Gothic Gate — decorative gates in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo. Created in 1777–1780 based on a design by Felten, taken from an English architectural publication. Several wooden carved models were made in Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg for the production of the cast-iron gates, on the basis of which the parts of the structure were cast at the Kamensky State Cast Iron Foundry. The gates were delivered in parts to Tsarskoye Selo and assembled on site.

The gates, executed in the Gothic style, are characterized by art historians as an outstanding example of Russian cast-iron artistic casting of the 18th century, demonstrating the high skill of Russian casters. The openwork pointed arch of the gates rests on two supporting pillars decorated with round sculptures. The Gothic Gate is a cultural heritage site of Russia of federal significance in the category of urban planning and architectural monuments.

With minor modifications, it was directly borrowed from the architectural publication Gothic Architecture Decorated, published in 1759 in London by a certain Decker (almost all the designs in this book were copied from earlier editions, and according to the Anglo-American researcher Harris, the author's name is fictitious). This album was known in Russia since the 1760s. Felten only replaced the statues of knights present in the gate's decoration with female figures in the antique style. In 1834, the essayist Saburov wrote that the Gothic Gate in the Tsarskoye Selo park is a "copy of the Rhine Emperor Rudolf Habsburg."

In the same year, 1777, the president of the Imperial Academy of Arts, director of the Office of Buildings, and formal head of the Ural expedition for the search, extraction, and processing of precious stones, Betzkoy, wrote to the Ural Court Councillor Yakov Roode, who led the expedition's work on site (after the death in 1774 of the previous leader, Major General Dannenberg), about Catherine II's intention to install cast-iron gates in Tsarskoye Selo. In response, Roode proposed that the Berg Collegium assign this order to the Kamensky State Cast Iron Foundry, which worked with soft cast iron.

For the subsequent casting of the structure in Saint Petersburg, a large carved wooden model of the gates was made according to Felten's design. According to some sources, sculptor and woodcarver Dunker participated in its creation. Betzkoy paid 750 rubles for this work. The model was transported on sledges to the Urals and arrived in Yekaterinburg on January 17, 1778. Upon inspection, it was found that it had been damaged during transport. According to the report of the expedition sergeant Karlukov, who accompanied the convoy, there were breakages of the sledges, shafts, and boxes with model parts en route (all repair costs were borne by the sergeant himself, later reimbursed by Roode).

Saint Petersburg was informed of the need to repair the model. A document from Roode dated early February requested "forest supplies" from the Office of the Main Directorate of Siberian, Kazan, and Orenburg factories: "For carving work, linden logs are needed: if one piece per carving — 7 logs, for half carving — 10, and for the entire carved work — 20 logs and two pounds of fish glue." In addition to the above, 43 pine boards and 2 logs, each 6 meters long, were required.

Based on the volume of requested materials, Ural local historian Devikov suggested that from the outset Roode considered creating a new wooden prototype rather than repairing the old one. Later, he justified this in a letter to Betzkoy, stating that the fastening mechanism of the gate parts proposed in the Saint Petersburg model was unsuitable for the finished metal structure and therefore had to be redesigned.

Besides the new life-size model, Roode, according to Devikov, also decided to make a reduced sample needed for casting a small cast-iron copy of the gates — "one and a half arshins in scale compared to the proportion of the large ones in height." Art historian Pavlovsky believed this copy was made to demonstrate the high plasticity of Kamensky cast iron. Devikov considered it intended as a gift to Betzkoy (the small gates "deserve to be in the Academy of Arts," as Roode wrote to his superior). Additionally, the reduced wooden model could have served an educational purpose in studying the processes of molding, casting, and finishing gate parts.

In early March 1778, a convoy of 15 carts with parts of the new gate models under the command of Goryainov arrived at the Kamensky plant. For two weeks, Zubritsky prepared for molding operations (assembling models, repairing possible damages, or replacing individual units). After the first molds were ready, he left the plant (funds for return travel were allocated on March 20). On March 26, Roode reported to Saint Petersburg about the start of mold pouring.

After Zubritsky's departure, model maintenance was carried out by Pylaev until he returned to Yekaterinburg on May 21, 1778. According to Roode's May report, by that time almost all gate elements had been cast. Statue casting was planned for June. According to some data, certain difficulties arose here, as more careful molding was required compared to flat castings — complications were added by clothing folds and sculpture postures. Ober-Gittenverwalter Lomaev supervised the work.

The final finishing of the finished product was carried out by chaser Khmelev with assistants, who arrived from the Berezovsky plant. The shipment of the Gothic Gate from the Kamensky plant to Tsarskoye Selo in disassembled form was organized by architect assistant Yakovlev. The total cargo weight was 1,733 poods (about 28,386.5 kg). It was hauled from the plant to the pier on the Chusovaya River by 120 horses. Some sources recount a story that on the way from the Urals, one of the cast-iron female figures intended for the gates was lost because participants in Yemelyan Pugachev's rebellion, mistaking it in its packaging for a cannon, seized it. In reality, the rebellion events occurred in 1773–1775 and ended several years before these sculptures were ready.

In 1779, ditches were dug and foundations laid for the gates "behind the Big Pond, in the English garden" of Catherine Park. In 1780, the cast-iron castings made in the Urals, weighing a total of 25.5 tons, were finally delivered to Tsarskoye Selo. During that summer, 13 workers assembled and installed the gates under the supervision of architect Neelov and Roode himself (by decree of March 3, 1779, he was transferred from Yekaterinburg to Peterhof, where he headed the Peterhof Grinding Factory, then called the "mill"). According to Devikov, the reduced copy of the Gothic Gate was gifted to Betzkoy.

The product of the Kamensky State Plant, installed in Catherine Park, is called the first or one of the first architectural structures made of cast iron in Russia.

The gates are installed in the southern part of Catherine Park, beyond the Big Pond (closer to the Lebyazhye Ponds). They stand near the Sugar Hill, at the very beginning of the ascent leading to the artificial earthen mound, piled near the Tower Ruin. An alley passing through the gate opening leads to the top of the Tower from the Admiralty.

The height of the structure is 12 meters, width about 7 meters. The main structural elements are two supporting pillars made of four posts on hexagonal bases and a pointed arch between them. The hexagonal pedestals have panels (longitudinal ones with relief patterns, transverse ones without). Each post is a bundle of columns (in cross-section shaped like a six-leaf clover) with collars seemingly fitted onto it. The pillars are topped with pinnacles with four finials decorated with crockets. Between the pillar posts are pointed arches, the lower edge of which repeats the outline of a trefoil. Inside the pillars are improvised finials with crockets.

The light, transparent Gothic arch with an openwork pattern above the gate opening is adorned with stylized pinnacles, volutes, and crockets. The cast-iron pattern at the top of the arch forms a kind of crown crowning the structure. Between the six-part columns below and the pinnacles above (making the latter tabernacles) is installed a round sculpture.

The quality of the gates' execution testified to the high level of development of Russian industry and the skill of Russian casters. Pavlovsky noted that in one work it was possible to successfully use cast iron to create various plastic forms: flat plates with simple low-relief patterns, round columns with bases, the lace-like arch pattern, and round statues. Thus, the Gothic Gate combines the restraint characteristic of monumental art with sufficient elaboration. Light in construction, they fit into the landscape, serving more as decoration than as a defining architectural element.

The Gothic Gate is assessed by researchers as an interesting and remarkable example of Russian cast-iron casting of the 18th century. Petrov places them alongside other gates in palace and estate parks also executed in the Gothic style. These include the Figured Gate in Tsaritsyno and the gates of the Mikhalkovo estate in Moscow, created by Bazhenov, as well as the gates in the Taytsy estate by Starov. In Catherine Park, the art historian highlights a unified complex of cast-iron artistic casting monuments of the 18th–19th centuries, within which the Gothic Gate is one of the most significant works, alongside the Cast-Iron Gazebo, the gates "To My Dear Colleagues," and the Cadet Gates.

During the Great Patriotic War, some parts of the structure were lost. As of the first half of the 1960s, some elements required restoration.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Готические_ворота_%28Царское_Село%29