At the end of 1779, the streets of Saint Petersburg saw a new overseas guest accompanied by members of his family. It seemed like a rather unremarkable event for the young, brilliant capital of the Russian Empire, accustomed to visits from foreign guests. However, this guest was destined to leave a giant mark on the banks of the Neva. The English Palace in Peterhof became Quarenghi’s architectural debut in Russia. But the architect could hardly have guessed the fate of his only Peterhof project. By that time, he had lived 35 years closely connected with architecture. Despite his mature age, he had not received regular work in his homeland, Italy. For this reason, he had to accept Catherine the Great’s offer to try his hand in distant Russia. Moreover, the powerful empress clearly preferred the strict forms of classicism in architecture. To achieve this, it was necessary to immediately make a proper impression on the high-ranking client. But Giacomo Quarenghi (that is who we are talking about) had a strong argument: in his portfolio were already drawings and plans of his debut project — a new imperial palace, intended to be built not just anywhere, but in Peterhof itself! Apparently, the architectural project was approved quite quickly: by May 1780, Quarenghi received a reward of 1,000 rubles for his work. Could the Italian architect then have imagined the fate awaiting his first Russian building?

In one of her letters to Voltaire, Catherine the Great admitted that she did not like fountains, cascades, or statues in gardens; she preferred “the beauty of nature to the beauty of human contrivances.” It so happened that Quarenghi’s arrival in Russia coincided with the resumption of large-scale construction and the expansion of the Peterhof parks. Considering the empress’s tastes, a landscape English park was laid on the site of the former menagerie, where large clearings alternated with shady alleys, and a sizable pond appeared in the middle of the park. It was on its shore that the site was chosen for the construction of the English Palace, intended to become the dominant feature of the new park.

In July 1781, under Quarenghi’s supervision, work began on laying the palace foundation. As Catherine the Great wrote in one of her letters, “We are beginning a house in the English garden in Peterhof, which I am planting.” A year later, in spring 1782, master mason Placido Visconti began laying the stone walls. The new palace was being built on an artificial hill of the large Parade Meadow on the western shore of the Large Pond, in the “most pleasant and cheerful” part.

However, it soon became clear that many difficulties lay ahead on the way to completing the palace. In particular, problems with delivering heavy granite blocks to the shallow Peterhof harbor, as well as changes made to the original project, caused the construction deadlines to be repeatedly postponed. These delays resulted in the palace building being constructed only in rough form and roofed by the end of 1786. The next obstacle to completion was a shortage of funds caused by the war with Turkey; budgets were sharply reduced or withdrawn entirely and redirected to military needs. In particular, in 1788, no funds were allocated for the palace construction or park maintenance. This circumstance did not prevent Georgi from noting that “...the small unfinished palace in the English garden, three stories high, is already quite delightful. Around the palace are winding paths, gazebos, temples, and so on.”

The situation began to change only by mid-1791. Catherine the Great ordered the resumption of palace construction, but with the reconstruction of several interior rooms. This was due to the need for special rooms for her grandsons — Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine Pavlovich. The final stage began — reconstruction and decoration of the palace from 1791 to 1794 gave it its final appearance, which the palace retained until the late 1930s. At that time, the decorative painting of the state rooms was also completed.

By the time the palace was completed, Catherine the Great had practically stopped visiting Peterhof. Thus, although built as the empress’s personal residence, the English Palace was not used for its intended purpose and did not become a true imperial residential palace. Catherine’s successor on the throne, Paul I, was known for his extremely negative attitude toward his mother’s legacy. This also affected the fate of the newly built palace, which the new emperor handed over to be used as a military barracks. In May 1799, a decree was issued: “...the house in Peterhof in the English garden with all its appurtenances, buildings, and wings shall be given for the residence of military commanders... Furthermore, the sovereign verbally ordered that the locks, bolts, and parquet floors be removed from this house...” For the military personnel, bunks were built on the lower and upper floors of the palace. They were made double — in two rows per floor height. This allowed accommodation of 39 officers and 1,168 soldiers in the palace rooms. The future of the English Palace looked bleak, but another change of emperor allowed this short but rather gloomy chapter in its history to be reversed. Alexander I, who succeeded Paul, in October 1804 ordered the allocation of necessary funds for repairing the English Palace, which had been considerably damaged by the military occupation. As with the original construction, Quarenghi supervised the repairs. Within a year, the roof was repaired, floors relaid, doors restored, and stoves rebuilt. Restoration also affected the famous external staircase, which had to be repaired with stone inserts. A separate budget was allocated for completing the landscaping of the surrounding park. At that time, the palace was furnished, and its walls were decorated with numerous portraits of crowned heads — contemporaries of Catherine the Great.

All these portraits were collected by Catherine the Great, who wished to have images of all contemporary and near-contemporary European rulers. Initially, they were gathered in the Chesme Palace near Petersburg, built by Catherine, where they were arranged according to reigning dynasties. Later, some were moved to Peterhof, while others were placed in other palaces in Peterhof and Petersburg.

The picture gallery of the English Palace deserves special mention. It mainly consisted of portraits of crowned heads and represented great historical interest. Visitors to the palace could witness a kind of historical era. The portraits included the Great Elector and Frederick II; Joseph II and Maria Theresa; Louis XV, Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette; Christian VII of Denmark; Charles XI of Sweden and Gustav III; Leopold of Tuscany; Pope Clement XIV; Charles Felix of Savoy; Stanisław Poniatowski; and many other high-ranking figures of their time. Particularly magnificent was the full-length portrait of Queen Victoria of England, gifted by the queen to Emperor Nicholas I after his visit to London.

In addition, the palace housed many portraits of the Russian Imperial House: Peter I and Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna; several portraits of Elizabeth Petrovna. One especially interesting portrait depicted the Empress in a military uniform, with a black courier ahead. A splendid portrait of Peter III in ceremonial imperial costume stood out; portraits of Paul I and his family members. There were over a dozen portraits of Catherine the Great herself. It is believed that the most memorable for her was the image of her mounted on a horse in a Preobrazhensky regiment uniform, with a drawn sword in hand; in this form, the empress rode at the head of the guard from Petersburg to Peterhof on the day of the coup d’état on June 28, 1762. In fact, the English Palace served as a guest house for high-ranking visitors and simultaneously as Peterhof’s picture gallery.

After the repairs, the English Palace remained vacant for quite some time. Starting from the 1820s, representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps began staying there during the court’s visits to Peterhof. In fact, the palace served as an elite hotel for honored guests until the beginning of World War I.

Later, among the residents hospitably accommodated by the English Palace, one could find not only foreign diplomats but also cadets of the Page Corps and a military hospital. The French traveler Marquis Astolphe de Custine, who visited Peterhof in 1839, wrote in his memoirs: “Envoys with their families and retinues, as well as foreigners presented at court, receive lodging and meals at the emperor’s expense. For this purpose, a spacious and elegant building called the English Palace is allocated. This building is located a quarter of a mile from the imperial palace amid a beautiful park laid out in the English style, enlivened by ponds and streams. The abundance of water and the hilly terrain, so rare in the vicinity of Petersburg, add much charm to this park. Since this year the number of foreigners was greater than usual, there was not enough space for everyone in the English Palace. Therefore, I do not stay overnight but only dine there daily at an excellently set table, in the company of the diplomatic corps and seven or eight hundred people.”

From the second half of the 19th century, the tradition of holding charity balls and lotteries in the English Palace began. For example, in August 1866, Emperor Alexander II attended a charity ball in the English Palace in support of the Peterhof Home Committee for the elderly and disabled soldiers. In June 1903, through the efforts of the chairwoman of the Peterhof Charity Society, lady-in-waiting Princess Elizaveta Obolenskaya, and the wife of the court orchestra chief, Baroness Maria Shtakelberg, a charity event with a concert was held in the English Palace for the benefit of the Peterhof children’s shelter. The event was attended by Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, and many high officials.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the palace housed a warehouse and workshops for collecting and manufacturing necessary items for soldiers in the Far East. A flag bearing the warehouse’s emblem hung on the English Palace facade; the warehouse operated daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., except on holidays. Both sewing and cutting of various linen items were done here, as well as accepting donations of goods and money. The warehouse was chaired by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who had her own office there, but the actual management was carried out by the aforementioned lady-in-waiting of the empress, Princess Elizaveta Obolenskaya. After the war, the warehouse ceased operations.

Another interesting chapter in the history of the English Palace was the accommodation of the Court Singing Chapel. In summer from 1885 to 1917, the chapel occupied the palace rooms on the third floor. The director’s office was also located there; from 1883 to 1894, it was headed by the famous Russian composer and conductor Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, and his assistant, who frequently visited the palace on official business, was the renowned composer Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. It was here, in August 1894, that Rimsky-Korsakov gave his last musical evening in the English Palace.

In 1918, the English Palace along with the park was taken under state protection as an outstanding artistic and everyday monument of 18th-century palace architecture and transferred to the management of the Peterhof Palace Museums Administration. However, the authorities understood protection in their own way. In April of the same year, the Peterhof Executive Committee ordered the palace to be handed over to the social education department of the Union of Workers and Employees of Tobacco and Cartridge Factories for the arrangement of children’s colonies. Until 1927, the palace housed an institute for mentally retarded children, which had a very negative impact on its condition. After repairs, a museum was opened in the palace, but the English Palace was destined to remain a museum for only a short time.

In the 1920s, the authorities developed a concept of turning the leading suburbs of Leningrad into places of healthy and cultural recreation for workers, which were also assigned important roles as educational, enlightenment, and propaganda institutions. Within this framework, in January 1928, the English Palace was transferred to the regional department of the Union of Education Workers to establish a health resort for union members. By summer of the same year, the new health resort opened its doors to visitors. At the same time, a major renovation of the palace premises was carried out, as well as work in the surrounding park, which had suffered significant damage from the 1924 flood, as well as snowstorms and hurricanes.

For the following decade, the palace essentially functioned as an industry-specific sanatorium until the Red Banner Baltic Fleet took an interest in it. The impressive size of the building and its proximity to the nearby naval airfield in New Peterhof predetermined the start of its “military career”: it successively housed Baltic Fleet structures — the Air Force Command and Headquarters, and the command of the formed 61st Fighter Aviation Brigade of the Air Force of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet.

The final act of the pre-war period was the placement in the palace of the training base of the Higher Courses for the Improvement of Command Staff of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Navy (VKUNS). The organization with the complicated abbreviation was destined to be the last occupant of Quarenghi’s great creation.

By fate, during the war, the palace found itself on the front line of defense of the eastern part of the Oranienbaum bridgehead. After fierce battles in the Belvedere, Sashino, and Hare’s Gamekeeper areas, the retreating remnants of the 11th and 85th Rifle Divisions by the end of September 1941 entrenched themselves along the line “English Palace — railway crossing — western outskirts of the Yegerskaya settlement” and further southwest along the Gostilitskoye highway. The English Palace became an important stronghold in the defense of the 11th Rifle Division. For over a month, under heavy fire, the palace was defended by one of the companies of the 163rd Rifle Regiment and a company of the 26th Engineer Battalion. The enemy repeatedly tried to capture the English Palace, but the dense fire of the defenders only increased the attackers’ losses. After several failed attacks, German troops unleashed a heavy artillery barrage on the palace to suppress the resistance of Soviet soldiers. Thousands of shells and mines completely destroyed the upper floors of the building, but this did not break the spirit of the small garrison of defenders, who continued to hold their positions amid the palace ruins.

Ruins of the English Palace after artillery shelling. Caption by a German sniper: “English Palace. After heavy mortar shelling, we can rebuild our positions again.” From a private archive.

Artillery barrages and aerial bombings turned the pride of the English Park into ruins. The first thing eyewitnesses saw when visiting the English Park after the liberation of Peterhof was piles of palace debris towering over the basement, half-surviving part of the building, clad in granite. Not a single, even minor part of it survived. Thus ended the existence of the English Palace — the unrealized imperial residence and Catherine the Great’s place of solitude.

All that remained of the English Palace by 1945. Source: materials of the Peterhof State Museum-Reserve

Decades after the war ended, a hill grew on the palace site, covered with moss, grass, and small shrubs. Despite the existence of a restoration project, this state can still be observed today…

Currently, the English Palace remains perhaps the most prestigious lost object of brilliant Peterhof. Only remnants of granite blocks and a commemorative stone remind us of the once majestic and monumental building. Being the first creation of the great Quarenghi at the Russian court, it was conceived as a place of the empress’s secluded residence, but it was destined to enter history as a symbol of the courage of the Soviet soldiers defending the Oranienbaum bridgehead and a reminder of the fierce battles near Leningrad.

Sources:

https://a-121.ru/расстрелянный-шедевр-кваренги/

200th Anniversary of the Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty 1704-1904: Historical Research: Saint Petersburg, 1911

https://www.citywalls.ru/house26984.html