Architectural image of the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace of the XVIII century

Abstract

This work aims to clarify the authorship of the palace project. The aim of the work is also to identify the key periods of development of the planning structure of the Catherine Palace through analysis of architectural designs and visual materials. The architectural image of the Grand Tsarskoye Selo Palace (from 1910 – the Catherine Palace), which had been forming throughout the 18th century, was fixed in projects and iconography; the study of archival docu ments and graphic materials give the possibility to identify the features of the building’s construc tion during different stages. Traditionally, the authorship of the palace attributed to F. Rastrelli, however, an analysis of the specified materials shows that outstanding Russian architects of the mid-18th century worked on the creation of the palace: M. G. Zemtsov, later his apprentice A. V. Kvasov, and then S. I. Chevakinsky; they made a significant contribution to the formation of the palace’s architectonic structure. The first “stone chambers with sixteen rooms,” built by I. Braunstein by 1723, were integrated into the new building. Not all parts of the palace that were built in the 18th century have survived to this day. In particular, the main staircase, which was located in the south part of the building, was constructed on the site of a Greenhouse hall, which was destroyed. The main entrance, under Catherine II, was moved to the center of the pal ace. A separate church was erected in front of the palace, opposite the Cold bath at the end of 18 century and dismantled during Pavel Petrovic’s reign. In the second half of the 18th centu ry, the palace building was flanked on both sides by two wings, the Church and Zubovsky, which fundamentally changed the original plan. The composition of the palace was changed, not all of the created parts have survived up to the present, the study of archival materials has allowed us to identify the lost structures.