The Small Caprice (an ensemble of the Catherine Park)

Categories / Tsarskoe Selo and town of Pushkin. The digital chronological reference book/Monuments of history and culture
The Small Caprice like the Great Caprice has the decorative and utilitarian function, it connects the Catherine and Alexander parks. Such kinds of constructions were necessary for constructing a convenient way from a part of the Tsarskoye Selo Park to another part, keeping the opportunity of the free passage on the road to the Great Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. Creators of Carices skillfully solved a task of separating two transit streams and creating maximum auspicious conditions for walks and the perception of the park. At the same time the Great and Small Caprices are very important for the park composition decision, they restrict the area of the Chinese Village created at that time. Constructing the Small Caprice in the form of mound form earth banks, with a road on the top and with the passage made like a grotto with the arch, was entrusted the architect V.I. Neyelov. Earth for banks was taken from the Upper Ponds in the Catherine Park and the pond “Ozerki’ in the New Garden, which were dug that time. Works were done under the direction of V.I. Neyelov and with the participation of I.K. Gerard in 1770-1772. The rectangular arch of the Small Caprice, through which Under-Caprice Road (it is sometimes called Babolovsky Road) passes, is made of crudely boasted ashlar limestone. The arch is 5.5 metres high and the same wide. The thickness of the arch over the passage is two metres. Slopes of earth banks on the arch sides were planted with loosely spread out trees and bushes. Semenova Galina Victorovna
Gerard Ivan (Johann Konrad) Kondratievich
Neelov Vasily Ivanovich
Ekaterininsky Park/Pushkin, town
Pushkin, town
China-village (Pushkin)