The history of the place

   Gatchina is one of St.Petersburg suburbs, which was the most beloved residence of the Emperor Paul I. The city was established on the place of village Hotchino that had been known since the end of the XVth century. The Izhora lands, which previously had belonged to Novgorod, after the victory in the Northern War, were joined to Russia again. And Russian aristocracy began inhabiting the south coast of Finnish gulf.

   In 1708 the former Finnish farmstead, situated on the coast of Gatchina Lake, was presented by Peter the Great to his sister Natalia Alexeevna. After her death, Gatchina farmstead was given to а hospital and later – to the tsar chemist’s. For some time the farmstead was used by the tsar doctors and in 1732 it was passed to the treasury. In 1734 the Empress Anna Ioanovna presented Gatchina farmstead with nearby villages to the Prince A.B. Kurakin.

   In 1765 the Empress Catherine II bought Gatchina farmstead with 20 villages and a mill and then presented it to her favourite Count G.G. Orlov. And in a year at the 30th of May 1766 the new owner began to build his new residence. Antonio Rinaldi built a hunting castle with towers and underground passage. For front facing was used local material – “pudostskij” stone. This stone is a sort of travertine, which was mined in Gatchina countryside – Pudost. Travertine had been known and used long before in Ancient Greece for temples. Gatchinsky Palace was one of the first buildings the walls of which were decorated with natural stone (from times of Peter the I it was used to plaster brick walls and to paint them in different colors leaving some details white). Almost at the same time there were begun works in big Palace park of landscape style and in game-preserve Zverinets (menagerie), where lived different animals for the count’s hunt. A road on Tsarskoje Selo was made.

   After the death of the Count Orlov in 1783 Catherine II redeemed Gatchina from his brothers and presented it to her son – the Grand Prince Paul Petrovich. He made the hunting castle his residence. The future Emperor Paul I changed Gatchina in accordance with his ideas and inclinations. The city looked like an army camp. And the Palace resembled a fortress. There appeared ditches and bastions with cannons around it and the main yard was changed into parade-ground. The reconstruction of the Palaces was done by an architect V.Brenna. Catharine II watched very attentively after the reconstruction. The Brenna’s project was examined by very competent commission including architects I.Starov, E.Sokolov and J.Kvarengi.

   Before coming to the throne Paul was very short in money and he could not afford big expenditures because he was very actively building his second residence Pavlovsk. In the beginning of 1790 in Gathina park there appeared some small buildings such as Orel (eagle) Pavilion, Venus Pavilion with terraces on Love Island, Birch House, Admiralty. They began to build new stone bridges across the channels. At the same time there were made some places planned in style of regular French gardens: "Own Garden" at the east wing of the Palace, Botanical, Verhnij (upper) and Nizhnij (lower) Holland gardens and Silvia garden situated at north-west from the Palace. The rest part of the park remained of landscape style.

   The “small” court lived in Gatchina in spring and autumn. In the environs and on lakes there were held manoeuvers, on the parade-ground – inspections and parades. When Paul had become the Emperor he gave Gatchina the status of a city (on the 11th of November, 1796). From that time Gatchina became the ownership of the Russian Emperors, it became their own residence.

   During the reign of Paul I the most intensive building of Gatchina was conducted.
   At the same time there appeared a new landscape park Prioratsky. It was named after a peculiar building Priorat. Paul I considered that there should had lived the prior of monastic knights’ order officially named after St. John Jerusalem, but commonly it was known as Maltese Order. (Soon after Paul I had come to the throne in January 1797 he organized “the great Russian priory”. He took the title of “the protector” and the highest signs of the order. When Malta island had been occupied by French troops the Russian tsar took the title of Maltese Order grandmaster (grossmeister). The octagonal Maltese cross was officially set into the Russian State Emblem.)

   At that time Prioratsky Palace was built. It was done like the residence of the prior whom than had been French emigrant Prince Konde. He had never lived in Gatchina so Prioratsky Palace was never used in its original purpose.

   The author of Prioratsky Palace was an architect N.A.Lvov. He was a very talented and all-round educated person: he was a poet, a translator, a drawer, an engraver, an inventor and an architect. Priorat was the product of his innovation. The Palace was built in the complete new for Russia technique and material: it was done from the pressed ground.

   After the Paul I death all the works in Gatchina were almost stopped. Except for some reconstructions in the Palace’s rooms the outside view of the Palace and its park remained unchanged for about 50 years.
In 1801-1828 the Palace was owned by the Paul I widow - Maria Fedorovna. Then from 1828 to 1855 there was one of Nicholas I residences. The following owners of the Palace were the Emperors Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II.

   At Nicholas I there were done the most essential works on the Palace and the city reconstruction. In 1851 the monument to the Emperor Paul I was mounted on the Palace front square. It was made by sculptor I.P.Vitaly. The city territory was much widened and in 1854 there was opened railway communication between St.Petersburg and Gatchina.

   In 1857 Alexander II wished to move the Imperial hunting to Gatchina. In connection with it there was built a Hunting village and were done great land-reclamation works in Zverinets. Very often Alexander II rested in the residence and hunted in Gatchina surroundings.

   The Emperor Alexander III in order to secure his family and to work peacefully away from the court, lived in Gatchina for the most part of the year. Without changing the common view of the Palace he used in his residence all the technical innovations such as electric light, water supply, sewer system, telephone.
   The widow on Alexander III the Empress Maria Fedorovna took care of Gatchina up to the revolution.

   At the end of May 1917 in Gatchinsky Palace there began working a commission which was making an inventory of the Palace property. On the 19th of May 1918 the Palace became a State museum with pieces of arts of universal importance, its funds and collections included about 54 000 pieces.

   The World War II damaged Gatchina greatly. In the first days of the war the museum values were prepared for evacuation. But only the 5th part of values was saved. The museum staff tried to preserve the building: the windows were closed by bricks or by double wooden shields with sand in between them. The unique parquet of the parade rooms was closed by material and then by sacks with sand. But unfortunately all these precautions could not save the Palace. Fascists fired the Palace when leaving the city. The most park buildings were destroyed or damaged, more than 7000 trees were cut, two thirds of the city were ruined.

   In January 1944 Gatchina was set free and immediately the works to restore the city and parks began. It was necessary to make mine cleaning of park paths, to cover up trenches with earth, to reconstruct burnt roofs of the Palace. There were renewed trees in park with account of previous tree kinds correlation.

   For more than 50 years Gatchina is being restored. In accordance with XVIII century drawings park pavilions and the Palace are being reconstructed. All the works are going slowly but this year there were opened some more parade rooms on the first floor, the underground passage was fully restored. Now the reconstruction of Prioratsky Palace is finished.

   But still there are a lot of work in Gatchina, there are too many things in the city and the park resembling the War. Yet it is a pity that not all the people bahave respectfully towards the restored objects: in 2003 the Birch House burnt (fortunately not completely).