In the middle of 1774, the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. Between 1774 and 1776, in Tsarskoye Selo, the building of the Palace Reserve Yard with a guardhouse for the guardsmen was constructed according to the design of architect V. I. Neelov. These guardsmen stood watch here during their stay at the imperial court residence. The ensemble of the Reserve Yard “with little towers” was architecturally somewhat close to the Moorish style and resembled buildings of Constantinople, which led researchers in the 20th century to suggest a symbolic connection between this structure and the victorious conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War.

The Reserve Yard was located outside the Catherine Park, but it was separated from the park only by a road planted with lindens (now Parkovaya Street; the lattice fence was erected later). Thus, the building, oriented with its facade to the east, which could also have been a certain symbol, was included in the park’s layout, limiting it on the section between Podkaprizovaya Road (its continuation is Babolovskoye Highway) and the Orlov (Gatchina) gates, built in 1777–1782.

In 1777, by order of Catherine II, a marble column was erected in front of the Reserve Yard complex, later known as the “Crimean Column.” It stood in the center of a triangular square, flanked on two sides by two groups of buildings. The exact author of the monument is not established. The researcher of the works of Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi, Kücharyants, in her book about him, suggested that he was the author of the Crimean Column project. A. Rinaldi created a number of monumental-decorative stone structures in Tsarskoye Selo — primarily memorial monuments, as well as milestone posts. The ratio of the monument’s compositional elements (column, pedestal, base) relates the Crimean Column to two other memorial columns in the Tsarskoye Selo parks — the Chesme and Morea columns. Both, with varying degrees of certainty, are attributed to Rinaldi’s works.

The stone monolith for the column was quarried in the Urals, at the marble deposit near the village of Gorny Shchit. It was then processed at a grinding factory in Yekaterinburg and after that transported to Saint Petersburg, to the workshop of the Construction Office of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, where under the supervision of the office head, Count Bruce, the column’s finishing was completed.

On March 16, 1777, the finished column was transported from Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo. The author of the early 20th-century guidebook to Tsarskoye Selo, Vilchkovsky, cites a description of this journey published in one of the 1777 issues of the “Moscow News” (a similar description, according to some sources, appeared in the “Saint Petersburg News”). According to it, the column weighed 1,950 poods (31.2 tons). It was placed on a sledge made of beams 16 arshins long, pulled by 120 horses. The transportation took 7 hours and 45 minutes — from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. From the Catherine Palace, the event was observed by Catherine II herself with her son, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, and daughter-in-law, Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. In honor of the successful completion of this complex undertaking, Catherine ordered to pay the craftsmen and workers involved in the transportation 800 rubles. State Councillor Somichev, who led the workers, was awarded a gold snuffbox with diamonds.

“During the time the column was transported through the city, the streets were filled with spectators who marveled at the ease with which such a heavy load was moved, especially since they saw in it a symbol of the tireless care for the glory of her subjects by the Great Catherine: who is not content with great deeds alone, but also strives to preserve them in the endless memory of our happy descendants.” In July 1777, the column was erected on its pedestal. Initially, it was called the “Siberian” column, since the place where the marble block for the monument was quarried was perceived by contemporaries as part of Siberia (for example, Catherine II wrote in a letter to Voltaire in August 1771 about “the most beautiful marbles, which even Italians marvel at… from the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg”). In 1830, one of the first historians of Tsarskoye Selo, Yakovkin, explained the column’s name by claiming that the monument was supposedly erected “in memory of the conquest of the Siberian land.” However, Vilchkovsky wrote that the column was erected “in memory of the conquest of Crimea” (probably referring to the period of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774). The monument in honor of the “taking of Crimea” was mentioned in the cited letter — that is, six years before its actual installation — by Empress Catherine herself.

A few years after the memorial was built, in 1783, Crimea became part of Russia. After this, the column received its sculptural completion. The decorative-symbolic composition, made up of trophies, was designed by the artist Kozlov and cast in bronze at the St. Petersburg Bronze State Factory. It was placed at the top of the structure on October 22, 1785. Thus, the column also became known as the “Crimean” column. There is an opinion that this is one of the few monuments to the annexation of Crimea to the empire located on Russian territory.

The Crimean Column belongs to a group of military memorials that appeared in the Tsarskoye Selo parks in the 1770s and are connected with the events of the Russo-Turkish War. Besides the mentioned Chesme (in memory of the Battle of Chesme) and Morea (in memory of military actions on the Morea Peninsula) columns, there is the Kagul Obelisk, dedicated to the victory in the Battle of Kagul (the author is most likely the same Rinaldi), the Ruin Tower by architect Felten, serving as another kind of memorial to the victories of Russian arms in the war with the Turks, the Red or Turkish Cascade (authors — Neelov and Gerard), and the now lost Turkish Kiosk, created according to Neelov’s design after the embassy of Prince N. V. Repnin returned from Turkey. Art historian Petrov grouped these structures within the so-called “Turkish complex” in Tsarskoye Selo. Catherine II wrote to Voltaire about these monuments: “When this (Turkish) war continues, my Tsarskoye Selo garden will look like a toy — after every glorious military deed, a fitting monument is erected in it.”

In 1817, the territory where the Crimean Column stands was, according to some sources, annexed to Babolovsky Park. During Yakovkin’s time, the Palace Reserve Yard building also housed the stables of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. Later, by the end of the 19th century, the Reserve Yard ensemble ceased to exist, and the original architectural environment of the monument was thus completely lost.

In the early 20th century, on the site where the Reserve Yard with guardhouses had stood — beyond the main road separating Babolovsky Park from Catherine Park, in a meadow among pines near the Crimean Column — the House of Care for Disabled Warriors of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was built (1905–1906, architect Danini). Next to the column itself, a small brick house was built for two families of invalids. Later, in the rebuilt buildings of the former House of Care, the clinic of the Turner Scientific Research Children’s Orthopedic Institute was established, on whose grounds the Crimean Column still stands. However, there has been a proposal to move the column to Catherine Park, since within the hospital complex it neighbors “an unremarkable building” and access to the monument is difficult.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Column