|
|
The
Sea Canal
and Grand Palace | |
Samson
Tearing
the Lion's Mouth |
|
Petrodvorets lies on the shore of the
Finnish Gulf, 30 km away from St.Petersburg. Peter the Great intended to
build a summer residence as splendid as the Versailles palaces. Like many
other things, the initial layout of the summer residence was drawn by
Peter himself.
|
|
The construction work began in 1714, the
formal opening of Peterhof took place on August 15, 1723. But the
construction work continued for another 150 years. Twenty palaces and over
140 fountains were built, and seven magnificent parks occupying about
1,000 hectares were set out. With the death of Peter the Great in 1725,
building in Peterhof ceased. |
|
The real flowering of Peterhof is
associated with Peter's daughter Elizabeth, who ruled from 1741 to 1761.
Between the midforties and midfifties, arcitect B. Rastrelly turned the
Upper Chambers into the sumptuous Great Palace.
In 1762, as a result of a palace coup, the
Russian throne went to Catherine II. In 1779 she comissioned architect G.
Quarenghi to begin construction of "New Peterhof" to the southwest of the
Upper Gardens. Quarenghi designed the English Park and built the English
Palace, a fine specimen of classical architecture.
|
|
The center of the park ensemble is the
Grand Palace which was built in 1714-1725. In 1755 it was rebuilt by B.
Rastrelly. A magnificent view of the Grand Cascade opening into a sea
canal opens up from the palace windows. Making the 25 years since the
victory at Poltava, a fountain "Samson Tearing the Lion's Mouth" was
installed in the cascade pool as the simbol of Russian Victory over the
Swedish lion in the Nothern War. The Samson jet spurts up to a height of
22 meters. The sculptor Ivan Kozlovsky gave Samson the appearance of Peter
the Great. |
|
Rastrelly reconstructed the Grand Palace
in Peterhof in 1746-1752 for the Empress. Being tired by the dimensions of
the former construction, he could not, of course, show the whole splendour
of his mastery. Rastrelli only somewhat enlarged the building, reduced the
excess of the facade gaudiness, and added by means of low passages a
church and a wing under the coat-of-arms, to the central annex. What is
amazing that the architect managed to modify the building in full harmony
with previous construction techniques.. |
|
The structural center of the Upper
Gardens and the Lower Park is in the Grand Palace. The palace stands on
the edge of a sixteen-meter high terrace, adorned with gold statues, the
crystall jets of the Great Cascade and the terrace fountains. In its
building participated some great architect: Jonathan Braunstein,
Jean-Baptiste Le Blond, Nicolo Michetti and Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
|
|
All that remained of the former building
was the central section erected in Peter's time. The palace interiors were
in keeping with its external appearance. Its spacious and airy rooms were
adorned with rich moldings, splendid parquet flooring, exquisite carvings,
painted ceilings, and canvases by great masters. Rastrelli's interiors
appeared in the last decade of th Baroque period.
|
|
A long side the rooms dating back to the
Petrine period were the splendid halls that appeared in the mid-18th
century, and then the dignified austere halls of the Classical period,
that were later replaced by the interiors of the mid-19th century
reflecting the revival of the main artistic principles of Rococo.
|
|
Over the two centuries of its existence
the Grand Palace has become a kind of treasure-trove of outstanding works
of art, furniture, bronzes, china, glass and everyday objects.
|
Landscape
Gallery --- My Motherland
|
