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THE SUMMER GARDEN
The Summer Garden is one of the favourite recreation zones of dwellers and guests of St. Petersburg, just as it was in the Peter’s epoch. Straight shady alleys, cozy quiet nooks, white-marble sculptures, the Summer Palace of Peter the First add a peculiar fascination to the garden.
In 1704, a year after the foundation of the Peter and Paul’s Fortress, the foundation of the Summer Garden was started almost in front of it, on the left bank of the Neva. The first ideas and plans belonged to Peter the First: by his order various species of flowers and trees were brought from every place in Russia, statues for the new garden were ordered up with Italian masters, new fountains were erected.
The Summer Palace was built in the garden in 1710-1712 on the project by architect Domenico Andrea Trezzini - the author of the Peter and Paul’s Cathedral and the gates of the Peter and Paul’s Fortress. Its outer look has remained almost the same up to these days, with the exception of the roof which initially was tiled and then changed into a leaden one.
The building is crowned with a small figure weathercock with a portrayal of Saint George defeating Dragon. Bas-reliefs were used for decoration of the façades - twenty nine in total. They are made of terracotta and situated between windows of the first and the second floors. The majority of the bas-reliefs depict Peter’s galleys against the background of the sea and water expanses.
The most of the statues of the Summer Garden were ordered by Peter the First in Italy, they were sculptured by famous Venetian masters: P. Baratta, D. Bonazza, M. Gropelli. There were 139 sculptures in the garden in the year of 1771, but a disastrous inundation in 1777 damaged them, together with the fountains of the garden.
At present the Summer Garden is decorated with about forty statues, and the same number of busts. As a rule, there are allegories on military-historical theme, and the sculptures of the Summer Garden remind of distant pages of history: images of military leaders and emperors of antiquity - Alexander Macedonian, Julius Caesar. Some of the statues depict various qualities of human character and human emotional experience. There are four busts of old men personifying laughter, suffering, irony, attention; statues of sincerity, mercy, etc.
There is a woman’s figure on one of the round squares of the central alley. It personifies Navigation: she leans on a steering-wheel with her right hand, and holds a map where Denmark, Norway and Sweden are indicated in her left hand; in place of St. Petersburg there is the sun’s disk.
At the beginning of the central alley, not far away from the entrance to the garden, there is a statue of Minerva in military attire with a spear in her hand, and there is an owl - the allegory of wisdom - at her feet.
There are four sculptures deep in the garden: Morning, Noon, Evening, Night. A woman’s figure among them with a star cloak on her shoulders attracts great attention. It is Night, the sculpture is made by Bonazza. There are statues of muses - companions of Apollo not far away from it: Terpsihore, Euterpe, Thalia.
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