Historical heritage of Russia: Chinese village

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Chinese village - a complex of buildings in the chinoiserie style, located on the border of the Alexander and Catherine parks at the entrance from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo.

Chinoiserie style

The appearance of this style was accompanied by the export of Chinese porcelain to Europe at the beginning of the 18th century. Unusually light, elegant and much more hygienic products immediately attracted the attention of the upper class.

Shortly after that, popularity swept all branches of Chinese art. In the royal and imperial residences, the construction of pavilions, palaces and bridges began, partially copying the traditional architecture of the Celestial Empire. Unfortunately, at that time there was too little research on this country, so the building designers were guided, rather, by their own fantasies and ideas about how the results of their creations should look.

This is how the Chinoiserie style appeared, which became part of Orientalism and Rococo, in which the Chinese Village was originally built.

Distribution of style in Russia

In Russia, this style just as quickly became popular among the nobility, thanks to whichseveral palaces of the country appeared offices, decorated in the best traditions of chinoiserie. The largest number of such buildings was created by the architect Antonio Rinaldi - and it was he who, by decree of Catherine the Great, was the designer of the Chinese Village.

Chinese village in Tsarskoye Selo

This complex of buildings was the idea of the Russian Empress Catherine II, who succumbed to the influence of European fashion for the chinoiserie style. Perhaps she was inspired by a similar project in Drottningholm, determined to create something that was superior.

It is not known for certain, but there is an opinion that the design of the village was entrusted to two architects at once: Rinaldi and Charles Cameron. The samples were engravings that were once delivered from Beijing and were the personal property of the Empress.

According to the plan, the Chinese village was to consist of 18 houses and an octagonal observatory, and outside the complex it was required to build a pagoda. Initially, Catherine sought to recruit a real architect from the Celestial Empire, but failed. For this reason, she was commissioned to obtain a copy of the pagoda, created by William Chambers in the chinoiserie style.

However, after the death of the Empress in 1796, work on the project was frozen. Of the 18 planned houses, only 10 were built, the observatory was not finished, and the pagoda remained on paper.

Chinese village under Alexander I

Work on the complex was not resumed until the intervention of Alexander I. In 1818, he attracted Vasily Stasov torefurbishment of the village into a habitable form. As a result, most of the oriental decoration was destroyed, but now the complex provided housing for various eminent guests.

The buildings were united by Stasov among themselves, and the unfinished observatory was completed with a spherical dome.

Each house in the Chinese Village was surrounded by its own garden and furnished inside. Nikolai Karamzin lived in one of these buildings for three years while writing the History of the Russian State.

Also on the territory of the complex was the Chinese Theater, where Giovanni Paisiello presented his new creations. However, in 1941, the building was burned down, and restoration work has not been carried out until now.

Modernity

During the German occupation, the village was badly damaged, and its restoration progressed as if reluctantly. In the 60s, the complex was converted into communal apartments, and a little later it was transformed into a tourist base. It was only in 1996 that large-scale restoration work began, thanks to a certain Danish company, which in return received the right to rent houses for 50 years.

To date, the village has been completely restored. It has both guest and residential apartments, however, only the front view of the complex from the road is available to tourists. Life in the Chinese village is no longer possible for a simple layman, because its territory is currently privately listed as the private property of anotherstates, and the houses are rented by foreign citizens.

It's hard to believe that part of the historical heritage of Russia is closed to its population, however, until the agreed period expires (and possibly even after), this fact will remain unchanged.