119. St. Petersburg's suburban palaces #3 - Gatchina Palace and Gardens
Gatchina Palace is the most distant of St. Petersburg's suburban palaces. Although the town in which it's located is definitely still considered a suburban community, it is far enough away from St. Petersburg (45 km / 28 miles) that I felt like I was traveling to a more distant place. It is still quite easy to visit, however, with bus service directly from the Moskovskaya Metro station in the southern part of the city.
The palace was conceived by Catherine the Great in 1766 as a gift for Count Grigoriy Orlov, her lover and political ally. When construction was completed in 1781, Orlov was no longer in her favor, and she ended up purchasing the palace from his heirs after his death to give to her son, the future emperor Paul I. The palace was used as a primary residence for Paul I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, and Alexander III. The surrounding town was also an important location for some military events of the Russian Civil War, during 1917-1919. The palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi, and later expanded by Vincenzo Brenna (who designed most of the palace's ornate interiors). The statue of Paul I that occupies a prominent location in front of the palace was commissioned by his son, Nicholas I.
The Palace itself is huge, and large enough to contain multiple distinct sections. The first floor is primarily administrative (ticket office, gift shop, cafe, restrooms, cloakrooms, etc), although there is an informative exhibit (with English-language signage) that reviews the history of the palace, beginning with its construction in 1781 through its destruction by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War (the town was occupied by Germans for three years) and its rebuilding and restoration in subsequent decades. The central part of the building on the second and third floors is the heart of the palace, and this is where the grandest rooms are located.
The palace is not quite in the same league as Catherine Palace and Peterhof, and many of the rooms have been restored in a more basic style. The exterior is plainer, with an absence of bright colors, gilding, or extravagant sculptures, fountains, or statues in the immediate surroundings. On the other hand, there are a few dozen rooms that have been fully restored to their former glory inside the palace, and contain the usual assortment of priceless 18th and 19th century artworks and antiques. Some of the painting and sculpture is original to the palace, having been evacuated prior to the Nazi's arrival or recovered from the Germans after the war. Some works were lost or given to other institutions in the post-war years, and have been replaced with similar works from the same period.
The curved west wing on the second floor contains two areas that were especially interesting - what remains of the palace's royal armory collection (firearms and bladed weapons from the 17th and 18th centuries), and a section that has been stabilized but not rebuilt, so that visitors can see the state of the palace after it was reclaimed from the Nazis in January 1944.
The east wing of the palace is a museum that showcases the private apartments of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna (the penultimate rulers of the Russian Empire).
I enjoyed the audio guide tour of the main palace rooms. The program did not extend to the other sections of the palace, but it was fun to explore the different sections on my own, and after five months in Russia I can pick up quite a bit of information through the Russian-language signs, eavesdropping on Russian-language tour groups, and from brief conversations with the guards/docents who are in almost every room in palaces and museums in St. Petersburg (and are almost always babushkas - middle-aged or elderly ladies).
The palace is at the southern end of a lake. Once I completed my tour of the building, I went outside to explore the gardens. Because the weather was so nice, I decided to walk all the way around the lake. This was where most of the visitors were - outside in the park, rather than touring the palace. It seems to be a common activity for Russian people to visit the parks at several of the suburban palaces for outdoor recreation, and not to tour the palaces themselves. There were formal gardens close to the palace, areas further out with decorative plantings, and more rustic landscapes at the edges of the park. Nothing was too wild, though - all the vegetation was freshly-mown, and landscaping crews were hard at work. I can't even imagine how big the landscaping budget must be to take active care of such a large park.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century outbuildings, monuments, and "follies" are spread around the park, as well - although nowhere near as many as are present at Catherine Palace and Peterhof. On the north side of the lake is a most unusual building - the White-birch House. It looks like a rustic cabin on the outside, but its two small rooms appear as ornate as the palace interiors. An unusual design, and no doubt a fun place to relax and have a party with your friends if you're a member of the imperial court in the early 1800s.
The palace was conceived by Catherine the Great in 1766 as a gift for Count Grigoriy Orlov, her lover and political ally. When construction was completed in 1781, Orlov was no longer in her favor, and she ended up purchasing the palace from his heirs after his death to give to her son, the future emperor Paul I. The palace was used as a primary residence for Paul I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, and Alexander III. The surrounding town was also an important location for some military events of the Russian Civil War, during 1917-1919. The palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi, and later expanded by Vincenzo Brenna (who designed most of the palace's ornate interiors). The statue of Paul I that occupies a prominent location in front of the palace was commissioned by his son, Nicholas I.
The Palace itself is huge, and large enough to contain multiple distinct sections. The first floor is primarily administrative (ticket office, gift shop, cafe, restrooms, cloakrooms, etc), although there is an informative exhibit (with English-language signage) that reviews the history of the palace, beginning with its construction in 1781 through its destruction by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War (the town was occupied by Germans for three years) and its rebuilding and restoration in subsequent decades. The central part of the building on the second and third floors is the heart of the palace, and this is where the grandest rooms are located.
The palace is not quite in the same league as Catherine Palace and Peterhof, and many of the rooms have been restored in a more basic style. The exterior is plainer, with an absence of bright colors, gilding, or extravagant sculptures, fountains, or statues in the immediate surroundings. On the other hand, there are a few dozen rooms that have been fully restored to their former glory inside the palace, and contain the usual assortment of priceless 18th and 19th century artworks and antiques. Some of the painting and sculpture is original to the palace, having been evacuated prior to the Nazi's arrival or recovered from the Germans after the war. Some works were lost or given to other institutions in the post-war years, and have been replaced with similar works from the same period.
The curved west wing on the second floor contains two areas that were especially interesting - what remains of the palace's royal armory collection (firearms and bladed weapons from the 17th and 18th centuries), and a section that has been stabilized but not rebuilt, so that visitors can see the state of the palace after it was reclaimed from the Nazis in January 1944.
The east wing of the palace is a museum that showcases the private apartments of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna (the penultimate rulers of the Russian Empire).
I enjoyed the audio guide tour of the main palace rooms. The program did not extend to the other sections of the palace, but it was fun to explore the different sections on my own, and after five months in Russia I can pick up quite a bit of information through the Russian-language signs, eavesdropping on Russian-language tour groups, and from brief conversations with the guards/docents who are in almost every room in palaces and museums in St. Petersburg (and are almost always babushkas - middle-aged or elderly ladies).
The palace is at the southern end of a lake. Once I completed my tour of the building, I went outside to explore the gardens. Because the weather was so nice, I decided to walk all the way around the lake. This was where most of the visitors were - outside in the park, rather than touring the palace. It seems to be a common activity for Russian people to visit the parks at several of the suburban palaces for outdoor recreation, and not to tour the palaces themselves. There were formal gardens close to the palace, areas further out with decorative plantings, and more rustic landscapes at the edges of the park. Nothing was too wild, though - all the vegetation was freshly-mown, and landscaping crews were hard at work. I can't even imagine how big the landscaping budget must be to take active care of such a large park.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century outbuildings, monuments, and "follies" are spread around the park, as well - although nowhere near as many as are present at Catherine Palace and Peterhof. On the north side of the lake is a most unusual building - the White-birch House. It looks like a rustic cabin on the outside, but its two small rooms appear as ornate as the palace interiors. An unusual design, and no doubt a fun place to relax and have a party with your friends if you're a member of the imperial court in the early 1800s.
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