Unnamed Road, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196620
The Temple of Friendship is the very first work of Charles Cameron in the Pavlovsk landscape park. The location for the Temple of Friendship was chosen by the architect when he was just planning the landscape park, as evidenced by documents from the Pavlovsk Palace Museum archive, which contain the pavilion project presented with two facade options, a section, a plan, all signed by C. Cameron, along with working drawings. There is also a surviving estimate of construction work compiled by the architect Grigory Petrovich Pilnikov, who worked under Cameron. The estimate was approved in June 1780.
The Temple of Friendship was conceived by Prince Pavel Petrovich and his wife Maria Feodorovna as a gift to the mother, Empress Catherine II, in gratitude for the lands granted to the young grand ducal couple. Above the entrance, there was supposed to be a golden inscription: “Love, respect, and devotion of the first owners of Pavlovsk dedicated this temple to the one who gave them this plot of land.” However, politics intervened. At the laying ceremony of the temple, held in the summer of 1780, Joseph II of Austria was present. After sincere assurances of friendship, it was not quite appropriate to specify the name to whom the pavilion was originally dedicated, even if it was dedicated to the Empress herself. Therefore, the entrance to the Temple of Friendship was accompanied by a more neutral inscription: “Love, respect, and gratitude dedicated.” But inside the pavilion, numerous symbols and allegories unmistakably indicate to whom the building is dedicated. During Soviet times, the gilded inscription was lost, only the letter “ь” survived, kept in the museum.
In 1782, under the supervision of architect Pilnikov, the interior finishing began. K. Mikhailov carried out the plasterwork, German painter I. Rudolf painted the interior. The stucco decoration in the form of sculptural roses, a frieze with dolphins, and wreaths of grapevine was made by the Italian master Giuseppe Bernasconi. Carved furniture (16 stools decorated with a frieze of myrtle branches and olive wreaths, with legs symbolizing torches of love) was created by the carver Charlemagne.
The Temple of Friendship is designed in the form of an ancient temple-rotunda, it has a solid outer wall without windows, painted ochre, with a single oak door, and is surrounded around the perimeter by columns of the Greco-Doric order – sixteen fluted white columns rise directly from the base.
The temple is full of allegories and symbols. The outer walls are decorated at the top with 16 sculptural medallions by Bernasconi (models by Rashet) featuring four repeating allegorical scenes: “Minerva-Victoria,” “Generosity,” “Justice,” and “Presentation of the deed to the heir.” Originally, inside, opposite the entrance, in a niche, there was a portrait statue of Catherine II in the image of the goddess of wisdom Minerva, made of marble. In 1791, this statue was gifted to Count I. G. Chernyshev, and in 1792 a plaster figure of the Empress in the image of Ceres (by Rashet) was installed. In 1938, this statue was accidentally broken during work inside the pavilion...
Light in the Temple of Friendship, which has solid walls, enters through a glazed circular opening in the center of the dome. Fearing that the room would be dark, Charles Cameron ordered a special magnifying glass from England.
Initially, under the first owners of Pavlovsk, the pavilion served as a kind of concert hall where concerts were held. In the picturesque valley of the Slavyanka River, picnics were arranged. For this purpose, near the temple, a kitchen in the form of a hut was built according to Cameron’s design, made from unprocessed tree trunks. In the early 19th century, the kitchen became dilapidated and was dismantled.
The Temple of Friendship is one of the best architectural structures in the Pavlovsk park ensemble. The architect chose the most picturesque location for it – in the bend of the Slavyanka River. The pavilion looks wonderful from different points, sometimes fully visible, sometimes partially. From afar, it appears airy and small; up close, monumental. The structure looks especially picturesque from the side of the Slavyanka – it is reflected in the water and emphasized by the dense grove in the background.
During the summer period, the Temple of Friendship hosts an exhibition of sculptures from the collections of the Pavlovsk Museum-Reserve.
Sources:
http://love-gorod.ru/pavlovsk/obj/hram-druzhby
