Palaces of Catherine's era. Investments for the Great Catherine Palace

July 4th, 2014 , 10:32 am

The Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace is a Baroque masterpiece created by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli for Elizabeth Petrovna. During the Great Patriotic War the palace was destroyed, today 32 of the 58 halls have been restored, including the Amber Room. Perhaps this is the most impressive Russian “remake”.

1. The central part of the palace is based on two-story “stone chambers” built in 1717-1724 by the architect Braunstein for Catherine I.

2. Modern palace erected in 1748-1756 by the chief architect of the imperial court F.-B. Rastrelli.

3. Now on the side of the building there is a monument to the famous architect.

4. The facade of the palace is presented in the form of a wide azure ribbon with snow-white columns and gilded ornaments, giving the building a special chic.

5. In the north-eastern part of the building is the Palace Church of the Resurrection.

6. There is a building nearby Imperial Lyceum, connected to the palace by an arch.

7. The front courtyard of the residence is limited by two circumferences and contains a parade ground. At the edges there are two yellow service (kitchen) buildings.

8. To get inside the palace in the summer, you need to stand in a forty-minute line in the heat.

9. While waiting, look at the details of the building.

10. The last large-scale restoration of the building was more than ten years ago, now the facades need cosmetic repairs.

11. The blue and gold paints have faded.

12. The columns of the palace support sculptures of Atlanteans; their faces can only be seen if you come close to the building.

13. First of all, we get to Grand staircase, decorated with the sculpture “Waking Cupid” from 1860.

14. The staircase was created under Catherine II by Charles Cameron on the site Chinese hall. In memory of this, the interior is decorated with vases and dishes made of Chinese porcelain.

15. The ceiling of the hall is decorated with paintings “Aeneas and Venus”, “Jupiter and Callisto” and “The Judgment of Paris”. They replaced canvases that were destroyed by collapsed ceilings during the war.

16. The stucco decoration of the walls and the caryatids framing the doorways were restored based on the discovered details and pre-war images.

17. The large clock was also recreated.

18. Green dining room- part of the personal chambers of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and his first wife Natalya Alekseevna, built under Catherine II on the site of an open terrace - a “hanging” garden.

19. Interior Waitress decorated with mahogany chairs, a Swedish chest of drawers from the second half of the 18th century and a sculpture by M.-A. Collot "Head of a Girl" from 1769.

20. Small White dining room in the personal chambers of Elizabeth, Catherine II and Alexander I. Its interior was formed after the fire of 1820.

21. In the ceiling lamp there is a copy of the painting “The Bathing of Venus” by K. Vanloo.

22. Located next door Chinese living room of Alexander I.

23. Its interior is distinguished by silk upholstery of the walls painted with watercolors in the Chinese style.

24. On the walls are portraits, including those of Emperor Peter II, painted by I.-P. Ludena.

25. Next - Pantry, which until 1761 formed part of the Dressing Room on Elizabeth Petrovna’s half.

26. For the lampshade, a painting by the 17th century Italian artist P. da Cortona “Fishing Corals”, transferred from the Hermitage collections, was used.

27. Cavalier's dining room- a small hall, visually enlarged by mirrors and false mirror windows.

28. On the tables are items of the famous “Order” services, decorated with signs and ribbons of Russian orders.

29. The picturesque ceiling in the center of the ceiling is decorated with a painting by an unknown Russian master of the mid-18th century on the subject ancient myth about the sun god Helios and the goddess morning dawn Eos, obtained from the funds of the Russian Museum.

30. White formal dining room intended for ceremonial dinners and “evening dishes” of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in a narrow circle of those close to her.

31. Green Pillar under Catherine II, it served as a pantry, in which silverware and porcelain were stored. Here is one of the multi-tiered tiled stoves with cobalt painting, columns and niches. Similar stoves, created according to Rastrelli’s sketches, were an integral part of all the halls of the palace’s front suite.

32.

33. B Portrait Hall ceremonial images of royalty were displayed. Nowadays, in addition to portraits, you can see one of the empress’s dresses.

34. The ceiling of the hall is decorated with transferred from Yusupov Palace picturesque lampshade “Mercury and Glory”.

35. The first in a series of the most impressive halls of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace - Picture hall with an area of 180 m².

36. Paintings are placed in it according to the principle of trellis hanging. When placing works on the wall, Rastrelli took into account, first of all, their size and color scheme: separated from each other by a narrow gilded baguette, the paintings merge into a single colorful “carpet”.

37. The “Olympus” lampshade, a copy of the lampshade of the Jordan Staircase of the Winter Palace, is in harmony with the overall color of the walls.

38. Big hall , or the Light Gallery - the most significant ceremonial room of the palace, created according to the design of the architect F.-B. Rastrelli in 1752-1756.

39. Its area is more than 800 m².

40. Alternating large windows with mirrors visually expands the boundaries of the room.

41. The sculptural and ornamental carvings, covering the planes of the walls with a continuous pattern, were made according to the sketches of Rastrelli and the models of the sculptor-decorator Dunker by 130 Russian carvers.

42. The original pictorial ceiling was painted in 1752-1754 according to a sketch by the Venetian artist D. Valeriani. It consisted of three independent compositions depicting the “Allegory of Russia”, “Allegory of the World” and “Allegory of Victory”.

43. In the 1790s, due to the deformation of the ceilings, Valeriani’s ceiling was removed to the palace storerooms, and in 1856-1858, artists F. Wunderlich and E. Franciuoli created a new composition “Allegorical image of Science, Art and Diligence.” This lamp was destroyed during the war.

44. In the 1950s during restoration Mikhailovsky Castle The side parts of the old lampshade, “Allegory of Peace” and “Allegory of Victory,” which were considered lost, were discovered. It was decided to recreate Valeriani’s ceiling, returning the surviving compositions to Tsarskoe Selo. The central part was restored according to sketches and descriptions made by Valeriani himself, as well as according to a drawing by Stackenschneider from 1857.

45. Amber room rightly called one of the wonders of the world. Initially, this interior was created for the Prussian queen Miria-Charlotte, but in 1716 it was presented to Peter the Great by Frederick William I, but only under Elizabeth did it find a place in the old Winter Palace. With her, the precious panels were carried in her arms (!) to Tsarskoye Selo. Rastrelli installed them in the middle tier of the walls, separating them with pilasters and mirrors, and decorated the room with gilded carvings. Where there was not enough amber, fragments of the walls were covered with canvas and painted “to look like amber” by the artist Belsky. After the capture of Pushkin by German troops, the panels were taken away by the Kunstkomission team and until 1944 were exhibited at Königsberg Castle. When the Germans retreated, the panels were again dismantled, packed into boxes and taken to an unknown location.

46. Restoration of the room began in 1979. In 2000, a Russian typesetting chest of drawers from the late 18th century and a Florentine mosaic “Touch and Smell,” which were part of the room’s original decoration, were returned to the museum, discovered in Germany. By 2003, the decoration of the hall was completely restored.

47. In an inconspicuous corridor of the palace hangs a painting depicting the palace in a terrible state in 1944. It reminds us of the enormous damage war can do to history and culture.

Catherine Palace- one of the biggest .

- former imperial palace. Is located in modern city Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo), 25 kilometers south of St. Petersburg. The city of Pushkin itself is part of the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg.

The exhibition of the Catherine Palace (until 1910 - the Great Tsarskoye Selo) Palace Museum covers the almost 300-year history of the outstanding monument and introduces the work of the architects who participated in its construction and decoration in XVIII-XIX centuries, as well as with the achievements of restorers who revived the palace after the Great Patriotic War. Of the 58 halls of the palace destroyed during the war, 32 have been recreated.

In 1717, when St. Petersburg was created on the banks of the Neva, in Tsarskoye Selo under the leadership of the architect I.F. Braunstein began the construction of the first stone royal house, which went down in history under the name “stone chambers”. In August 1724, to mark the completion of construction, a celebration was held in the palace, during which “13 cannons were fired three times.” The Tsar and major statesmen were present at the celebration. At that time, the palace was a small two-story building typical of Russian architecture of the early 18th century.

During the reign, at the end of 1742 - beginning of 1743, it was decided to expand the building according to the design of M. G. Zemtsov (1688-1743), but the death of the architect prevented the implementation of the plan. After Zemtsov, work in Tsarskoye Selo was carried out by A. V. Kvasov (1720 - after 1770) and his assistant G. Trezzini (1697-1768), but already in May 1745 Trezzini was replaced by the famous architect S. I. Chevakinsky (1713-1780) , who supervised construction in Tsarskoye Selo until the early 1750s.

From the end of 1748 to 1756, the construction of the Tsarskoye Selo residence was headed by the chief architect of the imperial court, F.B. Rastrelli (1700-1761). On May 10, 1752, Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree on a major reconstruction of the old building, and already on July 30, 1756, Rastrelli demonstrated his new creation to the crowned customer and foreign ambassadors.

The palace, built in the Baroque style, delighted with its size, powerful spatial dynamics and “picturesque” decor. The wide azure ribbon of the facade with snow-white columns and gilded ornaments looked festive.

Rastrelli decorated the palace facades with figures of Atlanteans, caryatids, lion masks and other stucco decorations made according to the models of the sculptor I.F. Duncker (1718-1795). The five gilded domes of the Palace Church rose above the northern building, and above the southern one, where the front porch was located, a dome with a multi-pointed star on the spire. About 100 kilograms of red gold were spent on gilding the external and internal decorations. At the same time, the parade ground was finally decorated, fenced with palace wings and single-story service buildings located in a semicircle - circumferences.

Rastrelli decorated the palace apartments just as luxuriously. The Front Enfilade he created, decorated with gilded carvings, was called “golden”. The enfilade arrangement of halls, unknown in Russia until the mid-18th century, was introduced by Rastrelli in other palaces, but only in Tsarskoye Selo the length of the front rooms was equal to the length of the entire building - from the Main Staircase to the Palace Church.

The next stage in the design of the palace's state and residential halls dates back to the 1770s. The new owner of the residence, passionate about ancient art, wanted to decorate her apartments in accordance with fashionable tastes and entrusted their decoration to the Scottish architect, an expert on ancient architecture, Charles Cameron (1743-1812). The interiors he created - the Arabesque and Lyon living rooms, the Chinese Hall, the Domed Dining Room, the Silver Cabinet, the Blue Study (Snuffbox) and the Bedchamber - were distinguished by their refined beauty, severity of decorative design and special elegance of decoration. Unfortunately, these halls were destroyed during the Great Patriotic War and have not yet been restored.

The rooms intended for Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (the future Emperor Paul I) and his wife, designed by Charles Cameron in the same years, have now been recreated: the Green Dining Room, the Waiter's Room, the State Blue Room, the Chinese Blue Room and the Bedchamber allow you to get acquainted with the unique interiors created by Scottish architect, whose work was so loved by Catherine II.

In 1817, by order (1769-1848), he created the State Office and several adjacent rooms, decorated in the same style - everything in these rooms was dedicated to the glorification of the brilliant victories won by the Russian army in the Patriotic War of 1812.

The final chord in the palace enfilade was the Grand Staircase, created in 1860-1863 by I. A. Monighetti (1819-1878) in the “second Rococo” style.

The Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace is a Baroque masterpiece created by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli for Elizabeth Petrovna. During the Great Patriotic War, the palace was destroyed; to date, 32 of the 58 halls have been restored, including the Amber Room. Perhaps this is the most impressive Russian “remake”.