Grottos, decorated inside with shells and tuff, were an almost mandatory feature of large formal gardens in the 18th century. The pavilion was built during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in 1755–1756 according to the design of the chief architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The construction and interior decoration were carried out by court counselor Ivan Rossi. The grotto became the first pavilion built on the shore of the Large Pond. In Elizabeth’s time, it became fashionable to decorate halls with shells and tuff, and such a room existed in the Grand Palace, but due to dampness it had to be destroyed. Then a pavilion called the Grotto was built inside, resembling a cave covered with shells and sea pebbles. There is a legend that 210,000 large shells and almost 300 kg of small shells were used for the decoration of the Grotto. Whether the pavilion was actually decorated with shells is a matter of debate. If Rastrelli’s idea was implemented, it lasted only a short time, since it is known that soon the interior of the pavilion was decorated with stucco in the classical Baroque style. The Grotto served as a link between the landscape and formal parts of the park and enlivened the deserted panorama of the shores. Only one side of the building faced the land, while the other three were surrounded by water. The Empress “upon leaving the Grotto could sit in a boat and set off on the Large Pond for a snipe hunt.”

Construction work on the building was carried out in 1755–1756 during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, while the interior decoration was completed under Catherine II in the 1770s. The interior design—rounded corners, niches for statues, large semicircular exedras forming projections on the end facades—is characteristic of Baroque architecture. The facades themselves are distinguished by Baroque splendor and richness, decorated with intricately grouped columns supporting broken pediments. The building was crowned with a pyramidal fountain with streams “flowing” down the edges of the dome; round windows were framed by lush compositions consisting of putti figures, dolphins, marine plants, and shells. All these decorations, made in the mid-18th century from wood by Okhta carvers, have been preserved and are held in the collections of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve. Neptune masks in the window locks, capitals with dolphins instead of volutes, and triton figures emphasize the pavilion’s connection to the water element.

In 1771, a new interior decoration project for the pavilion was developed by the architect Rinaldi (1709–1794). The light, exquisitely patterned wall decor executed according to his drawings has survived to this day. In 1782, openwork wrought iron grilles decorated with gilded sheet copper ornamentation were installed in the windows and doors of the Grotto. After the completion of the decoration in the 1780s, the pavilion began to be called the Morning Hall, since Catherine II spent her morning hours there reading and attending to affairs. She also liked to spend warm evenings in the Grotto, listening to military marches coming from the Hall on the Island. In the 1780s, the pavilion’s doors and windows were fitted with openwork wrought iron grilles resembling the finest lace.

At that time, it housed works made of colored stone and Catherine II’s sculpture collection, the antique part of which became part of the sculpture collection of the Imperial Hermitage, which also received the statue “Voltaire in an Armchair” by Houdon, depicting the great thinker seated in a chair. Catherine II wrote that “since Voltaire has stood there, people have come to see the Morning Hall in caravans.” The pavilion was often called the “Hall of Antiques.” The French philosopher Voltaire was a friend of Catherine II, and his sculpture remained in the pavilion until 1791. But after revolutionary unrest began in Paris, whose participants considered Voltaire their ideological inspirer, Catherine II was greatly angered, and the philosopher’s sculpture was removed from Tsarskoye Selo. Forty years later, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, while working on the history of Peter I, studied materials in one of the closed rooms of the old Hermitage and accidentally came across the statue “in exile” between the bookshelves. He liked it so much that he made a drawing of it in his notebook. Since then, more than half a century has passed, and the statue of the French writer saw the light of day—it was exhibited in the main museum of St. Petersburg.

The pier located in front of the Grotto was rebuilt in 1830 and 1872. During the Great Patriotic War, it was almost completely destroyed and was rebuilt in granite according to a new design in 1971–1972; the building itself was not severely damaged. However, during the liberation of the city of Pushkin, sappers discovered a detonation mechanism inside the Grotto connected to two 250-kilogram bombs. Wires also led to the mined Zubov wing, the Cameron Gallery, and the Catherine Palace. The sappers managed to cut the wires in time and neutralize the saboteurs.

Currently, the pavilion is used to host temporary exhibitions.

Sources:

https://www.spb-guide.ru/grot-utrennyaya-zala-tzarskoe-selo.htm

https://www.tzar.ru/objects/ekaterininskypark/regular/grotto

https://pushkin.spb.ru/encycl/parks/grot.html