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Я к розам хочу, в тот единственный сад,
Где лучшая в мире стоит из оград,
Где статуи помнят меня молодой,
А я их под невскою помню водой.
В душистой тиши между царственных лип
Мне мачт корабельных мерещится скрип.
И лебедь, как прежде, плывет сквозь века,
Любуясь красой своего двойника...
А.Ахматова
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The Summer Garden is one of the most favorite places of the city
dwellers and visitors. It is situated in one of the most majestic parts
of the embankments of the left bank of the Neva River and occupies
nearly 12 ha. The Garden was created in 1704 by the decree of Peter the
Great and became the gala residence and the best decoration of the city.
The Summer Garden was created by the joined efforts of famous Russian
and foreign architects, such as I.Matveev, I.Zemtsov, J-B.Leblond,
C.Schreder as well as the numerous unknown serfs and free workers :
diggers, gardeners and painters. The Garden was laid out in the regular
style - the alleys were flanked with the rows of finely trimmed trees,
numerous fountains adorned the Garden. The fountains of the Summer
Garden were the first fountains in Russia. They were made of colored
marble, Poudozh stone and wood. The music of the water-propelled organ
sounded in the Garden. Apart from the abundance of fountains in the
Summer Garden at the time of Peter the Great there were many other
amusements. Such was a labyrinth consisting of complex system of lanes
surrounded by the walls of bushes and embellished with 32 fountains and
various statues based on Aesop's fables. |
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In the southern part of the Summer Garden there was the Karpiev Pond
with a multi-jet fountain in the middle. There used to be a lot of
reservoirs for the breeding of water fowl and various kinds of fish.
In their ecstatic comments foreigners who had visited the Summer
Garden at the time of its creation usually spoke of numerous marble
statues brought in there from Venice and Rome.
In 1712 in the Summer Garden the
palace of Peter the Great was built by architect D.Trezzini. The palace
was decorated with a frieze of 29 bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the
ancient myths and allegorically celebrating Russia's victories in the
Severnaya (North) war. |
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In 1777 at the time of a disastrous inundation and storm all the
amusements of Peter the Great, system of fountains, some marble
statues, rare species of the trees were either destroyed or seriously
damaged. Time changed the original appearance of the Summer Garden, it
was not kept as a regular one any longer, the trees were trimmed only
from time to time, the flower beds were abandoned and the trees from
the hothouse were all gone. Nevertheless the Summer Garden remains a
focal point of the attention on the part of the architects of Saint
Petersburg.
In 1770 - 1784 a magnificent railing was created which consisted of
wrought-iron openwork sections made in the Tula plants and 36 columns
of a "wild sea stone". |
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In
1826 the Coffee House pavilion was designed by C.Rossi and in
1827 L.I.Charlemagne created a wooden pavilion called the
"Tea House". The railing bordering on the embankment of the Moyka
river was cast upon the project of Charlemagne. |
On the shore
of the Karpiev pond a vase made of a pink porphyry, a gift of a king of
Sweden Charles XIV to the Russian tsar Nicholas. |
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In time the Garden gradually turned from the place of the tsarist residence into a municipal garden.
The World War II inflicted a great damage to the Summer Garden and
its premises. In the first days of the war the marble statues were
buried in the ground. Explosions of bombs and shells damaged or
destroyed many trees. After the war a lot of a work was done to restore
the damage brought by the war. Back on their pedestals were placed the
restored statues and busts, new lawns were as green as ever and newly
gilded railings were shining brightly.
At the
present time the Summer Garden boasts 79 splendid marble sculptures.
The sculptural group "Peace and Prosperity", placed in front of a
southern facade of the Summer Palace symbolizes the victory of Russia
over Sweden in the Northern (Severnaya) war and is an allegorical
representation of the Niestadt peace.
A series of sculptures symbolizes different time of a day : goddess
of dawn Aurora, "Noon", shadowy "Sunset" and "Night" covered with a
blanket of stars. Statues "Navigation" and "Glory" also symbolize the victory in the Northern war.
There
is a really magnificent sculptural group "Psyche and Cupid",
representing a scene from a poetic legend about love of the son of
Venus, Cupid for a beautiful girl called Psyche. |
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Immobile on their pedestals are the
busts of Roman Emperors : C. Iulius Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and
ancient Greek military leader Alexander III of Macedon the Great.
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In front of the "Tea house" there was erected a statue of a famous
Russian fabulist I.A.Krylov designed by Clodt. The pedestal of the
monument is decorated with bas-relief compositions designed by the
painter A.Agin and representing various personages from I.Krylov's
fables. |
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