The Concert Hall.

 

Standing on the Granite Terrace with his back to the lake, the observer has before him a green meadow, which rises from the lake to, a high granite terrace accessible from the meadow by two monumental staircases. The terrace has a balustrade, ornamented with bronze statues During the reign of Alexander II it served as a place where at certain hours on Sundays and holidays the people of the town might come and listen to military music.

 

The Granite Terrace

The Granite Terrace was constructed in 1809 by the architect Rusky on the spot of an unfinished gallery of the time of Catherine. At the command of the Emperor Paul this gallery was taken down and the stones out of which it was built were sent partly to Pavlovsk and partly to St. Petersburg for the building of the Michaelovsky Palace. This gallery had been built during the last years of Catherine's reign on the spot of the Tobogganing Hills and merry-go-rounds, which were there in the beginning of Elizabeth Petrovna's reign, and occupied the whole space between the present terrace and the granite landing-place, and all the avenue from the slope of the Cameron Gallery to the stream, which goes from the Small Bridge to the Red Bridge.

On the place, now occupied by the terrace and flower beds, there used to stand a high two storied stone pavilion, built from Rastrelli's sketches. The lower story, the central hall and two side-rooms had marble floors, doors led from the upper story of the pavilion on to two balconies or platforms. From these platforms it was possible to ride down an inclined plane on specially built arm chairs with wheels, to the Palace and towards the Red Bridge. The upper story of the pavilion was heated and had a wooden floor. All the doors in the lower story were glazed. The hall, which was crowned with a cupola and the side rooms had white painted iron roofs while the platforms were surrounded with open-work balustrades of stone. Both balustrades and the bannisters of the staircase were adorned with statues and vases. Four staircases led from the park to the platforms.

From this stone Tobogganing or Slide Hill three wooden hills went as far as the lake - one straight to the island and two side ones to the landing place with the statues. The space between these slide hills was occupied by merry-go-rounds, swings and other fresh air pastimes. By the central wooden hill you could be taken as far as the Hall on the Island. Across the lake was arranged a wooden road, resting on piles, driven into the bottom of the lake. Up to 1777 a richly painted wooden fence surrounded the slide hills and merry-go-rounds.

At this time two of the wooden Tobogganing Hills, which had been built 20 years earlier had become so old that Catherine ordered them to be pulled down and at the same time she ordered two landing places to be built; also for the place to be turned into a meadow with two merry-go-rounds and other amusements. There is a difference of opinion as to when the hills were torn down. The historian Yakovkin assumes that this was done in 1792 when the Pente-Douce was erected. At the same time Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alekseyevna (wife of Alexander I) writes to her mother in a letter dated 1795 that the slide hills still existed, but were being taken down. In reality both the hills, were pulled down in 1791, while the pavilion existed until 1795 when the huge rustic stone gallery was begun on its spot. The pavilion of the Tobogganing Hill must have been unusually beautiful, and like all the contrivances of Elizabeth's chief architect was admired by her contemporaries; all, who visited Tsarskoe Selo at that time, spoke with enthusiasm of it. Catherine's ally and friend, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II even desired a model of it.

The part of the old park between the Rampovaya Road, which served as a continuance of the Pente-Douce, the Volkonsky broadway, and the Podkaprizovaya Road, used to be called the English Garden; it was arranged in the earlier part of the Empress Catherine's reign. In 1856 the Private Garden of the Great Palace was made here - it is divided from Rampovaya Road and the triangular place (at the Small Caprice) by a low cast-iron palisade with three gates and gilt bronze decorations, which were cast from the sketches of the architect Monighetti.

Admittance to the Private Garden is granted to visitors only in exceptional cases. There are a few monuments of the time of the Empress Catherine II and of the Emperor Alexander II. The south forefront of the palace is overlooking it. In the second story are the rooms which Catherine II had built to her taste and in the first story are the apartments of the Tsar Deliverer, Alexander I. In 1866 at the wish of the Emperor Alexander, II the architect Vidov erected a fountain, made at the Peterhof Crystal Factory in front of the palace windows. A little farther on, stands an open verandah in the Italian style. Beyond this verandah stands the Rumiantsevsky Obelisk made famous by Utkin's engraving of Borovikovsky's portrait of Catherine II.

This obelisk was erected in December 1771 in honour of Count Peter Alexandrovich Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky, in memory of the victory gained by him on the banks of the River Kagul. The obelisk and its pedestal are of white veined blue marble and is 35 feet high. The pedestal rises from a granite base with three steps, surrounded with granite posts. On the side of the pedestal, facing the palace, is a bronze plate with the following inscription:

"In memory of, the victory on the River Kagul in Moldavia, on the 21st of June 1770. General Count Peter Rumiantsev led the Russian forces, seventeen thousand in number, and put to flight as far as the river Danube the Turkish Vizir Galil Bey with fifteen hundred thousand."

Lanskoy Monument.

A little to one side of the obelisk stands another small monument in the form of a four-sided marble pillar, to which is attached a bronze plate with the inscription:

"What a great pleasure it is for honest souls, to see virtue and services, crowned with the general praises, they have deserved."

"Why and on what occasion this monument was erected," says historian Yakovkin, is unknown." In an old album of 1779 containing views of Tsarskoe Selo this monument is called, "The Marble Pedestal in Honour of Virtue and Services."

The monument was in reality erected by Catherine II on the death of her favorite, Lanskoy. On the bronze plate, besides the inscription are Lanskoy's armorial bearings in gilt relief, and below both, sides of a medal, which was struck in his, honour; on one side is his profile and the inscription; "Alexander Dmitrievich Lanskoy, Gen. Lieut. and Gen. Adjut." and on the other an obelisk with four cypress trees at its sides, and the inscriptions "In memory of friendship", and "born on the 8th of March 1758, died on the 25th of June, 1784." Lanskoy's, death was a severe blow to the Empress. Gifted with' unusual capabilities, lively, gay, and handsome, he went to his grave after an illness of five days only, angina, followed by blood poisoning."

"He was a young man, full of gratitude, tender, and honest", writes Catherine to Grimm on the 2nd of July 1874. "I brought him up, he shared my grief, and divided my joys; with sobs of sorrow, I have, the misfortune to inform you, that Lanskoy is no more."

All the summer the Empress grieved for her love, it was with difficulty that Count Theodore Orlov and Potemkin could cheer her up. The whole winter she avoided society and did not wish to partake of any amusements. Even when she moved to St. Petersburg she took up her residence in a small room in the Hermitage where she spent her time in affairs of state and in philological research, composing her celebrated dictionary in two hundred languages. Only six months later did she "come round" (using her own expression).

In the time of Catherine the whole space between the palace and the take in the Private Garden was a pretty lawn. In the middle of which rose the obelisk to Rumiantsev and, among a group of trees, the monument to Lanskoy. The island, on which Quarenghi in 1786 built the Concert Hall could then be seen from the Palace windows; all this space was known as the Great Meadow.

Two cast iron bridges with marble posts lead to the island. Massive doors open onto a round portico which is adorned with columns which leads into a concert hall, 90 feet long. Besides the hall, the building contains two rooms, divided from it by straight arches. The ceiling has the form of a vault and is ornamented with the signs of the zodiac while the walls are decorated with imitation marble. The floor is mosaic work of which the central part has been brought from Rome and represents the myth of the Rape of Europa. The mosaic of the two side rooms is made in Russia. In the hall 25 small copies in marble of ancient busts stand round the walls.

Near the hall is a small arbor, formed of pieces of ancient marble brought during the reign of Catherine II from Greece. Formerly this arbor contained a part of the collection of marbles, brought from Rome by Reifenstein, who carried out all matters connected with art for Her Majesty.