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Babolovo Palace

Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint PetersburgDachasGothic Revival architecture in RussiaHouses completed in 1785Ruined palaces
Ruins in RussiaVasily Stasov buildings and structures

Babolovo or Babolovka was a dacha (myza) of Prince Potemkin in Tsarskoe Selo. It was in 1780 that Catherine II of Russia presented the grounds adjoining the Catherine Park and the Alexander Park to her then-favourite, Potemkin. A temporary wooden palace was built to house the lovers' trysts. It was rebuilt in stone to a Gothic Revival design by Ilya Neyelov between 1782 and 1785. The Babolovsky Palace was essentially a summerhouse with seven rooms giving on to a park, a quaint octagonal tower and no second floor. Alexander I of Russia used the palace for his furtive rendezvous with Sophia Velho, a court banker's daughter. He commissioned Vasily Stasov to redesign the palace. The tower was replaced with a huge bath hewn from a red granite monolith. Engineer Agustín de Betancourt had it placed within the room before the walls were constructed. The bath weighed 48 tons and was 196 cm high. The palace fell into disrepair after the Russian Revolution and currently stands in ruins. The granite bath mentioned in one of Pushkin's first poems is still in situ. Other structures in the Babolovsky Park (which covers some 300 ha) have disappeared, apart from an aqueduct from the 1770s and Adam Menelaws' gate separating the two parks.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Babolovo Palace (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Babolovo Palace
Мост-плотина, Pushkin Красная Слободка

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N 59.708722222222 ° E 30.344422222222 °
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Баболовский дворец

Мост-плотина
196631 Pushkin, Красная Слободка
Saint Petersburg, Russia
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Chinese Village (Tsarskoe Selo)
Chinese Village (Tsarskoe Selo)

The Chinese Village in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo, Russia was Catherine the Great's attempt to follow the 18th-century fashion for the Chinoiserie. Probably inspired by a similar project in Drottningholm, Catherine ordered Antonio Rinaldi and Charles Cameron to model the village after a contemporary Chinese engraving from her personal collection. The village was to consist of 18 stylized Chinese houses (only ten were completed), dominated by an octagonal domed observatory (never completed at all). After Catherine failed in her ambition to procure a genuine Chinese architect, the Russian ambassador in London was instructed to obtain a replica of William Chambers's Great Pagoda in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for Tsarskoye Selo, a central structure of the Chinoiserie architecture. Catherine's death in 1796 led to the works being suspended. It was not until 1818 that tsar Alexander I of Russia asked the famous architect Vasily Stasov to overhaul the village in order to provide accommodation for his guests. Although much of the original orientalizing decor was lost as a result, the renovated village provided habitation for such eminent visitors as Nikolai Karamzin who worked on his History of the Russian State in one of the houses between 1822 and 1825. The Chinese Opera Theatre was constructed not far from the village in 1779. It was there that an Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello would present his new operas to the Russian empress. The première of Leo Tolstoy's The Fruits of Enlightenment was also produced there. The theatre was burnt to the ground on 15 September 1941 and has never been rebuilt. Three remarkable bridges lead to the village. The Dragon Bridge, so named after four zinc figures of winged dragons, and the Large Chinese Bridge, noted for pink granite vases and imitation coral branches, were completed in 1785. The Cross-Shaped Bridge had been constructed by the Neyelov Brothers six years earlier (illustrated, to the right). The village was renovated under the direction of Ippolit Monighetti in 1859-61. The cottages sustained serious damage during the Nazi occupation but were restored in the 1990s to provide lodgings for VIP guests.

Large Chinese Bridge
Large Chinese Bridge

The Large Chinese Bridge (Russian: Большой Китайский мост) is a small bridge over the Krestovy Channel located in the Chinese Village in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo 25 km south of the centre of Saint Petersburg. The bridge is located near the Chinese Theatre, opposite the central gates of the Catherine Palace. It is one of the entrances to Alexander Park. The bridge is named Large so to distinguish it from two Small (or Iron) Chinese Bridges located in the park. The Large Chinese Bridge was commissioned by Catherine the Great as part of her plan to create a Chinoiserie in her park. Catherine ordered Antonio Rinaldi and Charles Cameron to model the village after a Chinese engraving from her personal collection. The village was expected to consist of 18 stylized Chinese houses (only ten were completed), shadowed by an octagonal domed observatory (not completed). The Large Chinese Bridge is constructed out of pink granite. The most original features of the bridge are the low wall barriers stylishly decorated with tall, granite vases which have intertwining branches of red iron "coral" iron. Originally, in addition to the vases and iron coral, the Large Chinese Bridge was decorated with four painted plaster Chinese figures sitting on short pedestals and holding Chinese lanterns on long poles. However, these Chinese figures have not survived to the present day. To the left of the Large Chinese Bridge stand two Small Chinese bridges leading to the Chinese Village. At first these little bridges constructed by Charles Cameron in 1781 were wooden. In 1786 they were replaced with iron ones forged at the Sestroretsk Armory. The Large Chinese Bridge is one of three bridges that lead to the village. The Dragon Bridge, and the Large Chinese Bridge were completed in 1785 and the Cross-Shaped Bridge (Krestovoy Most) had been erected six years earlier.Catherine's death in 1796 led to the village being suspended until 1818 when Alexander I asked Vasily Stasov to remodel the village to provide accommodation for his guests. Although much of the original decor was removed, the renovated village provided a place to live for such important visitors.

Creaking Pagoda
Creaking Pagoda

The Creaking Pagoda (Скрипучая беседка), also known as the Chinese Summer House (Китайская беседка), is a small summer house located between two ponds in Tsarskoe Selo, Russia. It stands in on the boundary separating the Catherine Park of the baroque Catherine Palace and the New Garden of the Alexander Park of the neoclassical Alexander Palace. The pagoda is a long but narrow folly that resulted from the 18th-century taste for Chinoiserie, reflected in other buildings constructed for Catherine the Great. It was constructed near the Chinese Village in 1778 to 1786, designed by Georg von Veldten, also known as Yury Velten, possibly with input from Antonio Rinaldi. Construction lasted from 1778 to 1786. The walls are decorated with figures of dragons and other stylized Chinese motifs. are gilded wooden sculptures of dragons at the corners of the roof, carrying bells in their mouths, and steps from the main entrance lead down to the water. The structure fell into disrepair in the 19th and 20th centuries, and was damaged in the Second World War, but it was restored from 1954 to 1956. Further restoration work in the 1990s, including a new roof, before the 200th anniversary of Tsarskoe Selo. Chinese characters for "Welcome" were added on the main door. The name of the structure refers to a characteristic sound produced by a metal weathervane, shaped like a banner, on the top of the structure which creaks when it is turned by the wind.