When Peterhof is mentioned, it immediately becomes clear what will be discussed - a wonderful palace complex with a cascade of beautiful fountains, which still continues to delight the eyes of tourists. Surprisingly, until recently this name as a geographical point did not exist, as they tried to replace it with something more familiar to the Russian ear. As much as the founder of this town, Peter I, nodded towards the West, distributing the names of settlements in the German way, so the authorities of Russia and the USSR tried to rid the place names of the German trace. The reason for this was the First and Second World Wars. However, Peterhof was still destined, albeit not so long ago, to acquire its historical name as an official one.
History of the city from Peter to Lenin
This city was founded back in 1710 and served as a country residence for Peter I. However, the status of a city for Peterhof appeared later, in 1762. In addition to the fact that a palace was built here and a magnificent park with fountains was laid out, the first industrial enterprises appeared here - a lapidary plant and a saw mill.
The water system of the Peterhof fountains is a whole engineering structure designed by V. Tuvolkov. With about 20 ponds for storing water, this system worked without knowing modern pumps, which was unique. However, with the completion in 1723 of the works concerning the park, it was noticed that the rest of the buildings brought chaos to the overall impression. And their quality left much to be desired. Peasants, for example, huddled in dugouts. A new dwelling was built for these state peasants - the Craftsman's yard, and those who served at the imperial court also built their own court - Kavalsky.
Then the construction continued, famous architects were connected to it - B. Rastreli, J. Quarenghi, V. Stasov, L. Ruska and V. Geste. The last three worked on the appearance of the city already under Nicholas I, in the 19th century. As a result, several beautiful palaces, barracks for elite military units, hospitals, etc. were built here.
Tsarist Russia still managed to make its own contribution to the construction of a local railway, along which a small train ran, and students were the cashiers at the station. True, there were no higher educational institutions here, but there were gymnasiums. The city was mainly used as a summer residence of the first persons of the state.
Soviet period
It is surprising that all these luxurious buildings and structures during the years of the revolution were not subjected to total destruction, as belonging to the monarchy. Perhaps someone managed to defend and protect this greatest heritage by simply turning it into a large open-air museum. However, museums in the buildings here work to this day.
But what the Bolsheviks spared could not be saved from the fascist invaders. Damage suffered:
- green spaces of parks - over a third;
- museum values - over 30,000 items;
- water conduits and fountains are destroyed or disabled.
The parks and fountains were fully restored. The city received the Russian name - Petrodvorets. Only this turned out to be an inaccurate translation of his native name, and therefore they wanted to return his old name more than once. This was only possible in 2009.
