The Renella Pavilion, or as it was sometimes called the Tea House or the Gothic Cottage, is one of the many diverse park pavilions that appeared in Peterhof during the reign of Nicholas I.

"During the Empress's stay in Palermo (the wife of Nicholas I), she liked a Gothic cottage with multifaceted pointed towers at the corners of an elongated quadrangle. Rough sketches of this building made on the spot were sent to St. Petersburg with the order for Stakenschneider to build the Renella Pavilion according to them in Znamenka, on the shore."                                                                                                 ("Illustrated Newspaper," 1868)

The pavilion was built according to Stakenschneider’s design in 1846. Both outside and inside, the pavilion was decorated in the spirit of neo-Gothic style. In the hall on the second floor, there were clusters of slender tall columns and ribbed vaults. The pointed windows had frames with Gothic rosettes and colored stained glass. The Emperor closely supervised the construction of the pavilion. Tiles with various designs were sent from Palermo to the architect, which, at the Emperor’s request, were to decorate the balcony and walls of Renella.

People strolled here, had afternoon tea, received guests, held balls and various celebrations, and maintained exemplary household management. In the Lower Park of Znamenka, in its western part, a cape juts out into the bay. The new pavilion built here, visible from the windows of the Cottage, evoked memories of a journey to an enchanted island in the middle of a blue sea.”

The first visit to Renella is recorded in the chamber-porter’s journal for 1847: on July 17, the Empress arrived at the new pavilion, where a tea party was held. It took place in the hall on the second floor. Next to this hall was a study. Another study and a buffet room were arranged on the first floor of the building. The walls of the studies were decorated with paintings of Italian views, among which there were many scenes of Palermo.

Up to twenty people could be present at afternoon teas in Renella. Sometimes, in a much smaller circle, the Empress drank her morning coffee here. On May 25, 1851, she invited the brothers – the Prussian princes Karl and Wilhelm – here for tea, and the following year, in 1852, a lunch was held in Renella on the birthday of Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – the sister of Nicholas Pavlovich.

At the end of the 19th century, other events also took place here. Likhachyov recorded a palace footman’s story: “Seances of spiritualism took place with Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich on the Renella cape (on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland), which jutted far into the sea. Near the Own Dacha in Peterhof, where Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna lived, there was also a pier. Nicholas and Alexandra were secretly brought to Renella.”

Prince Roman Romanov, whose childhood years were spent in Znamenka, describes in his memoirs how he and his sisters and the elder daughters of Nicholas II caught fish near Renella, how the Emperor walked along the coastal road from Alexandria to Renella, where he went up to the living room, “which he loved very much.” The memoirist notes that “the Tsar even tried to buy this pavilion from my father – but unsuccessfully, as my father himself adored it.”

Boys from nearby villages and children of Petersburg summer residents came to the cape to fish and swim. One of these boys, many years later, would write remarkable memoirs about his life in Znamenka. Having lived in these places all his life, he recalled that Renella was dismantled brick by brick in 1928. Now, on the site where the pavilion stood, there are massive stone boulders, remnants of the brick foundation, and complete neglect…

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house29745.html

https://ir-cha.livejournal.com/13296.html