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| Peter the Great, in his Peterhof Park |
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| Peter is wearing high boots, which are used by kids as target for coin tossing to see if they can propel them inside his boots. |
When Peter the Great had his Epiphany and decided to build a
city on the Finnish Gulf to give him access to the Baltic Sea he sure did not
entertain any half measures. St Petersburg is his brain child; he did set the
tone and made it happen, despite swamps, cold, mostly terrible weather,
reluctance of his subjects to be forced a) to build the city at great cost of
human life and misery and b) to move there during and after it was ‘finished’.
The whole entourage of Nobles of course had to maintain a ‘presence’ close to
court to ensure that the mighty Tsar did not forget about them.
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| The Romanov Double Headed Eagle |
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| The Map... |
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| The Eagle is watching... |
So Palaces sprouted up everywhere, that is, close to the
‘throne’ and along the Neva River. Many of them, and the ones built by foreign
powers like the English, are still there. However their use has been changed
from residences of the nobility to hotels, administrative offices and museums.
Peter himself had so many dwellings in the city, that I lost count of them. He
started on the shore of the Neva with a modest log house which did not even
have a stove, which made it uninhabitable during Sub-arctic winters. It still
exists today, enveloped in a ‘shell’ in the shape of a second larger building to
protect the one underneath from the elements.
Catherine’s Palace, which I visited earlier, and Peterhof
are just two of the many imperial residences in and around St Petersburg.
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| Peterhof on top of an escarpment overlooking park and Finnish Gulf |
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| The Gulf of Finland, the shores are still rather marshy... |
Peterhof is located a
few miles outside St Petersburg, on the shores of the Finnish Gulf with a distant
view across the waters of the city itself. Initially the palace was only about
42 meters wide; it grew in width and luxury every time a new Tsar took over.
Now it expands for a long stretch on the rim of an escarpment, overlooking what
is the most notable of its features: the gardens with dozens of fountains,
gilded statues, grottos, waterfalls, cascades, ponds and canals – all fed by
gravity propelled water, and surrounded by a park like forest. The system works
to this day; and between 11 a.m. and dusk the fountains are spouting. No
recycling of course; the water runs along a beautiful canal that connects the
fountains to the sea.
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| The Main Event |
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| Cascades, Fountains and lots of Gold Leaf |
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| In earlier years, sailboats could advance right to the Palace |
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| Canal and Fountains right to the edge of the Gulf of Finland |
There are small temples, statues and formal flower
gardens among the densely treed park surrounding the Palace.
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| Fountains of different styles are spouting all over the park |
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| This fountain with original four carved ducks and one bulldog represents a sea battle between four Danish Ships and one Russian one in hot pursuit |
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| The Danes... |
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| The Russians |
Peter used Peterhof as his summer residence, sailing and
‘hanging out’ with his wife Catherine. The palace is magnificent. The golden
onion domes of the Palace Church gleam above the roofs.
Post war restorations of much of the interior (never mind
the exterior) give an inkling of the opulence of imperial life. No photos
allowed inside.
Peter, not happy living in huge rooms with high ceilings had
three more smaller ‘palaces’ built on the site, no higher than two floors and
with a limited number of rooms which had ‘fake ceilings’ below the real ones to
bring them to Peter’s preferred height. Being over 6 feet tall, he still had
enough room to stand straight.
His favourite side palace was Mon Plaisir, a supersized
mansion by our standards, where he and his wife Ekaterina, Catherine, spent
many of their days. She would cook for him – after all that was her original profession
before her prince found her and elevated her to higher calling. They would
enjoy the view of the sea from their pleasant terrace and retire to their respective
sub-mansions for the night. Catherine, the rags to riches imperial wife,
preferred the cavernous and opulently decorated main palace. It appears that
they co-existed quite happily, each living according to their taste and
preference.
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| Mon Plaisir |
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| Smaller Palace |
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| Catherine's wing in Mon Plaisir |
Walking through Peter’s ‘garden’ the size of a National Park
is definitely a pleasure. Peter was instrumental in designing its lay out, and
even many of the technical features. It would be difficult and superfluous to
describe it; photos may give a rough idea of the beauty of the park. But, in
true Imperial fashion, gilding abounds, and sometimes one feels as if the whole
thing is a Disney World of the past, as discreet good taste is totally absent;
it is in your face nouveau rich and gaudy.
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| The early Russians must all have been dentists....there is a lot of prying into open jaws going on |
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| Open wide....or else! |
Peter the Great was fond of practical jokes. He designed a
few ‘trick fountains’ which would douse his courtiers with showers of water if
they were unlucky enough not to know the secret of the fountains. There are
some secret spouts hidden underneath pretty cobbled pavement surrounding
romantic park benches. When a stroller stepped on the wrong stone, hidden
spouts behind the benches would emit a deft shower. One set of spouts – which
currently is switched on once a day at 3 p.m.
– is buried at each edge of a stretch of a park avenue. In Peter’s time courtiers strolling in their
finery along this pleasant path would suddenly find themselves drenched by
about a hundred meter stretch of tightly spaced spouts aimed at the centre of
the avenue.
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| One of Peter's trick fountains |
When one visits today, one may observe Russians running
through the shower; families make special excursions to the park to give their
children a thrill.
Peter sometimes sailed from Peterhof across the Gulf of
Finland to St Petersburg. Actually his sailing passion, picked up in Holland
during his apprenticeships there, resulted in a decree that Petersburg should
have no bridges crossing the Neva. Citizens were expected to SAIL across, oars
were prohibited. Peter provided boats to people who could not afford them.
However, after a few drownings and one embarrassing one (a foreign diplomat drowned)
oars were allowed.
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| One way ticket to St Petersburg from Peterhof - 12 Rubles |
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| Hydrofoils between Peterhof and St Petersburg |
Between June and September hydrofoils whisk visitors from
downtown St Petersburg to Peterhof in less than an hour, thus avoiding the
permanently plugged up traffic in and around St Petersburg. I am glad this
rowing and sailing bit is no longer enforced.
Thousands of people visit Peterhof each year, most of them
foreign tourists. It is heaven for pickpockets, who are famous for their
expertise and professionalism.
Peterhof’s gardens rival Versailles in design and beauty.
The pervasive gilding of statues and fountainheads, if ostentatious, does
result in a dazzling display when the sun shines on St Petersburg. Well, the
sun shines about 30 days out of every 365, ergo I was lucky to see the palace
and its spectacular gardens once, bathed in sunshine – and once, bathed in
rain.
