The town of Pavlovsk, which is famous for its palace and park ensemble, is located 26 kilometers to the south of Saint Petersburg. Dating from the late 18th to the 19th century, Pavlovsk was a summer residence of the Russian emperor Paul I and his family. Its architects were amongst the greatest of the period: Cameron, Brenna, Quarenghi, Voronikhin and Rossi. The landscape park, one of the largest in Europe, covers an area of 600 hectares.
The plot of land, where Pavlovsk is situated, was presented to Paul by Catherine the Great in 1777, when Paul's son, Alexander, was born. In 1780 the construction of the palace and park ensemble began under supervision of prominent architect Charles Cameron, invited to Russia by Catherine the Great. His design for the palace in Pavlovsk was based on the villa found in Roman architecture.
The foundation stone of the palace was laid on 25 May, 1782, but the ceremony was not attended by its owners, as Paul I and his wife Maria Fyodorovna were traveling in Western Europe at the time. The building of the palace progressed at a rapid pace, and by autumn of 1782 not only the main building, but also the side galleries had been put up. In 1783 the work began on the interior decor of the state and private apartments in the main building. The architect and the owners were not always on the best of terms. Constant interference with the architect's plans and trivial objections to them were a great hindrance to Cameron and occasionally led to serious conflicts. In 1786 Paul put Cameron's assistant Vincenzo Brenna in charge of the building and interior decor. Just when the main construction work had been completed, a major fault was found with the palace. It was not big enough. Brenna was entrusted with the task of extending it. He did not interfere with the overall design of his predecessor, Cameron, but merely built on to Cameron's galleries, gave the square wings a second story and two adjoining semicircular buildings two story high. Brenna also extended the southern part of the palace with a rectangular building and adjoining church. Thus, the palace plan resembles an open bracelet with one precious gem in the middle, - the main building.
In 1803 the rooms in the main section were badly damaged by fire. Andrei Voronikhin, an architect and painter who was highly skilled in the applied arts, was invited to take the post of chief architect and entrusted with the task of restoring the interiors as quickly as possible. In less than two years he not only restored the interiors, but also designed furniture, chandeliers and decorative vases for many of them. The Pavlovsk palace is the best illustration of Voronikhin's many talents. In the palace decoration also participated architects Quarenghi and Rossi.
The rooms of the Pavlovsk palace are decorated with natural and artificial marble, molding and paintings. The interior decor blends well with the magnificent objects of decorative and applied art, such as vases of semiprecious stones from the Urals and Altai mountains, ornamental metalwork, porcelain, colored glass, ivory, amber and many other objects fashioned by skilled craftsmen to designs by architects working in Pavlovsk. West European objects of art were also acquired specially for the palace, such as paintings, bronzes, fabrics, furniture and so forth. The formation of the Pavlovsk Palace collections was closely connected with the journey by its owners through Europe. They brought back to Russia a large number of antique sculptures from Italy, and gifts from European royal courts. Many of these treasures are on view, together with the excellent collection of portraits by Russian artists, and a number of Pavlovsk landscape paintings and drawings.
In front of the palace there is a monument to Paul I, designed by sculptor Vitali. The sculpture dates back to 1830s. During the World War II the Pavlovsk palace was looted and burned, but the monument stood and never was destroyed by Nazi, as they respected Paul's mother, who was German. After the end of the war the palace was restored, and today it is the only completely restored palace in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. All 45 rooms, which were opened to the public before the war are opened nowadays.
The architects, sculptors and artists who worked at Pavlovsk at different times created a perfectly balanced ensemble with a remarkable unity of style, which remains a splendid architectural monument to this day.