Hanging garden and terrace

The Hanging Gardens are one of the Seven Wonders of the World, whose origin is associated with the heroine of ancient myths, Semiramis. Her historical prototype was the sole ruling Assyrian queen Shammuramat. In myths, Semiramis is characterized by qualities such as cunning, authority, courage, and mental agility. In the myths, she kills her husband to gain power, which causes the hatred of her own son, who repeatedly tries to kill her. As is known, Catherine the Great was a passionate lover of antiquity. The Hanging Garden in Tsarskoye Selo appeared when the empress wished to have a building in her residence that visually resembled ancient structures. It is impossible not to note some similarities between the biography of Catherine II and the life of the mythical Semiramis. The tragic death of her husband, Emperor Peter III, who was overthrown by Catherine shortly after her palace coup, cast a dark shadow over her entire reign. The empress’s son Pavel, who ascended the Russian throne after his mother’s death, blamed her for his father’s death.

This Hanging Garden in Tsarskoye Selo was created by Cameron, who was brought to Russia by the same strong love of ancient architecture as his royal employer. Before coming to Russia, Cameron spent several years in Rome, where he studied Roman baths using the book by the great Renaissance architect Palladio. Their architectural analogue once appeared in Tsarskoye Selo, of which the Hanging Garden became a part. This terrace rests on powerful vaults supported by equally massive pylons. Before planting the garden, a waterproofing layer of lead was laid on the terrace, and on top of it, soil suitable in composition and properties for growing lilacs, apple trees, jasmine, roses, peonies, tulips, and daffodils was piled up.

The sides of the garden were bordered by a balustrade made of dolomite, which has not survived to this day, quarried on the island of Ösel. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, it was replaced by a white-painted wooden balustrade because the previous one had severely deteriorated. Five years later, the garden was expanded in connection with the construction of the Ramp. This was Cameron’s last project during the lifetime of Catherine II. In 1792, the empress expressed a desire to have a descent built, allowing direct access from the Hanging Garden to the rest of the Catherine Park. The architect proposed not to build another staircase, which already existed in the Cameron Gallery, but to make a gentle slope (ramp). To arrange the Hanging Garden at the height of the second floor, a terrace was built between the Cameron Gallery, the Agate Rooms, and the Zubov Wing.

The terrace of the Cameron Gallery, the bel étage of the Zubov Wing, where Catherine II’s private chambers were located, and the Agate Rooms of the Cold Bath, where the empress read, reviewed state papers, and answered letters in the morning hours, are connected by the Hanging Garden.

From the garden side, one can enter the second floor of the Cold Bath, into the Agate Rooms, which are accessed through three oak doors: the left door leads to the anteroom called the Cabinet; the middle door leads to the Large Hall; the right door leads to the Library and, through it, to the staircase. The facade of the second floor of the Cold Bath facing the Hanging Garden is decorated with an oval semi-rotunda; the light yellow walls are contrasted by the brick-red tone of the relief medallions and niches, in which decorative busts and statues made of dark bronze are installed.

The terrace between the Cameron Gallery, the Zubov Wing, and the Agate Rooms, designed for a small Hanging Garden at the level of the second floor, rests on vaults supported by massive pylons. For the garden’s layout, a waterproofing layer of sheet lead was laid on the terrace, and a layer of soil was piled up, allowing the cultivation of plants selected so that the garden would be in bloom continuously. In the 18th century, apple trees, lilacs, jasmine, and roses grew here; tulips, peonies, and daffodils were planted around the bushes. The sides of the Hanging Garden were surrounded by a now-lost balustrade made of Ösel dolomite — a stone quarried on the island of Ösel. At the beginning of the 19th century, it deteriorated and was replaced by a white-painted wooden one.

Originally, the Hanging Garden was a U-shaped terrace connecting the empress’s private rooms, the Cold Bath, and the Cameron Gallery. The garden was expanded five years later during the design and construction of the Ramp. This required installing six more columns and laying vaults between the palace wing and the Cameron Gallery, where there had been no garden before. As a result, the Hanging Garden extended to the line of the facades of the palace wing and gallery and acquired its present shape. Now the southern corner of the end part of the Zubov Wing, directly connected to the Hanging Garden, turned into a semi-open Mirror Platform: its architectural design mirrored the Cameron Gallery with fluted Ionic columns, a frieze with wreaths, and a marble floor. The Mirror Platform was connected to Catherine II’s chambers: a door from it led to the Mirror Cabinet — one of the empress’s private rooms on the second floor of the Zubov Wing. Catherine II wished to have an additional descent from the Hanging Garden to Catherine Park at the beginning of 1792. Beginning the project, Charles Cameron proposed not to repeat the staircase already existing in the Cameron Gallery but to build a gentle slope. The proposal was approved, and subsequently, the descent was called the Ramp (a calm, gentle slope).

The Ramp consists of seven descending arches-vaults and three archless pylons. On the keystones of the arches on both sides, masks of ancient gods — Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Minerva, Mercury — and other mythological characters are carved. Above the columns separating the ledges on both sides of the descent, bronze statues of the Muses — Euterpe, Calliope, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Thalia, Terpsichore, Urania, and Erato — as well as Venus Callipyge, Venus Medici, Mercury, and Flora were once installed. In the 18th century, the richly decorated Ramp was called the “Stairway of the Gods.” However, the bronze statues did not stand for long: in 1799, by order of Emperor Paul I, they were moved to Pavlovsk, where they were installed on a round platform in the Old Sylvia (thus creating the Muses’ platform), and in their place on the Ramp in 1826, cast-iron altars with flower bowls, cast at the St. Petersburg State Cast Iron Foundry according to architect Stasov’s drawings, were installed. Until 1941, two colossal bronze vases, made after ancient models, stood at the very end of the Ramp. During the city’s occupation, they disappeared without a trace. The construction of the Ramp was completed in April 1794. The construction was supervised by architect Neelov — Cameron’s permanent assistant. At that time, iron gates with grilles, made at the Sestroretsk factories and standing until the mid-19th century, were installed on the Ramp according to Cameron’s drawings.

In 1811, the Ramp was moved due to the arrangement in 1810 of the Ramp Alley on the site of the slopes of the Toboggan Hill, crossing the park from the Catherine Palace almost to the Orlov Gates. To align the direction of the Ramp with the alley, it was decided to move it; for this, the junction of the Ramp with the Hanging Garden was shifted from the middle to the second arch from the palace.

In the 1860s, when Emperor Alexander II chose the Zubov Wing as his summer apartment, a significant section of the park adjacent to the wing was allocated for the Private Garden and fenced with a metal railing. The new fence directly adjoined the end of the Ramp, where it was decided to install a second gate. To avoid differences between the new and old gates, in 1865, Cameron’s gates were replaced by new ones cast according to architect Vidov’s design. These gates have survived to this day.

Sources:

https://pushkin.spb.ru/encycl/parks/visyachie-sadyi.-pandus.html

https://www.tzar.ru/objects/ekaterininskypark/cameron/hanginggarden