The famous palace and park of Gatchina, which form a single ensemble, was formed in the 17th-19th centuries. It is located between the Black, White and Silver lakes.
Sights of Gatchina
Undoubtedly, the main attraction of the city is a luxurious ensemble of palaces and parks. He is known far beyond the borders of our country. Tourists from all over the world come here to see this miracle with their own eyes. The Gatchina Palace and Park amazes with its splendor, the photo of which can be seen not only in Russian, but also in foreign publications. This ensemble was created over the course of a century by different architects who used different styles. But all this is wonderfully combined, forming a harmonious composition.
Gatchina parks never get bored. You can walk on them for hours, and surprisingly, you will constantly find something new for yourself. Those who wish can rent a boat and swim on the White Lake, see its picturesque shores, the Big Terraced Pier, the Venus Pavilion, the Chesme obelisk.
Gatchinsky Palace and Park
The construction of the Grand Palace in Gatchina began in 1766. In those days, the owner of the estate was CountGrigory Orlov. The author of the project was the famous architect Antonio Rinaldi. He decided to build a palace that would look like a hunting castle with an underground passage and towers.
The construction of the palace lasted 15 years and was completed in 1781. Later, it was rebuilt several times, but never radically changed its original appearance. The main building of the palace is connected by semicircular galleries with two utility squares - a stable and a kitchen.
In the central part of the palace there were ceremonial halls, and squares performed, as intended, an auxiliary function. Rinaldi laid a secret underground passage into the palace project so that it would be possible to leave the palace quietly and quickly. I must say that the palace has many secret doors, rooms, corridors and stairs. Some of them lead to an underground passage, others allow you to quickly get from one end of the estate to the other, and others were just office premises. Today, visitors can only get into the secret part of the palace accompanied by a guide.
Gatchina under Paul I
After Grigory Orlov died (1783), Catherine II bought Gatchina from his heirs. The Empress presented the estate with the palace to her son Pavel Petrovich. He fell in love with this place very much, and soon moved here, setting up a personal residence here. I must say that before that, Pavel traveled a lot in Europe and was impressed by what he saw. Some of the buildings inspired him, and he decided to build something similar in Gatchina.
For example, the pavilion of Venus became a copy of the original from the Chantilly castle in France that has survived to our time. The future emperor decided to slightly modify the palace and the Gatchina park. Cannon bastions, drawbridges and ditches appeared.
Reconstruction of the palace and park complex was led by Vincenzo Brenna, a well-known architect in those days. He worked closely with no less famous master of his craft - V. I. Bazhenov. The Grand Palace had gardens with a regular layout - the Upper and Lower Dutch Gardens, Own, and a little further - Sylvia. They began to create them in the 1790s. A wide channel was dug, ending in an octagonal pool. It once bred carp, so it was called Karpin.
Pavel Petrovich ascended the throne in 1796, and Gatchina became the emperor's residence. After his death, construction work in the park and the palace was completed. In 1851, a monument to Paul I was erected in front of the Grand Palace on the parade ground. Its author is the sculptor I. P. Vitali. In 1880, Alexander III lived in the Gatchina Palace with his family.
Park
Gatchinsky Palace Park began to be created together with the palace. It became the first landscape park in Russia. The famous master from Italy Johann Bush was invited to create it.
Gatchinsky park is made in the English style. There is no strict order here, the creators only emphasized the natural beauty. Gardeners achieved a striking effect by planting plants withfoliage and needles of various colors.
Gatchinsky Park, the photo of which you see in our article, has a compositional center, which is White Lake. Numerous architectural structures appear here - bridges, gazebos, pavilions, etc. The Chesme obelisk, designed by Rinaldi, was one of the first. It is dedicated to the victory of the Russian fleet over the Turks in Chesma Bay (1770).
Gatchinsky Park is of great interest to specialists. Some of his buildings (the Mask portal and the Birch House) are priceless architectural monuments. The Mask Portal is made of stone, and the Log Cabin is decorated with birch logs. It looks quite simple, but at the same time very picturesque. In appearance, it resembles a pile of firewood. But behind the apparent simplicity lies an expensive interior decoration. Similar buildings were common at the end of the 18th century. They were made in the form of a hut or a hut, but inside they were finished with palace luxury. They were intended for the rest of companies walking in the garden. Other park buildings are no less interesting. For example, the Echo Grotto, the amphitheater, the Admir alty Gate, the Eagle Pavilion and others.
Dutch Garden in Gatchina Park
In fact, there are two such gardens - Upper and Lower. They are laid out on man-made terraces. Together with the Private Garden, which is located nearby on a retaining high terrace, they formed an amazing ensemble of the Palace Gardens.
Lower Garden
This is a parterre garden, laid out in a regular style, having a rectangular shape and severalelongated relative to the central axis of the Palace Gardens. It occupies an area of about 0.6 hectares. There are flower beds, lawns of original shape and straight paths sprinkled with gravel and crushed bricks. Round platforms have been created at their intersections.
There are seven stone stairs in the lower garden. Three of them are located on the northeast slope. Two stairs - in the southwestern slope. There is one more staircase on the northwestern and southeastern slopes. All these stairs are observation platforms. Each of them offers an amazing view.
Upper Dutch Garden
It occupies a large area - about 2.5 hectares. Like the Lower Garden, it is clearly planned. From the oval platform, which is the compositional center of the garden, eight paths diverge. The alley, which goes through the center of the garden, ends with a wide granite staircase of two spans going down steeply. Such complex star compositions, which are created in the Dutch Gardens, are quite typical for regular gardens. They undoubtedly adorn the Gatchina park. The Upper and Lower Holland Gardens are reminiscent of Italian villa gardens and are rare in Russian park building.
Priory Palace
During the reign of Paul I, the territory of the park was significantly expanded. It was joined by the Priory Park, whose area is 154 hectares. Its main attraction is the magnificent Priory Palace, which was built by the famous architect N. A. Lvov in the form of a small knight's castle.
The palace is onshore of the Black Lake. The construction technique of this structure is quite interesting. The walls of the palace were built from cultivated earth, which was moistened with a special solution. Nikolai Lvov actively used this technique. From French, "priory" is translated as "a small monastery." Now this building houses the local history museum of the city.
Gatchina after WWII
Before the onset of the Nazi troops, an urgent evacuation of the art treasures of the Gatchina Palace began. 12 thousand items were taken out. This amounted to only 20% of the entire collection. In 1941 the city was occupied by the Nazis. They cut down many trees in the park. During their retreat, the Germans set fire to the Grand Palace. Gatchina was liberated at the beginning of 1944.
Almost immediately after the victory in the city, work began on the restoration of the historical complex. And only in 1985 the Gatchina Palace and Park received its first visitors.
