Maria Fedorovna, (1759-1828), Empress

Categories / Capital/Personalia
MARIA FEDOROVNA (1759-1828, St. Petersburg), Empress (from 1796). Nee Sophie Dorothea Auguste Louise, Princess of Wurttemberg. She was Emperor Pavel I's second wife (from 1776). In 1777, Empress Catherine II presented them with Pavlovskoe Village on the occasion of the birth of their first son (future Emperor Alexander I). The Pavlovsk palace and park ensemble, which became Maria Fedorovna's favourite residence (it was presented to her by her husband in 1796), was created under her supervision. In 1796, she was appointed to direct the Educational Society of Noble Ladies (the Smolny Institute), and from 1797 she was chief director of education houses in the two capitals (later Empress Maria's Department of Institutions). She contributed to the development of public education, health services and charity. She founded the Mariinsky and the Midwife Institutes, the Gatchina House of Education, the first Russian Deaf-Mute School (in Pavlovsk). After her husband's death, she lived in the Winter Palace and in Pavlovsk, where she raised a memorial summerhouse to her Husband-Benefactor, as well as the Mourning Gates, on her own funds, in the early 19th century. From 1801, as part of her bequeathal, she acquired Gatchina, Krasnoye Selo (in 1820 she relinquished it to Emperor Alexander I, who wanted it for holding military manoeuvres) and the Personal (Sobstvennaya) Dacha in the Peterhof District. She was buried at the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral. In 1914, a summerhouse (architect K.I. Rossi, 1816) with a monument to Maria Fedorovna (sculptor V.A. Beklemishev, architect K.K. Schmidt) was built in Pavlovsk, financed by members of the Imperial Family.

References: Шумигорский Е. С. Императрица Мария Феодоровна (1759-1828). СПб., 1892; Несин В. Н., Сауткина Г. Н. Павловск императорский и великокняжеский, 1777-1917. СПб., 1996; Павловск: Императорский дворец: Страницы истории / Сост. Ю. В. Мудров. СПб., 1997.

Y. A. Kuzmin. Alexander I, Emperor
Beklemishev Vladimir Alexandrovich
Catherine II, Empress
Maria Fedorovna, Empress
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Rossi Carl Ivanovich (Carlo Giovanni)
Schmidt Karl Karlovich
Несин В. Н., Сауткина Г. Н. Павловск Императорский и Великокняжеский, 1777-1917. СПб., 1996
Павловск: Императорский дворец: Страницы истории / Сост. Ю. В. Мудров. СПб., 1997
Шумигорский Е. С. Императрица Мария Феодоровна (1759-1828). СПб., 1892 Smolny Institute
Empress Maria's Department of Institutions
Deaf-Mute School
Winter Palace
SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral