Moscow Lefortovo Catherine Palace asv2018-08 img2

The Catherine Palace is a Neoclassical residence of

Catherine II of Russia , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

on the bank of the

Yauza River The Yauza (russian: Я́уза) is a river in Moscow and Mytishchi, Russia, a tributary of the Moskva. It originates in the Losiny Ostrov National Park northeast of Moscow, flows through Mytishchi, enters Moscow in the Medvedkovo District and flo ...

in Lefortovo,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. It should not be confused with the much more famous

Catherine Palace The Catherine Palace (russian: Екатерининский дворец, ) is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), 30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The Palace is part of the ...

Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the c ...

. The residence is also known as the Golovin Palace, after its first owner, Count Fyodor Golovin, the first Chancellor of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. After his death

Empress Anna Anna Ioannovna (russian: Анна Иоанновна; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the duchy of Courland from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much ...

commissioned

Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (russian: Франче́ско Бартоломе́о (Варфоломе́й Варфоломе́евич) Растре́лли; 1700 in Paris, Kingdom of France – 29 April 1771 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Emp ...

to replace the Golovin Palace with a Baroque residence known as

Annenhof Annenhof was the name of two separate Imperial palaces in Moscow in Russia, known as the Annenhof Winter Palace and Annenhof Summer Palace, both of them designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in 1730-1731 on the order of Empress Anna of Russia. ...

. This was Anna's preferred residence. It consisted of two wooden two-storey buildings, the Summer Palace and the Winter Palace. Annenhof was abandoned after a fire in 1746. Catherine II, who found both edifices rather old-fashioned and dilapidated, ordered their demolition in the 1760s. After 1773

Karl Blank Karl Blank (russian: Карл Иванович Бланк) (1728–1793) was a Russian architect, notable as one of the last practitioners of Baroque architecture and the first Moscow architect to build early neoclassical buildings. His surviving ...

Giacomo Quarenghi Giacomo Quarenghi (; rus, Джа́комо Кваре́нги, Džákomo Kvaréngi, ˈdʐakəmə kvɐˈrʲenʲɡʲɪ; 20 or 21 September 1744) was an Italian architect who was the foremost and most prolific practitioner of neoclassical architectu ...

and

Francesco Camporesi Francesco Camporesi (1747, Bologna – 1831, Moscow) was an Italian architect, painter, engraver and educator who worked in Moscow in 1780s-1820s. Most of his architectural work perished in the Fire of 1812, was severely altered, demolished or o ...

were the architects employed to supervise the construction of a Neoclassical residence in Lefortovo.

Emperor Paul Paul I (russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич ; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her l ...

, known for his dislike of his mother's palaces, converted the residence into

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are ...

. After Napoleon's occupation of Moscow in 1812 the Catherine Palace was restored under the supervision of

Osip Bove Osip ( Russian ''О́сип'') is a Russian male given name, a variant of the name Joseph. Notable people with the name include: * Osip Abdulov (1900–1953), Soviet actor * Osip Aptekman, Russian revolutionary * Ossip Bernstein (1882-1962), Ru ...

. It has since been occupied by the Moscow

Cadet Corps A corps of cadets, also called cadet corps, was originally a kind of military school for boys. Initially such schools admitted only sons of the nobility or gentry, but in time many of the schools were opened also to members of other social classes. ...

Malinovsky Tank Academy The Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy (Военная академия бронетанковых войск имени Маршала Советского Союза Р. Я. Малиновского) was one of the Soviet military academi ...

and other military institutions and has generally been inaccessible to the public at large. In October 1917 the Moscow cadets mounted a fierce resistance against the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

in Lefortovo. What little remained of the

Annenhof Park Annenhof was the name of two separate Imperial palaces in Moscow in Russia, known as the Annenhof Winter Palace and Annenhof Summer Palace, both of them designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in 1730-1731 on the order of Empress Anna of Russia. ...

was largely destroyed by the 1904 Moscow tornado.

Lefortovo Park

The palace park was laid out in 1703, in Soviet times unofficially named Lefortovsky after

François Le Fort François Le Fort was a merchant and navigator from Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine, Kingdom of France. In the 16th century, he was a member of the city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. De ...

. The regular planning of the park has been preserved since the time of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

. The main alleys, the Golovinsky Pond, and the Cross Pond have been restored, near which there is now a dilapidated Grotto from the end of the 18th century - a stone retaining wall with columns and niches. The gazebo nearby was built in the early 20th century. The total area of the manor house is 65.5 hectares. Entrance to the park is free. The palace and the area closest to it are still under the jurisdiction of military structures and are closed to the public. File:Catherine Palace in Moscow.jpg, Moscow's longest

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

consists of 16 dark columns set in a loggia File:Fall Day in the Lefortovo Palace Garden in Moscow (Junge, 1892).jpg, Lefortovo Park in 1892 File:Lefortovo Park Grotto Mos06-13.jpg, An 18th-century grotto

References

{{Imperial palaces in Russia Royal residences in Russia Palaces in Moscow Neoclassical palaces Neoclassical architecture in Russia Palladian architecture Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow