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The suburbs of Saint-Petersburg
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pavlovsk
Peterhof
Kronstadt
Pushkin
Oranienbaum
Gatchina
Pavlovsk
The first known inhabitants of present-day Pavlovsk were the Ilmen Slavs and FinnoUgric tribes, who likely migrated here in search of food and water around the 4th century BC.
Their first settlements, Lynn and Seppel, were built along the Slavyanka River.
In medieval times, around XIII , the area fell under the administrative division of the
Novgorod Republic, was subsequently annexed to Sweden and finally claimed for Russia by
Peter I in the early 18th century.
Catherine the Second loved to hunt in Pavlovsk during her reign from 1762-1796, often
stopping here on her way from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo, where she would retreat to
Catherine Palace. She eventually gifted Pavlovsk to her firstborn son, Paul I (Pavel Petrovich).
While December 12, 1777 is the official founding date of Pavlovsk village, it did not
become a city until 1796, when Paul I became emperor and declared it one of his residences.
The city was primarily populated with those tasked with constructing and maintaining Pavlovsk
Palace. In 1788 Paul I gifted the Pavlovsk residence to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, because he
enjoyed Gatchina a lot more. The palace and park reached their peak under her direction.
In 1836, the first rail line in Russia was laid between Pavlovsk and Tsarskoye Selo. The
statesmen of St. Petersburg were doubtful as to whether the local population would even use
the railway and decided an incentive was needed to convince citizens to patronize the newly
constructed line. Thus, a concert hall was built next to the Pavlovsk station, which gained the
nickname ‘musical’. Famous musicians and symphony orchestras regularly performed in the
concert hall, and eventually the it became the first music conservatory in Russia. Around this
time, Pavlovsk became the most fashionable summer destination for the bohemian elite of St.
Petersburg.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Pavlovsk was renamed Slutsk, a name which it
retained until World War II, when it reverted back to Pavlovsk. After the war, citizens rebuilt
damaged structures and refurbished what monuments they could, although most statues were
never recovered. Although old-fashioned beautiful wooden houses in Pavlovsk were replaced
by standard multi-story buildings, the atmosphere of the city has remained vibrant and
attractive even to this day.
In 1989 Pavlovsk became a part of UNESCO’s List of World Heritage Sites in Russia
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Attractions
Grand Pavlovsk Palace
The Great Palace at Pavlovsk is somewhat staid in comparison to its near neighbour at Tsarskoe
Selo, forgoing that building's opulent ornamentation for classical elegance and harmony,
painted in the deep yellow and white colour scheme typical of St. Petersburg neo-classicism.
That the palace achieved such a harmonious facade belies the fact that it was conceived as a
much smaller building, with the design expanded and embellished during construction. The task
of designing the palace was originally assigned by Catherine the Great to Charles Cameron, the
Scottish-born architect who had won the Empress's lasting favour with the work he did at
Tsarskoe Selo. Construction began in 1782, but Cameron's modest design and his penchant for
the absolute simplicity of Palladianism and the historical purity of Adamesque were not to the
liking of Pavel and his wife Maria Feodorovna, and they charged Cameron's assistant, Vincenzo
Brenna, with the task of extending the palace and creating a more imposing and regal building.
Brenna quickly became Pavel's favourite architect, and went on to design alterations on the
palace at Gatchina, and the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg. His great achievement, both
there and at Pavlovsk, was to combine the future Tsar's eclectic tastes into an organic and
harmonious architectural solution.
Inside, the Palace is considerably more ornate, with state rooms designed by some of St.
Petersburg's most famous architects, including Quarenghi, Rossi and Voronikhin. They include
the Italian Hall, which rises up to the building's central dome, the ornate Grecian Hall, the
Egyptian Vestibule, and the contrasting Hall of War, with gilded models of military items, and
Hall of Peace, equally richly decorated, but with flowers and musical instruments. Also of
interest is Maria Fedorovna's Library, with a beautiful parquet floor of twelve sorts of wood and
elegant furniture designed by Voronikhin.
The southern wing of the Palace contains Pavlovsk's Picture Gallery, with several notable
paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, including works by Tiepolo, Salvatore Rosa, and
Rubens, and the Throne Room, which was actually the Palace's main dining room, and contains
a 606-piece Gold Dinner Service from the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
-The palace is littered with stuccos (лепнина) and frescos on the outside. On the inside, there
are a lot of different historical and art collections: from the classical period to the works of
artists of the XIX century.
Pavlovlsk Park
Right next to the Palace, the Private Garden was restricted to only the Imperial family, and its
Dutch-style formalism and beds of brightly coloured flowers are in sharp contrast to the idyllic
pastoralism of the rest of the park. The Palace stands almost on the edge of the park, although
a small section across the main road contains a stretch of the Slavyanka, with decorations
including Cameron's simple but striking Obelisk and the faintly ridiculous, gothic Marienthal
Fortress, another testament to Pavel's fanatic militarism.
Stretching back to the north and east of the palace, the park covers a massive 607 hectares in
total, much of it deep woodland. Although it would take almost a day to explore the whole
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area, the most interesting sections of the park - and most of the follies - are along the banks of
the Slavyanka. From the terrace of the Great Palace, a fine view north reveals the elegant ruins
of Cameron's Apollo Column, several delightful stone bridges across the river, and the circular
Temple of Friendhip. Slightly further in the distance, the Vokzhalniye Ponds offer boating
throughout the summer.
The park at Pavlovsk has been a popular weekend getaway for St. Petersburgers since the
advent of Russia's first railway, which ran from the city to Pavlovsk, stopping at Pushkin on the
way. It is the ideal place to come in summer for picnicking, with the size of the park making it
always possible to find a secluded spot. In winter, the park is practically deserted, and eerily
romantic under a fresh fall of snow.
-Used to be the emperors’ hunting grounds.
-Has a lot of small gardens which are great places to relax during a hot summer day.
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Peterhof
One of St. Petersburg's most famous and popular visitor attractions, the palace and park at
Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets) are often referred to as "the Russian Versailles",
although many visitors conclude that the comparison does a disservice to the grandeur and
scope of this majestic estate.
Versailles was, however, the inspiration for Peter the Great's desire to build an imperial palace
in the suburbs of his new city and, after an aborted attempt at Strelna, Peterhof - which means
"Peter's Court" in German - became the site for the Tsar's Monplaisir Palace, and then of the
original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth,
who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous
system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade.
Improvements to the park continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Catherine the
Great, after leaving her own mark on the park, moved the court to Pushkin, but Peterhof once
again became the official Imperial Residence in the reign of Nicholas I, who ordered the
building of the modest Cottage Palace in 1826.
Like almost all St. Petersburg's suburban estates, Peterhof was ravaged by German troops
during the Second World War. It was, however, one of the first to be resurrected and, thanks to
the work of military engineers as well as over 1,000 volunteers, the Lower Park opened to the
public in 1945 and the facades of the Grand Palace were restored in 1952. The name was also
de-Germanicized in 1944, becoming Petrodvorets, the name under which the surrounding town
is still known. The palace and park are once again known as Peterhof.
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Attractions
Grand Palace
Moving his attentions further west to Peterhof, the Tsar began to draw up his own plans for the
grounds and palace. Work had already begun on a modest palace, designed by Jean-Baptiste Le
Blond, in 1714, and that building was completed in 1721.
Meanwhile, fired by Peter's untiring enthusiasm, a massive amount of work had been
completed around the palace, including the landscaping of the Lower Park, the digging of the
Sea Canal, and the building of Monplaisir, Marly Palace, and most of the Hermitage. The
original Higher Palace was somewhat inadequate for its surrounding splendours, and Peter
instructed Le Blond and his pupil, Johann Braunstein, to expand the building.
Work was halted after Peter's death in 1725, and Petrhof was almost abandoned until Peter's
daughter Elizabeth came to the throne in 1740. Elizabeth commissioned Bartolomeo Rastrelli,
who had already completed the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg, to build a genuinely regal
palace. Rastrelli chose to retain the original building within his design, and the result is
supremely elegant and surprisingly restrained.
Inside, the Grand Palace is considerably more lavish, and the fact that the interiors had to be
almost entirely reconstructed after World War Two does nothing to detract from their
grandeur. The interiors are in fact a combination of original designs by Rastrelli and renovations
by Yurii Felten and Vallin de la Mothe during the reign of Catherine the Great. Further changes
were made in the mid-19th century, but nonetheless the palace's sumptuous interiors have
retained a remarkable homogeneity of style.
Da fountanes’
The fountains of Peterhof are one of Russia's most famous tourist attractions, drawing millions
of visitors every year. Fountains were intrinsic to Peter the Great's original plans for Peterhof it was the impossibility of engineering sufficiently powerful jets of water that prompted him to
move his attentions from the Strelna site to Peterhof - and subsequent generations competed
with their predecessors to add grander and ever more ingenious water features to the parkland
surrounding the Grand Palace.
The most famous ensemble of fountains, the Grand Cascade, which runs from the northern
facade of the Grand Palace to the Marine Canal, comprises 64 different fountains, and over 200
bronze statues, bas-reliefs, and other decorations. At the centre stands Rastrelli's spectacular
statue of Samson wrestling the jaws of a lion.
Elsewhere in the park, the range and diversity of fountains is astounding, from further
monumental ensembles like the Chess Cascade and the Pyramid Fountain, to the ever-popular
Joke Fountains, including one which sprays unwary passers-by who step on a particular paving
stone.
The official opening of the fountains at Peterhof, which usually takes place at the end of May, is
an all-day festival, with classical music, fireworks and other performances, as each section of
the park's fountains is turned on one by one.
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Kronstadt
Kronstadt is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg,
located on Kotlin Island, 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, near the head of the
Gulf of Finland. It is linked to the former Russian capital by a combination levee-causewayseagate, the St Petersburg Dam, part of the city's flood defences, which also acts as road access
to Kotlin island from the mainland.
Founded in the early 18th century by Peter the Great, it became an important international
centre of commerce whose trade role was later eclipsed by its strategic significance as the
primary maritime defence outpost of the former Russian capital.[5][6] The main base of the
Russian Baltic Fleet was located in Kronstadt, guarding the approaches to Saint Petersburg. In
March 1921, the island city was the site of the Kronstadt rebellion.
The historic centre of the city and its fortifications are part of the World Heritage Site that is
Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.
Kronstadt has been a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians for many years due to the
memory of Saint John of Kronstadt.
Kronstadt was founded by Peter the Great, whose Imperial Russian forces took the island of
Kotlin from the Swedes during the Great Northern War in 1703. The first fortifications were
inaugurated on 18 May [O.S. 7 May] 1704. These fortifications, known as Kronshlot [ru]
(Кроншлот), were constructed very quickly. During the winter, the Gulf of Finland freezes over
completely. Under the command of Governor-general Alexander Danilovich Menshikov,
workers used thousands of frames (caissons) made of logs from evergreen trees filled with
stones which were moved by horses across the frozen sea, and placed in cuttings made in the
ice. Thus, several new small islands were created, and forts were erected on them, virtually
closing access to Saint-Petersburg by sea. Only two narrow navigable channels remained, with
forts guarding them.
Was a site of many rebellions and a hero-city during WWII withstanding .
Thanks to the power of the Kronstadt Fortress the destruction of Leningrad, then the main
industrial and cultural centre of the Soviet Union, was successfully prevented. The honorary
status of "City of Military Glory" was conferred on it by the President of the Russian Federation
Dmitriy Medvedev on April 27, 2009, citing the "courage, endurance and mass heroism,
exhibited by defenders of the city in the struggle for the freedom and independence of the
Motherland".
Attractions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt
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Pushkin
Pushkin was founded in 1710 as an imperial residence named Tsarskoye Selo (Russian: Ца́рское
Село́ , "Tsar's Village") and received status of a town in 1808. The first public railways in Russia,
Tsarskoye Selo Railways, were opened here in 1837 and connected the town to the capital, St.
Petersburg. After the October Revolution, the town was renamed to Detskoye Selo (Russian:
Де́ тское Село́ , "Children's Village"). Its name was further changed in 1937 to Pushkin to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The
town contains an ensemble of the 18th century "Tsarskoye Selo". This museum complex
includes the Catherine Palace, Alexander Palace and other buildings and associated parks; it is a
major tourist attraction in the area and is included in the list of monuments protected by the
UNESCO.
After the expulsion of the Swedes from the area Peter the Great gave the manor to Alexander
Menshikov. Later, by an official decree of 13 June 1710[19] the whole area including 43 villages
was assigned to Marfa Skavronskaya, wife of Peter who later became Empress Catherine I. This
date of 13 June 1710 is considered as the founding date of the city.
During the reign of Elizabeth, Tsarskoye Selo became the imperial residence. In 1740-50s the
modest palace of Catherine I was rebuilt into a luxurious summer residence, the Catherine
Palace. Between 1751 and 1756 the reconstruction was led by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The inflow of people to the area in the 1770s urged Catherine II to separate the Tsarskoye Selo
from the urban area. By the decree of January 1780 she established a town Sofia nearby with a
separate administration.[6] Further construction works without imperial orders were banned in
Tsarskoye Selo and most merchants and clergy were moved to Sofia.
In 1808, Alexander I merged the Tsarskoye Selo with Sofia and proclaimed it a town and the
seat of Tsarskoselsky Uyezd. In 1808, he appointed William Heste as the town architect, which
post he held until his death in 1832. Most residents moved from Sofia to Tsarskoye Selo and the
former was converted to a residence of a military regiment.
The first public railway in the Russian Empire,[25] Tsarskoselskaya Railway, was laid in 1837 and
connected Tsarskoye Selo with the capital St. Petersburg.[18] Its length was about 22.5 km
(14.0 mi) and the journey time about 40 minutes.
In 1887 it became the first fully electrified town in Europe, and by the end of the 19th century
had a telephone network.
In 1905, the Alexander Palace became the main residence of the Nicholas II. Here the royal
family was held under house arrest after the February Revolution.
On 7 November 1918 it was renamed to Detskoye Selo. On 10 February 1937, on the occasion
of the 100-year anniversary of the death of Aleksandr Pushkin, the town was given his name.
On 10 June 1939, the Catherine Cathedral was demolished by the Soviet authorities.
The reconstruction of the Catherine Cathedral began on the place of the monument on 7
December 2006.
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Attractions
Catherine Park
The park is named in honor of the Empress Catherine I of Russia. It occupies an area of 107
hectares and consists of the regular Old Garden (1717–1720) and an English garden (1760–
1796, architect Vasily Neyelov) separated by large ponds.[6][17] The park includes numerous
pavilions of significant architectural and historical value. Most of them have been restored.
Catherine Palace
The original palace of 1717–1723 was rebuilt in 1743–1756, first by Mikhail Zemtsov, A. V.
Kvasov and Savva Chevakinsky and then by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.[6] Rastrelli was the
primary author of the architectural design and lush sculptural decoration of the façade, in the
style of Russian Baroque; he also designed the interior layout and decoration. The main
courtyard is facing west and has a gilded wrought-iron fence and gates. The palace is
surrounded by a few buildings added in the late 18th century. One of them is a four-story
outhouse to the south, which hosted the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and was then converted into a
museum, a branch of the All Russian Pushkin Museum. Lyceum is connected with the palace by
an arch over Sadovaya Street (architect I. Neelov). Other attachments to the palace include
Zubovsky wing on the southern side (architect Y. M. Felton) and Cameron's Gallery, cold saunas
and a hanging garden to the southeast.[6] One of the most famous rooms of the palace is the
Amber Room.
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Oranienaum (Lomonosov)
Still commonly known by its post-war name of Lomonosov, the estate at Oranienbaum is the
oldest of the Imperial Palaces around St. Petersburg, and also the only one not to be captured
by Nazi forces during the Great Patriotic War. Founded by Prince Menshikov, Peter the Great's
closest adviser, the Grand Palace is one of the most opulent examples of Petrine architecture to
have survived to the present, although until very recently the palace itself has been greatly
neglected. After Menshikov's death, Oranienbaum passed to the state, and was used as a
hospice until, in 1743, it was presented by Empress Elizabeth to her nephew, the future Peter
III. Peter made Oranienbaum his official summer residence and transformed one corner of the
park, ordering the construction of a "Joke" Castle and a small citadel manned by his Holstein
guards. This peculiar ensemble, called Petershtadt, was mostly demolished during Pavel's reign.
Antonio Rinaldi, the Italian-born architect who also designed the Grand Palace at Gatchina and
the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, was commissioned by Peter in 1758 to build a modest
stone palace next to the fortress, and this has survived.
After Peter was deposed, Rinaldi was commissioned by Catherine the Great to build the
Chinese Palace, in the Upper Park, as her official country residence. However, Catherine spent
little time at Oranienbaum, which she had grown to hate during her marriage to Peter, and by
the end of the 18th century the estate had been turned into a Naval Cadet College. The palace
became an Imperial residence again in the reign of Alexander I, and retained that status until
the Revolution, when it was immediately opened as a museum. Although never captured by the
Germans, Oranienbaum was bombarded during the war and, while the Grand Menshikov
Palace survived intact, its restoration was given much lower priority than the more famous
estates at Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo. Today, the small but elegant park has been almost
completely restored, while the full restoration of the palaces has finally gained momentum
over the last decade.
Attractions
Grand Menshikov Palace
Menshikov began to build his residence here in 1713, at about the same time as Peter began
work on his own estate at Peterhof. Menshikov seemed intent on outdoing his master in terms
of scale and grandeur, and commissioned architects Giovanni Mario Fontana and Gottfried
Schadel, who were already building the Menshikov Palace in St. Petersburg, to design his
seaside palace. After over a decade of work, which eventually bankrupted Menshikov, the
palace was completed.
Facing the sea, with a two-level terrace in front of it, this charming yellow and white building
consists of a concave central block with two single-storey galleries leading to prominent
octagonal pavilions, one of which houses the palace chapel. On the south side of the building,
two large ancillary wings, the Kitchen Wing and the Ladies' Wing, run from the pavilions
perpendicular to the central block.
Menshikov had little time to enjoy his new palace before he was arrested and exiled in 1727.
The estate at Oranienbaum was passed to the state, and Menshikov's palace became a naval
hospital. In 1743, the estate was presented by Empress Elizabeth to her nephew, the future
Peter III, who commissioned Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the greatest late baroque
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architect working in Russia, to renovate the palace. Rastrelli left the exterior of the palace
almost untouched, but created sumptuous interiors that have, sadly, long since been
destroyed. At this time, the western pavilion became known as the Japanese Pavilion, thanks to
the collection of Japanese and Chinese ceramics it housed.
Grand Menshikov Palace in Oranienbaum dominates the surrounding grounds, west of St
Petersburg, Russia
The palace was altered again in 1762 by Antonio Rinaldi, who added a granite staircase and
semi-circular balcony to the northern terraces and redecorated many of the interiors. After
serving as a Naval Cadet College from the end of the 18th century, the palace was used as a
residence by both Alexander I and his brother Mikhail. During the 19th century, several famous
architects, including Luigi Ruska, Carlo Rossi, and Vasiliy Satsov, reworked the interiors of the
palace.
Today, while the Grand Menshikov Palace is still extremely impressive from the outside, its
interiors are in a parlous state, and major renovation work still needs to be done to prevent
parts of the building collapsing. For visitors, there is little to see except a collection of portraits
of the various owners of Oranienbaum.
Oranienbaum Park
Like the fabulous buildings at Oranienbaum, the park around them is in need of a great deal of
tender, loving cate to restore it to its former glories. While some parts of the varied parkland
can still give a fair impression of the carefully planned landscaping carried out in the reign of
Catherine the Great, others are so overgrown as to have become just wilderness.
The Upper Park, to the south-west of the Grand Menshikov Palace, is the most beautiful section
of the estate, with varied woodland interlaced with canals, bridges and ponds. Laid out in the
reign of Catherine the Great by Joseph Bush, the rolling parkland contains the Chinese Palace
and Antonio Rinaldi's equally fascinating Sliding Hill, a three-storey, blue-and-white baroque
pavilion that was once the starting point for a 500m "rollercoaster" using sledges or wheeled
carts. Other buildings in the Upper Park include the Stone Hall, used in Catherine's reign for
masquerades, the late 19th century Pergola, and the simple neoclassical Cavaliers' Room, which
now houses a cafe. The Upper Park also boasts a deer enclosure with tame and very friedly
inmates.
The Lower Park around the Grand Menshikov Palace was laid out in the early 18th century,
when formal gardens were still the fashion, and hence there is little to see for now among the
unkempt flower beds and silty ponds.
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Gatchina
First appearing in records in 1499, Khotchino - the old name for Gatchina - was a Russian village
under the rule of Novgorod the Great. Won and lost by the Livonians and then the Swedes in
the course of the 17th century, it was regained for Russia by Peter the Great during the
Northern Wars. Peter founded an Imperial Hospital and Apothecary there, but it was not until
1765, when Catherine the Great bought the village and surrounding lands for her favourite,
Count Grigoriy Orlov, that work began on the palace and park.
Orlov employed Italian-born architect Antonio Rinaldi to design the Gatchina Palace. Rinaldi
began work in 1766, and took fifteen years to complete the castle-style building. By that time,
Orlov had fallen out of favour with Catherine and had only two years left to live. After his death,
Gatchina was bought back by the Empress and handed to her son, the future Tsar Paul. Paul
had his favourite architect, Vincenzo Brenna, remodel the palace, accentuating its fortress
character to suite his militaristic tastes. Gatchina remained the property of his widow, Maria
Fedorovna, and was then passed to his son, Nicholas I, who added the Arsenal Halls to the
building and used it as his official summer residence, as did his son, Alexander II. Alexander III
spent almost the first two years of his reign based at Gatchina, terrified of being assassinated
like his father.
During the Revolution and Civil War, Gatchina was the site of two major events - the final fall of
Kerensky's Provisional Government in 1917, and Trotsky's defeat of the final advance of the
White Army from Estonia in July 1919. The town was renamed Trotsk for six years in the 1920s.
The palace and park were opened to the public soon after the Revolution, and served as a
museum until occupied by the Nazis in 1941. As elsewhere, occupation brought severe damage
to the palace and park, and restoration work is still continuing over 60 years later.
Attractions
Grand Palace
The Grand Palace at Gatchina is perhaps the most unusual and individual of St. Petersburg's
suburban Imperial palaces, although the modesty of its architectural decorations makes it far
less striking at first glance than the brightly coloured, stucco covered facades at Pavlovsk and
Tsarskoe Selo.
At Gatchina, Rinaldi drew inspiration from his travels in England and his work with his tutor
Luigi Vanvitelli on Charles VII of Naples' Caserta Palace. The conceit of the project was to create
a 600-room palace in the style of a knight's castle, with elements of a royal hunting lodge and
an English stately home. Using weathered limestone, Rinaldi designed a building that is both
imposing and welcoming, presenting a sweeping semi-circular facade of classical simplicity on
one side, and a more fanciful rear, with two slim hexagonal towers creating the atmosphere of
a medieval castle.
Pavel commissioned his own favourite architect, Vincenzo Brenna, who had already reworked
the Grand Palace at Pavlovsk for him, to expand Gatchina. Brenna proved adept at matching
the Tsar's esoteric tastes while retaining the spirit of Rinaldi's original design, heightening the
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palace's galleries and side blocks, and adding details such as cannons, sentry boxes and a moat
around the palace that enhanced fortress-like character of the building.
The interiors of the palace were mostly Brenna's work, too. In this capacity, he worked in a style
that combined high rococo decoration with neoclassical symmetry, and created interiors far
more lavish than the building they are housed in. While the damage wrought by the Nazis has
only partly been redressed, and restoration is ongoing, fine examples of his work can be found
in the elegant Marble Dining Room and the superbly ornate White Hall, both of which feature a
wealth of stucco decoration and fabulous parquet floors.
Further alterations were made to the Grand Palace during the reign of Nicholas I, who
employed architect Roman Kuzmin to remodel the side-blocks of the palace, setting up his
private quarters in the Arsenal Block. Neither the interiors there, nor any complete records of
them, have survived. However, the works of watercolourist Edward Gow, which beautifully
capture the majority of the palace's interiors from Nicholas' reign, are on display in the palace.
Nicholas also commissioned the impressive statue in honour of his father that stands in front of
the palace's main entrance.
Among other displays of interest housed in the Grand Palace, the Exhibition of Weaponry has
over 1000 items of ceremonial arms and armour that once belonged to the Imperial family. Like
many of the other suburban palaces, Gatchina also displays several fine 18th and 19th century
works from the renowned Imperial Porcelain Factory.
Gatchina Park
The park at Gatchina was established at the same time as the Grand Palace, and its
development followed much the same pattern as that of the building. Originally laid out by
Antonio Rinaldi for Count Grigoriy Orlov, who boasted of his fine landscape garden in letters to
Jean-Jaques Rousseau and used the park to indulge his favourite pastime, hunting, the Gatchina
Park was developed further for Emperor Paul by Vincenzo Brenna, who added most of the
park's stone follies and gave the picturesque wilderness a slightly more formal appearance.
Today, the park is slowly being returned to its 19th century magnificence, but several of the
historical buildings are still in ruin, the formal gardens have all but disappeared, and the
extensive parkland is for the most part charmingly overgrown.
The park spreads out behind the palace, and is centered on three elongated lakes, the Black
Lake, the Silver Lake, and the White Lake. Of the buildings from the 18th century that have
been fully restored, the Birch House is probably the most interesting. Built in the 1780s,
reportedly as a gift to Paul from his wife Maria Fedorovna, the folly resembles a woodpile from
the outside, but inside has extraordinarily ornate interiors filled with exquisite stucco work and
magnified with ingeniously positioned mirrors. A decade after it was built, Brenna added a
magnificent neoclassical gateway called the Mask Portal.
Also of interest, Brenna's Pavilion of Venus, which was inspired by Paul and Maria Feodorovna's
visit to Prince Conde's residence at Chantilly, is made entirely of wood, but resembles a stone
classical temple. It also has an extremely elegant interior. It is the main feature of the Island of
Love on White Lake, one of the most picturesque corners of the park. Several artificial islands
were created in Brenna's landscaping, and they are connected by fine stone bridges in classical
style.