The Eagle Column is an architectural structure in the Palace Park of Gatchina. It is one of the earliest objects in the park, built according to a project presumably by the Italian architect Rinaldi in the early 1770s, during the period when Gatchina belonged to Count (later Serene Prince) Grigory Orlov. It is a marble column on a high quadrangular pedestal, designed in accordance with the canons of classicism. Its top is crowned with a sculpture of an eagle.

The column forms a unified ensemble with the Eagle Pavilion, built in those years when Gatchina was owned by the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. The monument has been restored multiple times. Various explanations are proposed for the eagle symbolism of this structure.

There is a popular legend linking the Eagle Column and the Eagle Pavilion. According to it, once Emperor Pavel I, shooting from the place where the Pavilion was built, wounded an eagle. The column was then erected where the bird sat or fell dead. Art historian Kaznakov wrote: “Indifference to hunting did not, however, prevent Pavel Petrovich from erecting… an obelisk at the place where he once shot a wounded eagle.” In turn, artist, architect, and art historian Lansere wrote about the same: “This small pavilion, called the Temple, was supposedly built at the place from where Pavel personally killed the eagle, while the eagle sat where now stands the marble column with a bronze eagle.”

An earlier version of the legend, recorded in the 1810s, attributed the successful shot to Grigory Orlov. German traveler Christian Müller, describing the Gatchina park in the book “Picture of Petersburg or Letters about Russia, written in 1810, 1811, and 1812,” published in Paris in 1814, recounted: “We ride around the lake, turning right, and after some time approach a marble rotunda whose dome is cut in half like an anatomical skull. Opposite, on the other side of the lake in an open turf-covered area, you notice a column topped with a figure of an eagle, erected in memory of Orlov’s shot, as they say, from this rotunda at a live eagle. This is a fabrication of healthy eyes. It is even less believable since the distance is undoubtedly more than 450 steps.”

The fact that the Eagle Column actually appeared in Gatchina in the early 1770s, still during Orlov’s time, refutes the version of the legend where Pavel is the main character. Moreover, the emperor was not a skilled marksman. The fact that the Eagle Pavilion was erected during Pavel’s time does not allow Orlov to be considered the hero of the legend. Finally, eagles generally did not inhabit Gatchina, and the distance between the two structures is too great even for a good shooter. Possibly, the legend arose as an attempt to justify the significance of the eagle as a symbolic protector of this area or to mask the original meaning embedded in the symbolism of the two park objects.

The column is called a monument to the Orlov family, and the eagle crowning the column can be interpreted as a figure with heraldic meaning. It is known that the image of an eagle was part of the Orlov family coat of arms. Additionally, the eagle as an allegorical symbol glorifying the Orlov family could have been chosen simply because of the name’s similarity. This allegory was played upon during Grigory Orlov’s lifetime: “Blessed is your parent, who gave us such sons, not only by name but by the qualities of the Orlovs” (Mikhail Lomonosov, congratulatory letter dated July 19, 1764, on Orlov’s return from a trip with Empress Catherine II to Estland and Livland).

Thus, the Eagle Column—a typical decoration of a romantic park—is also considered a monument to the Orlov family, in which the characteristics of the allegorical eagle (attributed since antiquity with power and might, and moments related to the eagle as a military symbol) are important. Researchers believed that the monument, sent to Gatchina from Tsarskoye Selo during the days when Grigory Orlov was still Catherine’s favorite and his brother Alexey Orlov commanded the Russian fleet in a naval expedition against the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War, was a kind of “distinguishing gift” to the then owner of Gatchina, having the same significance as titles or orders.

The statue on the column did not necessarily have to symbolize the Orlov family name. The main argument for this idea is that under Pavel, who hated the brothers, the family monument was not only not destroyed but was incorporated into the ensemble with the Eagle Pavilion, which clearly glorified the new emperor and with which the column was possibly also connected by its symbolism.

According to one point of view, the Column and the Eagle Pavilion, which form a single complex, are united only by a visual axis and the above-mentioned legend. These are structures from different times, also having different semantic purposes. If the eagle at the top of the column came from the Orlov coat of arms, then the Eagle Pavilion is connected with the idea of imperial power of Pavel I—the central opening of the colonnade’s entablature featured a now-lost statue of an eagle with an imperial crown. In its claws, this eagle held a shield with Pavel’s monogram.

By 1783, when Grigory Orlov died, Gatchina had been bought by the treasury and gifted by Catherine II to the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. The Eagle Column was among the few significant objects of the Gatchina park, according to such a source as the “Journal of the Coastal Survey” by navigator Krylasov—alongside the Chesme Obelisk and the Octagonal Well. During the Orlov period, there were relatively few architectural structures in the park, which was generally characteristic of mid-18th-century landscape parks.

The column was erected in the 1770s. Its form and material differ from the later buildings of Pavel’s time. It was made in the workshops of the Construction Office of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg and first transported to Tsarskoye Selo. In mid-June 1770, the pedestal and column, “with all its marble fittings in three trips on seventy-seven horses,” were delivered from Tsarskoye Selo to Gatchina. The original drawing of the Eagle Column, which would have contained the author’s name, has not survived; however, architectural researchers consider the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi the author of the structure. This conclusion is based on the analysis of the composition and the character of the detailing.

The marble sculpture of the eagle installed at the top of the column was possibly brought from Italy. It is known that for Count Orlov, former director of the Academy of Arts I. I. Shuvalov purchased and sent in August 1769 from Civitavecchia to Petersburg “twelve newest busts of Caesars in boxes, an antique marble eagle, and ancient weaponry.” The busts ended up on the open colonnade of the eastern semicircle of the Great Gatchina Palace, and the weapons enriched Orlov’s palace collection. It can be assumed that the marble figure of the eagle also came to Gatchina, crowning the column in the park.

This sculpture was not necessarily an authentic work of the antique era. The eagle could have been a copy of an antique, or it was simply presented to Shuvalov as an antique original, not actually being so (in a similar way, Shuvalov was deceived, for example, when purchasing the sculptural group “Cupid and Psyche,” located on the Isle of Love in the Palace Park). Eagles similar to the Gatchina one decorate the entrances to the park territory of Villa Borghese in Rome. In the 1790s, the Eagle Column was united within a single park ensemble with a newly built architectural structure—the Eagle Pavilion, erected on the Long Island, according to some sources in 1792, according to others in 1793–1796. The objects were connected not only by compositional similarity but also by a visual perspective, which, according to some information, was planned already during Orlov’s time. “From the Long Island, from the place where the Eagle Pavilion was later built, you can see through the forest in a cleared glade a column at a distance of about half a verst,” is written in Krylasov’s “Journal.”

By the middle of the next century, the column was already in quite a dilapidated state. In 1858–1860, it was “destroyed due to disrepair” and replaced with a new one made after the model of the previous one. The eagle figure, removed from the old monument, was again installed at the top of the column. This statue was broken either during the Civil War or during the Great Patriotic War.

In August 1960, the Eagle Column was taken under protection by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. The column, significantly damaged during the war, needed restoration, and in 1962 the first restoration project was developed, followed by a second project in 1969. Restoration work was completed in 1971. The eagle statue crowning the column was recreated in plaster by the sculptor-restorer Golovin (or Golovkin) based on surviving fragments. He also made a marble copy of this sculpture in 1973.

In the 1980s, the column was vandalized; its shaft was damaged by stones, and the plaster eagle was broken. By the early 21st century, its condition was already critical. In the summer of 2015, a new restoration was carried out. The statue that was on top of the column was restored and kept in the funds of the Gatchina Museum-Reserve, and a copy made of artificial stone was installed in its place.

The landmark is located near the Amphitheater at the intersection of the alleys surrounding it and the straight path leading to Sylvia Park through the Sylvia Gates. Being one of the architectural accents of this part of the Palace Park, the vertical column with its slender silhouette contrasts with neighboring structures—the low Forest Orangery and the round Amphitheater. The idea of alternating objects of different scale and volume is complemented by a color contrast. The texture and color of the white marble distinguish the column compared to the silvery-gray walls of the orangery, made of Pudost stone blocks, and the green turf of the Amphitheater slopes. Thus, while these two structures blend with the surrounding landscape, the Eagle Column stands out against the tree crowns, emphasizing its triumphant character.

In the volumetric-spatial composition of this area of the Palace Park, the column acts as the final chord. Located near the gates and wall separating the English Garden (the landscape part of the Palace Park) from Sylvia, the Eagle Column possibly marked the garden’s boundary. At the same time, it serves as a connecting link between the two parks, so organically connected by their layout that, for example, in the 19th century, Sylvia Park was considered part of the Palace Park. From the Sylvia Gates, rays of three main Sylvia alleys radiate. The white marble column, clearly visible in the gate opening, closes their converging perspectives. A long straight glade of dark green fir trees stretches from the Eagle Column to the shore of the White Lake. Thus, the visual axis connects the column on the lake’s left bank with the Eagle Pavilion, located on the shore of the Long Island in the middle of the reservoir. The compositional unity of the resulting ensemble is achieved through the use of the Tuscan order in both structures and similar sculptural decoration (i.e., images of eagles).

The column stands to the right of the road leading to the Sylvia Gates, in the center of a clearing on a low artificial mound. On a granite quadrangular base shaped as a rectangle rests a tall marble pedestal with moldings. The column shaft is carved from white marble with veins and designed according to the canons of the Roman Doric or Tuscan order. The total height of the object is 6.4 m, the shaft diameter is 50 centimeters. The Eagle Column is a typical work in the style of classicism, all its proportions executed according to the models of ancient architecture. Above the abacus of the column capital, on a small pedestal, stands a sculpture of a single-headed eagle with lowered wings. They are slightly spread as if the eagle is about to take flight. Its head is turned to the side, gaze directed into the distance. The entire structure, thanks to the correctly found proportions of height and volumes of its different parts, possesses lightness, pride, and triumphality.

Sources:

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