Venus Garden

In the northern part of the Marly Palace ensemble by the Marlin Pond is the Garden of Venus, which is separated from the Gulf of Finland by a special retaining stone wall more than 3 meters high and about 250 meters long. Along the wall runs an alley from which one can admire the sea landscapes and view the three gardens of the Lower Park. The garden got its name thanks to the statue of Venus Medici located here, modeled after a famous ancient Greek sculpture. The garden’s layout was designed by architect Nicolo Michetti.

Planned in 1721 and planted over the next three years with fruit trees, the Garden of Venus is named in honor of the Roman goddess of beauty and fertility, embodying the desire of Peter I and his descendants to make this place resemble European state residences, especially Versailles, where Peter visited during his travels in Europe. The rectangular geometric design of the Garden of Venus in Peterhof runs along the wall and Marlin Pond, divided by a long longitudinal alley intersected by six cross alleys. Once, in the western part of the garden near the retaining wall, there was a dovecote, and on the opposite side, a trellis pavilion. Large wide niches were arranged at the rounded ends of the wall, where marble vases stood on tall pedestals. The stone wall project was executed by I.-F. Braunstein. The construction of the embankment began simultaneously with the creation of the Marlin Ponds, from whose excavations the earth was taken. The foundation for the wall was laid in spring 1721. More than four hundred thousand pieces of ironstone bricks were used to build the wall. In 1722, the wall was plastered and painted with golden ochre. The following year, Braunstein built a gazebo in the middle of the upper terrace of the embankment, accessed by two ornate staircases with balustrades. At the ends of the embankment, on the side slopes, staircases were also arranged. In 1724, a cornice made of slab limestone polished at the Peterhof grinding mill was laid along the wall; at the same time, a finishing balustrade appeared on the wall. In autumn, the earthen embankment was reinforced from the sea side with fascines and stone and covered with turf.

At that time, the Garden of Venus received a regular layout, which has largely been preserved to this day. An axial alley with platforms runs the entire length of the garden. On the central platform, during Peter’s time, stood a marble statue of Venus. The transverse alleys divide the garden into symmetrical “townlets.” Cherry trees planted in the niches were attached to wooden trellises. In 1725, at the western end of the wall, according to a project by Zemtsov approved by Peter I, a dovecote was built—a pavilion raised on four columns right against the wall, with a high roof topped by a lantern and a spire.

The statue of Venus Medici, which once amazed the young Turgenev, is a copy of the lost ancient original, resembling the form of the Aphrodite of Knidos. Venus seems startled by her sudden appearance on the sea surface. The main feature of this sculpture is the dolphin at Venus’s feet, serving as an additional support point for the statue.

In the 1760s, some changes were made to the decorative design of the stone wall: the dovecote was dismantled, and in its place, a turf staircase was made to ascend the embankment, along with turf sofa-canapés. A round glade—a lawn surrounded by fir trees with a turf sofa—was arranged in the western part of the garden. The earthen embankment and stone wall were repeatedly repaired in the second half of the 18th century and in the 19th century, but during this period, the wooden balustrades, staircases, and the gazebo crowning the embankment were gradually lost. An important event for the preservation of the earthen embankment—a rare architectural monument of the first quarter of the 18th century—was the major repair carried out in 1825 after a catastrophic flood.

In 1903, architect Semenov carried out a major repair of the wall, dismantling its right wing down to the foundation and the left wing by one-third.

The Garden of Venus, the embankment, and the wall, damaged during the Nazi occupation of Peterhof, were restored according to the project. In 1973–1975, the embankment was cleared of overgrowth, restoring its geometrically correct shape, and a wide esplanade was arranged at its foot on the shore of the gulf. The stone wall was carefully restored. The slab cornice, stone balustrade, and granite staircases in the middle and at the edges of the wall were remade. In 1974–1978, the garden’s layout and plantings were renewed based on graphic and archival materials from the 18th century.

The composition of the Garden of Bacchus and the Garden of Venus intersects thanks to three paths, which turn from longitudinal in the Garden of Venus into transverse in the Garden of Bacchus.

Sources:

https://peterhofguide.ru/nizhniy-park/sad-venery

http://www.ilovepetersburg.ru/content/sad-venery-nizhnego-parka-petergofa