Akademika Pavlova St, 13, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197022
The area between Kamennoostrovsky Prospect, Akademika Pavlova Street, and Malaya Nevka is occupied by Lopukhin Garden.
Since 1705, fortifications of Russian troops were located on this territory, and battles with the Swedes took place here. Later, this land remained untouched for a long time. By decree of Peter I, only employees of the Apothecary Garden were allowed to settle on the island, and construction by outsiders was prohibited. In 1717, the plot on Apothecary Island was granted as a summer residence to the Siberian governor, Prince Matvey Petrovich Gagarin. He owned it for only four years — in 1721 he was executed, and the plot was confiscated. After that, these lands remained vacant for quite some time (due to the proximity of the Apothecary Garden, settlement here was forbidden). Only almost a century later was this ban lifted, and country estates of the Petersburg nobility began to appear on the island.
Emperor Paul I, from 1763, as heir to the throne and owner of Kamenniy Island, spent a significant part of the summer in the quiet of the Kamennoostrovsky Palace. This tradition was continued by Alexander I, who moved the court’s summer residence to Kamenniy Island, which is why the neighboring Apothecary Island gained fame as a dacha area near the imperial residence.
Later, the plot was owned by the Chairman of the State Council, Prince Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, and then by the brothers Matvey and Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky.
The social range of owners of the summer plots was very broad. Alongside military men, officials, and Petersburg intelligentsia such as Admiral Kushelev-Bezborodko, architects V. I. Bazhenov, Ya. Ferrari, and Professor V. I. Petrov, in 1798 plots on Apothecary Island were also granted to servants of the imperial court. Moreover, already in the 18th century, the Medical Chancellery distributed extensive plots of the island for construction to its servants (gardeners, painters, glaziers, etc.). Later, some of the land was bought by aristocrats, merchants, and major craftsmen. By 1810, among the owners were representatives of all estates: from princes and ministers to officials and traders. Of the 79 estates on Apothecary Island, only a third belonged to the nobility. Two estates corresponded in size to the estates of Elizabethan and Catherine-era nobles — Countess Loval (part of the island from the present-day Grota Street to the confluence of Karpovka into Malaya Nevka), and Prince P. V. Lopukhin (territory from Bolshaya Nevka to Graftio Street, on the right side of Kamennoostrovsky Prospect). Only part of P. V. Lopukhin’s estate has survived to our time (the current name is Lopukhin Garden).
Later, the street passing through Lopukhin’s dacha also became known as Lopukhinskaya (now Akademika Pavlova Street).
However, the modern history of the garden begins in 1848, when it was purchased by merchant, timber industrialist, and well-known philanthropist Vasily Fedulovich Gromov. By the early 1850s, a two-story wooden dacha was built for him according to the project of architect Georgy Ivanovich Winterhalter. Gornostayev built several greenhouses. The park and garden were redesigned by Odintsov, who was later appointed chief gardener of Saint Petersburg. Fountains, gazebos, grottos, and hanging bridges over ponds and channels were arranged here. The "Caucasian" bridge was especially interesting. Of the three bridges, two have survived to this day. A stone terrace with stairs was laid out by the pond.
Gromov was a well-known philanthropist and a great lover of music. He was a member of the board of directors of the Petersburg Conservatory, and impoverished students of this institution were allowed to live at his dacha.
Another hobby of Gromov was gardening. He was one of the founders of the Russian Horticultural Society, and in 1869, a meeting of the International Congress of Gardeners was even held at his dacha. So it is not surprising that, simultaneously with the construction of the dacha, the park was transformed according to the project of gardener E. O. Odintsov. Grottos, fountains, gazebos, and a stone terrace with stairs by the pond were arranged in the garden. Parallel to the construction of the dacha, greenhouses were built according to the project of architect A. M. Gornostayev. Of all these features, only the terrace has survived, and even that not completely, since judging by this old photo, it was once decorated with statues. Later, bridges and a gazebo in the form of a tower were arranged in the garden.
In 1877, a stone wing was added to the wooden dacha building.
From 1938 to 1961, the studio of Leningrad Television operated in this wing.
It was here that the first television broadcast in St. Petersburg took place. During the Soviet era, the dacha housed a club and a restaurant, and from 1940, a district Pioneer House.
In 1926, the garden was renamed Dzerzhinsky Garden in connection with the death of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, and on September 8, 1930, a monument to the "Iron Felix" by sculptor A. V. Kryzhanovskaya was unveiled there. In 1991, the garden’s original name, Lopukhin Garden, was restored, and in 1993, the Dzerzhinsky monument was dismantled.
Located on the Petrograd Side, Lopukhin Garden and the Gromov dacha within it looked quite bleak and shabby for a long time. In 2014-2015, the garden was reconstructed, and in 2016-2019, the Gromov dacha building was restored.
Sources:
https://www.citywalls.ru/house9022.html
