State Museum-Reserve, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196625
The ruined architectural elements, adjacent to trees, bushes, and everything embodying nature, largely reflected the spirit of the art movement that came to be called Romanticism. One of the purposes of ruins was to give the park or estate the appearance of antiquity. Historical memories were an essential element of the spiritual atmosphere of the landscape park. But since few parks contained genuine traces of the past, artificial ruins were meant to imitate them. Few examples of real historical ruins can be found in our northern parks. This is not about fragments of ancient capitals and statues, but about original ruins integrated into the living fabric of the park. However, in central Russia, real ruins were clearly lacking. It was precisely their absence that gave rise to the fashion for artificial ruins.
The Ruin Cascade is located on the border between the Old Sylvia and New Sylvia districts. It was designed by architect Brenna in 1793-1794. Stone steps from two staircases descend from the Old Sylvia platform leading to it. The cascade is built over a moat running to the Slavyanka River, where water from the Old Sylvia ponds falls.
On the right is a quiet pond; on the left below, the restless cascade rushes and foams. Thin birch trunks, replacing railings, connect the darkened stone pedestals. On them, seemingly damaged by time, are vases and lion figures made of gray porous stone, overgrown with dark green moss. And below, among granite boulders washed by the cascade’s streams, are fragments of ancient statues and columns, intended to give the cascade an even greater resemblance to ruins. "Everything here involuntarily draws us to reflection," Zhukovsky wrote about this corner of the park. The restoration of the Ruined Bridge-Cascade was carried out in 2017.
The cascade wall is fenced with railings made of uneven trunks of young birches, fastened by pedestals on which semi-ruined vases and figures of reclining lions are installed. The structure is deliberately given the appearance of ancient ruins, which was one of the favorite motifs in the architecture of 18th-century landscape parks.
Sources:
A. I. Zelenova, "Pavlovsky Park," Lenizdat, 1964, p. 108
