Palais de Pavlovsk

"UNESCO World Heritage When Catherine the Great ordered a grand garden in the English style at Pavlovsk, wild and forested hunting grounds were transformed into a formal park in the finest English stately home tradition, dotted with Greek temples, classical bridges, and statues. The 1,300-acre (600 ha) sanctuary was the inspired work of Catherine's pet architect, Scotsman Charles Cameron. He outlined the general layout of the park and designed several pavilions, including the Temple of Friendship, a large domed rotunda with Doric columns. However, the Scotsman's signature design was the elegant three-storied rectangular gold and white palace, crowned by a flat dome or cupola on sixty-four columns, in the style of the Pantheon. Catherine presented the estate to her unloved son Paul on the birth of his first child, and Pavlovsk became his summer palace. Cameron never had the same free hand in the service of Paul I and his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. The latter was a gardening fanatic and had plants shipped over from London's Kew Gardens. Scheming architects, notably Vincenzo Brenna, jostled for royal favor, pushing Cameron aside. The palace's semicircular wing-colonnades are Brenna's work and are reminiscent of Palladian villas. Maria Feodorovna's influence is also discernible in the exquisitely furnished interiors, such as the Grecian Hall. Together with a succession of architects (including Andrei Voronikhin and Carlo Rossi) as well as painters and sculptors, she created exquisite set pieces comprising paintings, textiles, sculptures, Sevres porcelain, crystal glass, and chandeliers, all set in marble and colored stucco. The formation of the Pavlovsk complex took place while Russia was dominant in Europe. The ensemble-which was virtually rebuilt after Nazi occupation-reflects the spirit of the age of absolute monarchs."