The Cold Bath or the Agate Rooms Pavilion (an ensemble of the Catherine Palace)

Categories / Tsarskoe Selo and town of Pushkin. The digital chronological reference book/Monuments of history and culture
The building, being the central place in the complex of Cameron’s Thermae, was built by Ch. Cameron for Catherine II in 1780-1788. Sculptors J.D. Rashett and K. Goffert, masters of jasper-cutting V.Davydov and V. Balakshin, the master of carving and gilding J.B. Sharlemann took part in works. In the ground floor the architect reproduced the planning of the thermae of the Roman Emperor Constantin . There was a hot bath with a sweating-room and resting room (Kaldariy), a warm bath (tepidariy), a room for doing massage as well as rooms for heating water and rooms for servants. The building was named the Cold Bath according to the antique frigidary with a swimming-pool. The Agate Rooms Pavilion or Agate Rooms of the second floor got the name because of walls which were faced by so called “meat agate” (on the olden days red-brown Urazovsky jasper was called “meat agate”). Moreover the pavilion’s rich decoration includes artificial and natural marble, sculpture and modelling, painting, gilded bronzes, marvelous parquet floors. Such combination used in the interiors decoration ,walls were faced by the set of multicolored jasper plates approached on the color and drawing, was named as the Russian mosaic. Semenova Galina Victorovna
Balakshin, V.
Cameron Charles
Catherine II, Empress
Charlemagne, J.-B.
Davydov, V.
Hoffert K.
Rachette Jean-Dominique
Sadovaya Street/Pushkin, town