Information about golf club projects and cottage village in the park, read at the end of this article!
The most recent imperial park in St. Petersburg is considered to be created (photo album)
| Monument code: | 7810444000 |
| Name: | Babolovsky Park |
| Complex of monuments: | bridge-dam Babolovsky Staro-Krasnoselsky gate hydraulic structures near the Babolovsky Palace with the Silver Pond and grotto (part of the Taitsky water conduit) Baursky Canal ("Monakhova Ditch") with the "Monk" grotto and a granite pool (part of the Taitsky water conduit) Crimean ("Siberian") column Berezovy Bridge over the Kuzminka River pipe bridge on the Boundary Ditch bridge-pipe on the Taitsky water conduit pipe bridge on the Black Stream bridge over a ditch bridge over the Kuzminka river bridge over the Kuzminka river bridge over the Black Stream bridge over the Black Stream Pond Babolovsky milepost with sundial stone pipe under the Baursky Canal Babolovsky Palace |
| Typology (basic): | Architectural monuments |
| Protection category: | Federal |
| Type of document on registration for state registration. security: |
Among the Tsarskoye Selo parks, Babolovsky is the most extensive and deserted. It is located quite a distance from well-known walking routes, in the southwest of Pushkin. So, mostly individual walking fanatics, loving couples, cyclists (skiers in winter) and residents of nearby Aleksandrovka and Krasnoselskoye Highway get here. Against the backdrop of the Ekaterininsky and Aleksandrovsky parks, overflowing with all sorts of architectural ideas, Babolovsky looks rather modest. There are no monuments, no museums, no cafes with attractions, they don’t even sell ice cream here, so when going to Babolovsky Park you should stock up on food and drinks in advance. But here is one of the most unique Tsarskoye Selo cultural monuments, often called one of the wonders of the world.
The total area of Babolovsky Park, the largest of all Tsarskoye Selo parks, is 268.6 hectares.
The name of the imperial Babolovsky Park comes from a nearby village with the Finnish name Pabola, which over time turned into “Babolova”. The history of the park is inextricably linked with the Babolovskaya manor that existed here, donated by Empress Catherine II to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin Tauride, and where a wooden manor-type house was built in 1780.
The village has long been lost, but its name continues to live, repeating itself many times in the names of park attractions. Behind the Babolovskaya guardhouse the perspective continues, at the end of which there was a village. ABOUT characteristic features space lying beyond (n. Volkhonskoe Highway), almost a hundred years ago he wrote: “On both sides of the clearing lies the magnificent and extensive Babolovsky Park with meadows, groves and endless roads for pedestrians, horseback riding and carriages.”
The volumetric-spatial composition of the park was formed mainly in the s.
This monument of landscape architecture con. XVIII – mid. XIX century, “composed” in landscape style. Several generations of the august owners of Tsarskoye Selo decorated this ensemble, spending a lot of time and huge amounts of money on its creation. Babolovsky Park is a typical example of a landscape composition and, in essence, the most “English” park of Tsarskoe Selo. Its appearance most consistently embodies the program of landscape gardening art.
Babolovsky Park was a favorite place for walks for emperors and their spouses.
Alexandra Feodorovna on a granite bench near the palace on the shore of Babolovsky Park
The composition of this protected area, bordering the parks, form groves and clumps of old-growth trees and species. All this alternates with extensive ones.
On the sides of the fancifully curving one are its green massifs. The park is cut through by walking and riding highways - Novo-Babolovskaya, . All of them, with the exception of the Babolovskoye Highway, the direct perspective of which “flies” outside the park, lead to the oldest district - the English Garden and.
Architectural works included in its volumetric-spatial composition during the construction of the park are few:
The more important they are
- at the Babolovsky Palace,
Work on the creation of Babolovsky Park began with the dismantling of the western bastion with the walls of the Menagerie facing future park, and terrain planning. The pillar road, which formerly went around the bastion of the Menagerie, was straightened from the stone bridge built in the 20th century. instead of the wooden one across the Kuzminka River, .
The wetlands located on the right side of the Kuzminki River needed to be drained. Preliminary work took several years. By order of Alexander I, land reclamation was entrusted in 1817 to a specially invited Englishman Daniel Wheeler. The swampy peat areas leased to Wheeler were drained by him using reclamation ditches. Then a fertile layer of soil was formed, grass was sown and trees were gradually planted. The meadows in this area later received the name Peat Field. Development of the park in the s. reflect many plans of the Tsarskoye Selo gardens.
First, they drained the area located near the Baursky Canal and the Babolovskaya Clearing, having previously dismantled the buildings of the Reserve Yard.
The landscape roads Krainaya and Verkhovaya, Novo-Babolovskaya, Dubovaya and Prodolnaya crossed the entire territory of the park, connecting and diverging to the sides. From the big Stolbovaya road to the village of Babolov in the city, the sovereign ordered the construction of a highway on the Babolovskaya clearing, as well as the removal of unnecessary forest and leaving trees in the places shown. Lyamin planted 30 thousand new trees on the sides of the roads, which turned into landscape alleys with landscape groups. Wooden bridges were built across the Kuzminka River and streams on these roads.
The old Krasnoselskaya road, closed as a main road, is turning into one of the alleys of the future Babopovsky Park. Thus, not only is the initial stage of development of a significant area of the Babolovskaya forest dacha underway, but also through the construction of new roads, the two largest green areas in Tsarskoe Selo are being united: the future Babolovsky and the new one.
Currently, the dacha is lost; it is located next to this place. A user of our site published his thoughts on more accurately determining its location
Newspaper "Birzhevye Vedomosti". Morning edition, June 4 1913 of the year. No. 13630 wrote: Yesterday in Babolovsky Park in Tsarskoye Selo, the enraged horse of the watchman Degterenko hit the German citizen V.G. who was passing on a bicycle. Megdefessel. The bicycle was damaged. Megdefessel himself received serious bruises.
November 23 excursion for young scouts. At 11:30 am, Petrograd and Tsarskoye Selo intelligence officers, led by an instructor, gathered at the station. The excursion took place in 10
After the nationalization of imperial property in the city, the ensemble came under the jurisdiction of the directorate of palaces, museums and parks of the city of Pushkin (Detskoye Selo).
In the park itself, many old-growth trees were cut down and died. And in the post-war years, his condition only continued to worsen. The reclamation and drainage system of the park was neglected, as a result of which large areas of it became swampy, and due to natural renewal, landscape groups became overgrown with self-seeding.
1941-1945
During the Great Patriotic War and the German occupation caused great damage to this monument of national landscape art. The echo of the past war stands not far from the dam bridge. It is not known whether it is ours or the German one. Located in a convenient position near the bridge over the Kuzminka River. Near the palace, a bridge-dam across the Kuzminka River, a Taitsky water conduit, a grotto near the palace and a staircase near it, a monk's grotto (away from the palace), as well as service buildings behind the bridge - a former kitchen (only the basement was preserved) and a glacier were destroyed. The water from the Big Pond on Kuzminka was drained, the Silver Pond near the palace itself became overgrown and polluted (this pond remained in the same form until recently).
There is another sad reminder of the war in the immediate vicinity of the palace grave Red Army soldier .
Before the war, the Babolovsky Palace housed the school of the 100th Aviation Assault Brigade of the Leningrad Military District of Pushkin. Photo 1938. At the beginning of the war it was subjected to severe bombing. Yu. Chakhursky's rank is junior commander of the Red Army. Served in the 55th PMA (Mobile Aviation Workshop), died in a bombing on July 27, 1941.
Then I found a “Name list of irretrievable losses of commanding and enlisted personnel of the 55th Movable Railway Aviation Workshop from 22/6/41 to 1/9/41. and other documents in which Yulik is mentioned
It is clear from the document that, in addition to Chakhursky, Yu.M. Skornyakov, P.K. Veselov, V.T. Grigoriev, A.V. Kudryashev, M.A. Zuev were seriously wounded and died or were killed during the bombing. Of these, only Skornyakov is buried at the Kazan cemetery, the rest (!!!), including Chakhursky: “In the Babolovsky park of the city of Pushkin, Leningrad region”! This means he is not alone there, or there are more graves in the area!
This is the story of one of the many residents of Pushkin who died during the war in our city...
From the memories of an old resident of the city
Behind the gate, along the bushes on the side of the field, there are shallow, hastily dug trenches of our troops that defended the city of Pushkin in September 1941. There is no one in the park, as in a dense forest, it’s scary, although there are two grenades in your pocket. The places are beautiful, I got to . I took the right path. A red brick building loomed in the distance. Obviously this is what it is.
At that time, the Neelovsky Hall was still covered with a box vault, which collapsed in the early 1960s, and the walls of the palace, even then crippled by the fiery tornado of war, bore no traces of the mediocre restoration undertaken in the late 1980s - early 1990s.
Sources:
- Semenova G.V. Tsarskoe Selo: familiar and unfamiliar. .-M.TsentrPoligraf, 2009.- 638, (2) p.
- Yakovkin I. Description of the village of Tsarskoye or a satellite observing it. St. Petersburg, 1830
- Ruban V.M. Babolovsky Palace and the creation of master Sukhanov. Science, 2003.
- Listov V.N. Ippolit Monighetti. - L.: Stroyizdat, Leningrad. department, 1976. - 144 p., ill.
- O. N. Fisher. There is a monument - there are problems, no problems - there is no monument? History of St. Petersburg No. 2 (54). 2010
- Andreev I. Childhood of a palace boy. Memoirs of a church warden. Literary processing of the text and preparation for publication by Nikolai and Marina Konyaev
- "Tsarskoye Selo Case" No. 48 Friday November 28, 1914
- Media about the construction of a golf club in Babolovsky Park
Among the parks located in Tsarskoe Selo, Babolovsky is the youngest and largest (268.6 hectares). In addition, it is practically deserted. Babolovsky Park on the map of Pushkin can be found in its southwestern part, far from the main tourist routes. That is why its visitors are only passionate walkers, residents of nearby settlements, as well as couples in love. In summer, cyclists love to ride this area, and in winter, skiers love it.
In 1824, according to the plan for the reconstruction of the building drawn up by the architect V.P. Stasov, the reconstruction of the bathing hall began in the palace. In order to accommodate the king bath, the room had to be enlarged. The reconstruction of the bathhouse lasted for six years. Due to the large size of the bath, it was installed first, and only after that the walls of the pavilion, topped with a stone dome, were erected.
Unique creation
From 1811 to 1818, stonemasons from the St. Petersburg artel of S.K. Sukhanov worked on the royal bath. The material they used was a 160-ton block of dark pink granite. This stone was found on one of the islands of Finland. It is currently unknown where this miracle bathtub was hewn. However, the result of the work done still surprises people. The stonemasons managed to create a unique bowl, which has no equal in the whole world.
The weight of the bath is 48 tons, its diameter is 5.33 m, and its depth and height are 1.52 m and 1.96 m, respectively. The work of the stonemasons was very hard. After all, just to give a piece of granite a cup-shaped shape, it was necessary to make more than tens of billions of blows with tools. The same efforts had to be made in order to achieve ideal roundness of the external contours. In addition, the tools in those days were very imperfect and were made of simple steel. So, after 3-4 hits on the stone, the master had to stop and sharpen them.
Staro-Krasnoselsky and Alexander Gates
The boundaries of the park were finally drawn up in 1846. Its territory was framed by a rampart, which has survived to this day.
In addition, during this period, cast iron Staro-Krasnoselsky and Alexander Gates, identical in their architectural and artistic design, were installed. They were decorated with imperial eagles. The gate leaves, pillars and gates of these Gothic monumental structures were cast according to the design of the architect A. A. Menelas. All parts were produced at a cast iron plant in St. Petersburg.
Today, anyone who decides to visit Babolovsky Park in Pushkin can examine the Staro-Krasnoselsky Gate.
They are located on the western border of this green area, completing the road leading from the Krasnoselsky Gate. However, they were not always in this place. Initially they were installed near the guardhouses located at the Krasnoselsky Gate. This building was moved to its current location in 1846.
As for the Alexander Gate, it was heavily damaged, first during the Great Patriotic War, and then from vandalism. Today in their place you can see only one cast-iron figured column.
Taitsky water conduit
Anyone who visits Babolovsky Park in the city of Pushkin should definitely inspect this structure, which is unique historical monument engineering art.
People started thinking about using Thai water for Tsarskoye Selo back in the first half of the 18th century. In 1749, the first work began on the construction of this unique structure. The Taitsky water pipeline, the construction of which was completed in 1787, has a length of 15.7 km. Interestingly, by its design it is gravity-fed. The water pipeline was fed by Taitsky springs, which were located in the upper reaches of the picturesque and very beautiful river Ropes. For seven kilometers this structure ran underground. Moreover, its depth sometimes reached sixteen meters. This is a kind of 18th century metro! Today the water pipeline is inoperative.
Bridges
Babolovsky Park is crossed by the Tsarskoye Selo river Kuzminka. Opposite the palace it is blocked by a bridge-dam. This building allows river waters spill into a small lake. During the war, the bridge-dam was destroyed, but during the Soviet period it was completely restored.
The Kuzminka River crosses the park's alleys several times. Once upon a time, bridges were built in these places, but today they have not survived.
Source
Not far from the bridge over the Kuzminka River, a trickle of water flows from a metal tube. This source is framed by a small grotto-like structure built from fragments of stones. It is difficult to judge the quality of the water, but visitors to the park drink it with pleasure.
Pink guard
This structure is located in the place where three parks of Tsarskoe Selo converge, at the intersection of Podkapriznaya Road and Volkhonskoe Highway.
The most direct path to the Babolovsky Palace begins from the pink guardhouse. It was here in 1825, according to the design of the architect A. Menelas, that cast iron gates were installed. They were framed by two guardhouses. Today you can see only one of them, which after restoration was given its historical pink color.
Milepost
A milestone was built not far from the Oryol Gate. There are quite a lot of them not only in St. Petersburg itself, but also in its environs. A distinctive feature of the milestone located in Babolovsky Park is the sundial located on it.
Bunker
This concrete structure has remained in the park since the war with Nazi Germany. It is not known for certain who built it, Soviet or German soldiers. The bunker is located in a very convenient position and is located near the bridge over the Kuzminka River. In ancient times, approximately in this place there was a kitchen and a guardhouse that belonged to the Babolovsky Palace.
Location
How to get to Babolovsky Park? To do this, you need to take a bus, minibus or car to the Oryol Gate. You can also reach Babolovo on foot. To do this, from the Catherine Palace you should head along the Podkapriznaya road, which separates the Alexander and Catherine parks. One of the landmarks can be the Chinese village, past which the route runs. The continuation of the Podkapriznaya road is straight as an arrow, the Babolovskaya clearing. After the path from the forest leads to the meadow, you will need to turn right. After two hundred meters there will be a pond with a dam, on the banks of which the ruins of the palace are located. The entire route from the Oryol Gate is 2.5 km.
When can I get to Babolovsky Park? The operating mode of this green area has not been established. So his visit is possible 24 hours a day.
Babolovsky Park – largest park Pushkin ( Leningrad region). Its territory is 268.6 hectares. The park is interesting for its picturesqueness, a large number of paths and alleys for walking, interesting story and attractions.
Story
In the 16th century Next to the current park area was the village of Babolovo, to which the park owes its name. In 1749-1772. Two water pipelines were laid through the forest near the village - Vittolovsky and Taitsky. These utilities supplied Tsarskoye Selo with drinking water. According to contemporaries, Tsarina Catherine II considered the water entering the palace through the Taitsky water conduit to be healing.
Catherine II really liked the Babolovskaya manor, and she gave it to her favorite, Prince G. Potemkin. In 1780, by order of the queen, a wooden mansion, which became the first residential building on the territory of the future Babolovsky Park. After some time, the wooden house was replaced by a stone palace with baths and an English park.
Two ponds were dug in the garden - Babolovsky and Serebryany. Water was supplied to the last reservoir through the Taitsky water pipeline, directly from the healing spring.
At first, the residence of Prince Potemkin and Catherine in Babolovo was a palace with a small landscape park: this island of civilization was surrounded by dense forest. In 1820, a road was built to the palace, which significantly increased the speed of development of the territory. By 1860, the forest was thinned out, the swampy lands were dried, and deciduous trees and shrubs were planted on the prepared soil. The park was indented with clearings, roads and alleys. After the improvement work, Babolovsky Park became one of the most well-groomed in the empire. Many Russian tsars, including Alexander I and Nicholas II, vacationed here with their families.
During the Second World War, German bombing destroyed a large number of trees, ugly craters appeared in the garden, and the palace suffered significant damage. After the Victory, the park was not given enough attention and the area began to become swampy, the alleys and lawns were overgrown with fir trees and pine trees.
Park in our time
Today Babolovsky Park is quite neglected, but this does not deprive it of its picturesqueness. On the contrary, visitors will feel the unique atmosphere of the past and feel the passage of time.
Dozens of species of trees and shrubs grow in the park, and squirrels, hedgehogs and tits live. In 2012, the Pushkin authorities wanted to cede the park to a private investor for the construction of a golf club. City residents and the St. Petersburg public came to the defense of the facility and managed to defend it. Moreover, enthusiasts managed to achieve the assignment of the status of an object to the park cultural heritage Russia.
Babolovsky Park was repeatedly mentioned in his poems and prose by A. S. Pushkin.
Attractions
In the park you can see the ruins of the Babolovsky Palace - a beautiful building in the neo-Gothic style, built in 1784-1785. for Prince G. Potemkin. The palace was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, however, it still retains remnants of its former beauty. The authorities of St. Petersburg approved the project for the reconstruction of the building, but at the time of writing (10/28/2017) restoration had not yet begun.
The Babolovsky Palace houses one of the most interesting attractions - the Tsar Bath. This is a huge round container carved from a granite block. Up to 8 thousand buckets of water were poured into the bath.
The Babolovsky Palace was located in a hard-to-reach place, so representatives of the imperial family often used it for meetings with their mistresses. For example, Emperor Alexander I met here with a certain girl named Sophia. This event was reflected in A. Pushkin’s epigram “To the Babolovsky Palace.”
The boundaries of Babolovsky Park were fully formed only in 1846, when the architect A. Menelas installed a cast-iron gate in the Gothic style at the western end of the garden. The gates were called Staro-Krasnoselsky. The gate is located between two Gothic towers. Security points are located in the towers. In 2008, the Staro-Krasnoselsky Gate was completely restored.
In the park you can see individual preserved fragments of the famous Taitsky water pipeline - a 16-kilometer water supply system for Tsarskoye Selo, built by engineers F. Bauer, I. Gerard, E. Carbonnier and P. Pozdnevym in 1787.
The Taitsky water supply system received water from the Soninsky springs on the Taitsy manor and delivered it to Tsarskoe Selo, Sofia and Pavlovsk.
The walls of the canals were reinforced with wood, but by 1793 the logs had rotted and crumbled. Until 1799, the replacement of timber formwork with brick cladding continued.
After restoration, the capacity of the Taitsky water pipeline reached 12.5 thousand cubic meters per day. The facility was abandoned in 1905, when the more powerful Oryol water pipeline was launched.
Video from the media talking about Babolovsky Park:
February 4th, 2011
When I started this blog, I thought that I would write mainly about travel. But I haven’t been doing well with travel lately. Therefore, let's turn to St. Petersburg and its surroundings. Behind last years Internet enthusiasts, so to speak, of local history, have jotted down tons of texts and photographs about every stone in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area. And this, of course, is good. I also want to join this local history choir. Any such trip is also little trip, and I love them very much.
Let's start with Babolovsky Park in Tsarskoe Selo. I have good childhood memories associated with this park. As a child, I often went for a walk to Pushkin and Pavlovsk with my parents. I spent many, many weekends in these parks. In winter we visited Pavlovsk more often, skiing and sledding, and in summer we went to Pushkin. Most of all I liked Alexander Park. With these dilapidated bridges, collapsed pavilions, overgrown ponds and canals. All this was more like a forest, which once upon a time, in ancient, and seemingly magical times, was a luxurious, well-kept park. As for Babolovsky Park, the park farthest from the station in Pushkin, its very existence was mysterious. I knew that it was located behind Aleksandrovsky, but we only went there a few times. For me these were real hikes, with stops, a thermos and sandwiches. But for some reason, I first got to the main attraction of the park, the Babolovsky Palace, at a much older age.
Getting to Babolovsky Park is very easy. You can get to the Orlovskie Gate by car, minibus or bus. Can you go from Catherine Palace, along the Podkaprizovaya road separating the Ekaterinninsky and Aleksandrovsky parks, past the Chinese village to Babolovo. The continuation of this road is the arrow-straight Babolovskaya clearing. When the road leaves the forest and enters the meadow, you need to turn right. After two hundred meters you will come to a pond with a dam. On the shore of this pond there is a palace, or rather what remains of it. From the Orlov Gate to the Babolovsky Palace, the walk is about 2.5 kilometers.
The history of Babolovsky Park began in the second half of the 18th century. Catherine the Great gave these lands to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin of Tauride, and he built a wooden house on them, and a park was laid out nearby. It received the name Babolovsky from the then nearby Finnish village of Babolovo. All these names of the villages surrounding St. Petersburg: Toksovo, Rappolovo, etc., despite the seemingly Russian ending “-ovo,” actually have Finnish roots. Now the park is quite overgrown, but it is still clear that this is not just a forest. The landscape park, which was first created in a small area near the palace, grew over time and became the largest in Tsarskoe Selo (almost 300 hectares). Transforming an ordinary forest on marshy lands south of St. Petersburg into a park is not an easy task; it is a huge job that will take many years. Instead of a swampy spruce forest with deciduous undergrowth, which can usually be seen in the southern outskirts of St. Petersburg, grass meadows, oak groves appeared here, and tree species that had never grown in these latitudes were planted: oaks, larches, maples. At the beginning of the 19th century, when Alexander I, a school and gardening establishment with a nursery for seedlings and greenhouses for flowers was created on the territory of the park, which were supplied to other Tsarskoye Selo imperial parks. Its layout was a dense network of longitudinal and transverse paths, dividing the site into many rectangles occupied by ridges and greenhouses. In the center they built a house for gardening apprentices and dug two ponds. The final formation of the park took place during the reign of Alexander II, at which time it began to be called Babolovsky. Unfortunately, during the war the parks of Tsarskoye Selo suffered greatly. Naturally, they started restoring Catherine Park first, then Aleksandrovsky Park, but they never really got around to Babolovsky Park. And little by little the park turns into what it once was - a swampy spruce forest. But the work of gardeners is still visible in some places. Nowadays people come here to pick mushrooms and go skiing in winter.
Alley of silver willows in Babolovsky Park
Pre-revolutionary Tsarskoe Selo was such a preserve of the imperial “ideal” Russia. Beautiful parks, ponds and rivers full of fish, hussars and cuirassiers taking horseback rides along the alleys of the park, palaces, pavilions and bridges. It was a royal and grand-ducal residence, the location of elite military units, and most of the city's residents were in one way or another engaged in serving their needs. This entire world was mercilessly destroyed after the seventeenth year, those people disappeared without a trace, and the fascist occupation destroyed most of the material monuments of that era. I must say a huge thank you to the people who restored the main monuments of Tsarskoe Selo after the Great Patriotic War. But Babolovsky Park and the palace still carry the feeling of an abandoned and forgotten universe.
Babolovsky Palace
When I saw the Babolovsky Palace for the first time, I was a little disappointed. During the war, the palace was almost completely destroyed, and in the 70s, not restoration, but conservation of this monument was carried out. It looked as if the old ruined building had been reinforced with modern concrete beams and brickwork. It looks about the same now.The first palace built for Prince Potemkin Tauride in 1785 was one-story, it was built according to the design of the architect Ilya Vasilyevich Neelov. It received its modern appearance, or rather the appearance that the building had before the war, after reconstruction carried out by Vasily Petrovich Stasov in 1824-1825. After Potemkin, the palace went to the imperial family. It is alleged that Emperor Alexander I met here with his mistress Sophia Velho, the daughter of the court banker Baron Velho. Moreover, the most famous distributor of this gossip was A.S. Pushkin, who during his lyceum years wrote in hexameter the difficult-to-read poem “To the Babolovsky Palace”:
Beautiful! let him enjoy the delight
In your arms is a Russian demigod.
What can compare with your fate?
The whole world is at his feet - here he is at your feet.
Unfortunately, today it is difficult to imagine that this now rather filthy place was once suitable for romantic dates of a royal person.
Those tourists who make it to the Babolovsky Palace get the opportunity to look at the famous granite bath as the main prize. This is the only thing that has survived to this day, having survived the war and not being damaged over the 60 years spent practically under open air. Ordered by the same Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, the giant miracle bath was made under the guidance of the master Samson Semenovich Sukhanov, who is known for working on the creation of the colonnade of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexandrian Pillar on Palace Square St. Petersburg. The bathtub is carved from a single piece of granite, which was cut down near Vyborg. And the author of the project was the Russian-born engineer Betancourt, a native of the distant Canaries, the island of Tenerife. Work on the bathroom lasted 10 years and was completed in 1828, after the death of Alexander I.
Now it is impossible to get inside the palace, but people broke through the window blocked by brickwork. You can look at the bath, or you can try to climb inside the palace. I can't say it's safe, and I can't say it smells good inside. But with some caution this can be done. Before the war, a staircase led to the bathtub. Although, to be honest, the practical use of the bath is not entirely clear to me. Swimming in cold water in a granite bath in our climate is not an acquired taste. But there seemed to be no device for heating water. Perhaps make a fire under the granite, but then boil the gentlemen bathing for a short time.
Other park attractions
Let's look a little at other attractions of Babolovo.Bridges
The park is crossed by the Tsarskoye Selo river Kuzminka. In front of the palace it is dammed up and spills into a small lake. The dam bridge opposite the palace was destroyed during the war, but it was rebuilt during the Soviet period.
Park alleys cross Kuzminka several times, but the historical bridges have not been preserved there. An extensive system of alleys, meadows and groves, all of this was artificially created in the 19th century.
Krasnoselsky and Starokrasnoselsky gates
In pre-revolutionary times, Babolovsky Park was crossed passing road from Tsarskoe to Krasnoe Selo. This road was very often used by august persons. In Krasnoye, training camps and maneuvers were held every summer; the Krasnoselsky military camp arose in the second half of the 18th century. At the exit from the royal residence, the road was decorated with gates. Krasnoselskie at the exit from Alexandrovsky Park, Starokrasnoselskie at the exit from Babolovsky. Krasnoselsky gates were popularly called “elephant gates”. They recently underwent an amazing metamorphosis: four years ago, the two guardhouses of these gates looked like ruins, and now they look as if they were built just yesterday (see photo below). As if any moment now a Cossack patrol would appear to change the guard.
Krasnoselsky Gate in 2010-11
The Krasnoselsky Gate was designed by the English architect A. Menelas in 1820. It’s great that restoration is reaching the remote monuments of Pushkin. Although, to be honest, such a “remake” deprives these places of the charm of an “abandoned park”, which I always liked so much as a child.
The Starokrasnoselsim gate was unlucky. Judging by the photographs I found on the Internet, they stood in their place quite recently, although they were rusty and rickety, and the road through them led nowhere except to the state farm fields. I thought they had disappeared completely. But it turned out that historically they were the central part of the Krasnoselsky Gate. And during the restoration process they were returned to their old place. And in their old place there was nothing left except a couple of concrete pedestals.
photo http://ru.wikipedia.org
Starokrasnoselsky Gate after restoration
Alexander Gate
They are located between the Aleksandrovsky and Babolovsky parks on the Volkhonskoye Highway, leading from Tsarskoye Selo to Strelna and Peterhof. They were also built according to the design of Menelas. Today, only one column from the gate remains on the side of Alexander Park, although I remember for sure that several years ago there were several fragments of the gate.
Pink guard
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the guardhouse from 10 years ago, but this is another example of recent restoration. The guardhouse was given its “native” historical pink color. The guardhouse stands at the place where three parks converge: Ekaterininsky, Babolovsky and Aleksandrovsky, and before the revolution it was intended specifically for guard duty. Apparently, like modern rulers, Russian autocrats also cared about their safety; their summer residence was surrounded on all sides by guardhouses and gates.
Milestone and sundial
Near the Oryol Gate there is an old milestone. There are plenty of these in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area; most of them were restored during Soviet times. This one differs from others in that it is equipped with a sundial.
Taitsky water conduit
The Taitsky water conduit was built during the reign of Catherine the Great to supply the Tsarskoye Selo ponds with water, as well as drinking water for city residents. The final part of the water pipeline passed right through the territory of Babolovsky Park. And it began in the vicinity of the village of Taitsy (this is the direction to Gatchina-Baltiyskaya). 7 kilometers of the water pipeline went underground, at a depth of up to 16 meters. Imagine such an 18th century metro!
You can read about this building in great detail here:
In the summer months, the city of Pushkin resembles a real one green oasis. Residential buildings are surrounded by public gardens and flowering flower beds. In this small city there are also several fairly large landscaped recreation areas, and one of them is Babolovsky Park, about which a lot has been written interesting stories and legends.
History of Babolovskaya Manor
Prince G. A. Potemkin was a favorite of Catherine II and one of the most beloved, as he actively participated in the conspiracy of 1762, after which the empress came to power. The history of the palace in Babolovo begins in 1783. Catherine II never spared gifts for her loved ones, and this residence became one of the royal gifts to Count Potemkin. The first house built in the Babolovskaya manor was wooden, but 5 years later a stone mansion was erected in its place. The summer residence was relatively small, had an asymmetrical layout, and thanks to the Gothic design of the facade, it very soon began to be called a palace. In the central, largest room, there was a marble bath for bathing in the summer.
Granite bath in Babolovo
Despite its beauty and originality, the Gothic palace was not particularly popular. Due to the lack of constant attention and maintenance, the building is deteriorating, and already in 1791 the residence does not look very presentable. Architect V.P. Stasov took on the task of rebuilding the palace in 1824. The oval hall is expanded, and the marble bath is replaced with an incredible-sized bath made of granite monolith. Looking ahead, it should be said that the Tsar Bath in Babolovsky Park has survived to this day. This incredible bath was created by the then famous master Samson Sukhanov. A bathtub was hewn out of a block of red granite interspersed with greenish labradorite, weighing more than 160 tons. The dimensions of the finished bath are amazing: the depth is 152 cm, the height is 196 cm, and the diameter is 533 cm. An interesting fact is that a huge bathtub was initially installed, and only after that a room was built around it.
Legends about Tsar Bath and the palace in Babolovo
In the first half of the nineteenth century, many members of the royal family and simply very rich people ordered and installed granite baths in their homes. However, the royal bath in Babolovsky Park, installed in a palace originally built for Count Potemkin, was unusual due to its size. The bathhouse amazed even noble people who saw it for the first time. Gradually, legends began to form about the granite pool. There were rumors that Catherine II bathed in goat's milk there. Some sources also contain information that the future emperor, Alexander I, was baptized in the Tsar Bath. They also say that the bath was used for love affairs and for occult purposes. During the Great Patriotic War, the Germans saw the Tsar Bath and wanted to take it to Germany, but they could not figure out a way to move the heavy bowl, carved from granite.
The fate of the palace today
The last rightful owner of the palace and park complex in Babolovo was Alexander I. The further fate of the Gothic palace with the Tsar Bath is not so rosy. Babolovsky Park and all the buildings located on its territory were severely damaged during the Great Patriotic War. Many trees were cut down, and the palace turned into miserable ruins. After the end of the war, the recreation area was partially cleared and improved. No one was involved in the restoration of the palace. The abandoned walls of the once majestic and luxurious residence were deteriorating more and more, but through the destroyed ones one could still see the majestic bathhouse.
Modern Babolovsky Park
Today the recreation area resembles a mixed forest. On this moment The park covers about 30 hectares. Today it is an unkempt forest and meadows with paths and few attractions. There are no cafes or attractions here; moreover, even the benches can be counted on one hand. However, this corner of nature is quite popular among city residents and tourists. Many visitors are interested in the ruins of the palace and the granite bath in Babolovsky Park. However, today what remains of the central building of the complex is surrounded by a high fence, and it is not so easy to look at the royal bath. There are also some other outstanding structures on the territory of the recreation area. For example, the Pink Guardhouse, located immediately at the entrance to the park, (1887), a concrete pillbox built during the war. Less interesting “attractions” are the bentonite houses where guards once lived, and the boarding house of the Izhora plant, built in 1970. It is quite possible that the palace will soon be restored, or another modern hotel or SPA center will appear in its place.
How to get to the park with Tsar Bath?
Babolovsky Park is one of the least known in Pushkin. Often, even the native residents of St. Petersburg only indirectly know the legends of the Tsar Bath, but have no idea where this landmark is located. If you decide to see with your own eyes the ruins left over from past greatness, you need to get to the city of Pushkin. Where exactly is Babolovsky Park, how to get to it? From railway station or you can get there by buses No. 188 and No. 273. You need to get off at the Starogatchinskoye Shosse stop. You can walk along Parkovaya Street along
