Summer Palaces (entry)

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Palaces
SUMMER PALACES, St. Petersburg summer imperial residences for the first half of the 18th century. 1) The Summer Palace of Emperor Peter I, an architectural monument of Peter's Baroque, was constructed from 1710-14 (architects D. Trezzini, A. Schluter, N. Michetti) in the northeast part of the Summer Garden, as a model house for "eminent people". The two-storied stone building with a four-sloped roofing is adorned with an ornamented frieze, rustications at the corners and allegoric bas-reliefs on the theme of Russian victories in the Great Northern War (sculptor A. Schluter); windows with subtle devitrification are set in wide window-frames. The enfilade is decorated with painted plafonds (artist G. Gsell and others), carved oak panels (1721, N. Pinot) and tiled furnaces. After the death of Peter the Great, the members of Imperial family and courtiers lived here; from the 1740s, the Summer Palace was granted on lease to high ranking officials; from the 1840s, it was vacant, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century various exhibitions were arranged there. Since 1934, the Historical Memorial Museum dedicated to the everyday-life of the epoch of Peter I (authentic belongings and clothes of the Emperor are on display) are located there. In the early 1960s, the total reconstruction of the Summer Palace was undertaken (architect A.E. Hessen), the 18th century interiors were recreated. 2) The Summer Palace of Empress Catherine I, a small wooden house with a belvedere and a gilded spire (the so-called Gold chambers), constructed in 1712-13 (architect unknown) on the southern bank of the Moika River (on the location of Rossi's pavilion in the Mikhailovsky Garden); its rooms were sumptuously decorated, some were padded with stamped leather. In 1730, it was demolished. 3) The Summer Palace of Empress Anna Ioannovna was constructed in 1730 (architect F. Rastrelli) on the bank of the Bolshaya Neva (near the western railing of the Summer Garden) on the site of the Hall for Glorious Celebrations (1725, architect M.G. Zemtsov). It was a large single-storied wooden building with 28 lavishly decorated rooms and a gala hall. Here Empress Anna Ioannovna lived and died in 1740. In 1747, the building was demolished. 4) The Summer Palace of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, constructed in 1741-44 in the Baroque style (architect F. Rastrelli) to the south of the conjunction of the Moika and Fontanka rivers, featured a stone rusticated socle and a wooden first floor, accomplished with paired pilasters and large windows. In the centre of the northern facade was a mezzanine, adorned with an attic and sculptural decor. This Summer Palace had over 160 apartments, including a church, double-tiers of windows in the Grand Hall and galleries. Private chambers for the Empress were in the outbuilding along the Fontanka. The interiors of the Summer Palace were adorned with gilded fretworks, mirrors, glue-laminated parquet and glazed tiles; it was surrounded by flower gardens with fountains, etc. Elizaveta Petrovna took up her residence there every summer; here also the future Emperor Pavel I was born, who ordered the dismantlement of the Summer Palace and in 1797-1801 erected on its site the Mikhailovsky Castle. Other summer residences of St. Petersburg neighbourhood were Ekaterinhoff, Annenhoff and Elizavethoff, and also some palaces in the suburbs of the capital. See also illustration on page 435.

References: Пыляев М. И. Старый Петербург. Репр. воспр. изд. 1889 г. М., 1990. С. 56-62, 70, 76; Козлова Т. Д., Кареева Н. Д. Летний сад и дворец-музей Петра I. СПб. 1999.

S. V. Boglachev. Anna Ioannovna, Empress
Catherine I, Empress
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Gsell Georg
Hessen Alexander Ernestovich
Michetti Niccolo
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Peter I, Emperor
Pinot Nicolas
Rastrelli Francesco de
Schluter Andreas
Trezzini Domenico
Zemtsov Mikhail Grigorievich
Кузнецова О. Н., Борзин Б. Ф. Летний сад и Летний дворец Петра I. Л., 1988
Пыляев М. И. Старый Петербург. М., 1990
Козлова Т. Д., Кареева Н. Д. Летний сад и дворец-музей Петра I. СПб., 1999 Mikhailovsky Castle
1710
1744