Favorite palaces of Russian empresses. Favorite residence of three empresses Catherine's summer residence 2

The daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth, lived in Pokrovsky in her youth. Removed from the court by Anna Ioannovna, she built a newfangled palace in the estate, indulged in carefree amusements here, arranging holidays with friends, forcing the Pokrov peasants to dance on them. The Moscow historian and writer I. K. Kondratiev writes that “being by nature a cheerful character, the princess participated here in festive round dances composed of Intercession girls and young women, dressing in their beautiful costume: in a colored satin sundress and kokoshnik, or in brocade a kiku with pearl fragments and a braid, or just like a girl, weaving their Yaroslavl ribbon into a tubular braid ... Since then, one must think, they sang the song:

In the village, the village of Pokrovsky,
In the middle of the big street
Played out, danced
Red girl soul."

Although after her accession to the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna did not forget Pokrovskoye, dear to her heart, she ordered the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to make the palace even more magnificent - but still she doesn’t go there so often anymore.

The village calms down, but sometimes holidays were still held here: visitors had fun on the carousels and swings, and sleighs or carriages rolled down from a huge, almost 400 meters long rolling hill. This mountain was purposely made for the arrival of Catherine II in 1763, but even in her absence she allowed "rolling in summer and winter to the nobility and merchants, and to every rank of people, except for the vile ones." Visitors were also waiting for "a tavern with food, tea, check-lady, coffee, Gdansk and French vodka, grape drink, half a beer and mead." Approximately from the second half of the XVIII century. the village becomes an ordinary suburb of the city, and then a part of it, in which the intensive construction of factories and plants begins.
Well, now in order.

st. Gastello 44. The former Pokrovsky Palace of the "beautiful Elizabeth" has a long and largely unexplained history. It is known that here on the bank of a large pond there were wooden mansions intended for the stay of the royal family. So, in 1713, Princess Maria Alekseevna, later the future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, lived in them together with her relatives Skavronsky and Gendrikov. It is possible that in the mid-1730s stone chambers were built instead of wooden mansions, architect. M.G. Zemtsov.

In the great Moscow fire in May 1737, the palace burned down completely.
In 1742 - 1743. it was rebuilt into an elegant baroque palace designed by the architect F.B. Rastrelli.

Catherine did not like the palace and almost never visited it even in the beginning. It fell into disrepair in the 19th century.
The palace survived until the 70s. 19th century
At that time, it was given to the Pokrovskaya community of sisters of mercy, and the architect A.P. Popov rebuilt it into a sister building in the spirit of elegant architectural decoration of the 17th century.
In Soviet times, the palace was one large communal apartment, where 4 nuns lived out their lives in semi-basement cells by the grace of God.
In the 1970s, the palace was restored and given to the State Research Institute for Restoration (GOSNIR), which still occupies it.
The palace in plan is similar to the letter "Sh"

Its central part is richly decorated

On both sides there are porches in the old Russian style.

richly decorated windows

In the mezzanine of the central part there was a house church, today we take its head, which is still without a cross, for a belvedere.

The palace stands on a hillock, in front of it was a small kurdener, which descended to a pond, which was formed from the dammed Rybinka River, which flowed into the Yauza not far from the palace. A beautiful wooden bridge was laid from the palace to the middle of the pond, where there was an island and a wooden Resurrection Church.
Now, on the site of the pond and all this beauty, a residential building in the Stalinist Empire style has been built, Rybinka was enclosed in a pipe ... and the palace is shaking from the trains that pass right in front of it along the Kursk railway line, which was built by the industrialist P. von Derviz.

But about him, or rather about his traces in Pokrovskaya-Rubtsovo, there will be the next post.

With the coming to power in Russia of Emperor Peter I, a grandiose era of transformations began in the state, which became the impetus for changes in urban planning and architecture.

Catherine's "Golden Mansions"

In 1703, the emperor founded a new city - St. Petersburg, and already 9 years later the construction of a small house for Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the wife of the monarch, began. It was located on the southern bank of the Moika and was a small house with a turret, which ended with a gilded spire. The building was named "Golden Mansions". Subsequently, this area was called Tsaritsyn Lug and became part of the Summer Garden - a large royal estate. Exotic fruits were grown on its territory for the Empress: pineapples and bananas.

A few years after the construction, it was decided to build a grandiose palace that would crown the tetrahedral dome, but the plan was not realized.

Failed construction

In 1730-1740. in power was Empress Anna Ioannovna, who, a few years before her death, instructed the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build a palace on Tsaritsyn Meadow, and this should have been done as soon as possible. However, the death of the empress did not allow the architect to proceed with the execution of her order. Her successor, Anna Leopoldovna, also wanted to build her own palace on this site, the construction was entrusted to the same Rastrelli. In February 1741, the architect prepared the necessary drawings, but it was not possible to present them to the empress: in March, a coup d'état was carried out, and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna came to power.

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli

Created the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli - the greatest architect of the 18th century. He came from an Italian aristocratic family and held the title of count. His father was the sculptor Carlo Rastrelli, who worked for a long time at the court of the French Sun King Louis, and after the death of the latter he was invited by the Russian emperor to Russia.

Bartolomeo from an early age was attracted by his father to work on various projects, went to study in Europe. The first documented work of Rastrelli in Russia was the three-story palace of Dmitry Kantemir, built in the style of Petrine baroque.

In the 1730s, Rastrelli was engaged in the construction of the Rundale Palace and the palace in Mitava, which he was building on the orders of the Duke of Courland. It was on the recommendation of Biron of Courland that Rastrelli became the court architect.

Architectural style of Rastrelli

Bartolomeo created a unique style in architecture. So, he began to use semi-circular window endings on facades, and he usually assembled semi-columns in pairs and bundles. External columns usually did not play a constructive role, but were intended only for decoration. His palaces were characterized by huge ceremonial halls, covering the entire depth of the floor, and when designing interiors, he tried to avoid curved lines. All his buildings are characterized by screaming power, grandeur and solemnity, even pomposity. Rastrelli abandoned the strip foundations traditional for that time, preferring platforms made of brick and stone based on piles, which, in turn, made it possible to partially redistribute the loads, and this was very important for the weak soils of St. Petersburg.

Creations of the great architect

The great architect, in addition to the Rundale and Mitava palaces, built such buildings that became attractions:

Great Peterhof Palace.
Andrew's Church in Kyiv.
Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
Vorontsov Palace.
Hermitage Museum.
Winter Palace.
Royal Palace in Kyiv, etc.

Lost buildings of the architect

Some of its buildings are now lost:

Kantemir Palace.
Throne room on the Yauza.
Winter Palace of Anna Ioannovna.
Winter Kremlin Palace.
Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna.
Travel Srednerogatsky Palace.

The history of the construction of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna

The exact date of laying the foundation of the palace has not been preserved. According to one version, during the laying of the foundation in July 1941, Anna Leopoldovna was present with her husband, Prince Anton Ulrich, according to another, the laying took place a month earlier. However, the spouses were not destined to live in the new palace.

Rastrelli received an order to complete the begun palace from Tsesarevna Elizaveta Petrovna, who became Empress. The construction was completed in 1743 - it was the first palace of the empress, built personally for her, and the empress liked it so much that she doubled the salary of the architect - up to 2500 rubles a year.

The Empress used the summer residence from May to September every year, she devoted this time to her rest, almost not doing important state affairs. In 1754, it was here that Grand Duke Pavel, the son of Ekaterina Alekseevna, was born, and here Elizaveta Petrovna staged celebrations to mark the end of the seven-year war and the conclusion of peace with Prussia. Then the empress began to visit the palace less and less, spending more time in Tsarskoye Selo, and the palace gradually began to deteriorate.

Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna: description

The architecture of the Summer Palace is such that it is simply impossible not to notice that the author of the project was impressed by the French Versailles. The building is characterized by the traditional baroque closedness of the ensemble of the front yard in front of the palace. A detailed description of the brainchild of Rastrelli did not remain, but some memories of the imperial estate were found.

So, the summer residence of Elizabeth Petrovna consisted of 160 apartments, there were both the personal chambers of the queen, and numerous halls, galleries and even a church. In order to get to the territory of the palace, it was necessary to go through wide openwork gates made of lattices, crowned with gilded eagles. According to the architect, “everything was decorated with mirrors and rich sculpture, as well as a new garden, decorated with beautiful fountains, with the Hermitage built at the ground floor level, surrounded by rich trellises, all the decorations of which were gilded.”

The building had two facades. The main one was facing the Moika, flower beds and neat trees were placed in front of it, which turned this territory into a park. The second facade was turned towards Nevsky Prospekt, where, on the orders of Bartolomeo, a wide road was laid, along which there were numerous greenhouses with flowers and trees.

The first floor of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was made of stone, but the second was completely wooden. The building is designed in pink tones, and the basement rooms are in gray. The ground floor was faced with green granite. Inside the palace, all rooms were decorated with Bohemian mirrors, marble sculptures and paintings by famous artists. The Hermitage was built at the level of the first floor, where paintings of religious and biblical content were kept, some of which have survived to this day.

In the main building there was the Great ceremonial hall, at the western wall of which the royal throne was located. In order to get to the Throne Room, it was necessary to pass a series of living rooms and a huge front staircase, decorated with gilded carvings. The throne room struck with its grandeur, which was further emphasized by the cunning arrangement of candelabra and chandeliers, which created the impression of a two-light volume. Several curly staircases also led to the Throne Hall from the side of the garden, each of which was supplemented by ramps. The imperial chambers were located in the eastern wing of the palace, and the courtiers lived in the western wing. Each of the rooms of the palace was lavishly decorated with various statues and vases. The facade of the building was crowned with numerous balustrades.

palace park

The entire territory of the palace complex was surrounded by a decorative park. The garden also had magnificent fountains, and the park itself was a complex labyrinth of green spaces. On the territory of the complex, Rastrelli created three unusual fountain pools of complex outlines. Small gazebos and benches were equipped throughout the park, and carousels, swings and slides were located in the center. Also, according to the architect's idea, two artificial trapezoid semicircular ponds were created, which, by the way, have survived to this day.

Subsequent changes

Francesco Rastrelli continued to work on the summer residence of the Empress for many years. So, he was engaged in decorating the walls with figured architraves, atlantes and lion masks, 9 years after the completion of construction, he added a new gallery hall from the northeast side of the palace. Such constant changes only pleased the Empress, while the owner the architectural integrity of the building was of little interest. The main thing is that new buildings are as luxurious as possible.

In 1745, by order of the Empress, a covered gallery was built to move from the palace to the Summer Garden, its walls were generously decorated with art paintings. In 1747, the architect created a terrace with a fountain in the center, located on the same level as the Hermitage pavilion. Around the perimeter, it was fenced with a gilded lattice.

A little later, a church appears on the territory of the summer palace, which expands the palace complex from the Fontanka side, and bay windows appear on the facade from the western side.

On the territory of the palace, Rastrelli also built water towers with aqueducts, which were also generously decorated with paintings.

Catherine period

The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna in St. Petersburg became the site of the triumph of Catherine II. It was here that she arranged an official reception for foreign diplomats after her accession to the throne, and here she learned about the death of Peter III. Not living in the residence, Catherine bestowed it first on Grigory Orlov, then Grigory Potemkin.

In 1777, a flood occurred, which greatly damaged the already dilapidated palace. No one began to restore the damaged water cannon, and the aqueduct was dismantled.

The Summer Palace of Elizaveta Petrovna was demolished in 1797 by order of Emperor Paul I. A few weeks after his accession to the throne, he ordered the construction of a new impregnable castle-fortress on the site of the already dilapidated building, since the emperor did not want to live in the Winter Palace at all. There is a legend according to which one of the guard soldiers appeared to the Archangel Michael, who ordered that the tsar be told about the need to build a church on the site of the palace, which became part of the Mikhailovsky Castle complex. That is how the Mikhailovsky Castle grew up on the site of the Elizabethan summer residence in 1800. The decoration of the summer residence of Elizabeth was neatly folded and taken to other royal estates.

How to get to the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna? Unfortunately, it didn't survive. On the site of the Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna (address: St. Petersburg, Sadovaya Street, 2), the Mikhailovsky, or Engineering Castle, is currently located. In order to get to the castle, it is enough to use the metro, you need to get off at the Nevsky Prospekt or Gostiny Dvor station.

In the 18th century, women were often in power in Russia, and, naturally, there were favorites in their lives. They were immensely bestowed with titles and estates, often had enormous political influence. Some received real palaces as a gift. Who was awarded such an honor, and which of these palaces have survived in St. Petersburg to this day?

Anichkov Palace (Nevsky prospect, 39)

Anichkov Palace - the first palace to appear on Nevsky Prospekt. So 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, in honor of her triumph ordered to build a palace.

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 at that time was her favorite. 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 Bartolomeo Rastrelli completed it. The building was located in such a way 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, moreover, many guests reached this palace along the Fontanka River, 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. In the future, the palace changed its owners more than once, and was seriously rebuilt more than once.

Shuvalov Palace (Italianskaya st., 25)

The mansion belonged to the young favorite of Elizabeth Petrovna, Ivan Shuvalov, a very versatile person who was interested in politics and art. Largely thanks to his efforts, Moscow University and the Academy of Arts were opened.

Instead of building a new mansion from scratch, it was decided, taking one of the existing buildings as a basis, to thoroughly rebuild it to your liking. 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 moved there with his wife.
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, moreover, the most diverse - 32 varieties. Therefore, this palace was called the Marble Palace. And it was also called - the Palace for the favorite.
However, the construction of the palace dragged on for as much as 17 years and, unfortunately, Count Orlov, without waiting for the completion of the work, died. Now the Marble Palace has been placed at the disposal of 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 the Italian Antonio Rinaldi. This palace was also built for a very long time - 15 years, and Orlov had a chance to live in it for a very short time - only two years.

Tauride Palace (Shpalernaya street, 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 the Crimean peninsula, then called "Tavrida". After that, Potemkin began to be called Tauride. But Potemkin sold this palace as unnecessary a year later and left on business to the south. Catherine bought this palace and gave it to him again - this time for the capture of the Turkish fortress of Izmail.

With the death of Empress Anna Ioannovna, which followed in 1740, Biron became regent for the young emperor John Antonovich, who was 2 months old at that time. However, his reign was short-lived. Biron was arrested for abuse and exiled. The reign of the mother of the young emperor Anna Leopoldovna, who was appointed regent under him, was also short-lived. On November 25, 1741, as a result of a palace coup, the daughter of Emperor Peter I, Elizabeth Petrovna, ascended the throne. The time of her reign is the time of a powerful take-off of St. Petersburg architecture. She herself loved pomp and splendor, Elizaveta Petrovna wanted to see her father's brainchild decorated with beautiful buildings and therefore was very concerned about the front building in St. Petersburg and its suburbs. Having ascended the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna mainly lived in the Summer Palace on the site of the current Mikhailovsky Castle, which soon became cramped for the expanded imperial court. During her reign, the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, the Winter Palace were built, the ensemble of the Smolny Monastery was built, Tuchkov and Sampsonevsky bridges were erected, and, finally, Moscow University, the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and the Corps of Pages were opened. She invited the best architects of Europe to St. Petersburg, and among them the brightest was Bartolomeo Rastrelli. He erected the best buildings in St. Petersburg. This is the Winter Palace, twice rebuilt by him, Anichkov, Vorontsovsky, Stroganov palaces; Great Peterhof Palace, Tsarskoye Selo (Catherine) Palace, Smolny Monastery and other buildings. Looking at the cathedral of the Smolny Monastery, Quarenghi, who did not like the architecture of the Elizabethan Baroque, with the words: “Well, the church!”, He took off his hat.
Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Elizaveta Petrovna ordered the construction of two palaces for herself at once, one temporary, wooden near the Police Bridge, the other stone on the Neva embankment. Both palaces were built according to the project of B. Rastrelli. The wooden palace, although built as a temporary one, was decorated with great luxury.
Nevsky Prospekt by that time had become the best street in the city. Elizabeth oversaw its improvement. Decrees were issued prohibiting the construction of wooden buildings on the main street of the city. Only stone houses were erected on the avenue. But they were not like the current ones. As a rule, these were two-storey buildings with an obligatory front garden in front of the facade, fenced with a patterned cast-iron lattice. In 1755, Gostiny Dvor began to be rebuilt. Rastrelli's plan, which was notable for the great splendor of the building's decoration, was not implemented due to lack of funding. Now we see the Gostiny Dvor building, designed by the architect Valen-Delamote, who retained the layout of Rastrelli, but built the building in the style of early classicism.
Elizaveta Petrovna, according to her contemporaries, was very beautiful, lively and flirtatious. Her palaces were lined with mirrors in which she constantly saw her reflection repeated over and over again. For her, the most expensive outfits were bought up in large quantities in Europe. After her death, the Empress had 15,000 dresses in her wardrobe, some of which had never been worn. She herself has never worn the same dress twice. And she demanded the same from the courtiers, whose appearance she monitored very much, issuing decrees one after another regulating the appearance of her entourage. For example, a decree was issued forbidding court ladies to wear dark dresses, a decree that to go to the masquerade only in a good dress, and not "in a vile one." And in the winter of 1747, a “hair regulation” came out, which ordered all court ladies to cut their hair bald and cover their heads with “black tousled wigs”, which she herself issued. The reason for such a tough establishment was that the powder from the empress's hair did not want to go off, the empress decided to dye her hair black, but for some reason this did not work out, and then she had to be the first to cut her hair and put on a black wig. And she did not like anyone to surpass her in beauty and perfection. Well, how was it not to publish a "hairy decree"?
The time of Elizabeth is the time when the baroque style reigned in art, which was a match for the cheerful character of the empress with her whims and love of luxury. The architectural masterpieces of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, which still amaze us with grace, luxury and splendor, are a monument to that time. And one of them is the Smolny Monastery, which was built by the Empress for herself. At one time she had a desire to abdicate and go to a monastery. Thousands of soldiers and artisans were rounded up for the construction of the monastery. It was built on a grand scale. And a few years later it was outwardly ready. But then the seven-year war began, and construction stopped due to lack of money. Soon, Elizabeth's desire to enter a monastery also disappeared.

G. R. Derzhavin called the reign of Elizabeth "the age of songs." Elizaveta Petrovna really loved music and herself had extraordinary musical abilities: she played many instruments and composed songs. Thanks to her, Russia got acquainted with the guitar, mandolin, harp and other instruments. Opera, ballet, and also the drama theater, which she loved very much, flourished under her. Shakespeare, Moliere and, of course, the plays of the first Russian tragedian Alexander Sumarokov were played on the stage of Russian theaters. In 1750, Fedor Grigoryevich Volkov created a theater in Yaroslavl, the performances of which were a great success. Having learned about the "Yaroslavl comedies", the Empress summoned Volkov and the troupe to St. Petersburg by a special decree. The initiative of Sumarokov and Volkov in 1756 officially established the Russian Theater for the Presentation of Tragedies and Comedies, which marked the beginning of the creation of the Imperial Theaters of Russia. The theater was initially located in the Menshikov Palace, where in 1732 the Gentry Cadet Corps for minor nobles was opened. The first Russian tragedy "Khorev" was staged here, and in 1752 the actors of the troupe of Fyodor Volkov were placed here.
With the active secular life that Elizabeth led, sometimes she simply did not get around to governing the state. Ministers ran after her for months so that she could sign some document between dressing for a ball or a masquerade. Fortunately, the bureaucratic machine, launched once by Peter, continued its work, and things went on as usual. In addition, she had wonderful assistants. She could well rely on P. I. Shuvalov in domestic policy, in external policy on A. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, in the field of education on I. I. Shuvalov.
Balls and masquerades succeeded each other, competing with each other in splendor and splendor. But against the backdrop of this seemingly endless holiday, important events took place in St. Petersburg. Petersburg of this time is the Petersburg of Lomonosov, the founder of Russian science and poetry, this is the Petersburg of important geographical research and discoveries. In 1743, the eleven-year Second Kamchatka Expedition ended, and two years later the Academic Atlas was published with maps of the vast territory from Baikal to Anadyr and northwestern America.
Creating at one time the Academy of Sciences, Peter I thought of it as a center of higher education in Russia. This can be seen from the draft “Regulations of the Academy of Sciences and Arts”, which stated that the members of the Academy, working “on the perfection of the arts and sciences”, had to “publicly teach those arts and sciences”, that is, teach. That is, Peter thought of the Academy as a university. In 1745, M. V. Lomonosov became a professor at this Academic (or Petrovsky) University, who insisted that not only nobles could study at the university: “Not a single person is forbidden to study at universities, no matter who he is, and at the university, that student is more honorable, who has learned more. Such an attitude of a professor of the first higher educational institution in Russia, the founder of domestic science, opened the way to education for many talented young people. Among the first "natural Russians" who graduated from Petrovsky University were Antioch Kantemir, Ivan Magnitsky, Pyotr Remizov. The poetic "Satires" of Antioch Cantemir were very popular at that time and went from hand to hand in the lists.
The cultural demands and interests of the empress and the court, proximity to Europe, the very spirit of the city, which from birth was intended to be a “window to Europe”, also contributed to the increase in interest in culture and education. Gymnasiums, both public and private, appear in the city. In 1757, the "Academy of the Three Most Noble Arts" was formed in St. Petersburg - painting, architecture and sculpture. The construction of the building for the Academy of Arts on University Embankment will begin only in 1764, and from the moment of foundation until that time it was located in the house of the initiator of its creation, I. I. Shuvalov, in the Shuvalov Palace on Sadovaya Street, between Nevsky Prospekt and Italian Street. Her first students were Ivan Starov, Fedor Rokotov, Vasily Bazhenov. As a mosaic artist, M. V. Lomonosov became an honorary member of the Academy. Mosaic panel by M. V. Lomonosov "Poltava battle" is now in the building of the Academy of Sciences.
In 1751, on the Nikolaevskaya embankment of the Neva, the current embankment of Lieutenant Schmidt, the Naval gentry cadet corps was opened, which later became the Naval Academy. From the pier, where the monument to Kruzenshtern stands, all the outstanding Russian navigators and admirals went to sea.

St. Petersburg of the noisy Elizabethan era already bore little resemblance to Peter's modest "Paradise". By that time, a favorable environment for the development of the economy had developed in the city. He no longer required exceptional measures to attract the population and finances. The ever-increasing needs of the new capital transformed the whole region for many kilometers around. Thousands of wagons with building material, food, various products of local crafts were drawn from the Novgorod, Pskov, Olonets provinces. Hundreds of ships from Europe, barges, boats, rafts were looking for mooring places near the city's piers.
During her twenty-year reign, Elizaveta Petrovna did not sign a single death warrant. And perhaps that is why the internal life of the country as a whole during this period was stable - there were neither riots nor bitterness in the country. Some cruel amusements were forbidden: in Moscow and St. Petersburg it was forbidden to have bears, to shoot guns. In the field of foreign policy, this time was also a time of rest: out of 20 years of Elizabeth's reign, 15 years were peaceful. And four years of Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War (1756-1760) revealed the combat effectiveness of the Russian army, which defeated the hitherto invincible troops of Frederick the Great. And this is despite the eternal Russian confusion, theft in the rear, ill-conceived strategic plans.

The Catherine Palace, named after Catherine I, was the favorite residence of three empresses - Catherine, Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II. Each of them added something different to the architecture of the ensemble: Catherine II, for example, refused the luxurious gilding, which Elizabeth valued so much, and was generally skeptical about this “whipped cream”.

From hut to palace

Back in the 17th century, on the territory of the future Tsarskoe Selo, the estate of the Swedish magnate, Sarskaya Manor, was located. Some time later, locally they began to call Sarsky village, later - Tsarskoye. In 1718, the first "stone chambers" were laid here, which formed the basis of the luxurious Catherine's Palace. The palace received its name known to us only in 1910. Prior to this, the residence of the empresses was called the Grand Palace, and later, after the construction of the Alexander Palace, they began to be called the Old.

Source: wikipedia.org

The work was entrusted to the architect Braunstein, known for his designs of buildings in Peterhof. In the decoration of the "chambers" wood was used, and not the most durable species. In the future, this will play a cruel joke: the wooden coverings will rot so much that the floor will almost begin to fail. In 1724, the first celebration was held in Tsarskoye Selo on the occasion of the emperor's arrival - "thirteen cannons were fired three times."

Half the kingdom for the palace!

The future Empress Elizabeth inherited the manor from her mother. The Tsesarevna loved her dacha, with which she had childhood memories. Having ascended the throne, Elizaveta Petrovna began to spend a lot of money on the arrangement of her residence in order to compete with Versailles itself.

Source: wikipedia.org

First of all, the empress decided to rebuild the outdated mansions. Under the leadership of Zemtsov and Kvasov, a detailed project was developed, about which Benois wrote later: ""... if the Kvasov project is inferior in luxury and brilliance to the building of Rastrelli, which we now admire, then in terms of grace, balance and rhythm of lines, it deserves preference" .

In 1744, the reins of government were handed over to Rastrelli, but the architect took up the direct work on the reconstruction of the palace a little later. It was thanks to Rastrelli that a building appeared in the Russian Baroque style, decorated with stucco and columns, painted in azure color. Elizaveta Petrovna did not skimp - more than 100 kilograms of gold was spent on finishing the facade and countless statues.

After the death of Elizabeth, Catherine II ordered the sculptures in the park to be gilded, as the late empress had bequeathed. But when Catherine found out how much such a luxury would cost the treasury, she refused to work.

Old-fashioned "whipped cream"

Catherine II did not immediately fall in love with Tsarskoye Selo. In 1766, she complained in a letter: “For seven days now, I have been living in a dacha, in the house that the late Empress Elizabeth took it into her head to gild inside and out; there is not a single comfortable chair in it ... There is not even the opportunity to lean on the table. The newly-made empress considered this baroque "whipped cream" old-fashioned, and ordered the stucco decorations to be removed and the gilding to be replaced with simple painting.

Source: wikipedia.org

The Scotsman Charles Cameron worked on the interiors of the palace under Catherine. He had to work hard: the empress, a great lover of ancient art, ordered to connect the old-fashioned baroque halls with classic lines. It was under the direction of Cameron that the ceremonial halls - Arabesque, Lyon and Chinese were decorated, he also created the Mirror, Blue and Silver cabinets, the Raphael room and the famous Blue drawing room. True, the interiors of the northern half of the palace burned down during the Great Patriotic War.

Mystery of the Amber Room

The world-famous Amber Room was originally decorated with canvases painted to look like amber. The amber panels themselves were presented to Peter I by the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Peter wrote to his wife Ekaterina: “The king gave me a fair present with a yacht, which is splendidly decorated in Potsdam, and an Amber office, which had long been desired.” For some time, the mosaics were located in the Human Chambers in the summer garden. Only in 1770 did the Amber Room appear in the Catherine Palace, which is now known from photographs and in a reconstructed form.