Description of the attraction
A little further from the road that goes from the Gatchina Palace, built for Count Grigory Grigorievich Orlov, who, as you know, was the favorite of Empress Catherine II, to the famous Sylvia Park, surrounded by trees stands the Eagle's Column.
This palace and park structure in the Gatchina Park was established during the time of the first owner of these lands and the palace - Count Grigory Orlov. The Eagle's Column is considered the oldest building in the Gatchina palace and park complex. The column rests on a fairly high pedestal, and is crowned with a sculpture of a marble eagle. A column was installed on a small hill next to the Amphitheater.
There is some reason to believe that the sculpture of an eagle was acquired for Count Orlov in Italy by the first president of the Russian Academy of Arts, Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov. This is evidenced by the preserved documents of that time, which say that especially for Grigory Orlov, Ivan Shuvalov brought from Italy 12 busts of Caesars, ancient weapons and a figure of an "antique eagle." Under Count Orlov, the donated busts stood in an open colonnade in the eastern wing of the Gatchina Palace. A collection of weapons was also kept there. It is likely that the aforementioned "ancient eagle" was also sent to the Gatchina Palace. There is reason to believe that it is he who crowns the column. It is interesting that not only the originals of ancient sculptures, but also their copies were called "antique" in the 18th century. It is also possible that I. I. Shuvalov could be deliberately misled, as happened when he acquired the allegedly original statues of Cupid and Psyche, which, as it turned out later, were fakes. Sculptures of eagles, similar to those of Gatchina, adorned the columns in the Villa Borghese. No original sketches or drawings of the Eagle Column have survived. However, it is known for certain that the author of her project was the architect Antonio Rinaldi, who was the architect who erected the Gatchina Palace.
The column was made by craftsmen from an artel that worked on the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. From there the finished column was taken to Tsarskoe Selo. Then in 1770, together with the pedestal, was transported to Gatchina. They transported the column and the pedestal on seventy-seven horses in three steps, about which the records that have come down to us have survived.
There is an old legend that the Column of the Eagle was installed in the place where the eagle fell, shot by Emperor Paul I while walking through the Gatchina Park. However, this legend has nothing to do with reality, since the Column of the Eagle was installed long before Gatchina passed into the possession of Emperor Paul.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Column of the Eagle has already lost its former appearance. She tilted and was badly dilapidated. Then it was decided to dismantle the structure to the bottom plinth. The old column was destroyed, and the eagle sculpture was installed on a new column made of snow-white marble with small gray veins, which was an absolutely exact copy of the previous one.
During the Civil War and post-revolutionary unrest, the figure of the eagle was smashed. During the Second World War, the Eagle Column, as well as other architectural structures and structures of the Gatchina palace and park complex, was badly damaged.
In the late 60s - early 70s of the 20th century, the bird's figure was restored. The missing and badly damaged parts of the sculpture were replaced with plaster ones. The work involved the sculptor-restorer A. V. Golovin, architects V. M. Tikhomirova and T. Talent. The sculptor-restorer A. V. Golovin also made a marble sculpture of an eagle.
Nowadays, the Eagle Column is an object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation and is protected by the state.
