Pavlovsk
Pavlovsk
Closed: Fridays and the first Monday of every month
Distance from the hotel: 34 km
A superb Palace and Park ensemble of the late 18 - early 19 centuries, which was erected to the designs of celebrated architects of the time, is one of the most beautiful and lyrical places of great artistic value.
It history starts in 1777 when Catherine II presented these lands to her son, the future Emperor Paul I. A country residence of the Russian imperial family, it was created by a succession of outstanding architects, painters and sculptors within a relatively short span of time: begun around 1780, it was virtually completed by 1825.Charles Cameron to supervise this construction. The architect surpassed himself and Pavlovsk ensemble strikes its visitors with the solemn grandeur and the heartfelt simplicity complemented by the beauty of picturesque surroundings. When Paul I ascended the throne after Catherine II's death, he ordered an italian architect Vincenzo Brenna to redesign the palace into a more parade residence and to enlarge it with the second storey and two more wings. After the fire of 1803, the palace was reconstructed under the supervision of Andrei Voronikhin. Decorated through the combined efforts of the numerous celebrated architects (Voronikhin, Cameron, Brenna, Quarenghi and Carlo Rossi, the sculptors Ivan Martos, Ivan Prokofiev, Mikhail Kozlovsky, Vasily Demuth-Malinovsky, the painters Pietro Gonzago and Giovanni Battista Scotti) the state rooms of the palace became a home for a diverse art collection that began to take shape under Paul I and Empress Maria Fedorovna, who visited workshops of well-known artists, purchasing paintings, furniture, bronze articles, silk fabrics, china sets. Nowadays this collection, complemented by excellent portraits by Russian artists and a number of Pavlovsk landscape paintings and drawings is on display.