Elizabeth's Summer Palace. Panorama of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna
A large number of palace buildings, the wealth and luxury of their decoration have been transforming the architectural appearance of St. Petersburg for many years. After all, this city is famous for its unique palaces of major officials, aristocrats and other noble persons. The Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna is worthy of attention.
With the accession of the new empress to the throne, the next stage in the formation of cultural spheres began in the state. This period of prosperity also had an impact on the capital. The city has changed significantly. In the era of cultural development of St. Petersburg, preference was given to the construction architectural monuments. The Summer Palace deserves special attention.
During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741 - 1761), the construction of palaces was of particular importance. Then the construction of real masterpieces was carried out by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, one of the best architects in the history of the state. His works also include the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. It cannot but be noted as the best work of the architect.
The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg was built by B. F. Rastrelli from 1741 to 1744. According to the architect, the building included about 160 apartments, among which there was a church and galleries. The palace was decorated with numerous sculptures, fountains and a garden. Over time, the residence experienced a number of changes related to the architect's dissatisfaction with his work. Construction activities continued here for several years.
In the first half of the 18th century, the territory on which the Mikhailovsky Castle is located belonged to the Summer Garden - the royal estate of Peter I. Empress Anna Ioannovna ordered the construction of a palace to begin on this site. The construction was entrusted to the architect Rastrelli Jr. But the architect did not have time to start work during the life of the empress. In 1740, power passed to Anna Leopoldovna, who decided to implement the project founded by her predecessor. But after some time, a palace coup occurs, as a result of which imperial power passes to the youngest daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth. The Tsesarevna gives F.B. Rastrelli the order to build the Summer Palace. The Empress liked the result of the architect's work so much that she doubled his salary. The exact date of foundation of the building is still controversial. According to some historians, this event falls on July 24, 1741. Moreover, the beginning of the laying took place in the presence of Empress Anna, her husband, as well as some courtiers and members of the guard.
The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna belongs to the Russian Baroque style. This was the name of a set of architectural trends that formed on the territory of the Russian Empire and the Russian state in the 12th – 13th centuries. The buildings of this period were characterized by:
the splendor and intricacy of architectural forms;
luxurious finishes;
using modeling;
the use of painting and gilding.
Among the styles of this era, the Petrine Baroque is distinguished, which arose thanks to the buildings of not only compatriots, but also architects from Western Europe. They were invited by Peter I to ennoble the new capital, St. Petersburg. Most characteristic features Peter's Baroque were:
rejection of the Byzantine manner;
simplicity and practicality;
facades in red and white shades;
presence of symmetry of forms;
mansard roofs;
arched window openings.
Many of the engravings and drawings that have survived from that era depict almost exactly the appearance of the palace. Stone was chosen as the basis for the first floor, wood for the second. The building was painted in light pink shades, which is remarkable for the Baroque style. The ground floor was made of granite in gray-green color. The Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna had two facades: the main facade overlooked the Moika River, towards the Summer Garden, and the other faced the Nevsky Prospect. Service buildings were located along the entire perimeter, which imitated a kind of isolation. A wide road was laid along the Fontanka, which was accompanied by greenhouses and fruit trees. Part of this territory was occupied by the Elephant Yard, the inhabitants of which swam in the Fontanka if they wished. The entrance to the palace was fenced with wide gates, on which gilded double-headed eagles shimmered. The gate was decorated with an openwork lattice. Behind the fence was a large front yard. The view of the main façade was blocked by large flower beds and trees, which formed a kind of park. The central building was occupied by the Bolshoi main hall. It was decorated with Bohemian mirrors, marble sculptures and paintings by famous artists. At the western side of the hall stood the royal throne. The living rooms, decorated with gilded carvings, led directly to the main hall. From the outside, shaped stairs approached the room.
Within a year, a covered gallery was completed, through which one could take a walk to the Summer Garden. Paintings by famous painters were hung on the walls of such a gallery. A terrace with a hanging garden was also designed here, located at the mezzanine level, where the Hermitage and fountain were located. The contour of the terrace was fenced with a gilded lattice. Later, a palace church was added to this site. After some time, a decorative park was planted near the palace. A huge labyrinth, bosquets and gazebos passed through it. Swings and carousels were placed in the center of the park. On the territory adjacent to the palace, a complex of water towers was built, since the previous water supply to the fountains did not have the necessary pressure. Similar water towers were ennobled with the help of palace painting.
The architect Rastrelli was not satisfied with his work. For this reason, a decade later, he brought the wooden Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna to a real masterpiece. Rastrelli regularly remodeled some parts of the building. So, later the walls were transformed with the help of figured window frames and atlases. Lion masks and mascarons also served as their decoration.
The summer residence is Elizabeth’s first own home. Before the empress, no one lived in this building. The Tsesarevna occupied the eastern wing of the residence. The West Wing was reserved for courtiers. Queen Elizabeth admired the luxury of the Summer Palace. Every year in April the Empress left Winter Palace to settle down for a while in the summer. The whole yard moved with her. This event turned into a real ceremony, accompanied by an orchestra and artillery fire. In September, Elizabeth moved back.
In 1754, the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg became the birthplace of Paul I, who soon came to power. In 1762, feasts were held here on the occasion of the peace agreement with Prussia. As soon as the new Emperor Paul I came to power, he immediately gave the order to demolish the structure. In its place, a castle was erected, known today as Mikhailovsky. It was in this residence that the life of Paul I ended. According to one of the legends, Mikhailovsky Castle was not built by chance on the site of the Summer Palace. The emperor wished to spend the rest of his life in the place where he was born. Another legend says that the Archangel Michael appeared to the guard and ordered the construction of a temple on the territory where the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna was located. After this incident, the emperor ordered the construction of a new palace and church in the name of Archangel Michael to begin. Thus, St. Michael's Castle got its name by analogy with the Temple of the Archangel Michael.
The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna is an unpreserved imperial residence in St. Petersburg, built by B. F. Rastrelli in 1741-1744 on the site where the Mikhailovsky (Engineers) Castle is now located. Demolished in 1796.
Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna (built in 1741, demolished in 1797).
M.I. Mahaev 1756
In 1712 on south coast Moika, where the pavilion of the Mikhailovsky Garden is now, a small manor house was built for Ekaterina Alekseevna, topped with a turret with a gilded spire, which bore the pretentious name “Golden Mansions”. According to him, the Big Meadow (the future Champ de Mars) on the opposite bank received the name Tsaritsyn Meadow: it was this name that would be used most often in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The area near the palace is called the 3rd Summer Garden. On July 11, 1721, the Duke of Holstein's chamberlain Berchholtz, having examined the estate, wrote down:
“The garden was recently planted and therefore there is nothing in it yet, except for the already quite large fruit trees. Five ponds located nearby were dug here to contain live fish brought to the royal table.”
In the queen's greenhouses, the gardener Ekliben grew fruits rare for northern latitudes: pineapples, bananas, etc.
Even then, the idea arose to close the alley of the Summer Garden opposite the Carpiev Pond with a palace building. This is evidenced by the project of 1716-1717, preserved in the archives. Its possible author is J.B. Leblon. It depicts a small nine-axle palace, the elevated center of which is topped with a tetrahedral dome. Wide one-story galleries cover the cour d'honneur with a lush figured parterre facing the Moika River. Behind there is a garden with numerous bosquets of various shapes. Fruit plantings have been preserved on the territory of the current Mikhailovsky Garden.
However, things did not go further than plans.
MAKHAEV Mikhail Ivanovich
Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna and the front courtyard in front of it. View from the south. B. g. Ink, pen, brush
Under Anna Ioannovna, the 3rd Summer Garden turns into a “jagd-garten” - a garden for “chasing and shooting deer, wild boars, hares, as well as a gallery for hunters and stone walls to prevent bullets and shot from flying in.” The “vegetable garden” was moved to Liteinaya Street, where the Mariinsky Hospital would later be built.
In the early 1740s. B.F. Rastrelli began the construction of one of the most remarkable buildings of the developed Russian Baroque - the Summer Palace in the 3rd Summer Garden for the ruler Anna Leopoldovna.
Ivan ARGUNOV (1727(29)-1802). Portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
However, while construction was underway, a revolution occurred, and Elizaveta Petrovna became the owner of the building. By 1744, the palace, made of wood on stone cellars, was roughly completed. The architect, in describing the buildings he created, spoke about him like this:
“This building had more than 160 apartments, including a church, a hall and galleries. Everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as was the new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built on the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded."
Summer Palace.
Fragment of "Axonometric plan of St. Petersburg 1765-1773 by P. de Saint-Hilaire."
Despite its location within the city limits, the building is designed according to an estate plan. The plan was created under the obvious influence of Versailles, which is especially noticeable from the side of the cour d'honneur: the successively narrowing spaces enhanced the effect of the baroque perspective of the courtyard, fenced off from the access road by a latticework of a magnificent design with state emblems.
One-story service buildings along the perimeter of the cour d'honneur emphasize the traditional Baroque isolation of the ensemble. The rather flat decor of the light pink facades (mezzanine pilasters with Corinthian capitals and corresponding rusticated stone plinth blades, figured window frames) was offset by a rich play of volumes.
Complex in plan, highly developed side wings included courtyards with small flower parterres. Lush entrance porticoes led to staircase volumes, as always with Rastrelli, offset from the central axis. From the main staircase, a series of living rooms decorated with gilded carvings led to the most representative hall of the palace - the Throne. Its two-light volume accentuated the center of the building.
From the outside, curly stairs led to it, complemented by ramps on the garden side. The appearance of the palace was completed, giving it baroque splendor, by numerous statues and vases on the pediments and balustrade crowning the building.
Rastrelli decorated the space up to the Moika with floral parterres with three fountain pools of complex outlines.
Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg.
thin L. F. Bonstedt. (according to the drawing by M.I. Makhaev. 1753). 1847.
As often happened with the creations of an architect, over time the logical and harmonious original plan changes to suit momentary requirements.
In 1744, for the Empress to go to the 2nd Summer Garden across the Moika, he built a one-story covered gallery, decorated with paintings hanging on the walls. Here, in 1747, near the northwestern risalit, he creates a terrace hanging garden on the mezzanine level with the Hermitage pavilion and a fountain in the center of the ground floor.
Along its contour it is fenced with a lush gilded trellis lattice, and multi-march gatherings into the garden are organized. Later, a palace church was added to the northeastern risalit, expanding it with an additional row of rooms from the Fontanka side.
Bay windows and lanterns appear on the western façade.
On the territory adjacent to the palace, a decorative park was laid out with a huge complex green labyrinth, bosquets, trellis pavilions and two trapezoidal ponds with semicircular projections (still preserved, they acquired free outlines during the reconstruction of the park for the grand ducal residence). Rastrelli reports about his work in the park in 1745:
“On the banks of the Moika in the new garden I built a large building of baths with a round salon and a fountain with several jets, with ceremonial rooms for relaxation.”
In the center of the park there were swings, slides, and carousels. The structure of the latter is unusual: rotating benches were placed around a large tree, and in the crown there was a gazebo, which was accessed by a spiral staircase.
Alexey Grekov. View of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth
Another building located in close proximity from the north-eastern corner of the palace is associated with the name of the architect: the water supply system for the fountains of the Summer Garden, completed in the 1720s. no longer gave enough pressure, and did not correspond to the splendor and grandeur of the imperial residence.
In the mid-1740s. Rastrelli builds water towers with an aqueduct across the Fontanka.
Technically complex, the purely utilitarian structure made of wood was decorated with palace luxury: the wall paintings imitated lush baroque modeling.
Despite the fact that the palace was the ceremonial imperial residence, there was no direct connection with the Nevsky Prospect: the road, which ran among unpresentable random buildings (on the banks of the Fontanka there were glaciers, greenhouses, workshops and the Elephant Yard) turned onto Italianskaya Street, and only bypassing the palace I . I. Shuvalov, built by Savva Chevakinsky, the carriages through Malaya Sadovaya reached the central transport artery of the city.
Direct communication will appear only in the next century thanks to the work of C. Rossi.
Elizaveta Petrovna loved the Summer Palace very much. At the end of April - beginning of May (weather permitting), the empress's ceremonial move from the winter residence was celebrated with a magnificent ceremony with the participation of the court, orchestra, and guard regiments accompanied by an artillery salute from the cannon and guns of the Winter Palace Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty.
Parallel imperial yachts, standing on the roadstead opposite Apraksin's house, sailed to the Summer Garden. The queen set off on her return journey in late September with the same ceremonies.
On September 20, 1754, the future Emperor Paul I was born within the walls of the palace. After the death of the queen, the palace was still used: the conclusion of peace with Prussia was celebrated here.
In the throne room, Catherine II receives congratulations from foreign ambassadors on the occasion of her accession to the throne. However, over time, the owner begins to give preference to other summer residences, especially Tsarskoe Selo, and the building is falling into disrepair.
First, he is given residence to G. Orlov, then to G. Potemkin. A catastrophic flood in September 1777 destroyed the fountain system of the Summer Garden. The fashion for regular parks passed, and the water cannons were not restored; the unnecessary Rastrelli aqueduct was dismantled.
Mikhailovsky Castle from the embankment. Fontanka.
Benjamin Patersen.
At the end of the 1770s. the palace was dismantled by order of Paul I for the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, the foundation of which took place on February 28, 1797.
There are two legends of the foundation of the Mikhailovsky Castle: according to one, Paul I said: “I want to die where I was born,” according to another, a soldier standing guard in the Summer Palace, when he dozed off, saw the Archangel Michael and ordered him to tell the Tsar to build a church on this place .
Beggrov K.P.
View of the Engineering Castle from the Summer Garden. 1830s
Be that as it may, in February 1796, “due to dilapidation,” the Elizabethan dwelling was demolished and construction of a new imperial stronghold began. And today, only the volumetric construction of the castle’s façade facing the Summer Garden (possibly at the request of the monarch) and the magnificent drawings of M. I. Makhaev remind of the disappeared building.
***
St. Petersburg and suburbs
In the 18th century, women often found themselves in power in Russia, and naturally there were favorites in their lives. They were immensely endowed with titles and estates, and often had enormous political influence. Some received real palaces as gifts. Who received such an honor, and which of these palaces have survived in St. Petersburg to this day?
Anichkov Palace (Nevsky Prospekt, 39)
Anichkov Palace is the first palace to appear on Nevsky Prospekt. That’s what it was called a few years later, when the famous Anichkov Bridge appeared next to it.
Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter I, having ascended the throne in 1741 as a result of a palace coup, ordered the construction of a palace in honor of her triumph.
Although it was officially announced that the palace was being built for the new empress, everyone understood that in fact it was intended for Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky, who was her favorite at that time. Razumovsky was famous for his beauty and good nature, and although he had great power at court, he never really used it.
The construction of the palace began immediately after the coronation, the architect Mikhail Zemtsov began to build it, and it was completed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The building was located so that its main entrance and main facade faced the Fontanka embankment, and not Nevsky Prospekt. At that time, Nevsky Prospekt was not yet the main street of the city and, in addition, many guests reached this palace along the Fontanka, which was then the border of St. Petersburg.
In 1771, Razumovsky died, and Catherine II, having bought the palace from the Razumovsky family, gave it to her new favorite, Grigory Potemkin. He decided to rebuild the palace in a more classical style, which was done. Subsequently, the palace changed its owners more than once, and was seriously rebuilt more than once.
Shuvalovsky Palace (Italyanskaya St., 25)
The mansion belonged to Elizaveta Petrovna’s young favorite, Ivan Shuvalov, a very versatile man who was interested in politics and art. Largely thanks to his efforts, Moscow University and the Academy of Arts were opened.
Instead of building new mansion“from scratch,” it was decided, taking one of the existing buildings as a basis, and thoroughly rebuilding it to suit one’s taste. The architect Savva Chevakinsky was involved in the construction of the mansion, who chose the Elizabethan Baroque style for it. The mansion was built very quickly - in just two years, and Shuvalov and his wife moved there.
However, later, under Empress Catherine II, Shuvalov was excommunicated from the court and was forced to leave Russia. By order of one of the subsequent owners of the palace, Prosecutor General Alexander Vyazemsky, the palace was rebuilt in the classical style.
Marble Palace (Millionnaya Street, 5/1)
This palace was built for another favorite of Catherine II, Count Grigory Orlov. The Empress made such a generous gift to the count for his courage and courage shown during the palace coup, thanks to which Catherine ascended the Russian throne.To decorate the facades and interiors of this palace, marble was used, and the most varied - 32 varieties. Therefore, this palace began to be called Marble. It was also called the Palace for the Favorite.
However, the construction of the palace dragged on for 17 years and, unfortunately, Count Orlov died before the work was completed. Now the Marble Palace has been transferred to the Russian Museum.
Gatchina Palace
The Gatchina Palace also belonged to Grigory Orlov. It was built in an unusual style for Russia - an English hunting castle. The project was carried out by Italian Antonio Rinaldi. This palace also took a very long time to build - 15 years, and Orlov only had a chance to live in it for a very short time - only two years.
Tavrichesky Palace (Shpalernaya street, building 47)
This palace, one of the largest in Europe, was built by Catherine the Great for Prince Potemkin. It was under his leadership that the Russian army, having won the Russian-Turkish war, annexed Crimean peninsula, then called "Tavrida". After this, Potemkin began to be called Tauride. But Potemkin a year later sold this palace as unnecessary and left for the south on business. Catherine bought this palace and gave it to him again - this time for the capture of the Turkish fortress of Izmail.
Coordinates: 59°56′26.5″ n. w. / 30°20′15.5″ E. d. 59.940694° s. w.59.940694 , 30.337639
30.337639° E. d.(G) (O) (I)
Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna
- an unpreserved imperial residence in St. Petersburg, built by B. F. Rastrelli in 1741-1744 on the site where the Mikhailovsky (Engineers) Castle is now located. Demolished in 1796.
History of construction
“This building had more than 160 apartments, including a church, a hall and galleries. Everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as was the new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built on the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded."
Despite its location within the city limits, the building is designed according to an estate plan. The plan was created under the clear influence of Versailles, which is especially noticeable from the side of the cour d'honneur: the successively narrowing spaces enhanced the effect of the baroque perspective of the courtyard, fenced off from the access road by a latticework of a magnificent design with state emblems. One-story service buildings along the perimeter of the cour d'honneur emphasize the traditional Baroque isolation of the ensemble. The rather flat decor of the light pink facades (mezzanine pilasters with Corinthian capitals and corresponding rusticated stone plinth blades, figured window frames) was offset by a rich play of volumes. Complex in plan, highly developed side wings included courtyards with small flower parterres. Lush entrance porticoes led to staircase volumes, as always with Rastrelli, offset from the central axis. From the main staircase, a series of living rooms decorated with gilded carvings led to the most representative hall of the palace - the Throne. Its two-light volume accentuated the center of the building. From the outside, curly stairs led to it, complemented by ramps on the garden side. The appearance of the palace was completed, giving it baroque splendor, by numerous statues and vases on the pediments and balustrade crowning the building. Rastrelli decorated the space up to the Moika with floral parterres with three fountain pools of complex outlines.
As often happened with the creations of an architect, over time the logical and harmonious original plan changes to suit momentary requirements. In 1744, for the Empress to go to the 2nd Summer Garden across the Moika, he built a one-story covered gallery, decorated with paintings hanging on the walls. Here, near the northwestern risalit, he creates a terrace of a hanging garden at the mezzanine level with the Hermitage pavilion and a fountain in the center of the ground floor. Along its contour it is fenced with a lush gilded trellis lattice, and multi-march gatherings into the garden are organized. Subsequently, a palace church was added to the northeastern risalit, expanding it with an additional row of rooms from the Fontanka side. Bay windows and lanterns appear on the western façade.
On the territory adjacent to the palace, a decorative park was laid out with a huge complex green labyrinth, bosquets, trellis pavilions and two trapezoidal ponds with semicircular projections (still preserved, they acquired free outlines during the reconstruction of the park for the grand ducal residence). Rastrelli reports about his work in the park in 1745:
“On the banks of the Moika in the new garden, I built a large building of baths with a round salon and a fountain with several jets, with ceremonial rooms for relaxation.”
In the center of the park there were swings, slides, and carousels. The structure of the latter is unusual: rotating benches were placed around a large tree, and a gazebo was hidden in the crown, into which one climbed up a spiral staircase.
Another building located in close proximity to the north-eastern corner of the palace is associated with the name of the architect: the water supply system for the fountains of the Summer Garden, completed in the 1720s. no longer gave enough pressure, and did not correspond to the splendor and grandeur of the imperial residence. In the mid-1740s. Rastrelli builds water towers with an aqueduct across the Fontanka. Technically complex, the purely utilitarian structure made of wood was decorated with palace luxury: the wall paintings imitated lush baroque modeling.
Despite the fact that the palace was the ceremonial imperial residence, there was no direct connection with the Nevsky Prospect: the road, which ran among unpresentable random buildings (on the banks of the Fontanka there were glaciers, greenhouses, workshops and the Elephant Yard) turned onto Italianskaya Street, and only bypassing the palace I I. Shuvalov, built by Savva Chevakinsky, the crews reached the central transport artery of the city through Malaya Sadovaya. Direct communication will appear only in the next century thanks to the work of C. Rossi.
Elizaveta Petrovna loved the Summer Palace very much. At the end of April - beginning of May (as the weather permitted), the empress's ceremonial move from the winter residence was formalized with a magnificent ceremony with the participation of the court, orchestra, and guard regiments accompanied by an artillery salute from the cannon at the Winter Palace and the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty. At the same time, the imperial yachts, stationed in the roadstead opposite the Apraksin House, sailed to the Summer Garden. The queen set off on her return journey at the end of September with the same ceremonies.
On September 20, the future Emperor Paul I was born within the walls of the palace. After the death of the queen, the palace is still in use: the conclusion of peace with Prussia is celebrated here. In the throne room, Catherine II receives congratulations from foreign ambassadors on the occasion of her accession to the throne. However, over time, the owner begins to give preference to other summer residences, especially Tsarskoye Selo, and the building deteriorates. First, he is given residence to G. Orlov, then to G. Potemkin. A catastrophic flood in September destroyed the fountain system of the Summer Garden. The fashion for regular parks passed, and the water cannons were not restored; the unnecessary Rastrelli aqueduct was dismantled. There are two legends of the foundation of the Mikhailovsky Castle: according to one, Paul I said: “I want to die where I was born,” according to another, a soldier standing guard in the Summer Palace, when he dozed off, saw the Archangel Michael and ordered him to tell the Tsar to build a church on this place . Be that as it may, in February, “due to dilapidation,” the Elizabethan dwelling was demolished and construction of a new imperial stronghold began. And today, only the volumetric construction of the castle’s façade facing the Summer Garden (possibly at the request of the monarch) and the magnificent drawings of M. I. Makhaev remind of the disappeared building.
Literature
The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna is an unpreserved imperial residence in St. Petersburg, built by B. F. Rastrelli in 1741-1744 on the site where the Mikhailovsky (Engineers) Castle is now located. Demolished in 1797
History of construction
In 1712, on the southern bank of the Moika, where the pavilion of the Mikhailovsky Garden is now, a small manor house was built for Ekaterina Alekseevna, topped with a turret with a gilded spire, which bore the pretentious name “Golden Mansions”. According to him, the Big Meadow (the future Champ de Mars) on the opposite bank received the name Tsaritsyn Meadow: it was this name that would be used most often in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The area near the palace is called the 3rd Summer Garden. On July 11, 1721, the Duke of Holstein's chamberlain Berchholz, having examined the estate, wrote down: In the queen's greenhouses, the gardener Ekliben grew fruits rare for northern latitudes: pineapples, bananas, etc. Even then, the idea arose to close the alley of the Summer Garden opposite the Carpiev Pond with a palace building. This is evidenced by the project of 1716-1717, preserved in the archives. Its possible author is J.B. Leblon. It depicts a small nine-axle palace, the elevated center of which is topped with a tetrahedral dome. Wide one-story galleries cover the cour d'honneur with a lush figured parterre facing the Moika River. Behind there is a garden with numerous bosquets of various shapes. Fruit plantings have been preserved on the territory of the current Mikhailovsky Garden. However, things did not go further than plans. Under Anna Ioannovna, the 3rd Summer Garden turns into a “jagd-garten” - a garden for “chasing and shooting deer, wild boars, hares, as well as a gallery for hunters and stone walls to prevent bullets and shot from flying in.” The “vegetable garden” was moved to Liteinaya Street, where the Mariinsky Hospital would later be built. In the early 1740s. B.F. Rastrelli began the construction of one of the most remarkable buildings of the developed Russian Baroque - the Summer Palace in the 3rd Summer Garden for the ruler Anna Leopoldovna. However, while construction was underway, a revolution occurred, and Elizaveta Petrovna became the owner of the building. By 1744, the palace, made of wood on stone cellars, was roughly completed. The architect, in describing the buildings he created, spoke about it this way: Despite its location within the city limits, the building was designed according to the estate plan. The plan was created under the obvious influence of Versailles, which is especially noticeable from the side of the cour d'honneur: the successively narrowing spaces enhanced the effect of the baroque perspective of the courtyard, fenced off from the access road by a latticework of a magnificent design with state emblems. One-story service buildings along the perimeter of the cour d'honneur emphasize the traditional Baroque isolation of the ensemble. The rather flat decor of the light pink facades (mezzanine pilasters with Corinthian capitals and corresponding rusticated stone plinth blades, figured window frames) was offset by a rich play of volumes. Complex in plan, highly developed side wings included courtyards with small flower parterres. Lush driveways...