorated with gilded carvings. The throne room was striking in its grandeur, which was further emphasized by the clever arrangement of candelabra and chandeliers, which created the impression of a two-light volume. Several curly staircases also led to the Throne Room from the garden side, each of which was complemented by ramps. The imperial chambers were located in the eastern wing of the palace, and the courtiers lived in the western wing. Each of the palace premises was lavishly decorated with a variety of statues and vases. The façade of the building was crowned with numerous balustrades.

Palace Park

The entire territory of the palace complex was surrounded by a decorative park. The garden also contained magnificent fountains, and the park itself was a complex labyrinth of green spaces. On the territory of the complex, Rastrelli created three unusual fountain pools of complex outlines. Throughout the park there were small gazebos and benches, and in the center there were carousels, swings and slides. Also, according to the architect’s idea, two artificial trapezoidal semicircular ponds were created, which, by the way, have survived to this day.

Subsequent changes

Francesco Rastrelli continued to work on the Empress's summer residence for many years. Thus, he decorated the walls with figured platbands, atlases and lion masks; 9 years after the completion of construction, he added a new gallery hall to the north-eastern side of the palace. The Empress was only pleased with such constant changes, while the owner the architectural integrity of the building was of little interest. The main thing is that new buildings should be as luxurious as possible.

In 1745, by order of the Empress, a covered gallery was built for the passage from the palace to the Summer Garden; its walls were lavishly decorated with artistic canvases. In 1747, the architect created a terrace with a fountain in the center, located on the same level as the Hermitage pavilion. It was fenced along the entire perimeter with gilded bars.

A little later, a church appears on the territory of the summer palace, which expands the palace complex from the Fontanka side, and bay windows appear on the western side of the façade.

On the territory of the palace, Rastrelli also built water towers with aqueducts, which were also lavishly decorated with paintings.

Catherine's period

The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg became the site of the triumph of Catherine II. It was here that she arranged an official reception for foreign diplomats after her accession to the throne, and here she learned about the death of Peter III. Without living in the residence, Catherine granted it first to Grigory Orlov, then to Grigory Potemkin.

In 1777 there was a flood, which greatly damaged the already dilapidated palace. No one began to restore the damaged water cannon, and the aqueduct was dismantled.

The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna was demolished in 1797 by order of Emperor Paul I. A few weeks after his accession to the throne, he gave the order to build a new building on the site of an already dilapidated building impregnable castle-fortress, since the emperor did not want to live in the Winter Palace at all. There is a legend according to which the Archangel Michael appeared to one of the guard soldiers and ordered that the Tsar be told about the need to build a church on the site of the palace, which became part of the Mikhailovsky Castle complex. This is exactly how Mikhailovsky Castle grew up on the site of Elizabeth’s summer residence in 1800. The decorations of Elizabeth's summer residence were neatly folded and taken to other royal estates.

How to get to the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna? Unfortunately, it has not survived. On the site of the Summer Palace of Elizaveta Petrovna (address: St. Petersburg, Sadovaya Street, 2) the Mikhailovsky, or Engineering Castle, is currently located. To get to the castle, you just need to use the metro and get off at the Nevsky Prospekt or Gostiny Dvor stations.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna- an unpreserved imperial residence in St. Petersburg, built by B.F. Rastrelli in 1741-1744 on the site where the Mikhailovsky (Engineers) Castle is now located. Demolished in 1797

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    ✪ Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna.

    ✪ Elizabeth's wooden summer palace

    ✪ “Tsarskoe Selo of Elizaveta Petrovna”

    ✪ Winter Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna

    ✪ Winter Palace of Peter I

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    History of construction

    Even then, the idea arose to close the alley of the Summer Garden opposite the Carpiev Pond with a palace building. This is evidenced by the project - gg., preserved in the archives. Its possible author is J.B. Leblon. It depicts a small nine-axle palace, the elevated center of which is topped with a tetrahedral dome. Wide one-story galleries cover the cour d'honneur with a lush figured parterre facing the Moika. Behind there is a garden with numerous bosquets of various shapes. Fruit plantings have been preserved on the territory of the present Mikhailovsky Garden. However, things did not go further than plans.

    However, while construction was underway, a coup occurred, and Elizaveta Petrovna became the owner of the building. By the time the palace, made of wood on stone cellars, was roughly finished. The architect, in describing the buildings he created, spoke about him like this:

    “This building had more than 160 apartments, including a church, a hall and galleries. Everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as was the new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built on the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded."

    Despite its location within the city limits, the building is designed according to an estate plan. The plan was created under the obvious influence of Versailles, which is especially noticeable from the side of the cour d'honneur: successively narrowing spaces enhanced the effect of the baroque perspective of the courtyard, fenced off from the access road by a latticework of lush designs with state emblems. One-story service buildings along the perimeter of the cour d'honneur emphasize the traditional Baroque isolation of the ensemble. The rather flat decor of the light pink facades (mezzanine pilasters with Corinthian capitals and corresponding rusticated stone plinth blades, figured window frames) was offset by a rich play of volumes. Complex in plan, highly developed side wings included courtyards with small flower parterres. Lush entrance porticoes led to staircase volumes, as always with Rastrelli, offset from the central axis. From the main staircase, a series of living rooms decorated with gilded carvings led to the most representative hall of the palace - the Throne. Its two-light volume accentuated the center of the building. From the outside, curly stairs led to it, complemented by ramps on the garden side. The appearance of the palace was completed, giving it baroque splendor, by numerous statues and vases on the pediments and balustrade crowning the building. Rastrelli decorated the space up to the Moika with floral parterres with three fountain pools of complex outlines.

    As often happened with the creations of an architect, over time the logical and harmonious original plan changes to suit momentary requirements. In 1744, for the Empress to go to the 2nd Summer Garden across the Moika, he built a one-story covered gallery, decorated with paintings hanging on the walls. Here, near the northwestern risalit, he creates a terrace hanging garden on the mezzanine level with the Hermitage pavilion and a fountain in the center of the ground floor. Along its contour it is fenced with a lush gilded trellis lattice, and multi-march gatherings in the garden are organized. Subsequently, a palace church was added to the northeastern risalit, expanding it with an additional row of rooms from the Fontanka side. Bay windows and lanterns appear on the western façade.

    On the territory adjacent to the palace, a decorative park was laid out with a huge complex green labyrinth, bosquets, trellis pavilions and two trapezoidal ponds with semicircular protrusions (still preserved, they acquired free outlines during the reconstruction of the park for the Grand Duke's residence). Rastrelli reports about his work in the park in 1745:

    “On the banks of the Moika in the new garden I built a large building of baths with a round salon and a fountain with several jets, with ceremonial rooms for relaxation.”

    In the center of the park there were swings, slides, and carousels. The structure of the latter is unusual: rotating benches were placed around a large tree, and in the crown there was a gazebo, into which one climbed up the stairs. spiral staircase.

    Another building located in close proximity to the north-eastern corner of the palace is associated with the name of the architect: the water supply system for the fountains of the Summer Garden, completed in the 1720s. no longer gave enough pressure, and did not correspond to the splendor and grandeur of the imperial residence. In the mid-1740s. Rastrelli builds water towers with an aqueduct across the Fontanka. Technically complex, the purely utilitarian structure made of wood was decorated with palace luxury: the wall paintings imitated lush baroque modeling.

    Despite the fact that the palace was the ceremonial imperial residence, direct message there was no prospect with Nevskaya: the road, which ran among unpresentable random buildings (on the banks of the Fontanka there were glaciers, greenhouses, workshops and the Elephant Yard) turned onto Italianskaya Street, and only passing the palace of I. I. Shuvalov, built by Savva Chevakinsky, carriages through Malaya Sadovaya fell on the central transport artery of the city. Direct communication will appear only in the next century thanks to the work of C. Rossi.

    Elizaveta Petrovna loved the Summer Palace very much. At the end of April - beginning of May (as the weather permitted), the empress's ceremonial move from the winter residence was celebrated with a magnificent ceremony with the participation of the court, orchestra, and guard regiments accompanied by an artillery salute from a cannon at Winter Palace and guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty. At the same time, the imperial yachts, stationed in the roadstead opposite the Apraksin House, sailed to the Summer Garden. The queen set off on her return journey at the end of September with the same ceremonies.


In the 18th century, women often found themselves in power in Russia, and naturally there were favorites in their lives. They were immensely endowed with titles and estates, and often had enormous political influence. Some received real palaces as gifts. Who received such an honor, and which of these palaces have survived in St. Petersburg to this day?

Anichkov Palace (Nevsky Prospekt, 39)


Anichkov Palace is the first palace to appear on Nevsky Prospekt. That’s what it was called a few years later, when the famous Anichkov Bridge appeared next to it.
Elizaveta Petrovna, daughter of Peter I, having ascended the throne in 1741 as a result of a palace coup, ordered the construction of a palace in honor of her triumph.


Although it was officially announced that the palace was being built for the new empress, everyone understood that in fact it was intended for Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky, who was her favorite at that time. Razumovsky was famous for his beauty and good nature, and although he had great power at court, he never really used it.

The construction of the palace began immediately after the coronation, the architect Mikhail Zemtsov began to build it, and it was completed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The building was located so that its main entrance and main facade faced the Fontanka embankment, and not Nevsky Prospekt. At that time, Nevsky Prospekt was not yet the main street of the city and, in addition, many guests reached this palace along the Fontanka, which was then the border of St. Petersburg.


In 1771, Razumovsky died, and Catherine II, having bought the palace from the Razumovsky family, gave it to her new favorite, Grigory Potemkin. He decided to rebuild the palace in a more classical style, which was done. Subsequently, the palace changed its owners more than once, and was seriously rebuilt more than once.

Shuvalovsky Palace (Italyanskaya St., 25)




The mansion belonged to Elizaveta Petrovna’s young favorite, Ivan Shuvalov, a very versatile man who was interested in politics and art. Largely thanks to his efforts, Moscow University and the Academy of Arts were opened.


Instead of building a new mansion from scratch, it was decided to take one of the existing buildings as a basis and thoroughly rebuild it to suit one’s taste. The architect Savva Chevakinsky was involved in the construction of the mansion, who chose the Elizabethan Baroque style for it. The mansion was built very quickly - in just two years, and Shuvalov and his wife moved there.
However, later, under Empress Catherine II, Shuvalov was excommunicated from the court and was forced to leave Russia. By order of one of the subsequent owners of the palace, Prosecutor General Alexander Vyazemsky, the palace was rebuilt in the classical style.

Marble Palace (Millionnaya Street, 5/1)

This palace was built for another favorite of Catherine II, Count Grigory Orlov. The Empress made such a generous gift to the count for his courage and courage shown during the palace coup, thanks to which Catherine ascended the Russian throne.
To decorate the facades and interiors of this palace, marble was used, and the most varied - 32 varieties. Therefore, this palace began to be called Marble. It was also called the Palace for the Favorite.
However, the construction of the palace dragged on for 17 years and, unfortunately, Count Orlov, without waiting for the completion of the work, died. Now Marble Palace transferred to the disposal of the Russian Museum.











Gatchina Palace


The Gatchina Palace also belonged to Grigory Orlov. It was built in an unusual style for Russia - an English hunting castle. The project was carried out by Italian Antonio Rinaldi. This palace also took a very long time to build - 15 years, and Orlov only had a chance to live in it for a very short time - only two years.





Tavrichesky Palace (Shpalernaya street, building 47)


This palace, one of the largest in Europe, was built by Catherine the Great for Prince Potemkin. It was under his leadership that the Russian army, having won the Russian-Turkish war, annexed Crimean peninsula, then called "Tavrida". After this, Potemkin began to be called Tauride. But Potemkin a year later sold this palace as unnecessary and left for the south on business. Catherine bought this palace and gave it to him again - this time for the capture of the Turkish fortress of Izmail.

The Catherine Palace, named after Catherine I, was the favorite residence of three empresses - Catherine, Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II. Each of them added something different to the architecture of the ensemble: Catherine II, for example, abandoned the luxurious gilding that Elizabeth valued so much, and was generally skeptical about this “whipped cream.”

From hut to palace

Back in the 17th century, on the territory of the future Tsarskoe Selo, the estate of a Swedish magnate was located - Sarskaya Manor. Some time later, they began to locally call it Sarskoe village, and later Tsarskoe. In 1718, the first “stone chambers” were laid here, which formed the basis of the luxurious Catherine Palace. The palace received its known name only in 1910. Before this, the residence of the empresses was called the Great Palace, and later, after the construction of the Alexander Palace, they began to call it the Old Palace.

Source: wikipedia.org

The work was entrusted to the architect Braunstein, known for his designs of buildings in Peterhof. In the decoration of the “chambers” wood was used, and not the most durable species. In the future, this will play a cruel joke: the wooden coverings will rot so much that the floor will almost begin to collapse. In 1724, the first celebration was held in Tsarskoe Selo on the occasion of the emperor’s arrival - “thirteen cannons were fired three times.”

Half a kingdom for the palace!

The future Empress Elizabeth inherited the manor from her mother. The Tsesarevna loved her dacha, with which she had childhood memories. Having ascended the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna began to spend huge amounts of money on furnishing her residence in order to compete with Versailles itself.


Source: wikipedia.org

First of all, the empress decided to rebuild the outdated mansions. Under the leadership of Zemtsov and Kvasov, a detailed project was developed, about which Benoit later wrote: ““...if Kvasov’s project is inferior in luxury and splendor to the Rastrelli building that we now admire, then in the sense of grace, balance and rhythm of lines it deserves preference.” .

In 1744, the reins of power were handed over to Rastrelli, but the architect began directly working on the reconstruction of the palace a little later. It was thanks to Rastrelli that a building in the Russian Baroque style appeared, decorated with stucco and columns, painted azure. Elizaveta Petrovna did not skimp - more than 100 kilograms of gold were spent on finishing the facade and countless statues.

After the death of Elizabeth, Catherine II already ordered the sculptures in the park to be gilded, as the late empress bequeathed. But when Catherine found out how much such luxury would cost the treasury, she refused the work.

Old Fashioned "Whipped Cream"

Catherine II did not immediately fall in love with Tsarskoye Selo. In 1766, she complained in a letter: “For seven days now I have been living at the dacha, in a house which the late Empress Elizabeth deigned to gild inside and out; there is not a single comfortable chair in it... There is not even a possibility to lean your elbows on the table.” The newly-crowned empress considered this baroque “whipped cream” to be old-fashioned, and ordered the moldings to be removed and the gilding replaced with simple painting.


Source: wikipedia.org

The Scotsman Charles Cameron worked on the interiors of the palace under Catherine. He had to work hard: the Empress, a great lover of ancient art, ordered the old-fashioned baroque halls to be combined with classicist lines. It was under the leadership of Cameron that the state rooms were decorated - Arabesque, Lyon and Chinese, he also created the Mirror, Blue and Silver cabinets, the Raphael room and the famous Blue drawing room. True, the interiors of the northern half of the palace burned down during the Great Patriotic War.

The Mystery of the Amber Room

The world-famous Amber Room was initially decorated with canvases painted to resemble amber. The amber panels themselves were presented to Peter I by the Prussian king Frederick William I.

Peter wrote to his wife Catherine: “The king gave me a handsome gift of a yacht, which was beautifully decorated in Potsdam, and the Amber cabinet, which had long been desired.” For some time, mosaics were located in the People's Chambers in the summer garden. Only in 1770 Catherine's Palace the same Amber Room appeared, which is now known from photographs and in a reconstructed form.


The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna is an unpreserved imperial residence in St. Petersburg, built by B. F. Rastrelli in 1741-1744 on the site where the Mikhailovsky (Engineers) Castle is now located. Demolished in 1796.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna (built in 1741, demolished in 1797).
M.I. Mahaev 1756

In 1712, on the southern bank of the Moika, where the pavilion of the Mikhailovsky Garden is now, a small manor house was built for Ekaterina Alekseevna, topped with a turret with a gilded spire, which bore the pretentious name “Golden Mansions”. According to him, the Big Meadow (the future Field of Mars) on the opposite bank received the name Tsaritsyn Meadow: this is what will be used most often in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The area near the palace is called the 3rd Summer Garden. On July 11, 1721, the Duke of Holstein's chamberlain Berchholtz, having examined the estate, wrote down:

“The garden was recently planted and therefore there is nothing in it yet, except for the already quite large fruit trees. Five ponds located nearby were dug here to contain live fish brought to the royal table.”

In the queen's greenhouses, the gardener Ekliben grew fruits rare for northern latitudes: pineapples, bananas, etc.

Even then, the idea arose to close the alley of the Summer Garden opposite the Carpiev Pond with a palace building. This is evidenced by the project of 1716-1717, preserved in the archives. Its possible author is J.B. Leblon. It depicts a small nine-axle palace, the elevated center of which is topped with a tetrahedral dome. Wide one-story galleries cover the cour d'honneur with a lush figured parterre facing the Moika River. Behind there is a garden with numerous bosquets of various shapes. Fruit plantings have been preserved on the territory of the current Mikhailovsky Garden.
However, things did not go further than plans.



MAKHAEV Mikhail Ivanovich
Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna and the front courtyard in front of it. View from the south. B. g. Ink, pen, brush

Under Anna Ioannovna, the 3rd Summer Garden turns into a “jagd-garten” - a garden for “chasing and shooting deer, wild boars, hares, as well as a gallery for hunters and stone walls to prevent bullets and shot from flying in.” The “vegetable garden” was moved to Liteinaya Street, where the Mariinsky Hospital would later be built.

In the early 1740s. B.F. Rastrelli began the construction of one of the most remarkable buildings of the developed Russian Baroque - the Summer Palace in the 3rd Summer Garden for the ruler Anna Leopoldovna.


Ivan ARGUNOV (1727(29)-1802). Portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

However, while construction was underway, a revolution occurred, and Elizaveta Petrovna became the owner of the building. By 1744, the palace, made of wood on stone cellars, was roughly completed. The architect, in describing the buildings he created, spoke about him like this:

“This building had more than 160 apartments, including a church, a hall and galleries. Everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as was the new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built on the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded."


Summer Palace.
Fragment of "Axonometric plan of St. Petersburg 1765-1773 by P. de Saint-Hilaire."

Despite its location within the city limits, the building is designed according to an estate plan. The plan was created under the clear influence of Versailles, which is especially noticeable from the side of the cour d'honneur: successively narrowing spaces enhanced the effect of the baroque perspective of the courtyard, fenced off from the access road by a latticework of a magnificent design with state emblems.
One-story service buildings along the perimeter of the cour d'honneur emphasize the traditional Baroque isolation of the ensemble. The rather flat decor of the light pink facades (mezzanine pilasters with Corinthian capitals and corresponding rusticated stone plinth blades, figured window frames) was offset by a rich play of volumes.
Complex in plan, highly developed side wings included courtyards with small flower parterres. Lush entrance porticoes led to staircase volumes, as always with Rastrelli, offset from the central axis. From the main staircase, a series of living rooms decorated with gilded carvings led to the most representative hall of the palace - the Throne. Its two-light volume accentuated the center of the building.
From the outside, curly stairs led to it, complemented by ramps on the garden side. The appearance of the palace was completed, giving it baroque splendor, by numerous statues and vases on the pediments and balustrade crowning the building.
Rastrelli decorated the space up to the Moika with floral parterres with three fountain pools of complex outlines.

Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg.
thin L. F. Bonstedt. (according to the drawing by M.I. Makhaev. 1753). 1847.

As often happened with the creations of an architect, over time the logical and harmonious original plan changes to suit momentary requirements.
In 1744, for the Empress to go to the 2nd Summer Garden across the Moika, he built a one-story covered gallery, decorated with paintings hanging on the walls. Here, in 1747, near the northwestern risalit, he created a terrace of a hanging garden at the mezzanine level with the Hermitage pavilion and a fountain in the center of the ground floor.
Along its contour it is fenced with a lush gilded trellis lattice, and multi-march gatherings into the garden are organized. Later, a palace church was added to the northeastern risalit, expanding it with an additional row of rooms from the Fontanka side.
Bay windows and lanterns appear on the western façade.

On the territory adjacent to the palace, a decorative park was laid out with a huge complex green labyrinth, bosquets, trellis pavilions and two trapezoidal ponds with semicircular projections (still preserved, they acquired free outlines during the reconstruction of the park for the grand ducal residence). Rastrelli reports about his work in the park in 1745:

“On the banks of the Moika in the new garden I built a large building of baths with a round salon and a fountain with several jets, with ceremonial rooms for relaxation.”

In the center of the park there were swings, slides, and carousels. The structure of the latter is unusual: rotating benches were placed around a large tree, and in the crown there was a gazebo, which was accessed by a spiral staircase.


Alexey Grekov. View of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth

Another building located in close proximity to the north-eastern corner of the palace is associated with the name of the architect: the water supply system for the fountains of the Summer Garden, completed in the 1720s. no longer gave enough pressure, and did not correspond to the splendor and grandeur of the imperial residence.
In the mid-1740s. Rastrelli builds water towers with an aqueduct across the Fontanka.
Technically complex, the purely utilitarian structure made of wood was decorated with palace luxury: the wall paintings imitated lush baroque modeling.

Despite the fact that the palace was the ceremonial imperial residence, there was no direct connection with the Nevsky Prospect: the road, which ran among unpresentable random buildings (on the banks of the Fontanka there were glaciers, greenhouses, workshops and the Elephant Yard) turned onto Italianskaya Street, and only bypassing the palace I . I. Shuvalov, built by Savva Chevakinsky, the carriages through Malaya Sadovaya reached the central transport artery of the city.
Direct communication will appear only in the next century thanks to the work of C. Rossi.

Elizaveta Petrovna loved the Summer Palace very much. At the end of April - beginning of May (weather permitting), the empress's ceremonial move from the winter residence was celebrated with a magnificent ceremony with the participation of the court, orchestra, and guard regiments accompanied by an artillery salute from the cannon at the Winter Palace and guns Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty.
At the same time, the imperial yachts, stationed in the roadstead opposite Apraksin’s house, sailed to the Summer Garden. The queen set off on her return journey in late September with the same ceremonies.

On September 20, 1754, the future Emperor Paul I was born within the walls of the palace. After the death of the queen, the palace was still used: the conclusion of peace with Prussia was celebrated here.
In the throne room, Catherine II receives congratulations from foreign ambassadors on the occasion of her accession to the throne. However, over time, the owner begins to give preference to other summer residences, especially Tsarskoe Selo, and the building is deteriorating.
First, he is given residence to G. Orlov, then to G. Potemkin. A catastrophic flood in September 1777 destroyed the fountain system of the Summer Garden. The fashion for regular parks passed, and the water cannons were not restored; the unnecessary Rastrelli aqueduct was dismantled.


Mikhailovsky Castle from the embankment. Fontanka.
Benjamin Patersen.

At the end of the 1770s. the palace was dismantled by order of Paul I for the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, the foundation of which took place on February 28, 1797.

There are two legends of the foundation of the Mikhailovsky Castle: according to one, Paul I said: “I want to die where I was born,” according to another, a soldier standing guard in the Summer Palace, when he dozed off, saw the Archangel Michael and ordered him to tell the Tsar to build a church on this place .

Beggrov K.P.
View of the Engineering Castle from the Summer Garden. 1830s

Be that as it may, in February 1796, “due to dilapidation,” the Elizabethan dwelling was demolished and construction of a new imperial stronghold began. And today, only the volumetric construction of the castle’s façade facing the Summer Garden (possibly at the request of the monarch) and the magnificent drawings of M. I. Makhaev remind of the disappeared building.

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St. Petersburg and suburbs

 

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