Barracks of the Own His Emperor Majesty Escort

Categories / Tsarskoe Selo and town of Pushkin. The digital chronological reference book/Monuments of history and culture
During its random staying in Tsarskoye Selo over the 19th century the Emperor Escort occupied hussar and cuirassier barracks. The first permanent wooden barracks of the Own His Emperor Majesty Escort were built in 1895 in the Alexander Park in connection with placing the permanent residence of Emperor Nicholas II in the Alexander Palace. The barracks were consecrated on 28 September 1895 in the presence of the Emperor. Each of three sotnias (a unit of a hundred soldiers) was placed with maximum comforts: in separate barracks with separate kitchens and stables, with electric lighting. Only a bakery, smithy and bathhouse were common for all three sotnias. In 1911 the centenary of “the Emperor’s guard” was celebrated. The constraction of the Fiodorovsky Emperor Cathedral (1909, the architect A.N. Pomerantsev; 1910-1912, the architect V.A. Pokrovsky) and the Officers’ Assembly building (1910-1911, the architect V.A. Pokrovsky) for needs of the Own His Emperor Majesty Escort and the Combined Infantry Regiment was dated to this centenary. Later it was decided to build new barracks for the Escort soldiers also.
The ceremonial laying of the barracks according to the design of the architect V.N. Maksimov took place on 25 June 1914 in the presence of the Emperor on the place of an old wooden building. The main building work was done for three years, but the construction, which must be finished in 1917, was not completed. However the barracks were inhabited, and as some Escort soldiers were in the Emperor Headquarters and at the front, the spare rooms were used for a hospital for wounded soldiers. The barrack building was multifunctional with two closed courtyards. The architect has provided here for all needs for placing the Escort soldiers: living barracks, stables, administrative, training, gymnastic, store rooms. Sothia buildings were separated with five arch passages and picturesque tier porches. From the 1920s until the present days the barracks of the Own Escort were occupied by the Agrarian University. The post-war restored repair was done during 1954-1957 under the direction of the architect L.Ya. Rotinov, the appearance of the building was simplified enough. The large sotnia’s yard was opened to the direction of the park and decorated with lawns and flower-beds of landscape laying according to the project of the architect N.Ye. Zakamsky. A small yard in the northern part of the building survived the originak fence and gate. The building, stretched in parallel with the front of the Menagerie eastern bastion, was successfully included in the landscape composition of the Alexander Park. Pyramidal towers, completed like ancient fortresses with conic and facetted roofs and weathercocks with the image of St. George the Victorious and a warrior with a bow, give the expressiveness to the building. Facades were stylized in forms of the ancient Russian architecture and they do not remember ordinary barrack-buildings by anything. The northern block is especially distinguished by rich mansion window surrounds and an open arch gallery of the entrance on the squat tubby pylons. The influence of the Modernist style is noticeable in the form of arches. Semenova Galina Victorovna
Maksimov, Vladimir Nikolayevich
Nicholas II, Emperor
Pokrovsky Vladimir Alexandrovich
Pomerantsev Alexander Nikanorovich
Pomerantsev Alexander Nikanorovich
Pomerantsev Alexander Nikanorovich
Akademichesky Avenue/Pushkin, town
Peterburgskoe Freeway/Pushkin, town, house 2
Alexander Palace (Pushkin)
His Imperial Majesty's Escort
Combined Infantry of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Regiment
Court Cathedral of Our Lady Feodorovskaya
Agricultural University