St. Michael's Garden in St. Petersburg - a park surrounded by history

Mikhailovsky Garden in St. Petersburg - one of the most amazing park areas of architecture of the XVIII century. The complex is unique in that it combines at once two styles of landscape design: landscape and regular. The founder of the park is Peter the Great. The emperor gave him the name "Summer Garden". Today the area of the park is 10 hectares.

Such a garden in St. Petersburg was given a special status: a monument of landscape architecture, and created by its famous architect of those times - Carlo Rossi.

Historical reference

Three centuries ago, in the park of interest to us, there were settlements of peasants, as well as hunting captain Kanau. But in 1716, the great emperor of Russia Peter I gave the decree on the construction of the General Plan of the Three Summer Gardens to the town planner Jean-Baptiste Leblon. The first two parks were located on the grounds of this Summer Garden. The third was Mikhailovsky's present garden.

In fact, Leblond united the plots into a giant garden and park complex. He designed the plans Peter the Great personally approved. The scheme of the palace was identical at 98% of the central part of the top of Peterhof. Firs grew there, the gardeners gave them the shape of pyramids. The avenue of chestnuts led along a straight line to the stalls with pergolas (trilogy gazebo).

In the first time in the south-west Mikhailovsky Garden in St. Petersburg was planned as a regular one. Specialists cultivated fruit trees, medicinal herbs and useful roots there. On the territory of the garden, greenhouses and greenhouses were built, in which exotic plants and fruits grew.

Innovations of Elizabeth - the daughter of Peter

The daughter of the emperor - Elizabeth Petrovna - in 1741 instructed Bartolomeo Rastrelli, an outstanding architect of the time, to create a new project of the Summer Palace on the grounds of the palace of Catherine the First. This project was prepared by the architect by the spring of 1743. The Mikhailovsky Garden (St. Petersburg) was a labyrinth park filled with fountains and sculptures.

The back side of the palace was planned by Rastrelli in the form of another garden in which the architect designed two ponds in the shape of figures, and also placed a fountain and a flower bed in the form of patterned lace. The earths were planned taking into account the clarity of geometric shapes, straight and intersecting alleys. And in the center they dug five rectangular ponds.

The Mikhailovsky Palace

When Paul the First ascended to the Russian throne , the Summer Garden again underwent a lot of changes. In 1787, the palace was demolished in the park. And by 1801 by the order of Paul I architects erected the Mikhailovsky Palace.

This castle is an analog of an impregnable fortress. He has drawbridges, the walls of the palace are surrounded by ditches of three canals:

• Resurrection.
• Church.
• Bypass.

At this time, the Summer Garden and received its modern new name - Mikhailovsky, or the Upper Summer Garden. The layout was not changed at that time. But after the death of Paul the First, the family of the autocrat leaves the castle, and the parks and canals come to desolation. A few years later, in 1822, the palace was transferred to the Main Engineering School.

Nearby sights

As you already understood, the Mikhailovsky Garden in St. Petersburg is located in the historical center of the Northern Capital. Therefore, plan your trip to the park carefully, because it is surrounded by museums, temples and monuments.

List of sights nearby:

• The Russian Museum is 125 meters away.
• Ethnographic Museum - 222 m.
• The engineering castle is 241 m.
• Savior on the Blood - 246 m.
• The Mikhailovsky Theater - 301 m.
• The area of arts (a monument to Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin) is 303 m.
• The Theater Bridge is 306 m.
• Monument to Peter the Great from Rastrelli - 308 m.

Interesting facts about the garden

The Mikhailovsky Garden in St. Petersburg is an object of the cultural heritage of the Russian Federation. Assigned this status to the park for its centuries-old history. For three centuries he had seen many things. Three hundred years ago there were hunting grounds belonging to the Swedish captain Kanau. A delicate lattice-fence of the park - this is another work of art. It is an intertwining of leaves and colors of the Art Nouveau style. It is held by 36 columns decorated with urns and flowerpots on top. During the Great Patriotic War, trenches were dug in the park to hide not only soldiers but also sculptures of the Russian Museum from bullets. Today the park complex is 10 hectares of flowering and fragrant lawns.

Come to St. Petersburg - a place worthy of attention!