Tuesday Treasures

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May 2013 - St. Petersburg Russia

One of St. Petersburg's most famous and popular visitor attractions, the palace and park at Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets) are often referred to as "the Russian Versailles", although many visitors conclude that the comparison does a disservice to the grandeur and scope of this majestic estate.

Approaching the palace. No photos allowed inside.

Versailles was, however, the inspiration for Peter the Great's desire to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of his new city and, after an aborted attempt at Strelna, Peterhof - which means "Peter's Court" in German - became the site for the Tsar's Monplaisir Palace, and then of the original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter's granddaughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade.

The Grand Peterhof Palace, majestic and elegant, with its facade stretching for almost 300 meters, occupies the dominant position of the Peterhof ensemble composition, connecting the Upper garden and the Lower park, in a single artistic entity. "Having stretched its wings" over the aquatic extravaganza of the Great cascade, it unites and forms a harmonic complex of alleys, architectural constructions and fountains.

The Grand Cascade. The most impressive out of the all the fountains found throughout the Peterhof Lower Park and Upper Gardens—which Peter designed himself—the towering, golden gilded statue depicts Samson prying open a lion’s jaws.

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The plan of the Lower Park is defined by the two systems of alleys, parting in a principle of a fan from the Grand palace and the Marly palace. The planning scheme was thought so deeply, that no garden decoration, nor a single detail is hidden from the sight of the guests. Each alley is ending at a palace or a fountain.

An important role in the layout of the Lower park's central ensemble, is played by the "Voronikhin colonnades". They close the parterres in front of the Great palace on the north side, and accentuate the entrance to the Sea canal.

 

Peterhof is perhaps most famous for its remarkable array of decorative fountains.

Sitting in the eastern corner of the Lower Park, right on the shoreline of the Gulf of Finland, Monplaisir vaguely resembles a Dutch Colonial mansion, with its high gabled roof over the central corpus and narrow rectangular windows to keep out the wintry north wind. The façade on the opposite side of the palace is quite different, with long single-storey galleries topped by a balustraded terrace and supported by slender columns.

To the west of "Monplaisir", there is adjacent yellow one-story building, the "Catherine block". It was built for the empress Elizabeth by the architect F.B. Rastrelli in the middle of the XVIII century. The palace, decorated in baroque style, was intended for the court balls, receptions and banquets. At that time it was called the "Stone block". The name "Catherine" came later and is associated with the memory of the palace coup, that brought Catherine II onto the Russian throne. When she was the Grand Duchess, she lived in the rooms of the wooden lodge adjoined to the "Stone block". It was from there in the morning of June 28, 1762, that she went off to St. Petersburg to lead the conspiracy plot aiming to overthrow her spouse, emperor Peter III.

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The "Pyramid" fountain is one of the most beautiful and original fountains of Peterhof. It is considered to be the most abounding in water among the fountains of the Lower Park, as it spends about one hundred liters of water per second.

On the northern side, the square in front of the "Chessboard Hill" cascade is decorated by two identical and symmetrical fountains. The name "Roman" is linked to the fact that, compositionally, they resemble the stone spouts on the square in front of St. Peter's Basilica, in Rome.

In front of the southern façade of the Orangery building, there is a small garden, where fruit trees, vegetables and flowers were grown. In the center of the garden there is a basin set, where gardeners used to take water for the irrigation. In 1726, according to the idea of Peter I, the architect T. Usov, decorated the pool with "the Triton" fountain. The Sea monster sinks its teeth into the Triton's thigh, but with his powerful force, the Lord of the waves tears open the toothy jaws, with eight-meter water jet gushing out of it. Turtles crawl away in terror from the fighting enemies. Two-meter water jets spurt from their mouths.

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Popular spots include the checkered Chess Board Hill Cascade which is flanked by three dragons as well as Greek and Roman deities, along with the so-called joke fountains which spray water at unassuming visitors who have the misfortune of stepping on the paving stone or sitting on the bench that sets them off!

The idea of creating the "squirting amusements" in the Peterhof residence belonged to Peter I, who was known to be fond of this sort of jokes and pranks. Although, some of the trick-fountains of the Lower Park were constructed in the late XVIII century, by their operation and principle of decoration, they are fully consistent with water amusements of Peter's gardens.

The trick-fountain "Umbrella", was created in 1796 by the project of the architect F. Brouer, under the influence of "Chinese" buildings in "Tsarskoye Selo" (Tsar's Village, Pushkin). The fountain resembles the shape of an umbrella: the massive pillar supports the wide bright green top, completed with carved wooden flower. The pillar is circled with chairs with carved arm rests. As soon as the guests would gather under its roof, out of a hundred sixty-four tubes hidden behind the elegant carved festoons, the firm water streams began to flow, forming a dense water curtain. In the 1860's, the roof of the fountain was given the appearance of a fly agaric mushroom. Since then, for nearly a century, this trick-fountain was called "the Mushroom". In 1949, during the restoration, it was returned to its original appearance and name, but the name "Mushroom" is still used among the residents of St. Petersburg.

The trick-fountain "the Oak" was created in 1735 from the model of the sculptor B. С. Rastrelli, and originally decorated one of the round pools of the Upper Garden, gleaming in the sun with its gilded leaves. Having been removed from there in the middle of the XVIII century, in 1802, it was installed by the master F.A. Strelnikov, on its present place - in one of the green shrubberies adjacent to the Monplaisir alley, on the western side. The gold-plated fountain, was given an appearance more suitable for the landscape park: "the Oak" was painted in a "natural wood" color and turned into a fountain complex, consisting of several "water tricks".

The branchy six-meter hollow trunk of the tree, decorated on the outside with lead that imitates the bark, gets filled with water from the root to the top and to the tip of each branch, from where the water sprays squirt. Around "the Oak", there are large jetting "Tulips", and close by, there are two wooden benches. There are 41 nozzles hidden behind their backs, that unexpectedly spurt silvery water jets up, drenching visitors passing by.

The "Fir Tree" trick-fountain is a group of three small jetting metal trees, located in one of the lawns near the Orangery. The original fountain was constructed in 1784, by the masters I. Keizer and F.A. Strelnikov.

Comprised of the interconnected tubes, finished in the form of a trunk and branches and covered with wire "needles", these "trees" can be at first mistaken for the real firs, but once you come closer, the fine sprays of water squirt from their branches, revealing their comic idea.

I will end with some random photos.

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It was quite common to see wedding parties in locations like this.