Location: 30 km (19 mi) South of St. Petersburg Map
Emperor Pavel (Paul) I
(1754- 1801)
Pavlovsk (from 1918 to 1944 - Slutsk) is a small town on the Slavyanka
River, one of the suburbs of St. Petersburg. World famous for its palace and
park ensemble, included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. For
everyone who comes to enjoy the beauties of St. Petersburg, Pavlovsk is just
as obligatory to visit as Peterhof and Pushkin. At the same time, it is
located at a slightly greater distance from the city and in general has the
aura of a more secluded and less touristy suburb. This is probably why the
attitude of the Petersburgers themselves towards Pavlovsk is tender and
informal; this jewel is not put on display, but is kept for internal use. It
is customary to go here for thoughtful contemplative walks, especially
during the golden autumn. Moreover, the huge Pavlovsky Park can accommodate
any number of visitors without crowding, crowding and queues for sights, of
which there are a lot.
The history of the city of Pavlovsk should be
counted from November 12, 1796, when by decree of the newly ascended Emperor
Paul I, the village of Pavlovsky was given city status. The village itself
appeared on the maps two decades earlier, when Empress Catherine II granted
these lands to her son and his wife Maria Feodorovna. In the village, two
estates were built for them, named in German Paulust and Mariental. On the
site of Paulust in 1786, the Pavlovsk Palace was built, and on the site of
Marienthal, Pavel's "amusing castle", the fortress of Bip. However, Paul I
preferred Gatchina, and Maria Feodorovna lived in the Pavlovsk Palace with
her children, including after the death of her husband. She was also
involved in the arrangement of Pavlovsk Park. Then Pavlovsk was successively
owned by several grand dukes; that is, in fact, it was never a real imperial
residence, but it belonged to the royal family until the revolution.
In 1918, the city was renamed Slutsk in honor of the deceased revolutionary
Vera Slutskaya and retained this name until 1944. The museum in the Pavlovsk
Palace was organized in the mid-1930s, however, during the Nazi occupation,
the palace was looted and burned, and the park was also badly damaged. The
losses were so significant that immediately after the war the government
decided not to restore anything here. However, thanks to the selfless work
of the director of the palace-museum, Anna Zelenova, who not only developed
a methodology for the restoration of the Pavlovsk palace and park ensemble,
but also managed to prove its necessity to the top management, the revival
nevertheless began. The main work was completed by 1957, and by 1978 the
ensemble was almost completely restored, although in some particulars the
restoration is still ongoing.
No large enterprises have ever existed
in Pavlovsk, as it was, and remained "a city with a palace and a park" -
quiet, cozy, secluded, intelligent and a little bit provincial. There are no
city entertainments here, but there is a lot of water, trees and fresh air.
Either the descendants of those who settled in Pavlovsk under the tsars live
here, or those who do not like or cannot afford life in St. Petersburg. In
post-Soviet times, a number of very wealthy people have also been added to
the inhabitants of Pavlovsk, who buy former noble dachas and adapt them to
their needs.
By train
From the center of St. Petersburg, it is
convenient to go to Pavlovsk from the Vitebsky railway station ( 1
(Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya) Pushkinskaya line). There are many electric
trains (on average they run every 20 minutes from early morning until
late evening), the journey takes 35-40 minutes, the price of the trip is
58-60 rubles.
From the southern part of the city, you can leave from
the Prospekt Slavy platform or Kupchino station ( 2
(Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya) Kupchino line), travel time is 21-24 or 17-20
minutes, respectively, the price of the trip is 45-46 ₽.
Railway
station, Privokzalnaya sq., 1. The historic wooden building of the
Pavlovsk-2 station was destroyed during the war (like the "music
station" Pavlovsk-1, located on the territory of Pavlovsky Park), and
the current one was built in 1955 according to the project of the
outstanding Soviet architect E .A. Levinson. Levinson participated in
the revival of the palace and park ensembles of Pushkin and Pavlovsk,
and therefore his stations, although they are an example of an exemplary
steel, these ensembles in no way spoil. Across the road from the station
is one of the entrances to the park, here, on the square, all local and
passing buses make a mandatory stop.
By car
From St.
Petersburg you have to go in a southerly direction. Both highways
leading to Pavlovsk can be accessed both along the city streets and
along the Ring Road.
from Pobedy Square along Moskovskoye highway
(M10 E105) to the settlement of Moskovskaya Slavyanka, then to the right
from the traffic light (pointer to Pushkin) to the railway crossing in
Pushkin. Without crossing the railway tracks, turn left and drive along
the railway until Pavlovsk Privokzalnaya Square for about 1.5 km.
from Victory Square along Pulkovskoye Highway to the turn to Pushkin
(underground tunnel to the left), past the village. Shushary, through
the railway crossing, enter Pushkin. Pass through Pushkin along the
streets: Petersburg Highway, Palace, Srednyaya, Sadovaya - turns into
Pavlovskoye Highway. Pass under the railway bridge (entrance to
Pavlovsk) and turn right.
By bus
From 2
(Moscow-Petrogradskaya) Zvezdnaya line: bus number 179
From 2
(Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya) line Moskovskaya: buses No. 252 (interval
14-33 min.) and No. 299 (interval 24-27 min.), stop behind the monument
to Lenin, travel time about an hour. The fare is 65₽, without a
conductor, cash payment to the driver is not provided
From
(Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya) line Kupchino: bus number 521, stop on the
western side of the railway tracks
All city passes and reduced
tickets are valid on the routes. All buses make a stop at the Pavlovsky
railway station, and on No. 252 and 299 you can also get to the central
entrance to the park (Palace stop).
Transit and local buses run in Pavlovsk (No. 370,
375A, 383, 493, etc.), some of which connect Pavlovsk and Pushkin. These
buses can be useful for sightseeing, although some are easier to reach
on foot. The price of the trip is 30-40 rubles (2020), St. Petersburg
travel and discount tickets are valid.
There are local taxi
services - for example, "Northern City" (+7 (812) 400-60-40), "Emelya"
(+7 (812) 600-600-2), but in general, ordering a taxi in Pavlovsk is no
different from ordering a taxi in any other district of St. Petersburg,
including via the Internet and using mobile applications.
Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve, 20 Sadovaya st. The
palace and park complex - the main attraction of Pavlovsk - includes the
Pavlovsk Palace, as well as the Pavlovsk Park with numerous sculptures,
bridges and pavilions. In some pavilions there are exhibitions and
interiors are available for inspection, but they are all closed in
winter. Also, in winter, the Private Garden at the Palace is closed to
the public. In summer, the park offers rental of bicycles, boats,
electric cars, and you can order a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. In
winter, skis and kick sleds are rented. A ticket to the park entitles
you to free admission to some park pavilions, to other pavilions and to
the palace you need to buy a separate ticket. In winter, on weekdays,
admission to the park is free, on weekends and holidays, admission is
free only two hours after the park opens and before the park closes. In
summer, admission is paid on weekdays, but the “two-hour rule” continues
to apply.
It is completely unrealistic to see the entire complex in
one go, so if you have never been here before, for the first visit you
should plan a minimum program for yourself: a visit to the palace and a
walk around the palace part of the park. The following visits can be
devoted to exploring the parts of the Pavlovsk Park that are more
distant from the palace, as well as other attractions: the Mariental
Park and various buildings and structures in the city.
1
Pavlovsky Palace, Sadovaya st., 20 (southern part of the park). Tue–Sun
10:00–18:00, ticket office closes one hour earlier. 600₽ (full ticket),
300₽ (pensioners, labor veterans).
2 Pavlovsky park. 07:00–23:00
(summer), 07:00–19:00 (winter). 100₽ (full ticket), 50₽ (pensioners),
children under 16 and privileged categories free of charge.
Subscriptions for 10 or more visits to the park are also sold.
3 Mariental Park, between Krasny Kursant, Mariinskaya,
Elizavetinskaya, Hospitalnaya, Sadovaya and Prosveshcheniya streets.
Many do not even know about the existence of Mariental Park, although
this is the second largest park in Pavlovsk, and it is located in the
most prominent place - right opposite Pavlovsk Park. The border between
them is the former Tsarskoye Selo Road, now Sadovaya Street: Pavlovsky
Park - to the north, Mariental - to the south. Both are located in the
valley of the winding Slavyanka River, which forms three narrow ponds on
the territory of Marienthal. The park was laid out in the 1780s around
the estate of Empress Maria Feodorovna and was named after her. The
estate did not last long, Maria Fedorovna soon moved to the Pavlovsk
Palace and then almost did not deal with Mariental, so there are few
park facilities here. In addition, part of the park was originally
intended for public use, and on its territory, among other things,
several court houses were built, as well as summer cottages and palace
greenhouses. Not all of this has come down to our time, but something is
either in ruins or bought into private ownership and is not available
for inspection. However, the park itself is not fenced, accessible at
any time of the year and pleasant for walking.
4 Bip Fortress,
Mariinskaya st., 4 (Mariental Park). The fortress was built on the site
of the empress's estate and at first was also called Mariental. There
are several versions of the origin of the name "Beep", the most popular
being an abbreviation for the phrase "Paul's Big Toy". The idea of
“amusing fortresses”, which served not only for royal entertainment, but
also for quite serious training of soldiers in military affairs, comes
from Peter I, the idol of Emperor Paul. And here the place was suitable,
because on the high bank of the Slavyanka from the time of the Northern
War, the remains of Swedish fortifications were preserved. The fortress,
also known as Bip Castle, was built, however, more in the French spirit
and was something like a country chateau, equipped with a moat, a
drawbridge, bastions, etc. It was considered a military structure until
the revolution, after which all sorts of civilian institutions were
periodically settled in it. When the Pavlovsk Palace and Park Complex
was restored and placed under state protection, for some reason they
forgot about Bip, and the building, which burned down during the war
years, remained abandoned until the mid-2000s. Then the ruin was
acquired by businessman Sergei Gutzeit, who arranged a restaurant and a
hotel in the restored fortress, and also put the park in order. The
current fortress of Bip does not look quite authentic and is not very
accessible, but the landscape certainly adorns it.
5 The trellis
staircase and the pier with lions, Mariental Park (right bank of the
Mariental Pond, near Sadovaya Street). A decorative wooden arbor-trellis
adorned Mariental from the very beginning and even managed to survive
the war, but its remains were dismantled in 1957 (they write that “for
restoration”, but there is a suspicion that forever). But the stone
staircase to the pond, designed by Andrei Voronikhin, has survived to
this day. The gazebo was symmetrical to the Three Graces pavilion, and
the staircase, in turn, echoes Bolshaya Kamennaya in Pavlovsk Park.
There are also lions here, and very characteristic of Voronikhin - the
same smooth-haired sad animals can be seen in Peterhof near the
Voronikhin colonnades. The initial number of lions is not clear: they
say there were four, but one was lost during the war, and another was
transferred to the Pavlovsk Palace. But at the Pavlovsk Palace there are
again four of them, the pier is officially called “the pier with three
lions”, but there are two lions here. One way or another, the view from
here is excellent, and the pier itself, despite its neglected state, is
not devoid of romance.
6 Obelisk in memory of the founding of
Pavlovsk, Mariental Park (right bank of the Mariental Pond). A very
simple obelisk with an inscription on a cast-iron board: "Pavlovskoye
began to be built in 1777." This is the date when Catherine II presented
these lands to the future Paul I in honor of the birth of his son, the
future Alexander I. You can approach the obelisk along the path, but it
looks more interesting from the opposite bank of the Slavyanka.
7 Obelisk "Target", Mariental Park (on the bank of the Slavyanka River,
near Linnovsky Bridge). Completely unknown to tourists, the monument
stands at the unkempt southern tip of Mariental and is dedicated to the
shooting exercises of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor
Alexander II. The obelisk was installed much later, in 1863, through the
efforts of one of the royal educators S.A. Yurievich, who mentioned two
of his colleagues on the granite stele. This is perhaps the only
monument of the royal target in the world - that's what makes it
interesting.
8 Nikolaev gates, Sadovaya st. (at the intersection
with Berezovaya st.). Cast-iron gates, installed in 1826 on the
Tsarskoye Selo road near the then border of Pavlovsky Park, were a
birthday gift from Nicholas I to his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna. A
massive building in the style of post-antique triumphal arches, cast
according to the design of Carl Rossi, is crowned with a double-headed
eagle and framed by a cast-iron fence with bas-reliefs. The gates were
restored in 1981 (among other things, the crown lost during the
revolution was returned to the eagle) and although they have long been
located not on the border of the city, but in its very center, they are
used for their intended purpose: the central span is intended for the
passage of vehicles, and the two side spans are for pedestrians .
9 Villa “Miranda” (cottage of I. B. Shtein), Sadovaya st., 9. Quite a
few beautiful dachas have been preserved in Pavlovsk, but this one also
attracts attention due to the fact that it is located on the road to the
central entrance to the park. Built at the beginning of the 20th century
in the Art Nouveau style, it does not differ in particular intricacy,
but is graceful and sweet. Now it is privately owned, so it is not
possible to inspect it from the inside. At the cottage there is a garden
with a pond; the garden is locally called "Kerosinka" (once there was a
fuel and lubricants warehouse there), and the pond is part of the
Taitsky water conduit system.
10 Church of St. Mary Magdalene ,
Sadovaya st., 17. ☎ +7 (952) 200-85-58. 09:00–19:00. The temple was
built during the time of Paul I, and even before the Pavlovsk Palace;
This is the first stone building in the city of Pavlovsk. The building
of strict classical forms, designed by Giacomo Quarenghi, surprisingly
harmonizes with the ensemble of Pavlovsk Park and serves as a kind of
preamble to it. In the Soviet years, the church was pretty mocked,
placing various factories and workshops here, but then they nevertheless
took it under protection as an architectural monument, and in 1995 they
returned the Russian Orthodox Church. Since then, the church has been
gradually restored outside and inside, and wall paintings of the 19th
century have also been preserved. Under the choirs in the western wall
on the sides of the entrance door there are cenotaph monuments to the
royal nobles - N.I. Panin and A.B. Kurakin.
There are no large shopping centers in Pavlovsk, but
in the city center it is not difficult to find medium and small grocery
and department stores.
Souvenirs and printed materials can be
purchased in shops in the park (near the entrances), as well as in the
lobby of the Pavlovsk Palace. In addition, the park has points of sale
of nuts and seeds for feeding squirrels and birds, but the prices there
are clearly overpriced, so it is recommended to purchase such products
ahead of time - in stores or in the markets of St. Petersburg.
With food outlets in Pavlovsk, as in all the palace
and park suburbs of St. Petersburg, things are not very good, the choice
is small. There are food and drink stalls and a couple of cafes in the
park, but the selection is scarce and the prices are like at the
airport, so if you intend to walk in the park all day, it is wiser to
take some food and drink with you. However, there is still an
opportunity to have a bite to eat in the city - before or after a walk.
Cheap
1 "Keb House & Good Coffee", Station Square, 1. ☎ +7 (812)
671-00-06. 06:00–23:00. Stall with street food near the station.
2
Cafe "Grushenka", Konyushennaya st., 1 (near the Nicholas Gates). ☎ +7
(812) 452-28-40. 10:00–20:00. Local chain cafe - there are four of them
in Pushkin and one in Pavlovsk. It specializes mainly in pastries and
desserts, but there are also lunches (soups, hot dishes). There is a
children's and diet menu. Reviews are good, but visitors complain that
the cafe can be crowded due to its proximity to the park.
3 "Around
the bread", 1st Sovetskaya st., 18. ☎ +7 (911) 733-05-55. 09:00–20:00.
Cafe-bakery in the basement of a residential building, offering hot
bread, sweets and coffee. There is a fireplace, a children's play area,
Wi-Fi and sockets for gadgets. Good feedback. It is more convenient to
get there by your own transport or on foot (about 20 minutes walk from
the Nicholas Gate along Berezovaya Street).
4 "Bread Estate",
Detskoselskaya St., 17/17 (opposite the "Grieving Mother" memorial). ✉ ☎
+7 (812) 943-12-31, +7 (953) 343-32-79. 09:00–21:00. A popular network
bakery in St. Petersburg and the region with a very large selection of
products. Pies are sold individually, pies (sweet and hearty) - pieces
by weight or whole. There is tea (packaged), coffee, drinks. Everything
can be eaten on the spot or taken away, in the evening there are
discounts on pastries. Get there in the same way as to “Around the
bread” (the establishments are located close to each other).
Average cost
5 Restaurant "Uno" ("Uno cafe"), pos. Tyarlevo,
Novovestinskaya st., 2A (next to the Farm pavilion). ☎ +7 (812)
466-83-23. 11:00–23:00. salads, soups - from 300 rubles, hot dishes from
450 rubles. Designed mainly for banquets or large groups of visitors.
Quite an extensive and intricate menu, there is a wine list. There is a
summer terrace and parking.
Expensive
✦ Bip Castle
Restaurant, Mariinskaya st., 4. ☎ +7 (812) 244-28-28. Restaurant at the
hotel in the Bip fortress.
6 "Podvorye" restaurant, 16 Filtrovskoe
sh. (at the entrance to Pavlovsk). ✉ ☎ +7 (812) 454-54-66. 08:00–23:00.
Restaurant complex of the "Russian village" format in its most kitsch
sense. Among the guests of honor of the restaurant are entirely
presidents and pop stars, so mere mortals have nothing to catch here,
and they can’t afford it: even a cup of tea here will cost 300 rubles,
to say nothing of the rest of the menu.
Settling in Pavlovsk makes sense only if you plan to
explore its sights for several days in a row. In all other cases, it is
more logical to stop somewhere in the south of St. Petersburg (in the
Moskovsky or Frunzensky district), where the choice is incomparably
greater. There are practically no hotels in Pavlovsk itself, but
aggregator sites offer several options for daily rent of apartments and
a dozen more options in neighboring Pushkin.
Average cost
«Modern History» , st. Vasenko, 8. ☎ +7 (981) 111-77-11, +7 (812)
452-01-47. from 3300₽ for an apartment for 2-3 people. Apart-hotel in
the city center. Free Wi-Fi and bath amenities included. There are
household appliances, TV, safe, parking.
Expensive
Bip Castle,
Mariinskaya st., 4. ☎ +7 (812) 244-28-28. from 12.000₽. Five-star
boutique hotel in Bip Fortress.
Pavlovsk Park is very large, and in its remote
deserted parts you can get lost out of habit, so if you are going there,
turn on the navigator or purchase maps at the entrance to the park. Keep
in mind that the park is fenced around the entire perimeter, and the
entrances are locked at night, so if you expect to walk all day, keep an
eye on the time, especially during the white nights, when the onset of
evening and even night is easy to miss. You should not swim in Slavyanka
and park ponds: firstly, this is prohibited and punishable by fines, and
secondly, there may be snags and marshy silted places at the bottom of
the reservoirs - there is a danger of injury or even drowning, despite
the shallow depth. In no case do not climb onto park structures and
sculptures and do not allow children to do this - this is not only
dangerous, but also administratively punishable.
Motorists should
remember that parking on the Station Square is prohibited, and tow
trucks are actively working here. There are no paid parking lots in
Pavlovsk, but you can park for free anywhere where there are no
prohibition signs.
Pavlovsk was designated as a royal residence in 1777 by
Russian Empress Catherine the Great. She bought 977 acres or 395
ha along Slavyanka River and set them aside for her estranged
son Paul or Pavel. She also named the future palace and
surrounding settlement after her son she didn't particularly
like. Pavlovskoye village was designed by Scottish architect
Charles Cameron. He managed to keep the natural feel of the park
along with aesthetic beauty of planned landscaping. Trees,
shrubs and flowers were planted to look like a painting when
seen from the windows of the Central palace as well as other
small houses and pavilions spread around the royal complex.
After death of Emperor Pavel I (Paul I) her widow Maria
Feodorovna settled here. Over the next several decades many rich
and influential people constructed their private summer houses
around the park. Many famous artists, writers and composers
lived here and walked the paved walkways of the Pavlovsk Park.
This included Sergey Glinka, Ivan Krylov, Nikolay Karamzin,
Alexander Brullov and many others. Dostoyevsky set parts of his
novel The Idiot here.
In the early 20th century Pavlovsk
became the birthplace of a Russian Scouting movement. On April
30, 1909 Colonel Pantyukhov organized first scout union that
became known as Beavers. It was even visited a year later by
General Baden- Powell, the original founder of the Scout
Movement while on his visit to Russian Emperor Nicholas II and
his family in Tsarskoye Selo nearby. Most of graduates and
participants in the Scout Movement joined the White Army or the
White Guard during Russian Civil War. They fought against the
Communist Red Army, but after their final defeat the Scout
movement was closed along with Scout School. Ironically they
found another organization that became known as Pioneers, but it
wasn't re- established on these grounds.
During World War
II the German Wermacht army occupied Pavlovsk Palace along with
other suburbs of besieged Leningrad (today known as
Saint-Petersburg). They stole or destroyed most of the items
that were not evacuated by the Soviet government. At their
retreat they burned down the palace and cut down most of the
trees in the park. After the conclusion of the war most of the
trees and shrubs had to be replaced using the original plans
from the 18th century. Today the palace is open to the public.
Along with other palaces and royal residences in Leningrad
Oblast it is listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After 1786, Cameron, due to constant conflicts with Pavel Petrovich,
and then with the Grand Duchess, who constantly interfered in the
design, generally refused to work in the village of Pavlovskoye.
Therefore, all construction issues on the spot were decided by the Swiss
draftsman and decorator Henri-Francois-Gabriel Violier, who worked as an
"inspector of paintings and prints cabinets." Violier the Elder (so
named in contrast to his brother, Gabriel Violier (Gavriil Petrovich
Viollier), secretary of Maria Feodorovna) in 1781-1782 accompanied the
grand ducal couple on a trip to Europe under the names of the Count and
Countess of the North. It was Violier who supervised the acquisition of
paintings, furniture, tapestries, bronzes, porcelain, fabrics and all
the details of the furnishings for the future palace. Violier developed
interior decoration, made drawings of decorative paintings, moldings and
even drawings of furniture in the Louis XVI style (French
neoclassicism), which Russian masters worked on.
According to
Cameron's project, by 1796 the main building of the palace of a cubic
volume was erected with a belvedere at the top, columned porticos of the
western and eastern facades modeled on the Villa Rotunda by A. Palladio
and two circumferences (semicircular covered colonnades) with side
"services". The enfilades of rooms were divided into "male" and "female"
halves. In the center of the building are reception and dance halls.
With the accession of Paul I in November 1796 and the subsequent
resignation of Cameron, Cameron's assistant, the Italian architect
Vincenzo Brenna, was appointed chief architect of the Court. The emperor
insisted on increasing the size of the palace to give it greater
majesty. Brenna built on the circumferences (semi-circular galleries)
created by Cameron with a second tier of loggias with sarkades and
trellises between the arches, crowned the galleries with a balustrade,
flowerpots with garlands. The side hulls were decorated with trophies
(military fittings). On the west side, Brenna added the so-called Light
Colonnade (later the Gonzaga Gallery) to the palace. Since 1799, the
Italian decorator Pietro di Gottardo Gonzaga (Gonzago) worked in
Pavlovsk. He created sketches for painting the plafonds of the new
ceremonial interiors of the Grand Palace. “Pavlovsk is an encyclopedia
of Gonzago,” wrote A. M. Efros, “Nowhere did it show itself more fully,
more diverse ... Nowhere was it more itself.” Gonzaga gave Pavlovsk
thirty-five years of his life and not only completed what Cameron did
not have time to do, but “filled all the space with his imagination and
taste.” In 1805-1807, Gonzaga painted the walls and plafond of the Light
Colonnade with architectural perspectives of trompe-l'œil (“an optical
illusion”; the paintings were destroyed by the war, conditionally
recreated by 2011 from the few surviving fragments and sketches of the
artist) and developed the Cameronian and Palladian idea " transparent
colonnades", continuing its implementation in the Pavlovsk park of the
"landscape", English style.
Finishing work in the front halls of the Grand Palace was completed
in 1802, but in 1803, due to a malfunction of the chimneys, a fire broke
out that destroyed the architecture of the interiors. Vincenzo Brenna,
after the assassination of Emperor Pavel Petrovich on March 12 (24),
1801, left Russia for Germany and took all the drawings with him. Maria
Fedorovna entrusted the restoration work to A. N. Voronikhin. The new
palace architect restored the Egyptian vestibule according to the
project of Cameron, expanded the gallery of the northern wing, the wall
of which was painted by Gonzaga in 1805-1807. In 1807, Voronikhin
created one of his best works - the Flashlight study, an interior with a
glazed semi-rotunda overlooking his "own garden". Paired figures of
caryatids are made according to the models of the sculptor V. I.
Demut-Malinovsky. The office furniture was also created according to
Voronikhin's drawings. In 1822-1824, the architect Carlo Rossi added a
second floor to the northern gallery to house the library. In 1872, a
bronze monument to Paul I was erected on the esplanade in front of the
palace (a copy of the monument made by IP Vitali in Gatchina).
The Grand Palace, as well as the smaller buildings of the park, was
barbarously destroyed by the fascist invaders in 1941-1944.
The
interiors of the palace were recreated in 1955-1965 under the guidance
of the chief curator Anatoly Mikhailovich Kuchumov, who scrupulously
recreated the historical interiors, starting from the first five halls,
opened to visitors in 1957. Thus, the Pavlovsk Palace became the first
of the suburban museums, where an exposition began to operate after the
war. Instead of the lost items, Anatoly Mikhailovich and his colleagues
found new ones, authentic to the era and interior.
The
restoration of the architectural volume of the palace lasted 10 years,
another 10 - the restoration of decoration under the scientific guidance
of A. M. Kuchumov, who knew the arts and crafts thoroughly and was a
true "material expert". In 1959, under his leadership, on the third
floor of the Pavlovsk Palace, in collaboration with I. M. Gurevich, the
exhibition “Costume and Portrait of the 18th-19th Centuries” was opened
- the first exposition in the USSR dedicated to the life of the nobility
as a cultural and historical phenomenon, which was a revolutionary event
in the Soviet museum business.
In 1970, almost all the halls were
open to tourists. Among them is the large Italian Hall (designed by
Cameron in 1786, completed by V. Brenna, 1789, restored by Voronikhin).
Greek hall with columns of magnificent Corinthian order lined with dark
green marble. Throne Room (Dining room, 1797-1798, V. Brenna, sculptures
of caryatids based on the models of I. P. Martos and M. I. Kozlovsky.
Ceiling painting by Pietro di Gottardo Gonzago), Pilaster Cabinet
(designed by G. Quarenghi. 1800, furniture according to drawings
Voronikhin), the Front Bedchamber (1789-1791, V. Brenna), the Boudoir of
Maria Feodorovna in the “Pompeian style” (designed by C. Cameron,
1784-1788, decoration and painting by J.-B. Scotty based on the drawings
by V. Brenna) and many other interiors, which are outstanding monuments
of architecture and decorative art of Russian classicism.
The
interiors of the palace house an extensive collection of paintings,
works of arts and crafts: bronzes, porcelain and unique furniture
created by Russian craftsmen based on drawings by V. Brenna, A. N.
Voronikhin, N. A. Lvov, J.-F. Thomas de Thomon.
May 25, 1782 - the beginning of the construction of the Pavlovsk
Palace.
1783 - the central building was built.
1785 -
galleries-colonnades and service buildings were built.
1787 -
interior decoration of the palace was completed.
1796 - accession of
Paul I.
Late 1790s - the palace was rebuilt and enlarged.
1801 -
the assassination of Paul I.
January 10, 1803 - a fire in the
Pavlovsk Palace.
1803-1805 - restoration of the palace.
1805-1807
- Pietro Gonzago creates the Gonzago Gallery
1808 - a "flashlight
cabinet" was built with figures of caryatids. Architect A. N.
Voronikhin, sculptor V. I. Demut-Malinovsky.
1822-1824 - the library
building was built.
1872 - a monument to Paul I was erected in the
front yard.
1920s - restoration according to the project of the
architect S. V. Dombrovsky, who served as the custodian and architect of
the palace.
1942-1944 - the park was badly damaged during the German
occupation. The palace was set on fire and mined by the invaders during
the retreat
1957 - during the post-war restoration, the first halls
of the palace were opened to visitors: the Front, Cavalier Guard,
Cavalry, Orchestra and Buffet.
1978 - the restoration of the Pavlovsk
Palace was completed. Anna Ivanovna Zelenova, director of the museum,
devoted years of her life to the restoration of the palace.
1978 -
The staff of the Palace Museum was awarded the Order of the Badge of
Honor.
1983 - granted the status of a museum-reserve.
1986 - a
team of architects, restorers and artists, headed by the chief custodian
of the palace A. M. Kuchumov, was awarded the highest award of the USSR
- the Lenin Prize.
1990 - The Pavlovsk Palace and Park Ensemble is
included in the list of UNESCO cultural heritage sites.
The palace and the park adjacent to it are important objects of both
domestic and international tourism.
A student of A. M. Kuchumov,
professor at Harvard University Suzanne Massi (for many years President
Reagan's adviser on Russian affairs, who taught her patron Russian
sayings) founded the Society of Friends of Pavlovsk. Massi published in
the USA based on the materials of the teacher the book “Pavlovsk. Life
of the Russian Palace” (1990, first edition in Russia in St. Petersburg,
1997).