Catherine Park / Catherine Park, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196603
Located next to the Concert Hall, the Kitchen Ruin, built by Quarenghi in the 1780s, is among the architect's finest works.
The entrance to the pavilion—a circular structure complicated by two rectangular projections—is designed as a niche, with a door set deep inside. The curved parts of the facade between the projections are decorated with columns.
When creating the Kitchen Ruin, Quarenghi used fragments of authentic ancient monuments at his disposal—marble capitals, a cornice, and a frieze carved with garlands. In the upper parts of the walls and in the spaces between the columns, six plaster bas-reliefs cast by the sculptor Albani were installed and deliberately damaged to give them the character of deep antiquity, evoking melancholic reflections. In the niches on the facades, Quarenghi placed ancient sculptures, and inside the pavilion, he also arranged several sculptures that have not survived to this day. The imitation of a ruined ancient monument was executed by the builders of the Kitchen Ruin with exceptional skill: in places, the weathered brickwork is exposed, and the cornice and plaster on the walls are covered with cracks. According to Grabar, Quarenghi built "a ruin of such enchanting, convincing authenticity that it is hard to believe it is a fake."
Sources:
https://www.tzar.ru/objects/ekaterininskypark/landscape/ruinedkitchen
