Description of the attraction
The Lyceum Garden is a small public garden in Tsarskoye Selo (the city of Pushkin), which on one side adjoins the Church of the Sign, and on the other - to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. The Lyceum Garden is a trapezoidal area bounded by Lyceisky (Pevcheskiy) Lane, Srednyaya, Dvortsovaya and Sadovaya streets. At the intersection of park paths - a round area with a monument to Pushkin (sculptor R. R. Bach) in the center. This monument, like the garden itself, are objects of the cultural heritage of our country.
At the time of Catherine I, this place was a wild birch grove, which was also called "Big birch trees". Wooden churches of the Annunciation and the Assumption were built in the grove. After the Church of the Sign was erected, the grove was planned out by order of the Empress. In 1784, the orchard together with the grove was surrounded by a stone fence with a metal lattice. On an uncomfortable site from 1808 to 1818. there were fair benches.
During the years of study at the Lyceum of A. Pushkin, between the building of the Lyceum and the birch grove, part of the Lyceum territory was located. This narrow and not ennobled area was not popular among lyceum students who were brought up in the spirit of noble aestheticism. Lyceum students preferred to walk in the Catherine Park: there they were given the Rose Field for games on the outskirts of the park.
But the educational institution needed its own territory. Therefore, E. A. Engelgardt, the director of the Lyceum, petitioned for the allocation of a separate garden for them, in which the pupils could freely run, jump and do gardening.
In 1818, Emperor Alexander I ordered to equip the garden in accordance with the needs of his pupils, having allocated 10, 5 thousand rubles for this purpose. The garden was surrounded by a new fence designed by the architect A. Menelas. The garden was made in a natural landscape layout and for a long time was still called the "fence", as the church fence was formerly called. Lyceum students were looking forward to the day when they would be the masters in their garden, they acquired seeds, shovels and rakes in advance. For each class on the territory of the garden, "own gardens" were allocated, and a "botanical garden according to the Linear system" was also organized here.
In front of the Lyceum Garden, under the old linden trees, there was a wooden gazebo in the shape of a mushroom, where the duty tutors usually sat. Between the pavilion and the building of the lyceum there was a wide area where lyceum students played bars and rounders. Under the "Mushroom" there was a well with a pump, which remained from the fair days. Lyceum students took water from it to irrigate plants.
Lyceum students of the Pushkin course erected a monument next to the church fence in the garden - a white marble plaque, which they put on a sod pedestal, with an inscription in Latin "Genio loci" ("Genius - the patron saint of these places"). Over time, the monument has become dilapidated. And in 1837, after the death of Pushkin, the then lyceum students restored it.
In 1843 the Lyceum was transferred to St. Petersburg; The memorial plaque was also transported - it was installed in the garden of the Alexander Lyceum as a sign of the continuity of the Alexander and Tsarskoye Selo Lyceums. But when part of the garden was sold, the memorial plate was lost. In 1900, a monument to the famous lyceum student by R. R. Bach. The opening of the monument was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pushkin.
Since the 1960s, every year on the first Sunday of June, the Pushkin Poetry Festival opens at the monument to the great poet; October 19 is the day of the Lyceum's founding. These days, this place is visited by the descendants of the poet, famous actors, writers and artists.
Thousands of people pass through the Lyceum kindergarten every day, who come from abroad and different parts of Russia to visit the Lyceum, the Amber Room, the Catherine Palace. The famous monument is captured in engravings and drawings, badges and medals, calendars and postcards, statuettes and bas-reliefs, dozens of poetic works are dedicated to him. For a long time, the monument has become a hallmark of Pushkin. This is the first place visited by newlyweds in Tsarskoye Selo. The lyceum kindergarten truly has its own special, emphatically poetic aura.
