Description of the attraction
Before the Arsenal pavilion, an elegant two-storey Monbijou building (from the French for “my treasure”), similar to the Hermitage, which was the center of the vast park ensemble Menagerie, stood on this site for 7 decades. It was built in the Baroque style by the architect Rastrelli at the behest of Empress Elizabeth.
The walls of the central hall of Monbijou were decorated with paintings by I. F. Groota is a skilled craftsman at depicting animals. The artist took the plots for his paintings from real life: they were birds and animals in nature and in cages, still lifes from beaten game. Today the paintings can be seen in the collection of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum.
Over time, the need for the Menagerie disappeared, the hunts were stopped, and it became a forest park.
Under Alexander I in 1819, the architect Adam Adamovich Menelas began the reconstruction of the pavilion and completed in 1834 by Konstantin Ton. The building was changed beyond recognition, and Emperor Nicholas I gave it a new name - "Arsenal". The prototype of the new building was the Shrubs Hill Estate, painted on an English engraving located in the Admiralty.
The interiors of the Arsenal were beautiful: the windows were decorated with original medieval stained-glass windows purchased in Europe, the rooms were decorated with paintings and twisted columns. After the construction of the pavilion, it was turned into a museum, and the emperor brought his collection of weapons here from the Anichkov Palace. He regularly replenished his collection with gifts, trophies or specially bought samples he liked. Emperor Nicholas I was interested in history and all his life he collected ancient weapons and relics associated with the war.
The best part of the congregation was in the Hall of the Knights. In the hallway, to create the illusion of a guard, figures of knights in armor were installed. At the stairs is a team of knights who performed the rite of passage. Firearms were exhibited in the library, and the best examples of European swords were displayed in the study. A marvelous collection of eastern weapons was housed in the eastern rooms: Turkish, Albanian, Indo-Muslim and Indo-Persian. The Old Russian Weapons Department displayed items of considerable historical interest. Here were kept exhibits of oriental daggers of Peter I, sabers of I. S. Mazepa and D. I. Godunov and so on. The Empress's Room had a four-poster bed, which was guarded by German knights in armor from the time of Maximilian I.
Alexander II (son of Nicholas I) took over from his father a passion for weapons. He began collecting it at a young age: he brought it from trips, acquired it and received it as a gift. The collection was significantly replenished after he bought in 1861 at a Paris auction a collection of eastern weapons of Prince P. Saltykov, consisting of unique, richest weapons of the Hindu, Persian, from the islands of Sumatra, Ceylon, China, and Japan.
In addition to weapons, other valuable things were also exhibited here (now some of the exhibits are on display in the Knights' Hall of the State Hermitage): Catherine the Great's cane, Shamil's clubs and axes, Frederick the Great's snuffbox, personal belongings of Napoleon I, ethnographic and prehistoric exhibits.
Later, the entire collection ended up in St. Petersburg museums. After that, the "Arsenal" collected a unique collection of architectural models of the 18th-19th centuries in the amount of more than a hundred samples, copies of clothes of Russian cavalry regiments, a collection of porcelain and glass of His Imperial Majesty.
In 1941-1945, local residents stored potatoes in the basement halls of the building; during the occupation, the Germans set up a tobacco warehouse here. In general, Arsenal suffered little damage over this period.
The plan for the restoration of the pavilion has been developed, and after restoration it will house a collection of weapons of Emperor Nicholas I, returned here in part from the State Hermitage.
Description added:
Lukoshkina Lyudmila Nikolaevna 2016-28-09
In the pre-war years (1935 - 1941) the Arsenal was used as an attraction for parachute jumping. Therefore, among the local population there was a name: "parachute".
