Summer Garden

Summer Garden in St. Petersburg

Summer Garden is the oldest garden in the city, the place for which was chosen by Peter himself. The first mention of it dates back to 1704. – just a year after the foundation of St. Petersburg! At first it was planted only with annual flowers, i.e. “summer flowers”, that’s why it was called the Summer Garden.

History

Peter I planned to create a garden in the new city, which “in a few years the splendor of its splendor Versalia will surpass”, and spared no effort and resources for this: he personally gave instructions on what and where to bring trees and flowers, he himself drew up the first project of the garden and monitored its implementation. The garden was created as a regular – with symmetrical, intersecting at right angles alleys, intricate parterres and figuratively trimmed plantings.

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The tsar invited the Swedish gardener Shreder to realize his idea, who created tall trellises of linden trees, maples, acacias and decorated the alleys with beautiful benches for the rest of the walkers, It is said that, having examined his work, Peter asked if it was possible to arrange in the garden something instructive, so that visitors not just walk, but also at the same time received useful information. The Swede thought about it and suggested placing books on the benches, covering them from the rain. But the king chose another option – he decided to make fountains in the garden, on which to depict scenes from Aesop’s fables. And so among the paths of the garden labyrinth appeared as many as 60 fountains with animal figures, water to which was supplied by a specially installed machine. Each fountain illustrated one of Aesop’s fables. And to make it easier to understand, there was a pole with the text of the fable itself and its interpretation. Peter liked to personally, coming to the garden, to gather the walkers and explain to them the meaning of the allegory. Unfortunately, the fountains have not survived to this day, they were destroyed by a catastrophic flood in 1777.

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In the 18th century, the Summer Garden occupied an area much larger than the present one. In addition to fountains, it was decorated with pavilions, boskets, flower beds, bird houses, all sorts of “garden ideas”. One of the contemporaries wrote: “There are many wonderful things, arbors, galleries and amazingly beautiful trees. There were stone-walled ponds in this garden, on which swam Indian geese, sea ducks, and a multitude of birds.”

But, of course, the main attraction of the Summer Garden from Petrine times to the present day remains its sculptural decor. This was a huge innovation for Russia – before that, the decoration of gardens with sculptures had never been heard of. But the tsar-reformer wished to keep up with Europe in this and also to acquire works of art, “which it is decent to have great monarchs”. Marble statues were purchased in bulk in Italy, and Peter personally supervised their orders and selection. A significant part of them are works by Venetian sculptors Tarsia, Baratta, Bonazza and others. Among the sculptures are portraits of great generals, ancient kings, Roman emperors, mythological and allegorical characters. Again, the statues of the Summer Garden served not only as decoration, but also as teaching aids. Next to them hung tablets with descriptions of what they represented and explanations of the allegories.

Although only part of Peter’s collection has survived, there are still few places in Europe where such large collections of garden sculpture have survived (there are now about 90 of them). Among the most famous are the “Nymph of the Summer Garden”, busts of Queen Christina of Sweden, the Polish king Jan Sobies and his wife Maria-Kazimira, and the “Circle of the Day” series. On the terrace on the bank of the Lebyazhaya Kanavka is a sculptural group “Cupid and Psyche”, about which Peter’s agent, engaged in procurement in Europe, Yuri Kologrivov wrote to the Tsar: “Even last year I traded the group, fabola – when Psyche fell in love with sleepy Cupid, which are very well made and can be for a curiosity to honor in vividness and skill…”

The same Kologrivov organized and the most famous purchase – he found in Rome a genuine antique statue of Venus, about which he wrote: “I bought a statue of marble Venus ancient … and as I can bury from a famous hunter.” “Famous hunter” was the Pope himself, who did not allow to export abroad antique monuments and collected them in his own museum. Further in the letter Kologrivov compares his acquisition with the famous Venus de Medici and finds that his statue is better – the fact that “this one is whole, and Florenskaya is broken in many places”. However, the secret could not be kept, the purchase was learned about and the statue was taken away for the papal court. With grief Kologrivov fell ill and wrote to Peter: “Let it be better that I die than my labor to own it”. After long diplomatic negotiations, an offer was made to the pope, which he could not refuse: in exchange for the statue of Venus, Peter would give the pope the relics of the Catholic saint Brigitta, discovered in Revel captured by the Russians.

A few months later, Venus, having made the long journey across Europe, appeared before the picky eye of the Tsar, who appreciated the acquisition and ordered to put it in the Summer Garden. The sight of a nude female figure, albeit a white marble goddess, was absolutely unprecedented until now. It was examined, wanted to touch, some were indignant, others made dirty jokes, some even tried to break it out of harm’s way. To protect the statue, the tsar put a sentry with a gun to it. Under Catherine II the statue was moved to the Tauride Palace, and then under the name of Venus of Tauride – in the Hermitage, where it can be seen to this day.

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Peter liked to organize in the Summer Garden all kinds of celebrations, receptions and new-fashioned assemblies, where he gathered noble nobles with their wives and daughters, rich merchants, officers, foreign diplomats. Pyliaev in his book “Old Petersburg” tells us: “Under Emperor Peter in the Summer Garden, visitors were treated with wine, and even ladies were not excluded from treating with vodka. The ceremony was performed in the following form: in the garden were guards officers with stretchers, on which was placed a large bowl of simple wine. Going around the guests, they offered each of them a large ladle for the health of the colonel, i.e. the Tsar. Those who refused to drink were forcibly compelled to drink by the majors, who deliberately for this purpose went to fetch the ladle. The garden was locked during the offering, and no one dared to leave it without the king’s permission. Such festivities usually ended always with fireworks or “fiery sweat.”

At first, the Summer Garden was allowed only to a select few, but in the XIX century. he was open to the citizens and quickly became fashionable, becoming a favorite place of their walks. Krylov, Zhukovsky, Gogol, and Pushkin, who lived nearby, once wrote to his wife: “Summer Garden is my vegetable garden. I get up from sleep and go there in my robe and shoes. After dinner I sleep in it, read and write. I am at home in it. In the garden often met in love couples. Writer Ivan Goncharov in “Oblomov” made the Summer Garden the place where Oblomov and Olga met. Gouverneurs and nannies brought their young pupils here. In the summer, the garden was used as a venue for the viewing of dressed-up merchant brides.

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The garden itself in the XIX century also changed – according to the new fashion in it stopped pruning trees, and, keeping the layout of the regular garden, it took the form of a landscape park. Pavilions for rest were built in it – Tea and Coffee houses. They can still be seen in the garden – there is an exhibition hall and a cafe in them. In the middle of the XIX century. on voluntary donations of citizens in the garden put a monument to the fable writer Krylov, who liked to walk here in the morning. The animals – the heroes of his fables – are depicted on a pedestal under the peaceful figure of the poet. This is the work of sculptor Klodt – the same one who sculpted the famous horses that decorate Anichkov Bridge.

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The only structure from the early 18th century that has survived in the Summer Garden to this day is Peter’s Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace was built in 1714 by Peter the Great’s architects Trezzini and Schlüter. A small two-story, rather modest building, made in the fashion of those years in the “Dutch manner”, of course, can not compete in opulence with the royal residences of subsequent reigns. On its roof there is a weather vane in the form of the figure of St. George on horseback, and on the corners there are water-resistant pipes in the form of dragons. Bas-reliefs on the facades in allegorical form glorify the Russian victory over the Swedes.

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The palace was lived in only in summer (May through October), so it has thin walls and single frames. It has only 14 rooms, two cookhouses and two corridors. On the first floor of the Summer Palace were Peter’s quarters, on the second floor – his wife Catherine and children. One of the most favorite rooms in the Summer Palace of Peter the Great was the lathe room, which was managed by the famous mechanic Andrei Nartov. By the way, it was in this palace that the city’s first running sewerage system appeared.

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The Summer Palace has survived from the Peter the Great times to the present day without significant changes. In the early 19th century it served as a summer house for the highest state officials, and now it works as a museum.

What to see

Near the Summer Palace is the sculptural group “Peace and Victory” (or “Peace and Abundance”), made by the Venetian sculptor Baratta at the request of Peter the Great to commemorate the Peace of Nystadt, which ended the Northern War. “Peace” is personified by a seated female figure who holds a cornucopia of ears, vegetables and flowers in her hand. The allegory means: “Peace brings contentment.” The torch she lowers to the spoils of war lying at her feet is a sign of the end of war. The winged goddess of Victory with a palm branch in her hand crowns “Peace” with a laurel wreath, trampling a defeated lion with her foot, and this “means that strength is consoled by victoria,” as Savva Raguzinsky wrote in an explanation of the sculptural group.

From the Summer Palace we will walk along the Fontanka River, admiring the white marble statues. Interestingly, Italian marble can not withstand Russian cold, so for the winter the sculptures are hidden in special wooden cases. In addition to the cold, the ancient statues often suffer from vadalism, so recently began to replace them with modern copies, and the originals are transferred for storage in special funds of the Russian Museum, which not so long ago took over the Summer Garden and the Summer Palace.

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A walk through the Summer Garden has always filled people’s hearts with peace and tranquility. Poet Irina Odoevtseva recalled how she often came here during the hungry and cold post-revolutionary period and found herself as if in another dimension: “Nowhere in the world do the trees hum so easily, so magically, as in the Summer Garden. Maybe it is because Tchaikovsky’s music often rings here and its echo can be heard in their noise? Or is it from the mute conversation of the statues among themselves? I don’t know. But the air here is very special.”

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At the far end of the Summer Garden is Karpiev Pond. In this artificial pond used to breed carps for the Tsar’s table. Then it was decorated with multi-jet fountains. Now, if you are lucky, you can see swans there. By the pond there is a large vase of pink porphyry – a gift of the Swedish king to Emperor Nicholas I. The garden’s lattice on the Moika side (it is called the Charlemagne lattice after the name of the architect who created it) is decorated with shields depicting the head of Medusa Gorgon.