Alfred Alexandrovich Parland created at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century a stunningly beautiful architectural ensemble in the center of the empire’s capital, which to this day remains one of the favorite places in Saint Petersburg for both locals and visitors. Just as it is impossible to imagine the Griboedov Canal embankment without the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, so too is the memorial church unthinkable without the fence, which does not so much separate it from the garden as it shapes the surrounding space into a unified architectural whole. It is the fence that serves as the connecting link between the church and the chapel-museum. The chapel-museum was built in 1906–1907 specifically to house the numerous donated items of church art sent from various Russian provinces for the construction of the memorial monument, as well as sketches, design drawings, and plans of the building (for example, the paintings by artist Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov for the mosaics of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood). Unfortunately, the architect’s personal archive, as well as the documents kept in the chapel-museum until 1918, have not survived. But there is no doubt that the author of the project according to which one of the most beautiful iron fences in Saint Petersburg was created was Alfred Alexandrovich Parland himself. He devoted twenty-four years of his life to the construction of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, or as it came to be called after its opening, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, serving not only as its architect and civil engineer but also as its decorator.

The Mikhailovsky Palace along with its garden was acquired by the treasury in 1894–1895. Therefore, when the construction of the church was nearing completion, Nicholas II permitted the installation of the fence on the garden side to shape the space around the memorial building. In his report published after the completion of the church’s construction, Parland wrote: “A small square has been formed around the church, part of which on the eastern side is occupied by a flowerbed and a passage to the clergy entrance. On this side, the flowerbed is separated from the garden belonging to the Emperor Alexander III Museum by a massive semicircular fence with a sidewalk made of flagstones and a granite curb.” Sometimes in Saint Petersburg reference books, the author of the fence’s design is named as the artist Ernest Konradovich Kverfeldt. Indeed, Kverfeldt completed the full course of study at the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron Stieglitz in May 1900, where Alfred Alexandrovich Parland had been teaching watercolor drawing since 1891. Most likely, it was Parland, a master of drawing and ornamentation, who inspired his student with his ideas; the student later became a full-time instructor at the Central School (“By order of the Minister of Trade and Industry dated October 29, 1910, for the ornament course class”3). But in his report on the construction of the memorial church, Parland lists the names of all his assistants (architects, artists) who worked on the church’s construction. It seems impossible that the architect would express gratitude, for example, to foreman Pavel Anfimovich Nikonov and forget to mention the name of the fence’s designer. Parland gives technical descriptions of the fence alongside the church and the chapel-sacristy without mentioning the author’s name because for him (and his contemporaries) it was obvious. The architect was an extremely modest person, always promoting his students and never asking for anything for himself. This quality contributed to his name being almost completely erased from the history of Russian art by the end of the 20th century. Moreover, the scientific archive of the State Hermitage contains no mentions of Kverfeldt’s involvement in the creation of the fence, nor any personal recollections of this (Ernest Konradovich worked as a curator at the Hermitage from 1924, simultaneously creating unique works on ceramics and Far Eastern art).

The work on constructing the fence was carried out from 1903 to 1907. It was during these years that the Commission for the Construction of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ allocated funds for its construction, since the erection of the fence, as well as the church and chapel-museum itself, was financed from the sums intended for the memorial ensemble. Civil engineer Leonty Schmelling documented that 96,740 rubles and 82 kopecks were allocated for the fence’s construction. First, piles were driven for five sections of the fence. The fence’s pillars, echoing the columns of the church’s bell tower, were entrusted to Kuznetsov—the same contractor who installed the marble crucifix on the church’s western facade. Members of the Commission overseeing the church’s construction monitored the “correctness and integrity of the work on the plinth and fence pillars.” The pillars were decorated with facing bricks used in the construction of the church and chapel-museum. The supports flanking the fence gates were adorned with tiles, as were the facades of the ensemble’s buildings. Payment for the work was made to the contractor only after the Vice-Chairman of the Commission, Infantry General Count Ivan Dmitrievich Tatischev, signed off on the completion of the work. Simultaneously with the construction of the monumental fence pillars for mounting the fence itself, professional craftsmen at the Karl Ivanovich Winkler Artistic-Construction and Locksmith Factory forged the ornamental details. By the time the forging of the sections began, the founder and owner of the factory, renowned in the capital for his ability to create true masterpieces from iron, had died. But his sons successfully continued his work. First, a model was created based on Parland’s drawing, approved by the architect and the Commission for the Construction of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ chaired by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (who, like many notable residents of Saint Petersburg, purchased wrought iron items for his palace at the Winkler factory). Naturally, the responsible order was entrusted to Wilhelm and Eduard Winkler, who had proven themselves worthy successors of the tradition of producing highly artistic metalwork. Documents on the construction of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, kept in the Russian State Historical Archive, contain records indicating that from 1903 to 1907 money was regularly transferred “to the firm ‘Karl Winkler’ for work on manufacturing the fence for the church in the amount of 4,250 rubles.”

According to Parland’s testimony, the fence was installed taking into account the already erected church building and the layout of the nearby garden alleys: “The fence’s plinth is granite; the round stone pillars are faced with colored shaped bricks with a pattern; the bands, bases, and capitals are made of Estland marble; the large sections of the metal fence, 3.74 meters wide and four meters high, are richly ornamented and made of wrought iron. In the middle of the fence, on the longitudinal axis of the church, coinciding with the alley of the Mikhailovsky Garden, gates are arranged, also richly ornamented; the pillars of these gates are topped with groups of electric lamps with elaborate fittings. The length of the said fence is 257.5 meters.” It is important to note Parland’s words that the fence sections are made of wrought iron (one could even say steel), since from the moment of its installation many publications mistakenly state that these elements are made of cast iron: “Near the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, built on the site of the mortal wounding of Emperor Alexander II, a new beautiful building in the Romanesque-Gothic style has been erected, surrounded by an openwork cast iron fence of artistic workmanship.” The exquisite fence of the Mikhailovsky Garden on the side of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is an integral element of the unique unified architectural ensemble in the center of Saint Petersburg. As a memorial monument built “in the Russian style” at the request of the client (Emperor Alexander III), it strikingly differs from the buildings of Petersburg, mostly executed in European styles, and the iron fence in Art Nouveau style stands out against the city’s strict classical fences, repeating in the intricate curves of the wrought details the plant ornament dominating the church’s interior. And just as art critics criticized the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, Parland’s main legacy, accusing the architect of using “gingerbread forms” in architecture and “loud colors” in decoration, so too did they criticize the fence. But the intricate flowers created by Parland’s genius on paper and embodied in steel by the best metal craftsmen of Petersburg turned out to be a revolutionary phenomenon for the urban environment of the early 20th century. The fence combines the emerging Art Nouveau art and the Russian architectural tradition of wall ornamentation: only in this case, the surface of decoration is nature itself of the Mikhailovsky Garden, as the iron smooth lines forming fragile flowers seem like frozen whimsical shapes against the backdrop of living trees. Parland’s creations have stood the test of time: even after a hundred years, it is impossible to pass by without admiring the genuine works of art—both the architectural monument and the exquisite fence beside it. The complex in design and execution wrought decorative elements, made with unique grace, testify to Alfred Alexandrovich Parland’s talent as a decorator and to the artistry of the masters of the Saint Petersburg “Karl Ivanovich Winkler Artistic-Construction and Locksmith Factory,” who created a true masterpiece from metal and made a significant contribution to the architectural decoration of one of the most beautiful places in Petersburg.

Source:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house23568.html

http://cathedral.ru/ru/spas-railing

Natalia Yuryevna Tolmacheva, Candidate of Art History, Senior Researcher at the State Museum-Monument “St. Isaac’s Cathedral”