Description of the attraction
The granite terrace in the Catherine Park was built by the architect L. Ruska at the beginning of 1810. But the history of the buildings erected on this site dates back to the 1730s. A little later, Katalnaya Gora appeared here, which was a complex structure for amusement. It was built according to the design of F. B. Rastrelli. The central building was a two-story stone pavilion. The lower building housed three halls: a games hall, a central hall and a dining hall. Slopes with platforms adjoined the central part of the pavilion on both sides, from which they rolled down on rails on mechanical gurneys to the Red Cascade and the Big Pond. The technical equipment of the rolling mountain was designed by the famous Russian scientist A. Nartov. Next to the slopes were carousels with swings and other devices for outdoor amusement.
In August 1764 it was decided to lengthen the skates. In 1765, according to the project of the architect V. Neyelov, a third slope was added to the mountain. Two slopes were intended for summer skiing, and the third for winter skiing.
Lady Dimsdale, a famous memoirist who visited Tsarskoe Selo in 1781 with her husband, described Roller Coaster as several hills of different heights, which stood one after another. The highest mountain was nine meters high. The gurney, which descended from it, drove onto the next hill, one and a half meters high. Further, the chariot raced to the last hill in the form of a gentle descent, from which the chariot left over the water to the island. The total length of the slides was three hundred and two meters.
There is an interesting incident that occurred on the Katalnaya Gora. Count Orlov had remarkable strength and could hold six horses in a chariot, galloping at full speed, grabbing the chariot by the rear wheel. Once, while skiing from the mountains, Catherine II almost died. Her gurney is out of rut. And then Orlov, who was riding with her, put out his leg and grabbed the railing at full speed. Thus, he saved the empress.
By 1795, Katalnaya Gora was badly dilapidated and Catherine ordered to dismantle it (they say that it was dismantled after the miraculous rescue of the Empress Orlov), to pull out piles from the lake and build two docks, and turn the place where Katalnaya Gora was located into a meadow. At this place, Charles Cameron began the construction of a large spacious gallery of thirty-two columns of Pudost stone. But the gallery was dismantled, by order of Emperor Paul, building materials were used in the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg.
On the spacious site, which was formed on the site of the dismantled Katalnaya Gora, in the early 1800s. decided to build a Granite Terrace according to the project of L. Ruska (1809). The granite terrace overlooks the Big Pond. Its walls are adorned with imposing columns, whose capitals are made of pink granite, and the trunks are supported by plinths of gray granite. The walls of the terrace are made of pink granite, and the niches are framed with gray granite.
L. Ruska intended to decorate the terrace with marble statues, but his plan was never realized. Copies of sculptures of Apoxyomenos, Venus and Faun with a goat were installed on the pedestals of the columns. The statues were cast by electroplating in the workshop of the Academy of Arts. The sculptures have survived to this day and continue to occupy their former places.
Simultaneously with the beginning of the construction of the Granite Terrace in 1810, Luigi Rusca was building on the bank of the Big Pond the Big Granite Pier, which looked like a simple platform with steps, which was decorated with four round granite curbstones and gratings. After some time, the pier was decorated with statues that have survived to this day. In 1910-1911. The granite terrace was rebuilt under the direction of the architect S. Danini during the preparatory work for the Tsarskoye Selo exhibition.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries. flower beds were laid out in front of the Granite Terrace. Today this idea is also being implemented according to the project of the architect T. Dubyago.
