Zar Peter's
Fountains
The
Peterhof Palace
(Russian Petergof, originally named Peterhof, Dutch or German for "Peter's Court") is
actually a series of palaces and gardens located near
St.Petersburg, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These
palaces and gardens are sometimes referred as the "Russian
Versailles". The palace ensemble is recognised as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site.
In the
time of Peter the Great, the sea floor just north of the Peterhof
site and to the east toward St. Petersburg was too shallow for
either commercial ships or warships. However, to the west of
Peterhof, the sea floor dropped off to be deep enough for sea
vessels. Accordingly, when Peter the Great decided to build St.
Petersburg at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, he first
captured the Kotlin Island clearly visible from the Peterhof site
just to the northeast in the middle of the Gulf. At Kotlin Island
he would build the commercial harbour for St. Petersburg as well as
the Kronstadt fortifications across the 20 kilometres of shallow
sea to provision and defend the Navy that he would build.
Peter the Great first mentions the Peterhof site
in his journal in 1705, during the Great Northern War as a good
place to construct a landing for use in travelling to and from the
island fortress of Kronstadt. In 1714 Peter began construction of
the Monplaisir ("my pleasure") Palace based on his own sketches of
the palace that he wanted close to the shoreline. This was Peter's
Summer Palace that he would use on his way coming and going from
Europe through the harbour at Kronstadt. On the walls of this
seacoast palace hung hundreds of paintings that Peter brought from
Europe and allowed to weather Russian winters without heat together
with the dampness of being so close to the sea. In the seaward
corner of his Monplaisir Palace, Peter made his Maritime Study from
which he could see Kronstadt Island to the left and St. Petersburg
to the right. Later, he expanded his plans to include a vaster
royal chateau of palaces and gardens further inland, on the model
of Versailles. Each of the tsars after Peter expanded on the inland
palaces and gardens of Peterhof, but the major contributions by
Peter the Great were completed by 1725. Peter had also entertained
plans of a similar palace at Strelna, a short way to the east, but
these plans were abandoned.
Peterhof originally appeared quite differently
than it does today. Many of the fountains had not yet been
installed. The entire Alexandrine Park and Upper Gardens didn't
exist. (The latter was used to grow vegetables, and its ponds, then
numbering only three, for fish.) The Samson Fountain and its
massive pedestal had not yet been installed in the Sea Channel, and
the channel itself was used as a grand marine entrance into the
complex.
Perhaps the most important change augmenting
Peter's design was the elevation of the Grand Palace to central
status and prominence. The Grand Palace was originally called
simply 'Upper', and was hardly larger than any of the other
structures of the complex. The addition of wings, undertaken
between 1745 and 1755, was one of the many projects commissioned
from the Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli by Elizabeth of
Russia. Likewise, the Grand Cascade was more sparsely decorated
when initially built.
The augmentation of Peterhof's original fountains
and the addition of new ones continued well into the 19th
century.
Peterhof, like Tsarskoe Selo, was captured by
German troops in 1941 and held until 1944. In the few months that
elapsed between the outbreak of war in the west and the appearance
of the German Army, employees were only able to save a portion of
the treasures of the palaces and fountains. An attempt was made to
dismantle and bury the fountain sculptures, but three-quarters,
including all of the largest ones, remained in place. The occupying
forces of the German Army largely destroyed Peterhof. Many of the
fountains were destroyed, and the palace was partially exploded and
left to burn. Restoration work began almost immediately after the
end of the war and continues to this day.
The name was changed to "Petrodvorets" ("Peter's
Palace") in 1944 as a result of wartime anti-German sentiment and
propaganda, but the original name was restored in 1997 by the
post-Soviet government of Russia.
In 2003, St. Petersburg celebrated its 300th
anniversary. As a result, much of the building and statuary in
Peterhof has been restored.
The
dominant natural feature of Peterhof is a sixteen-metre-high bluff
lying less than a hundred metres from the shore. The so-called
Lower Gardens (Nizhny Sad), at 1.02 km² comprising the
better part of Peterhof's land area, are confined between this
bluff and the shore, stretching east and west for roughly 200
metres. The majority of Peterhof's fountains are contained here, as
are several small palaces and outbuildings. East of the Lower
Gardens lies the Alexandria Park with 19th-century Gothic Revival
structures such as the Kapella.
Atop the bluff, near the middle of the Lower
Gardens, stands the Grand Palace (Bolshoi Dvorets). Behind
(south) of it are the comparatively small Upper Gardens (Verhnyy
Sad). Upon the bluff's face below the Palace is the Grand
Cascade (Bolshoi Kaskad). This and the Grand Palace are the
centrepiece of the entire complex. At its foot begins the Sea
Channel (Morskoi Kanal), one of the most extensive
waterworks of the Baroque period, which bisects the Lower
Gardens.
The Cache
The cache is situated
outside the area of the park in close vicinity to parking
facilities, it can be reached at every time without paying an
entrance fee. Nevertheless I recommend a visit of the park with the
fountains to everyone, it's really worth a visit!
Initial
contents:
3 logbooks
cachenote in Russian and English
pencil
pencil sharpener
some trading items (coins and pins from Austria)
Good luck - happy caching!
The local fellow cacher gleb_gl has
kindly offered to help if maintenance for this cache is needeed -
many thanks!