With its strange name and owned by minor members of
the imperial family, Oranienbaum is unknown to many among the other famous
palaces in Saint Petersburg.
Aerial Views (below) of Oranienbaum Palace
The palace to the west of Peterhof and opposite Kronstadt
was built for Prince Menshikov during the reign of Peter the Great. A rare
sight in that harsh climate were the orange trees [orangenbaum in German) he
planted in the lower park.
Photographs (below) of Oranienbaum Palace
Empress Elizabeth gave the estate to her heir Peter
and Catherine in 1745. The architect Rastrelli added the two side wings with
towers: the right was called Ladies-in-Waiting and the left Kitchen. Although
she hated the memories of her married life in Oranienbaum, Catherine the Great
built the Chinese Palace and Sliding Hill after ascending the throne in 1762. When
Swedish guns threatened the area in 1792, all the interior decorations were removed
to Saint Petersburg: mirrors and furniture to the Tauride Palace, paintings and
library to the Hermitage, etc.
Model (below) of the Sliding Hill
Oranienbaum passed to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich,
the younger brother of Nicholas I in 1825. After his death in 1849 and his wife
Elena Pavlova in 1873, their only surviving daughter Catherine inherited the
estate. She had married Duke George of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in the Winter
Palace on February 4th 1851. They lived in the great palace during
visits in the winter and in the Chinese Palace during the summer months. With
Catherine’s death in 1894, her properties were shared among her three children:
George, Mikhail and Elena. As a collector, George continued to decorate the
luxurious interiors with rare items. Elena and her husband Prince Albert of
Saxe-Altenburg lived in the Chinese Palace.
Photographs (below) of the Chinese Palace 1800s-1900s
On Wednesday July 10th 1896 Nicholas II
wrote that ‘at 4:00 pm five of us went
off with Mama on the Peterhof yacht to Oranienbaum to visit Tinkhen [Elena] and
Albert in the Chinese Palace. After tea we looked over the house’.
At 3:00 pm on Friday June 24th 1905
Nicholas and Alexandra ‘went off in Orlov’s
car through Oranienbaum along the highway for ten miles past the new Battery
Defense. We walked along the seashore in a beautiful forest. On the way back we
had tea at Tinkhen’s in the Chinese Palace and looked over Peter III’s house’.
Photographs (below) of the exteriors and interiors of
the Chinese Palace
Such wonderful and rather odd buildings in the ensemble at Oranienbaum. Of course that last image is of the "Bugle Room" in Rinaldi's Chinese Palace - which must be amazing to see in person, especially now that those remarkable panels have been restored. : )
ReplyDeleteLove your texts and your mentions to the late XIX/early XX century owners of the palace, they are often forgotten in the history/art books!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much.
ReplyDelete