1.5. Regular gardens of Russia Landscape art of the 18th century

The turning point in the history of Russia was the era of Peter I. It was marked by radical transformations of the country, the development of new trends in architecture, urban planning and landscape art.

The foundation of Petersburg (1703), a Russian city of a new type, combining the principles of regular planning with a living sense of nature and the freedom and power of spatial compositions characteristic of Russian architecture, played a huge role in the formation and development of Russian architecture.

The development of cultural ties with Europe, the acquaintance of Peter I with European gardens, the attraction of the best foreign masters to him contributed to the formation of Russian regular park art (Appendix, fig. A 16, 17).

In the first half of the eighteenth century. magnificent park ensembles were created in Petersburg and Moscow. However, the formation of landscape art began a little earlier in Moscow. Here in the German settlement at the end of 1703, construction was completed on the grand palace and park complexes of F. Lefort and F. Golovin, which were intended for official holidays and were actually in the possession of Peter I. These ensembles are located on the opposite banks of the r. Yauza, deployed with their facades on the river and visually interconnected. For the first time in Russia, decorative water devices, bosquets, orcheres were created here, and in the layout there are trends of compositional-axial construction.

Golovinsky and Lefortovsky Gardens were a school of new methods of landscape art, which were successfully developed in St. Petersburg and above all in its first, the Summer Garden.

At present, the territory of the Lefortovo Park has an area of ​​65.5 hectares and is under state protection as a monument of landscape architecture. The palace, the elements of the layout of water devices, and garden facilities have been preserved here. Golovinsky garden is almost not preserved.

Summer Garden (Appendix, fig. A 18). Summer residence of Peter I, the area of ​​11.2 hectares.

Borders: p. Neva (North), p. Wash (south). Swan Canal (west), p. Fontanka (east). In the first quarter of the eighteenth century. there were four Summer Gardens - the first and second within the existing garden (11.2 hectares), the third is now the Mikhailovsky Garden (10 hectares) and the Big Meadow (Field of Mars, 9 hectares), the fourth is the Italian Garden (11 hectares) .

The garden was laid out according to the drawing of Peter I. Construction began in 1704.

under the direct leadership of Peter I and was carried out in stages for many years.

Stage I (1704–1711) - breakdown of the garden on the banks of the Neva, installation of sculptures, installation of fountains; 1710 - the bookmark of the palace.

Stage II (1711–1716) completed the construction of the palace (architect D. Trezzini), decorated in 1714 with bas-reliefs by A. Schluter; a harbor is being built near the palace, 3 galleries are being built on the banks of the Neva. The implementation in nature of the original planning of the garden is being completed: in its center 4 large squares are arranged with lace flower beds and gazebos surrounded by a sheared hedge (garden master Jan Rozen worked in the garden from 1712 to 1725); fountains, gazebos, Karpiev Pond (1714–1716), the Lebyazhiy Channel (1711) are created.

Stage III (1716–1725) - the second Summer Palace (1721), the Hall for Glorious Triumphs (1725), the grotto (architect A. Schlüter and G. Mattarnovi, 1721–1724) are erected, the palace harbor is faced with granite (1723) , designed by A. Zemtsov, garden master K. Schröder makes a labyrinth with fountains.

In the squares, in the place of flower beds, bosquets with fountains, poultry houses and a pond are created. The garden is decorated with a sculpture, the Lithuanian Canal is built (1718) and 3 water supply towers (1724) are used to supply water to Fontanka, which feeds the fountain system. In 1716–1719 architect J. B. Leblond is developing the Summer Gardens ensemble project (not implemented).

Stage IV (1732–1826) - the wooden palace of Anna Ioannovna (1732) is being erected in the place “Halls for Glorious Celebrations”. The palace of Elizaveta Petrovna and the garden with it (the third Summer Garden, 1734), the garden at the new Summer Palace (1736), the amphitheater (1736, architect V. Rastrelli) are being built; sculptures are installed (1736), granite facing Nevsky Embankments (1720–1784) is being carried out, a fence is arranged (architect J. Velten, 1770–1784).

After the flood in 1777 in the third Summer Garden the failed fountains are not restored. A palace was erected for Paul I (Mikhailovsky Castle, architects V. Bazhenov and V. Brenna, 1797–1800). After the flood of 1824 and the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle (1819–1825), the adjoining section of the third Summer Garden was transformed into a landscape park - the Mikhailovsky Garden (architects K. Rossi and A. Menelas), where on the banks of the r. Moika was built Pavilion Rossi (1825). In the first Summer Garden on the bank. Fontanka instead of a grotto was created Coffee House (architect K. Rossi, 1826), and in the array of plantings - Tea House (architect L. Charlemagne, 1827). The Great Meadow also undergoes changes: in 1740, the Promenade garden (architect V. Rastrelli) was laid out in its place, which at the end of the 18th century It was destroyed, and this place later became known as Tsaritsyn Meadow. Here in 1798 the Rumyantsev Obelisk was installed (architect V. Brenna), in 1801 a monument to Suvorov (sculptor M. Kozlovsky) was erected. In 1818, the obelisk was transferred to Vasilyevsky Island, and Tsaritsyn Meadow was named the Field of Mars. In 1855, a monument to I. Krylov (sculptor P. Klodt) was erected in one of the Summer Garden boskets. After 1824, the royal residence became a public city park. Despite all the changes made in the Summer Garden for more than a century, the original grid of the plan has been preserved. From the galleries, which accentuated the entrances from the bank of the Neva, were the longitudinal roads. They intersected transverse, forming squares of bosketov, framed trellis. Single-breeding in bosketov called groves - lime, oak, spruce. On the roads, berso was arranged, lined with lindens and ending with gazebos, and the central alley and the crossroads were decorated with fountains. By the end of the eighteenth century. in the garden there were about 50 fountains. Four central bosquet, richly decorated with fountains and sculpture, had various devices - aviaries for birds and animals, a reservoir with an island and a gazebo.

There was a grotto near the Fontanka River - a mandatory belonging of regular gardens of the 18th century. The grotto consisted of 3 halls connected by arched openings. The facade was decorated with rusticated columns and surmounted by a high dome. On the parapet that surrounded the grotto, marble sculptures were installed: Flora, Zephyr, Fortune, Sailing, etc. Inside the hall were lined with tuff, shells, crushed glass, decorated with sculpture and fountains.

One of the main decorations of the garden was the work of famous Venetian sculptors: P. Baratta, D. Bonazza, A. Talla-Peter. These were collections of portraits and thematic series on allegorical and mythological themes. In 1736 there were about 200 sculptures in the garden.

Both local and imported plants were used: lindens from Novgorod, Voronezh, Kiev and Holland, chestnuts from Hamburg, lilacs from Lubeck, cedars and fir from Solikamsk, tulips from Holland, lilies from Narva, fragrant and other flowers from Izmaylova, etc. The Summer Garden is transitional in the further development of Russian regular gardens. Its main axis is not yet connected with the palace, but is closed by a gallery - a purely garden building. At the same time, in the structure of the Summer Garden (Appendix Fig. 59), in comparison with the preceding Golovinsky and Lefortovsky in Moscow, new features can be traced - the desire for a holistic solution of the territory, its ideological unity, planning and large-scale subordination of parts. Territory planning is already quite European in nature.