In memory of the conclusion of the Treaty of Jassy in 1791, Empress Catherine II commissioned architect Giacomo Quarenghi to design a pavilion called the Turkish Bath. This project was never realized. Nicholas I decided to fulfill his grandmother the Empress’s intention by decorating the park with a pavilion dedicated to the victories of the Russian army over the Turks, but this time during another victorious war for Russia against Turkey in 1828–1829 and the resulting Treaty of Adrianople.

The initial pavilion project was prepared in 1848 by architect Carlo Rossi. He used sketches of the harem bath of the Old Palace in Adrianople, made in 1829–1830 by order of Nicholas I by the Emperor’s librarian Karl Sejer (1788–1840) and battle painter Auguste Desarnot (1788–1840), as a model. Marble details of its decoration, brought to Russia, were intended to be used in the bath’s interior.

Rossi’s project was rejected by Nicholas I himself, but in February 1848 his drawings were sent to the chief architect of the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Palaces, Ippolit Monighetti (who was only 29 years old at the time). The architect was asked to create his own design but was required to use the marble details brought from Adrianople. Monighetti had visited Turkey himself and used his own watercolor depiction of the Adrianople mosque as the pavilion prototype. The site for the pavilion’s construction (on the peninsula of the Large Pond) was also chosen by the emperor on April 30. In mid-May 1848, the architect presented Nicholas I with his version of the future pavilion. It was planned to build a Turkish bath-hammam with a Coffee Room, a Lounge (with a fountain in the middle and a balcony), a Changing Room, a Large Bath represented by a round hall with a dome (an essential element of a hammam, allowing drops of water formed by steam to run down the walls), and a niche with a passage to a Small Bath and a Hot Bath (with different temperatures). The original project included a water reservoir and a furnace. The pavilion was to resemble a mosque with a dome and a minaret. Monighetti’s project was approved in April 1850.

After the architect submitted the pavilion construction estimate on August 28, 1848, the construction was postponed due to lack of funds. Only on April 11, 1850, did the emperor approve Monighetti’s project but ordered the pavilion to be built without heating and reduced the budget. On May 6, 1850, Monighetti presented a new estimate, already without heating, totaling 37,838 rubles and 12½ kopecks in silver. The Minister of the Imperial Court and Estates, P. M. Volkonsky, replied to the architect:

“The Sovereign Emperor has allocated thirty thousand rubles in silver for this construction... this amount must be managed, striving to make every possible economy, for His Majesty does not intend to increase the budget for this purpose.”

On June 10, the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration announced a tender for the construction of the Turkish Bath according to the approved project, but no one was willing to take the contract at that estimate. Monighetti insisted on awarding the contract to architect Agostino Camuccini, who had agreed to adhere to this estimate even before the tender was announced. Camuccini supervised the construction for two years. In October 1852, the construction of the Turkish Bath was completed. Landscape work was overseen by senior garden master Piper.

Monighetti submitted his own sketches of furniture and decorations intended for the Turkish Bath (21 items) for Nicholas I’s approval, totaling 4,000 rubles. The emperor approved the sketches and estimate; metal furniture was ordered from the Galvanoplastic Workshop of Prince Leuchtenberg, wooden furniture from court craftsman Gotlib Jacobs, and upholstered furniture from French craftsman Filippo. Some items were purchased through shops in Moscow to reduce costs (wooden commode and table inlaid with mother-of-pearl, bone, and tortoise shell, stools, porcelain and gilded copper vessels, a hookah, a censer, coconut spoons, coral-decorated chibuks with crystal mouthpieces, a mother-of-pearl fan).

By autumn 1853, the interior decoration of the Turkish Bath was completed. In terms of construction time, the Turkish Bath is the last building on the territory of Catherine Park.

The Turkish Bath interior is created in the Moorish style. Elements of the pavilion’s interior decoration were brought as trophies from Adrianople in 1829: boards with inscriptions, boards with ornaments, fountain details, arches, cornices, grilles, some of which date back to the 16th–17th centuries.

The Turkish Bath interior consists of five rooms: the Vestibule (Seni), Changing Room, Soap Room, Domed Hall, and Hexagonal Cabinet. The walls of the rooms are faced with artificial marble and decorated with painted stucco ornament. The entrance to the Vestibule, which leads to the Changing Room, was an ornamented portal. In the Vestibule there is a 17th-century inscription:

“With the resident of this abode, prosperity until the dawn of light,

As a door, happiness will open to him by the Almighty.

May the Shahanshah satisfy any of his requests.

May he be forever on the throne, happy in luxury without sorrow.”

A cascading fountain is arranged in a carved niche separating the Changing Room from the Soap Room. The Soap Room had natural lighting. Two basins with taps for warm and cold water were embedded in its walls. In the central octagonal Domed Hall there was a pool with a fountain in the center. Marble fountain boards with engraved verses and prose inscriptions brought from Turkey were installed here. One of them, brought from Varna, is unique. Besides the Turkish inscription, it has an Armenian inscription indicating the name of the Armenian master Nazare who created it and the date of creation—August 20, 1740. Also unique is the scaly sloping cascade fountain dating from the 17th–18th centuries, which previously stood in the Sultan’s Kiosk in Adrianople. It is a so-called “fountain of tears,” from which single rare drops fall. The fountain is covered with vegetal and geometric patterns. The Hexagonal Cabinet adjoins the Domed Hall and served as a place for rest and informal conversation.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the pavilion was conserved, and in 1941 it was opened as a museum. During the Great Patriotic War, the pavilion was heavily damaged. During restorations in 1949 and 1953, the building’s facade was restored. It was converted into a utility room for the boat station, and the interior walls were painted over. After restoration in 2006–2008, when the interior was restored, the pavilion has been used as a museum pavilion during the warm season.

Sources:

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