Summer garden

The summer garden is an amazing park in St. Petersburg, from the very beginning thought of as a residence for Peter I. Initial work on the construction of the garden took place under the personal supervision of Peter I.

History of the Summer Garden

The first work by garden breakdown began in 1704. To do this, soil was strengthened, since the local land was unsuitable even for growing trees. For several years, land was brought here and trees planted all year round. In 1709, the Summer Palace was built of wood, fountains, and trees were planted. The residence has become suitable for organizing gala balls. At that time, it was allowed to come here exclusively at the invitation of the king.

In the next few years, the Transverse and Lebyazky canals were dug, the Stone Summer Palace, the Hub Alley, the Great Orangery were erected. Behind the greenhouse were greenhouses with gardens. They decorated the garden with sculptures brought from Italy. Work on the design of the garden since 1712 was carried out under the supervision of the Dutch gardener Jan Roosen. Initially, the mechanism supplying fountains with water was set in motion by horses, later it was changed to a steam machine. Water for fountains swayed from Unnamed Eric, later it was renamed the Fontanka. In 1719, almost all of the garden-disaggregated work was completed. The garden was opened to the public on Sundays, but not to everyone. Any well-dressed person could enter here only under the rule of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and then on certain days. During the storm of 1777, the Grot pavilion and fountains were destroyed, the fountains eventually decided not to restore, since the empress considered them part of the gardens of France and their tyranny. During the restoration of the Summer Garden in 2009 — 2011, 8 fountains were restored.

Garden sculptures

Marble sculptures are considered special pride of the Summer Garden. Peter I paid great attention to them and appointed proxies among art experts to purchase sculptures from Italy. By 1728, the number of sculptures exceeded 100 pieces, many of them were signed by their authors. The statue of Venus, made around the 3rd century BC, is especially valuable. and discovered during excavations of archaeologists in 1719. Pope Clement XI gave it to Peter I. In terms of its content, sculptures can be divided into 3 types: allegorical, historical, mythological. At present, the sculpture collection of the summer garden has 92 units ( 48 busts, 38 statues, 5 sculptural groups and 1 germa ). Marble under the long-term effects of the sun and the environment is greatly destroyed, so from 1986 to 2003 28 copies of the sculptures were made, and also during the restoration, many were restored.