Babolovsky Park is located in the city of Pushkin and is associated with one of the favorites of Catherine II, Grigory Potemkin.

On the territory of the park there is a palace, which was built for the favorite. Although the palace was built for him, it was not his property, but Gregory could come at any time and spend time in the palace. In fact, it was a free, perpetual lease)

The palace was built according to the project of the architect I.V. Neyelov and, like Felter, he worked in the Gothic style. The palace turned out to be not very large, one-story, and was originally built of wood. A few years later it was rebuilt in stone.

01.

At the end of the era of the reign of Catherine II, Babolovsky Park was chosen by other emperors. Alexander I, the family of Emperor Nicholas II, liked to relax in the park. It was believed that the water of the Babolovsky springs had a special taste, and in order to drink tea on this water, they specially came from St. Petersburg.

02.

In Soviet times, there was nothing on the territory of the park. At different times there were: the School of Military Pilots, the Agrotechnical Institute and more. In the first half of the 20th century, trees were cut down, beds and flower beds were laid out on the former glades of the landscape park, and the buildings were gradually destroyed. Alas, these were the usual methods of post-revolutionary transformations.

03.

In the 1930s, it was planned to place a zoo in the park, and a terrarium and an aquarium with fish in the palace itself.

04.

During the war, the park was destroyed, several bombs hit the palace, people died.

05.

The park would have remained abandoned, but four years ago it was transferred to the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum-Reserve. The palace was mothballed, and so far no traces of reconstruction are visible. The park was put in order and now it is a pleasant place for walking.

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A hotel was built in front of the entrance to the park.

08.

The Kuzminka River flows through the territory of the park, through which a bridge-dam is built.

09.

This river is part of the unique Taitsky water conduit, which was designed by the invited engineer Bauer. The aqueduct was created to fill ponds with clean, flowing water. Catherine's Park. In Tsarskoye Selo there have always been interruptions in water supply, since it is located on a hill.

The 16 km long water conduit began in the area of ​​​​the Demidov estate in Taitsy. Taitsky keys give a lot of clean, drinking water. The water conduit passes through a heterogeneous relief, and then appears on the surface, then disappears under water. In one place, like a tunnel, it passes under a 16-meter hill. The length of this underground part is about 6.5 km, and it is lined with brickwork, which has partially survived to this day.

10.

In the area of ​​​​Babolovsky Park, the canal connects with the Kuzminka River, a dam was made on it.

11.

Now the Taitsky water conduit is not fully functioning, so we do not see a rapid flow of water. It was partially destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, the channel and part of the pipe were damaged.

There is a great idea to restore the water conduit, but the difficulty is that part of it is located in St. Petersburg, and the rest is in Leningrad region and, accordingly, it has different owners. When they will agree among themselves is unknown.

12.

The question arises why the water conduit was built in Babolovsky Park? First of all, to supply water to the Babolovsky Palace.

This diagram clearly shows how the water conduit was arranged in the park.

13.

A storage pond was created near the palace to fill the baths under Grigory Potemkin. At that time, baths were a mandatory attribute of landscape parks.

Under Alexander I, the famous Tsar Bath appeared in the palace.

14.

It was also filled from the storage pond with the help of special channels. It is surprising that already in those days such complex systems were being built, real miracles of engineering.

Today only small details can be seen. unique system. Partially preserved well-divider. From it, the stream of water diverged on two sides.

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Fragment of brickwork of the 19th century.

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But the best preserved pond, as part of the water supply system.

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In the painting by Giacomo Quarenghi, the palace has been preserved in its original form. I'll show you again)

And today, unfortunately, it looks pretty bad.

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But, I repeat once again, the park itself looks very good and it is pleasant to walk around it. You can even arrange a photo session, for example, for a girl of 11 years old.

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We left it with a little regret. beautiful place and drove on.

26.

Not carrying any semantic load, flowers for memory)

27.

On the way to Tsarskoye Selo, we stopped by one of the oldest cemeteries, Kazanskoye. It has been in existence since 1785.

28.

The cemetery got its name after the construction of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan. The author of the project was the architect Giacomo Quarenghi.

29.

How is this place connected with Catherine II, you ask? Through her favorite, Alexander Dmitrievich Lansky. Love love)

30.

The tomb of Alexander Lansky and his relatives is located in lower temple churches. Through the window you can see the steps down, but the entrance is closed with bars.

31.

In 1914-1916. in the northwestern part, the Fraternal Military Cemetery of the soldiers of the First World War was arranged. In the eastern part there are mass graves and graves of participants in the Great Patriotic War.

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I like to take long walks in historical cemeteries, but we are not here for long.

36.

The next stop is the St. Sophia Temple in the city of Sofia. No, I didn’t mix anything up) We arrived exactly in the city of Sofia, and did not teleport to Istanbul to look at the famous St. Sophia Cathedral.

37.

The temple is a kind of spiritual center of the city of Sofia, which was founded by Catherine II as part of a Greek project. Initially, the project was conceived in the image and likeness of the cathedral in Constantinople by Charles Cameron. But during the construction, the project changed somewhat, and now the cathedral bears little resemblance to the original source in Istanbul.

38.

Catherine planned to resettle ordinary people from Tsarskoye Selo to the city of Sofia. The project of the city was already ready, the streets were marked, but due to problems with drinking water and remoteness from cultural life, people refused to settle here and the city, in fact, did not work out.

But the military willingly settled in the city and soon Sofia became a military town. And the St. Sophia Church became the regimental cathedral of the hussar regiment.

39.

Among the parks located in Tsarskoye Selo, Babolovsky is the youngest and largest (268.6 hectares). In addition, it is practically deserted. Babolovsky Park on the map of Pushkin can be found in its southwestern part, far from the main tourist routes. That is why its visitors are only passionate walkers, residents of nearby settlements and couples in love. In summer, cyclists love to ride on this territory, and in winter - skiers.

In 1824, according to the plan for the reconstruction of the building, drawn up by the architect V.P. Stasov, the reconstruction of the bathing hall began in the palace. In order to fit the king bath in it, the room had to be enlarged. The reconstruction of the bath lasted for six years. Due to the large size of the bath, it was first installed, and only after that the walls of the pavilion were erected, topped with a stone dome.

Unique creation

From 1811 to 1818, masons of the St. Petersburg artel S.K. Sukhanov worked on the Tsar-bath. As a material, they took a 160-ton block of granite, which has a dark pink color. This stone was found on one of the islands of Finland. Where this miracle bath was carved out is currently unknown. However, the result of the work done surprises people so far. Stonemasons managed to create a unique bowl, which has no equal in the whole world.

The weight of the bath is 48 tons, its diameter is 5.33 m, and the depth and height are 1.52 m and 1.96 m, respectively. The work of the masons was very hard. After all, just in order to give a piece of granite a cupped shape, it was necessary to make more than one tens of billions of strokes with tools. The same effort had to be made in order to achieve the perfect roundness of the outer contours. In addition, the tools in those days were very imperfect and were made of simple steel. So the master after 3-4 blows on the stone had to stop and sharpen them.

Staro-Krasnoselsky and Alexander Gates

The boundaries of the park were finally drawn up in 1846. A rampart framed its territory, which has survived to this day.

In addition, during this period, cast-iron gates, identical in their architectural and artistic design, the Staro-Krasnoselsky and Alexander Gates were installed. Imperial eagles served as their decoration. The gates, pillars and gates of these Gothic monumental structures were cast according to the design of the architect A. A. Menelas. All parts were produced at a cast-iron plant in St. Petersburg.

Today, those who decide to visit the Babolovsky Park in Pushkin can see the Staro-Krasnoselsky Gate.

They are located on the western border of this green massif, completing the road leading from the Krasnoselsky Gate. However, they were not always in this place. Initially, they were installed near the guardhouses located at the Krasnoselsky Gates. The building was moved to its current location in 1846.

As for the Alexander Gates, they were badly damaged first during the Great Patriotic War, and then from vandalism. Today, in their place, you can see only one cast-iron figured column.

Taitsky water conduit

Anyone who visits the Babolovsky Park in the city of Pushkin should certainly see this building, which is unique. historical monument engineering art.

In the first half of the 18th century, people thought about using Taitsky water for Tsarskoye Selo. In 1749, the first work began on the arrangement of this unique structure. Taitsky aqueduct, the construction of which was completed in 1787, has a length of 15.7 km. Interestingly, in its structure it is self-flowing. The conduit was fed by the Taitsky springs, which were located in the upper reaches of the picturesque and very beautiful river Vereva. For seven kilometers, this structure was underground. Moreover, its depth sometimes reached sixteen meters. This is such a peculiar subway of the 18th century! To date, the pipeline is inactive.

Bridges

Babolovsky Park is crossed by the Tsarskoye Selo river Kuzminka. Opposite the palace, it is blocked by a dam bridge. This structure allows river waters to spill into a small lake. During the war, the dam bridge was destroyed, but during the Soviet period it was completely restored.

The Kuzminka River crosses the alleys of the park several more times. Once upon a time, bridges were built in these places, but today they have not been preserved.

Source

Not far from the bridge across the Kuzminka River, a trickle of water flows out of a metal pipe. This source is framed by a small structure, similar to a grotto, made of fragments of stones. It is difficult to judge the quality of water, but visitors to the park drink it with pleasure.

pink guardhouse

This building is located in the place where three parks of Tsarskoye Selo converge, at the intersection of Podkapriznaya road and Volkhonskoye highway.

From the pink guardhouse begins the most direct path to the Babolovsky Palace. It was here that in 1825, according to the project of the architect A. Menelas, cast-iron gates were installed. They were framed by two guardhouses. Today you can see only one of them, which, after the restoration, was given its historical pink color.

Milepost

A milestone was built not far from the Orlovsky Gates. There are quite a few of them not only in St. Petersburg itself, but also in its environs. A distinctive feature of the milestone located in Babolovsky Park is the sundial located on it.

bunker

This concrete structure has remained in the park since the war with Nazi Germany. It is not known for certain who it was built, Soviet or German soldiers. The bunker is located in a very convenient position and is located not far from the bridge over the Kuzminka River. In ancient times, a kitchen and a guardhouse, which belonged to the Babolovsky Palace, stood approximately at this place.

Location

How to get to Babolovsky Park? To do this, you need to take a bus, minibus or car to the Oryol Gate. You can also walk to Babolovo. To do this, from the Catherine Palace, you should head along the Podkapriznaya road, which separates the Alexander and Catherine parks. One of the landmarks can serve as the Chinese village, past which the route runs. The continuation of the Podkapriznaya road is as straight as an arrow Babolovskaya clearing. After the path leads out of the forest to the meadow, you will need to turn right. After two hundred meters there will be a pond with a dam, on the banks of which the ruins of the palace are located. All the way from the Oryol Gate is 2.5 km.

When can I get to Babolovsky Park? The mode of operation of this green array is not set. So it can be visited 24 hours a day.

February 4th, 2011

When I started this blog, I thought that I would write mainly about travel. But that's just with travel recent times I don't have much. Therefore, we turn to St. Petersburg and its environs. Per last years Internet enthusiasts, so to speak, local history, have jotted down tons of texts and photographs about every pebble in St. Petersburg and its environs. And this, of course, is good. I also want to join this local history choir. Any such trip is also little trip and I love them very much.
Let's start with Babolovsky Park in Tsarskoye Selo. I have good childhood memories associated with this park. As a child, I very often went for a walk to Pushkin and Pavlovsk with my parents. I spent many, many weekends in these parks. In winter we often visited Pavlovsk, went skiing and sledding, and in summer we went to Pushkin. Most of all I liked the Alexander Park. With these dilapidated bridges, collapsed pavilions, overgrown ponds and canals. All this was more like a forest, which once upon a time in ancient, and seemingly magical times, was a luxurious well-groomed park. As for Babolovsky Park, the most remote park in Pushkin from the railway station, its very existence was mysterious. I knew that he was behind Aleksandrovsky, but we went there only a few times. These were already real trips for me, with halts, a thermos and sandwiches. But for some reason, I first got to the main attraction of the park, the Babolovsky Palace, at a much older age.

It is very easy to get to Babolovsky Park. You can get there by car, minibus or bus to the Oryol Gate. Can you get from Catherine Palace, along the Podkaprizovaya road dividing the Ekaterininsky and Alexander parks, past the Chinese village, stomp to Babolovo. The continuation of this road is as straight as an arrow Babolovskaya glade. When the road leaves the forest to the meadow, you must turn right. After two hundred meters you will come to a pond with a dam. On the shore of this pond is the palace, or rather what is left of it. From the Orlovsky Gates to the Babolovsky Palace, walk about 2.5 kilometers.

The history of Babolovsky Park began in the second half of the 18th century. Catherine the Great presented these lands to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin of Tauride, and he built on them wooden house and there was a park nearby. It received the name Babolovsky from the then nearby Finnish village Babolovo. All these names of the villages surrounding St. Petersburg: Toksovo, Rappolovo, etc., despite the seemingly Russian ending "-ovo", actually have Finnish roots. Now the park is quite overgrown, but it is still clear that this is not just a forest. The landscape park, which was first created on a small area near the palace, grew over time, and became the largest in Tsarskoe Selo (almost 300 hectares). Turning an ordinary forest in the swampy lands south of St. Petersburg into a park is not an easy task, it is a huge job for many years. Instead of a swampy spruce forest with deciduous undergrowth, which can usually be seen in the southern environs of St. Petersburg, grass meadows, oak groves appeared here, such tree species were planted that never grew in these latitudes: oaks, larches, maples. At the beginning of the 19th century, with Alexander I, a School and Garden Institution was created on the territory of the park with a nursery for seedlings and greenhouses for flowers, which were supplied to other Tsarskoye Selo imperial parks. Its layout was a dense network of longitudinal and transverse paths that divided the site into many rectangles occupied by ridges and greenhouses. In the center they built a house for garden apprentices and dug two ponds. The final formation of the park took place already in the reign of Alexander II, at the same time it began to be called Babolovsky. Unfortunately, during the war, the parks of Tsarskoe Selo were badly damaged. Naturally, first of all, Catherine's Park, then Alexandrovsky, undertook to restore, hands did not really reach Babolovsky. And slowly the park turns into what it once was - into a swampy spruce forest. But the work of gardeners is still visible in some places. Nowadays, people go here for mushrooms, and in winter they go skiing.

Alley of Silvery Willows in Babolovsky Park

Pre-revolutionary Tsarskoye Selo was such a reserve of imperial "ideal" Russia. Beautiful parks, ponds and rivers full of fish, hussars and cuirassiers riding through the alleys of the park, palaces, pavilions and bridges. It was a royal and grand ducal residence, a place of deployment of elite military units, and most of the city's inhabitants were somehow engaged in servicing their needs. This whole world was mercilessly destroyed after the seventeenth year, those people disappeared without a trace, and the fascist occupation destroyed most of the material monuments of that era. Need to say thank you so much people who restored the main monuments of Tsarskoye Selo after the Great Patriotic War. But Babolovsky Park and the palace still bear the feeling of an abandoned and forgotten universe.

Babolovsky Palace

When I first saw the Babolovsky Palace, I was a little disappointed. During the war, the palace was almost completely destroyed, and in the 70s, not restoration, but conservation of this monument was carried out. It looked as if the old ruined building had been reinforced with modern concrete beams and brickwork. It looks about the same now.
The first palace built for Prince Potemkin of Tauride in 1785 was one-story, it was erected according to the project of the architect Ilya Vasilyevich Neelov. Modern look, or rather, the appearance that the building had before the war, he received after the restructuring carried out by Vasily Petrovich Stasov in 1824-1825. After Potemkin, the palace went to the imperial family. It is alleged that Emperor Alexander I met here with his mistress Sophia Velho, the daughter of the court banker Baron Velho. Moreover, the most famous distributor of this gossip was A.S. Pushkin, who in his lyceum years wrote in hexameter a difficult-to-read poem "To the Babolovsky Palace":

Beautiful! let enjoy the delight
In your arms is a Russian demigod.
What compares with your fate?
The whole world is at his feet - here he is at your feet.

Unfortunately, today it is difficult to imagine that this now rather filthy place was once suitable for romantic dates of a royal person.

Those tourists who get to the Babolovsky Palace, as the main prize, get the opportunity to look at the famous granite bath. This is the only thing that has survived to this day, surviving during the war and not having suffered over 60 years spent practically under open sky. Ordered by the same Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, the giant miracle bath was made under the guidance of the master Samson Semenovich Sukhanov, who is known for working on the creation of the colonnade of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexandria Pillar on Palace Square in St. Petersburg. The bath is carved from a single piece of granite, which was cut down near Vyborg. And the author of the project was a Russian-filed engineer Betancourt, a native of the distant Canaries, the island of Tenerife. Work on the bathroom lasted 10 years and was completed in 1828, after the death of Alexander I.
Now it is impossible to get inside the palace, but the people broke through the window blocked by brickwork. You can look at the bath, or you can try to climb inside the palace. I wouldn't say it was safe, and I wouldn't say it smelled good inside. But with some care, this can be done. Before the war, a staircase led to the bath. Although, to be honest, practical use baths are not entirely clear to me. Bathing in cold water in a granite bath in our climate is not for everybody. And there was no provision for water heating. Is it possible to build a fire under granite, but so briefly bathing gentlemen and cook.

Other attractions of the park

Let's take a look at other attractions of Babolovo.

Bridges
The park is crossed by the Tsarskoye Selo river Kuzminka. In front of the palace, it is dammed, and overflows into a small lake. The dam bridge opposite the palace was destroyed during the war, but it was rebuilt during the Soviet period.
Park alleys cross Kuzminka several more times, but the historical bridges have not been preserved there. An extensive system of alleys, meadows and groves, all this was artificially created in the 19th century.

Krasnoselsky and Starokrasnoselsky gates
In pre-revolutionary times, the Babolovsky Park was crossed by a road from Tsarskoe to Krasnoye Selo. This road was very often used by the most august persons. Training and maneuvers were held in Krasnoye every summer, the Krasnoselsky military camp arose in the second half of the 18th century. At the exit from the royal residence, the road was decorated with gates. Krasnoselsky at the exit from Alexander Park, Starokrasnoselsky at the exit from Babolovsky. The Krasnoselsky gates were popularly called "elephant gates". They recently underwent an amazing metamorphosis, four years ago the two guardhouses of this gate looked like ruins, and now they look like they were built just yesterday (see photo below). As if any minute a Cossack patrol would appear to change the guard.

Krasnoselsky Gate in 2010-11

The Krasnoselsky Gate was designed by the English architect A. Menelas in 1820. It's great that the restoration reaches the remote monuments of Pushkin. Although, to be honest, such a “remake” deprives these places of the charm of an “abandoned park”, which I always liked so much as a child.

Starokrasnoselsim gate was not lucky. Judging by the photographs I found on the Internet, they had quite recently stood in their place, although they were rusty and rickety, and the road through them did not lead anywhere except to the state farm fields. I thought they disappeared altogether. But it turned out that historically they were the central part of the Krasnoselsky Gates. And in the process of restoration they were returned to their old place. And in their old place there was nothing left but a couple of concrete pedestals.

photo http://ru.wikipedia.org

Starokrasnoselsky gate after restoration

Alexander Gate
They are located between Alexander and Babolovsky parks on the Volkhonskoye highway leading from Tsarskoye Selo to Strelna and Peterhof. They were also built according to the project of Menelas. Today, only one column from the side of the Alexander Park remains from the gate, although I remember for sure that several years ago there were several fragments of the gate.

pink guardhouse
Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the 10-year-old guardhouse, but this is another example of a recent restoration. The guardhouse was given a "native" historical pink color. The guardhouse stands at the place where three parks converge: Ekaterininsky, Babolovsky and Aleksandrovsky, and before the revolution it was intended specifically for the guard. As you can see, like modern rulers, Russian autocrats also cared about their safety, their summer residence was surrounded on all sides by guardhouses and gates.

Milepost and sundial
There is an old milestone near the Orlovsky Gates. There are plenty of these in St. Petersburg and its environs, most of them were restored in Soviet times. This one differs from others in that it is equipped with a sundial.

Taitsky water conduit
The Taitsky aqueduct was built in the reign of Catherine the Great to supply the Tsarskoye Selo ponds with water, as well as drinking water for the inhabitants of the city. The final part of the conduit passed just through the territory of Babolovsky Park. And it began in the vicinity of the village of Taitsy (this is the direction to Gatchina-Baltic). 7 kilometers of the conduit went underground, at a depth of up to 16 meters. Imagine such an 18th century metro!
You can read more about this building here:

AT summer months the city of Pushkin resembles a real green oasis. Residential buildings are surrounded by squares and flowering flower beds. In that small town there are also several fairly large well-maintained recreation areas, and one of them is Babolovsky Park, about which a lot has been written interesting stories and legends.

History of the Babolovsky manor

Prince G. A. Potemkin was a favorite of Catherine II and one of the most beloved, as he actively participated in the conspiracy of 1762, after which the empress came to power. The history of the palace in Babolovo begins in 1783. Catherine II never regretted gifts for her loved ones, and this residence became one of the royal presents to Count Potemkin. The first house built in the Babolovskaya manor was wooden, but after 5 years a stone mansion was erected in its place. The summer residence was relatively small, it was notable for its asymmetrical layout, and thanks to the Gothic design of the facade, it soon became known as a palace. In the central, largest room, there was a marble bath for bathing in summer.

Granite bath in Babolovo

Despite its beauty and originality, the Gothic palace was not very popular. Due to the lack of constant attention and care, the building is deteriorating, and already in 1791 the residence does not look very presentable. The architect V.P. Stasov undertakes the reconstruction of the palace in 1824. The oval hall is expanded, and the marble bath is replaced with an incredible bath, made of granite monolith. Looking ahead, it should be said that the Tsar Bath in Babolovsky Park has survived to this day. This incredible bath was created by the then-famous master Samson Sukhanov. A bathtub was carved out of a block of red granite interspersed with a greenish hue of labradorite, weighing more than 160 tons. The dimensions of the finished bath are amazing: the depth is 152 cm, the height is 196 cm, and the diameter is 533 cm. An interesting fact is that a huge bath was originally installed, and after that a room was built around it.

Legends about the Tsar-bath and the palace in Babolovo

In the first half of the nineteenth century, granite baths were ordered and installed in their homes by many members of the royal family and just very rich people. However, the royal bath in Babolovsky Park, installed in a palace originally built for Count Potemkin, was unusual due to its size. The bath amazed even noble people who saw it for the first time. Gradually, legends began to form about the granite pool. There were rumors that Catherine II bathed in it in goat's milk. Some sources also contain information that the future emperor, Alexander I, was baptized in the Tsar-bath. It is also rumored that the bath was used for love pleasures and for occult purposes. During the Great Patriotic War, the Germans saw the Tsar-bath and wanted to take it to Germany, but they could not think of a way to move the heavy bowl carved out of granite.

The fate of the palace today

The last full owner of the palace and park complex in Babolovo was Alexander I. The further fate of the Gothic palace with the Tsar Bath is not so rosy. Babolovsky Park and all the buildings located on its territory were badly damaged during the Great Patriotic War. Many trees were cut down, and the palace turned into a miserable ruin. After the end of the war, the recreation area was partially cleared and ennobled. No one was involved in the restoration of the palace. The abandoned walls of the once majestic and luxurious residence were dilapidated more and more, but through the ruined one could still see the majestic bath.

Modern Babolovsky Park

Today, the recreation area resembles a mixed forest. On the this moment The park covers about 30 hectares. Today it is a neglected forest and meadows with paths and a few sights. There are no cafes or attractions here, moreover, even benches can be counted on the fingers. However, this corner of nature is quite popular among city residents and tourists. Many visitors are interested in the ruins of the palace and the granite bath in Babolovsky Park. However, today what remains of the central building of the complex is surrounded by a high fence, and it is not so easy to look at the royal bath. There are some other outstanding buildings on the territory of the recreation area. For example, the Pink Guardhouse, located immediately at the entrance to the park, (1887), a concrete pillbox built during the war. Less interesting "sights" are the houses made of betonite, in which the guards once lived, and the boarding house of the Izhora plant, built in 1970. It is quite possible that the palace will soon be restored, or another modern hotel or SPA center will appear in its place.

How to get to the park with Tsar-bath?

Babolovsky Park is one of the least known in Pushkin. Often, even the indigenous inhabitants of St. Petersburg only indirectly know the legends about Tsar Bath, but have no idea where this attraction is located. If you decide to see with your own eyes the ruins left from the past greatness, you need to get to the city of Pushkin. Where exactly is Babolovsky Park located, how to get to it? From railway station or you can get there by buses No. 188 and No. 273. You need to get off at the stop "Starogatchinskoye Highway". On foot you can walk along Parkovaya street along

The history of the creation of Babolovsky Park.

Babolovsky Park is the largest and youngest of the three imperial parks in Tsarskoe Selo. The name of the park comes from a nearby village with the Finnish name Pabola, which eventually became "Babolova". Behind the Babolovsky guardhouse, the prospect of the Podkaprizovaya road continues with the Babolovsky highway - a clearing, at the end of which there was once a village.
About how the park looked in 1911, the author of the famous guide to Tsarskoye Selo S.N. Wilczkowski:
“On both sides of the clearing there is a magnificent and vast Babolovsky park with meadows, groves and endless roads for pedestrians, horseback riders and carriages”. A hundred years later, it is very problematic to recognize Babolovsky Park in this description...

Compositionally, the park was formed mainly in the 1820-1860s. Babolovsky Park is essentially the most "English" park in Tsarskoe Selo. Several generations of the august owners of Tsarskoye Selo took part in its creation, investing huge amounts of money in it. Babolovsky Park was a favorite place for walking emperors Alexander II and Nicholas II with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
On the sides of the intricately curving channel of the Kuzminka River, its green massifs are located.

The main landscape technique is the alternation of groups of trees and shrubs with meadow spaces; deciduous and coniferous species are used in plantings. The park is cut through by walking and driving roads - Novo-Babolovskaya, Longitudinal, Horse, Oak, Extreme.
All of them, with the exception of the Babolovsky highway, the direct perspective of which “takes off outside the park, leads to the oldest district - the English Garden and the Babolovsky Palace.

The architectural objects of the park were initially few in number: the Babolovsky Palace, a stone bench near the palace, the Staro-Krasnoselsky and Alexander Gates (lost), the milestone and the Crimean column.
The engineering structures of the park were all the more important: the Baur Canal of the Taitsky Water Conduit, the Monk Grotto, the Silver Pond and the grotto near the Babolovsky Palace, the Babolovsky Pond with a bridge-dam, and numerous bridges.

Before the formation of the park, the low-lying swampy area with a spruce forest in the floodplain of the Kuzminka River belonged to the peasants of the village of Babolovo. In 1748-1749. here they laid the Vittolovsky water conduit, built according to the project of engineers I. Zverev and P. Ostrovsky. The western bastion of the Menagerie was also located on the territory of the future park. Direct roads laid through the swamp led to Krasnoe Selo and St. Petersburg. The Babolovskaya clearing appeared presumably in the middle of the 18th century, but then it was not used for travel.

Then, in 1772, hydraulic engineers F.-V. Bauer, E. Carbonnier, I.K. Gerard and P. Pozdeev began the construction of the Taitsky water conduit. In 1773-1775. under the leadership of I.K. Gerard, they dug the Babolovsky pond and built the Babolovsky bridge-dam on the Kuzminka River. In 1775, through the open Baur Canal, named after its creator, the outstanding military engineer F.-V. Baura, Taitian water, which has been waiting for several decades, has come to Tsarskoye Selo.
Along the route of the water conduit there was a walking path lined with trees. It is known that in 1774 Catherine II inspected all the engineering structures of the water conduit and drove along it to Taits.
The Baur Canal crossed the Babolovskaya clearing in a pipe under the bridge, and then turned at a right angle to the northeast. At the turning point, the channel, enclosed in an underground pipe, crossed a small hill.

A grotto of boulders was built on the slope, in which there was a marble plaque with a commemorative inscription: “In the happy reign of Catherine II, fresh water was brought to Sarskoe Selo, which it did not have / by the zeal of the general. lieutenant von Baver / 1774 ".
In the grotto there was a marble statue of a hermit or a monk (not preserved), so it was called "Monk", and the Baur canal of the Taitsky water conduit was Monakh's ditch. To pass water from the Black Stream, a tributary of the Kuzminka, a stone pipe was arranged under the bed of the canal. Further, an artificial embankment was built through the peat bog so that the swamp water would not penetrate.

The canal ended in a round granite pool in front of the square at the Orlovsky (Gatchinsky) gates, from where water was delivered by an underground pipe to the Vittolovsky water divider bridge and further to the ponds of the Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsky parks, as well as for the city's water supply. The monolithic bowl of the pool, covered with debris, can still be seen on the square in front of the Orlovsky Gates.
In 1775, a marble milestone with a sundial was installed near the pool.

Its design differed from others, wooden, placed along the main water conduit to the Taitsky keys. Since the Sofia postal yard was located near it, the first on the road from St. Petersburg to Moscow, on the “marble verst pyramid”, in its appearance reminiscent of the first verst post of the Tsarskoye Selo road on the Fontanka, the distance to St. Petersburg and Moscow was indicated. From him got the name, which began right there, the Stolbovaya Road (now - Parkovaya Street and the road to Aleksandrovka).
The historical appearance of this Milestone is depicted in one of D. Quarenghi's drawings with a view of the Great Caprice. Currently, the pole is located on the side of Parkovaya Street.

Not far from the Milestone (behind the fence of the "NIDOI named after G.I. TURNER") you can see the Crimean Siberian column. The graceful column is made of a single piece of blue Ural marble with white veins, which explains its second name.
It belonged to the artistic and architectural ensemble of monuments dedicated to Russia's victories in the war with Turkey. At first, the column was located on the outskirts of Catherine's Park, part of which was attached to Babolovsky in 1817.

Babolovsky Palace. History of creation.

To the right of the Babolovsky glade, a 5-minute walk along the Baur Canal, there are the ruins of the Babolovsky Palace.
Before the war, the Babolovsky Palace housed the school of the 100th Aviation Assault Brigade of the Leningrad Military District, which was based at a nearby airfield, so the palace was severely bombarded and badly destroyed from the first days of the war.

The palace is located on the very edge of the park, at the Kuzminka river, turned here with the help of a dam into a small lake from once picturesque shores- Babolovsky pond.
The palace owes its appearance to Catherine II. In 1780 she ordered to build here a small wooden house with services. However, after three years it was ordered to break it down and build in its place a stone building with 7 rooms and a marble bath in a round room.
It was also ordered to breed the English Garden, to surround it with a shaft and a ditch to drain the place. Opposite the palace, on the other side of the river, it was planned to build a residential outbuilding and stables with a carriage house for the palace servants.

In 1783-1785. designed by architect I.V. Neyelov erected a stone building. Garden foreman John (Johann) Bush, together with Neelov, at the direction of the Empress, planned the landscape English Garden. An underground stone pipe was built around the palace in 1786 to prevent dampness, and it was also connected to the Taitsky water conduit.
The compositional solution of the small palace was dominated by red-brick facades in the spirit of English Gothic and an asymmetric layout. All rooms had access to the garden. The English garden occupied a small area of ​​trapezoidal shape, which did not reach the Babolovskaya glade and was limited in the north to the picturesque coastline Babolovsky pond. An earthen rampart with a ditch and a straight line of the Baur Canal separated the garden from the surrounding Babolovsky state forest, which then occupied the space from the Gatchina road to the Kuzminka River. A walking path along the canal connected the palace with Catherine's Park.

In front of the southern facade of the palace was excavated Silver Pond, and a grotto was built on the shore of the Babolovsky pond. The perimeter of the garden smoothly went around a winding road, in the center a network of landscape paths was arranged, leading to the windows and doors of the palace.
According to S.N. Vilchkovsky, in 1785 Catherine II granted the Babolovsky Palace, which was not originally intended for housing, to Prince Grigory Potemkin, thereby removing him to the outskirts of the palace residence. At the same time, the building remained under the jurisdiction of the Tsarskoye Selo palace administration and was never considered the property of the prince, like the Babolovskaya manor itself.

Under Alexander I, the palace with the English Garden was included in the newly created 7th part of the Tsarskoye Selo Garden, which was later called the Babolovsky Park. The park occupied the space from the large Stolbovaya road towards the village of Babolova. This road later became the planning border between Babolovsky, Ekaterininsky and Aleksandrovsky parks.

Formation of Babolovsky Park

Work on the creation of Babolovsky Park began with the dismantling of the western bastion with the walls of the Menagerie, overlooking the future park, and the layout of the area. The pillar road, which used to go around the Menagerie bastion, was straightened from the stone bridge built in the 1820s. instead of a wooden one across the Kuzminka River, to the intersection with the old highway near the village of Aleksandrovka. The swampy areas located on the right side of the Kuzminka River had to be drained.
The preliminary work took several years. By order of Alexander I, land reclamation was entrusted in 1817 to a specially invited Englishman Daniil Wheeler. The swampy peatlands leased to Wheeler were drained by him with the help of reclamation ditches. Then a fertile soil layer was formed, grasses were sown and trees were gradually planted. The meadows in this area were later called the Peat Field.

A meadow glade was planned around the Crimean column, framed by park roads and open towards Catherine's Park. In this area, in 1820, a school garden institution was built according to the project of the architect V.I. Geste and under the guidance of the garden master F.F. Lyamina.
There was a nursery for trees, as well as greenhouses for forcing summer flowers that came to decorate the Tsarskoye Selo imperial parks. Two ponds, filled with water from the Taitsky water conduit, were used for the needs of the School Gardening Institution until 1917, and later for the Tsvety greenhouse.
Now, on the site of the former Garden Establishment, some enterprising businessmen (represented by the Swedish company Steelmar Scandinavia AB) are planning to build an elite cottage village.

In the 1820s the layout of the future Babolovsky park was formed mainly by the garden master F.F. Lyamin, who laid the main walking roads to the Babolovsky Palace. The landscape roads Extreme and Horse, Novo-Babolovskaya, Oak and Longitudinal crossed the entire territory of the park, connecting and diverging to the sides.
From the Great Stolbovaya Road to the village of Babolova in 1824, Alexander I ordered the construction of a highway on the Babolovskaya clearing, as well as the removal of unnecessary forest. 30,000 new trees were planted along the sides of the roads, which turned into landscape alleys with landscape groups. Wooden bridges were built across the river and streams on these roads.

In the same 1824, Alexander I, as you know, a great lover of cold bathing, decided to install a huge bathtub made of polished granite, 5 meters high and 6 meters in diameter, in the Babolovsky Palace. It was hewn from a single block of stone by craftsmen of Samson Sukhanov's artel from St. Petersburg, known for its stone-cutting work.
A fifty-ton bath-pool made of Serdobol granite in terms of its size and perfection of forms is now perceived as a miracle, it seems that even time has no power over it.

To install a new bath to replace the old marble one, it was necessary to rebuild the old bathing hall. The project, which included an increase in its size and the creation of a new vaulted dome, was drawn up by the architect V.P. Stasov in 1824. Work to strengthen the foundations and walls in accordance with the thrust of the new dome, as well as to re-lay the walls of the adjacent premises of the pavilion, continued until 1829, and they were supervised by the architect V.M. Gornostaev.
Casting of stairs with railings, columns and platforms near the granite bath was performed by Byrd's iron foundry.
The appearance of the non-plastered facades was not changed during the reconstruction, but the facades of the office premises of the palace were plastered and painted in red-brown color “like a brick” with white paint.

During the reign of Nicholas I, work on the formation of Babolovsky Park was continued. In 1844, the name Babolovsky Park first appeared, but at that time other names were still used - Small Park, the 7th part of the New Park.
The design of the park's borders was completed in 1846, when cast-iron Staro-Krasnoselsky and Alexander Gates (lost) with imperial eagles, identical in architectural and artistic design, were installed. These Gothic monumental gates did not have guardhouses, in contrast to the same Krasnoselsky gates, built back in the 1820s. The gates with poles and wickets were cast according to the design of the architect A.A. Menelas at the St. Petersburg iron foundry and were originally located in other parts of the park.

In 1858, Emperor Alexander II ordered that the neglected roads in Babolovsky Park be put in order, beautified and brought into the same form as the rest of the Tsarskoye Selo parks.
To do this, the French architect-decorator Rondi was summoned from Paris, who presented a project for a completely new public park, with attractions and waterfalls that were fantastic for that time. The project was supposed to double the area of ​​the park and move the canal of the Baur water conduit to another place. It is clear that this could change the character palace park, designed primarily for solitary walks and enjoying nature, in a fundamental way. Rondi's plan was indignantly abandoned and, moreover, recognized as incompetent, which was the reason for sending him back to France.
History often repeats itself and the recent plans to build a golf club in Babolovsky Park are very reminiscent of the plans of an incompetent Frenchman ...

As a result, one road was laid - the Horse. Oaks, lindens, maples and other trees were planted on previously drained areas, before that the forest was cleared. The work was carried out under the guidance of one of the garden masters of the Tsarskoye Selo palace government, presumably the garden master V.I. Miller.

Nanny School in Babolovsky Park

In 1887, according to the project of architect A.F. Vidov, Orlovskaya was built on the outskirts of the park water tower(Parkovaya st., 62), one of the two historical water-lifting buildings of Tsarskoye Selo. The tower was 30 meters high and housed water tanks. Two separate outbuildings were built for the electric machine and the caretaker. The complex was connected to the Taitsky water conduit, and later - to the Orlovsky, and underground storage tanks.
A beautiful plot in a meadow near the Crimean Column opposite the Oak Grove of Catherine's Park, where the Spare Yard was previously located, was allotted in 1905 for the construction of the House of Charity for the Mutilated Warriors of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (64 Parkovaya Street). The idea to create a shelter for charity of the lower ranks, who were injured in the Russo-Japanese War, belonged to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

The building was built according to the project of S.A. Danini. In December 1906 the Charity House was consecrated and opened. In 1914-1915. The charity house was expanded with additional outbuildings according to the project of S.A. Danini, the staff architect of this institution, and additionally equipped as an infirmary in connection with the outbreak of the First World War. Here they placed 170 beds for the wounded, set up operating rooms, dressing rooms and an X-ray room that served all the Tsarskoye Selo infirmaries.
The Empress herself took part in the development of the project of the building, designed to accommodate 150 people, according to the idea of ​​which workshops were arranged for the disabled in the shelter. The joiner's workshop had master teachers from the famous Meltzer factory, the tailor's workshop - from Vollenweider, one of the best tailors in St. Petersburg.
Apartments for craftsmen were located in a shelter, but they received a salary from their owners. For the workshops of knitting, basketry, shoemaking, bookbinding, laundry and other craftsmen were hired by the administration. All workshops, with the exception of knitting, were loaded with orders.
Each disabled person from the Charity House was given free of charge all the tools he needed and paid for travel to the house. Those who studied tailoring and knitting were presented with Singer sewing machines at the time of graduation.

In the depths of the park behind the Babolovskaya clearing, small one-story houses made of betonite, completed with gable roofs, were built according to the project of military engineer K. Griboyedov. All this was done using the latest technology at that time - from betonite blocks. The houses were the same and were intended for housing disabled families who were arranged to work as watchmen in the park. By the beginning of 1917, ten such houses were erected, one of them was for the residence of craftsmen from Meltzer and Nenru. Three of these houses in Babolovsky Park have been preserved.
The house of charity for crippled soldiers was closed in 1920, but the institution that occupied it also has a humanitarian and medical profile. Now it is a clinic of the country's largest children's orthopedic research institute named after G.I. Turner.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna donated in 1903 a site located in Babolovsky Park between Gatchina Highway and the Baur Canal for the construction of the School of Nanny (Krasnoselskoye Highway, 9), which she founded.
The school, which had a shelter for children of poor parents and orphans, trained nannies to care for infants. The building was built in 1904 according to the project of the architect S.A. Danini. The Empress often attended school with the Grand Duchesses, where they could learn how to take care of children. A garden was laid out around the school based on the nursery of the School Gardening Institution that was located here earlier.
At the beginning of the First World War, the Empress organized one of the Tsarskoye Selo infirmaries here. After 1917, the building was adapted for a general education school, which is located here and now.

Babolovsky park after the war.

After 1918, Babolovsky Park was under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Palaces-Museums and Parks in Pushkin (Children's Village).
During the Great Patriotic War, this monument of national landscape art suffered great damage. From the palace, which burned down as a result of the bombing, there were brick walls and a granite bath, many trees were lost in the park itself.
In the 1970s, with the condition of restoring the palace and the park, Izhora Plant was given a place in the buffer zone of the Babolovsky Park for the construction of a boarding house for workers to rest, but the condition was not fully met.
The boarding house was built, while destroying a section of the Taitsky water conduit, which until that time still delivered water to park ponds, and the ruins of the palace were only mothballed.

Now the boarding house has been transformed into a hotel with a loud historical name, the workers were transferred as a class, and the palace remains in ruins as a memory of the war and as a symbol of the current government's disregard for its citizens and its own history.

In 2015, the Babolovsky Park was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve and it has tangible prospects for restoration.
The museum's first step in restoring the park was a (formal) ban on everything that the townspeople loved to do here: kindle, bathe, litter ... and the pearl of the park - the Babolovsky Palace, was surrounded by a fence and surrounded by round-the-clock security.

The article is written on the basis of materials from the book by G.V. Semenova "Tsarskoe Selo: familiar and unfamiliar".