Three versts from Tsarskoye Selo near the village of Babolovo, for Catherine II’s new favorite Prince Potemkin, in 1775 architect Neelov built a secluded stone dacha in the English Gothic style with a bathhouse, which was equipped with a round marble-lined bathtub 3.5 meters in diameter.

According to rumors, the bath served cosmetic purposes (bathing Catherine II in goat’s milk), as well as love and occult purposes. There is also a legend that the future Emperor Alexander I was baptized in the marble bathtub. The bathhouse was supplied by a 16-kilometer gravity-fed water pipeline from the Taitsy springs (considered healing), designed by General-Lieutenant von Bauer and engineer Colonel Gerard. The pipeline also fed the ponds of the park in Tsarskoye Selo, and its construction lasted from 1773 to 1787. The decoration of the dacha in Babolovo was so luxurious that it came to be called a “palace.” Around the Babolovo Palace, a park in the English landscape style was laid out. After Prince Potemkin died, the Babolovo estate began to fall into neglect.

In 1814, the palace was completely restored by architect Ruska. And between 1811 and 1818, by order of Emperor Alexander I and according to the design of engineer Betancourt, a unique granite pool was made for the palace bathhouse by St. Petersburg stonemason Samson Sukhanov from a monolithic granite block, later named the Tsar Bath.

To find a suitable stone of enormous size, without cracks or “flaws,” the master went to the Finnish islands. On the island of Sumari, a huge granite block weighing about 10,000 poods was found and transported by water to Petersburg. Samson Sukhanov and his assistants worked for seven years on carving, hewing, grinding, and polishing the bath. The work required precise calculation of both proportions and wall thickness, capable of withstanding the weight of the water-filled basin. In May 1818, the finished bath was transported and installed in the Babolovo bathhouse. Made of red Finnish rapakivi granite, the bath-pool weighed 3,000 poods and held 800 buckets of water.

In 1818, the journal “Otechestvennye Zapiski” reported: “Finally, Sukhanov completed this summer a magnificent, unique bath for the Babolovo bathhouse. It is 2 arshins 12 vershoks high, 2 arshins 4 vershoks deep, and 7 and a half arshins in diameter. Many Petersburg residents traveled specially to see this work of the Russian sculptor. Foreigners did not want to believe that Sukhanov was capable of producing this marvel of sculpture or sculptural art, which is all the more praiseworthy and glorious for him because he did not add a single kopeck to the price offered to him for a similar bath made of four parts!”

The miracle bath caused universal admiration among contemporaries and “approval from experts in this field.” History professor Yakovkin considered the granite bath “the first of its kind in the world,” and professor Zembnitsky wrote: “This work of the Russian artist deserves special attention, since since the time of the Egyptians nothing so colossal made of granite is known.” The result was a polished granite bath: height 196 centimeters, depth 152 centimeters, diameter 533 centimeters, weight 48 tons. Data on displacement is 8,000 buckets, according to calculations — 12 tons of water. At the same time, the masters demonstrated an amazing sense of the stone. The minimum wall thickness of the basin is 45 centimeters, which allows it to withstand the pressure of the multi-ton mass of water, but at the same time is the limit for fragile granite.

After the stone-cutting work was completed, walls were erected around the bath — an octagonal tower. Along the perimeter of the room, iron walkways with railings, descents, and observation platforms were installed on brackets.

Most likely, after the main work was completed, due to the death of Alexander I, the heirs refused to arrange the pool, deciding instead to display the bath as a piece of stone-cutting art. Thus, like the “Tsar Cannon” and the “Tsar Bell,” the “Tsar Bath” was never used for its intended purpose.

According to the memoirs of General Richter, manager of the Imperial Main Headquarters, choral singing was held in the “Tsar Bath” of the Babolovo Palace, enjoying the unusual resonance of the giant basin and the boundless amazement of guests who could not understand where the singing choir was located.

Sources:

https://kudago.com/spb/place/car-vanna/

http://dom.dacha-dom.ru/tsar-vanna.shtml

https://pikabu.ru/story/zagadka_tsarvannyi_3946789