Description of the attraction
In the very center of St. Petersburg, next to Kirochnaya and Tavricheskaya streets, there is one of the most comfortable landscape gardens - the Tavrichesky Garden, each corner of which is saturated with the spirit of imperial Russia. It is easy to imagine that Paul I just walked here, and now Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky will come out from behind a tree, or Kulibin is sitting on a bench and pondering his experiments with a bridge across the Neva. It was here that the steamer "Elizabeth" was tested - the very first of the created steamers.
In the 80s of the eighteenth century, at the direction of Catherine the Great, according to the project and under the direction of the architect Starov, the Tavrichesky Palace was built for Field Marshal Grigory Potemkin-Tavrichesky, which became the standard for the construction of other palaces.
The interiors of the Tauride Palace were luxurious. But no less magnificent was the garden that surrounded the palace. It was designed by the English gardener V. Gould. In the place where the Samoroyka River used to flow, two ponds were dug, connected to each other by channels. They launched fish into the ponds, but not some, but a noble sterlet.
In the southern part of the Big Pond, two islands were poured, which were planted mainly with conifers, but there were both oaks and birches here. From the hill formed from the earth of dug ponds on the Big Island, there was a delightful view of the palace. The island was connected to the "mainland" by metal pedestrian bridges - one of the first in Russia.
In 1794, under the direction of the architect Volkov, the “House of the Garden Master” was built and a greenhouse was built, a fence of the garden and an access stone bridge were made. In the greenhouse, gardeners grew a variety of exotic fruits for the king's table: pineapples and watermelons, melons and peaches.
After Potemkin's death, the garden was not launched, but, on the contrary, began to develop even more, new ponds appeared here, the banks of which were strengthened with stone. The meadows of the garden were no longer grazed by livestock, they were turned into the most beautiful lawns. After the creation of the garden, it was closed to ordinary citizens, and there was something to admire. Peacocks walked on the lawns, stately swans swam in the ponds, a seal splashed in the ponds, a gift from distant Persia.
Only almost fifty years later, the garden gradually became more accessible for visiting by Petersburgers. Here they began to build sports grounds for playing badminton and the ball. And in winter it was possible to go ice skating here.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the gardening society of the Russian Empire began to work in the garden in the exhibition pavilion. After the revolution, the pavilion was reconstructed and turned into a multi-storey garage. The name of the garden also changed, it became the Park of Culture and Rest of the First Five-Year Plan. During the Great Patriotic War, forty-three high-explosive bombs fell on the garden. The Tauride Garden was adapted for the needs of the Soviet army. After the war, the garden was restored according to the project of the talented architect Goldgor. Here boat docks were built, skating rinks were flooded, a summer pavilion was rebuilt. In the middle of the 20th century, the first large-format cinema "Leningrad" appeared. In 1962, a monument to the Young Heroes of the Defense of Leningrad was unveiled, the first monument dedicated to the memory of children who died during the war.
In 1985, the Tauride Garden was returned to its original name. Nowadays it is one of the most favorite vacation spots of Petersburgers.
