From the story of Tsarskoye Selo
Among the imperial residences near St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo is famous for its gardens, numerous park buildings and palaces - Catherine and Alexandrovsky, which gave names to the parks surrounding them. The most famous of the royal gardens is Catherine Park. Its peculiar charm lies in the fact that along with gardeners, architects, artists, its creator was history itself, which filled with a certain meaning park buildings, pavilions, bridges, ruins. Catherine Park with the palace of the same name were created on the site of the Finnish estate Saari-mois, which Peter gave to his future wife Ekaterina Alekseevna in 1710. Previously, these lands belonged to Novgorod, in the early 17th century were captured by the Swedes and only 80 years later they were returned to Russia as a result of the victories won by Peter 1 in the Northern War. The war-ravaged areas around St. Petersburg under construction Peter 1 distributed to his entourage. Knowing about the passionate love of Peter 1 to the arrangement of gardens in the European style, Ekaterina Alekseevna on the site of a Finnish garden with a garden started the construction of a palace and a park. From 1716 to 1726, new stone chambers were erected and a garden of 300 by 100 fathoms was built. Subsequently, the park has increased, and now its area is 102 hectares.
Catherine Park on the hill in front of the facade of the palace, includes two types of planning - regular and landscape. The old regular part was created in the 1720s in the form of ledges of terraces connected by staircases. Straight alleys, flower gardens with a “figure garden” decorated the terraces in front of the palace. The patterns of the stall resembled a mosaic of broken brick, coal, crushed glass and sand of various shades. Below were trellises and gazebos, and on the third ledge were arranged 2 ponds, later called Mirror. Then there was a large pond and 2 canals: Fish and Small. Mid-18th. Catherine Park was transferred and filled with new architectural structures. The daughter of Peter 1 Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, having inherited the old estate, began to carry out great work on its reconstruction. Dreaming of creating a kind of Versailles in Tsarskoye Selo, the Empress granted complete freedom of creativity to the architect B.F. Rastrelli. The park, arranged in the style of the French regular gardens, in no way inferior to the palace in its splendor. The attractions of the regular park are pavilions. The Hermitage was intended for dinners of the Empress and courtiers. From the rest of the park it is separated by a canal and a wooden carved balustrade decorated with gilded carved sculpture. Mechanisms were arranged to raise fully served tables to the second floor. Gilded inside and out, the pavilion amazed with fabulous pomp and brilliance. On the shore of the Great Lake was erected elegant Grotto - light, which daughter of Peter 1 ordered to give the appearance of a sea cave. The facades of the pavilion are decorated with stucco compositions in the form of fish, sea monsters and dolphins. Later, Catherine 2 turned it into her office.In 1768, Catherine 2 decided to change the layout of the royal garden. The old layout of the Catherine Park was joined by landscape landscapes in fashionable English style. New pavilions were complemented by artificial ruins, Chinese bridges and gazebos. On the bank of one of the canals there is a creaky gazebo, stylized as a Chinese pavilion. At the direction of Catherine 2 began to build a Chinese village, theater, small and big whims - buildings in the form of artificial mountains cut through arches. Big whim is a giant arch across the road separating the Catherine and Alexander Parks, with a Chinese arbor on top. In 1855, part of the park in front of the Zubovsky southern wing of the Catherine Palace was turned into its own garden.
In the luxuriously decorated halls of the Catherine Palace lived, received foreign ambassadors, arranged ceremonial balls and masquerades, celebrated anniversary dates all Russian rulers. The first owner of Tsarskoye Selo was Catherine 1, after whom the palace was named. The interiors of the palace reflected different artistic styles - mainly baroque and classicism, several rooms remade in the 19th century. - historicism.
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Day dinners and various “evening meals” occupied a significant place in the ceremonial life of the courtyard of the 18th century. The tables were made with huge silver vases, porcelain ornaments. In the middle of the table are fountains of wine, colored water, champagne. Mandatory for dining ceremonies were tables of complex shapes, designed by Rastrelli. In the 18th century, painting became a typical decoration of palace interiors.The crowded festivities held in the Great Hall and in the Anti-Chambers ended with celebrations intended for a narrow circle of guests who were received in the halls of Anfilade. The enfilade connected all the main halls of the palace with a single chain. Its walls and doors were decorated with carvings. Among the most famous apartments included in the "Golden" enfilade of ceremonial halls created by Rastrelli in the 1750s is the Amber Room - a unique interior for which amber mosaics were used, composed of pieces of amber of different colors and sizes. With amber mosaics rivaled the collection of art paintings of the Picture Hall. The painting hall served at the same time as the main dining room. The walls of the hall, along with gold carvings and mirrors, were decorated with paintings by famous Western European masters. It is important to note the elegance of the Blue Room, where famous guests gathered. And the originality of the solution of the Chinese Blue Living Room consists in the successful combination of finishes in the style of classicism with works of “Chinese” decorative art.
Since Peter 1, all Russian emperors paid great attention to Tsarskoye Selo, now named after the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin. Lyceum is an educational institution founded by order of Alexander 1 in 1811. Lyceum gained its fame thanks to its talented pupils: A. Pushkin, I. Pushchin, A. Delvig. Since 1899, a memorial plaque has been installed on the Lyceum building with the inscription: “Alexander Pushkin was brought up here.” 1811-1817”. Pushkin gave an attachment to the “gardens of Lyceum”, and this love was inherited by poets of different generations.
If you are a connoisseur of real art, grace, beauty, style, historical past - Tsarskoye Selo will not leave you indifferent. You will find many indescribable beauty in this ancient place.
Elena Samofeyeva