Mikhailovsky Garden

Categories / City Topography/Green Areas/Gardens, Orchards
MIKHAILOVSKY GARDEN is a landscape architectural monument from the first third of the 19th century. It is a city garden with an area of 8.7 hectares confined on one side by Mikhailovsky Palace, Griboedova Canal Embankment, Moika River Embankment and Sadovaya Street. Mikhailovsky Garden originates from the garden arranged in 1713, on the Southern bank of the Moika round the wooden Summer Palace of Empress Catherine I. In 1743-45, the new garden of regular planning was laid out at the same place in the course of the construction of the Summer Palace of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (the so-called Third Summer Garden). There were figured ponds, bosquets, pavilions etc. designed by B. K. Rastrelli in this park. The garden was preserved at the end of the 18th century as part of the construction of Mikhailovsky Castle, but was incorporated into the estate of Mikhailovsky Palace and replanned in 1823-25 (architects K. I. Rossi, I. A. Ivanov, A. A. Menelas, landscape designer D. Bush) consisting of meandering paths and alleys, a meadow and groves. Geometrical shapes of two ponds were replaced with natural shapes. One pond has been preserved. Mikhailovsky Garden became a park at the Russian Museum from the end of the 19th century. Mikhailovsky Garden has the following sights: the stony pavilion-pier (1825, architect Rossi) with a transparent Doric colonnade, cast-iron fender and two granite slopes to water; a patterned cast-iron bridge (1825, architect Rossi) above the pond; and a wrought arched fence to the west (1903-07, architect A. A. Parland) erected during the construction of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Spas na Krovi) with the ornamental pattern of the art nouveau and the Tree of Freedom (1929, sculptor A. P. Solovyev). There is a bust of sculptor F. I. Shubin (1959, sculptor V. A. Sinaisky, architect S. B. Speransky) on the meadow. Mikhailovsky Garden was restored in 2002-03.

References: Калинкина О. Е. Михайловский сад // Сады и парки Ленинграда. Л., 1981. С. 34-44; Веснина Н.Н. Новые сведения о комплексе садов ансамбля Михайловского замка и Михайловского дворца // Петербургские чтения: (К юбилею города): Тез. докл. конф. СПб., 1992. С. 106-110.

S. V. Boglachev. Bush Joseph (John)
Catherine I, Empress
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Ivanov Ivan Alexeevich
Menelas Adam Adamovich
Parland Alfred Alexandrovich
Rastrelli Bartolomeo Carlo de
Rossi Carl Ivanovich (Carlo Giovanni)
Shubin Fedot Ivanovich
Sinaisky Viktor Alexandrovich
Solovyev Alexander Pavlovich
Speransky Sergey Borisovich
Griboedova Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Moika River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Sadovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Калинкина О. Е. Михайловский сад // Сады и парки Ленинграда. Л., 1981 Mikhailovsky Palace
Mikhailovsky Castle
Russian Museum, State
Holy Resurrection Cathedral, (Spas-na-Krovi)