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We have not yet been to Gatchina. Pending the
opportunity to visit and photograph the palace, we have here several paintings
from our collection. These invoke the feeling of the late 18th century. They
are recent but are copied after thee work of Semyon Fyodorovich Shedrin, circa
1800.
Gatchina village was quite old already when Catherine II decided to have a
palace built there for her lover, Count Grigori Orlov, who had been intrumental
in staging the palace coup that brought her to the throne. Work began in 1766
and Catherine took a personal interest in its design and execution. The
interior was completed in 1777. Catherine chose Antonio Rinaldi as architect
for this project. His orders were to build a country house rather than a
sumptuous palace on the Peterhof - Tsarskoye Selo model. However the central
section didn't remain alone for long, as Rinaldi added two semicircular wings
with balconies. Inside also the design was relatively simple, without guilding,
yet elegant. After Orlov died Catherine purchased the estate from his heirs and
gave it to her son, Paul Petrovich. Naturally Paul hated the idea that Gatchina
had been built for his father's "murderer". Nevertheless he
eventually grew fond of the palace and turned it into his own miniature
military regime. He added the stone bastions and dug moats. He employed
Vincenzo Brenna to redecorate the interior, especially the Marble Dining Room,
Crimson Drawing Room, State Bedroom and Throne Room. But Paul already had a
fine palace at Pavlovsk. But once he was Emperor Paul decided to construct four
throne rooms at Gatchina, two for himself, one for his wife, Maria Fyedorovna,
and one for his son, Alexander I. Paul employed Vincenzo Brenna for this task.
The palace was abandoned by Paul's son, Alexander I. The estate was again
occupied by Nicholas I for use by his military staff. He put his army through
its paces each summer with maneuvers at Gatchina. At that time Nicholas
supervised the addition of two more sections added to each side of the main
palace. Tsars Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II used the place
infrequently and did little to change it.
During World War II the German army nearly destroyed the palace and what
artifacts the museum staff had been unable to remove.
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