Vorontsov Palace Catholic Chapel. Maltese Chapel of the Vorontsov Palace
St. Petersburg owes its connection with the Order of Malta to Emperor Paul I, who in 1798 accepted the title of Master, the highest religious rank of this knightly union. Thanks to him, the Maltese cross temporarily appeared on the Russian coat of arms, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem appeared among state awards, and the emperor planned to make Malta a Russian province. But these plans were not destined to come true due to the tragic death of Paul I.
Meanwhile, ties with the Order of Malta were not completely severed: Alexander Suvorov, Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II were members of it. The fascination of warriors and monarchs with this religious movement was reflected in urban planning, and today in St. Petersburg you can find places associated with Maltese symbols.
The most striking of them, of course, remains the Maltese Chapel, inaugurated on April 29, 1800. SPB.AIF.RU talks about it and four other “Maltese” attractions of the Northern capital.
Maltese Chapel
Sadovaya street, 26
The Maltese Chapel was built according to the design of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi and was originally conceived by Paul I as a Catholic church of the Order of the Knights of Malta. It is part of the Vorontsov Palace, which today houses the Suvorov School. The palace, which Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli created in the 18th century for Count Vorontsov, changed many owners, and as a result, Paul I, with the adoption of the title of protector, and then the Grand Master of the Order, gave the Vorontsov Palace to the Knights of Malta.
The Maltese Chapel as designed by Giacomo Quarenghi. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Continuing the ensemble created by Rastrelli, Quarenghi built the chapel in the spirit of the Renaissance. The temple has the shape of a rectangle with a barrel vault. Two rows of artificial marble columns divide the interior of the chapel into three naves. Behind the marble altar is an altarpiece by artist A.I. Charlemagne “John the Baptist” (the holy prophet and forerunner of Jesus Christ John the Baptist is the heavenly intercessor and patron of the Order of Malta). To the right of the altar, under a canopy, stood the crimson velvet chair of the grandmaster (great master) of the order.
The chapel was consecrated in June 1800, and a year later Paul I was killed in the Engineers' Castle. His successor Alexander I renounced the title of Grand Master of the Order, but retained the title of Protector. From Russian state emblem the Maltese cross was removed. In 1803, Alexander I resigned the title of protector, and in 1817 it was declared by the highest order that “the order in Russian Empire no longer exists."
For some time, the chapel operated as an ordinary Catholic church. In the middle of the 19th century, a chapel was added to it, where the ashes of the former trustee Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg rested.
In 1928, the building of the Maltese Chapel was transferred to the club for the infantry school named after. Sklyansky, then the Leningrad Twice Red Banner Military School named after. CM. Kirov, and since 1955 it belongs to the Suvorov Military School. The interior of the Maltese Chapel was restored for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.
Mikhailovsky Castle
Sadovaya street, 2
Mikhailovsky Castle, or the Engineer's Castle, is an example of the extravagant preferences of Paul I. The palace became the last home and place of death of the emperor; it embodied the autocrat's dreams of a “knightly stronghold.”
Mikhailovsky Castle - the dream and death of Paul I. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Aleks G
The palace, which Pavel persistently called a “castle” (however, he even called the Winter Palace that way), was unusual in its architectural design for St. Petersburg. It was erected in extreme haste according to the design of Vincenzo Brenna and was completed by the time the emperor agreed to accept the title of Grand Master of the Order. It was planned that meetings and ceremonies of the Maltese cavaliers would take place here. That is why the image of the Maltese cross is so often repeated in interiors.
On the central wall Grand staircase a bronze coat of arms of the Russian Empire was installed in the version approved under Paul - with a cross. The coat of arms is the only Maltese relic in the castle that has survived to this day.
One of the controversial issues in the history of the castle remains its mysterious reddish color. Eat beautiful legend that the walls were painted the color of the glove that the emperor’s favorite Anna Gagarina dropped at the ball. The second version says that brick red is the traditional color of the Order of Malta.
Today, the interiors of the Engineering Castle house a branch of the Russian Museum.
Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the Winter Palace
Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands (or Big Church Winter Palace) was founded in 1753 as an Orthodox palace church. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli executed it in the Rococo style. For many years it was the home temple of the imperial family.
This is what the cathedral looked like from the inside until 1917. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Three ancient relics of the Hospitallers were delivered here in December 1799: a piece of the tree of the Holy Cross, the Philermos Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist, which were presented to Paul I in October in Gatchina. In memory of this event, in 1800 the Holy Synod established a holiday on October 12 (25) in honor of “the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Philermos Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist.” Today, the right hand of John the Baptist is kept in a monastery in the Montenegrin city of Cetinje.
Since 1918, the cathedral has been one of the halls of the Hermitage Museum, used for exhibitions.
Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist
Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 83
The Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, or St. John's Church, was built in 1778 according to the design of Yuri Felten at the nursing home for sailors of the Baltic Fleet. This building in pseudo-Gothic style can be mistaken from a distance for a Catholic church due to its uncharacteristic Orthodox churches architecture: red brick walls with a pointed pointed dome gray. Lancet barred windows, a narrow canopy over the entrance, and a wooden iconostasis are reminiscent of Gothic.
For some time there was a Maltese cemetery behind the church. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/IKit
During the time of Paul I, the church was transferred to the Order of Malta, and a cemetery for the Maltese cavaliers was built next to it. The graveyard was closed after Alexander I ascended the imperial throne. In 1807, the remains of the cavaliers were transferred to the Smolensk cemetery. After the construction of the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, the church was transferred to him. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin baptized his two children here.
The church was closed on March 15, 1938, and its devastated interiors housed various organizations. It was returned to the parish in 1989, and services resumed there in November 1990. Today the temple belongs to the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and is part of the Petrograd deanery district.
Cantemir Palace
Millionnaya street, 7
The outstanding Italian diplomat Julius Litta, a Maltese cavalier and the youngest general in the history of Russia, lived in St. Petersburg on Millionnaya Street for more than 40 years - he was awarded the rank at the age of 26. Such attention to the Italian was explained by the desire of Catherine II to strengthen ties with the Order of Malta.
Litta appeared in St. Petersburg first as an experienced naval officer and then as an envoy of the Order of Malta at the Russian court. By the way, it was he who brought Leonardo da Vinci’s “Madonna” to Russia, which is displayed today in the Hermitage under the code name “Madonna Litta”.
The house where Litta lived has three addresses at the same time. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Helvin spb
House behind Marble Palace has three addresses at once: Millionnaya Street No. 7, Mramorny Lane No. 1 and Palace Embankment No. 8. In 1715, on this site, at the behest of the Moldavian aristocrat Dmitry Cantemir, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli built a palace in the Baroque style. In 1743, the Church of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates was built on the top floor. Later, Count Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Count Vladimir Orlov, and Count Pavel Skavronsky lived here. Skavronsky's widow Ekaterina Vasilievna married Litt, who settled with her in the palace. For them, the architect Luigi Rusca rebuilt one of the buildings of the palace in the classicist style. After the death of Julius Litt, the mansion came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, and is now occupied by the Maritime Register Russian Federation and the Institute of Culture.
The Alupka Palace, a masterpiece of Romanticism architecture, was built over almost 20 years, from 1828 to 1848, by order of the powerful Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, aristocrat and Anglomaniac Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. The count personally chose the place for his Crimean residence on a picturesque stone cape at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri in the little-known Tatar village of Alupka. The Englishman Edward Blore, the author of Walter Scott's castle in Scotland and the court architect of the British crown, managed to organically fit the palace building into the surrounding landscape. In the architecture of the Vorontsov Palace, Blore combined different styles - English, neo-Moorish and Gothic, paying tribute to the secular fashion of that time for the novels of Walter Scott and oriental fairy tales.
History of creation
Initially, the famous Italian architect Francesco Boffo, who had already built a palace for the count in Odessa, was appointed to build the residence. The Englishman Thomas Harrison, an engineer and adherent of neoclassicism, was supposed to help him. Work began, and by 1828 the foundation, which was filled with lead for earthquake resistance, as well as the first masonry of the portal niche of the central building were ready. But Harrison died in 1829, and two years later the count decided to suspend construction of the palace, apparently abandoning the idea of building a residence in the neoclassical style.
Vorontsov turns to the Englishman Edward Blore, a brilliant architectural historian, graphic artist and fashionable architect in his homeland. Most likely, Count Pembroke recommended him to Vorontsov. We had to wait almost a year for new drawings. But Mikhail Semenovich liked the result, and in December 1832 the construction of the buildings began. Blore brilliantly solved the problem from a historical perspective: the architecture of the palace demonstrates the development of medieval European and Moorish architecture, ranging from the forms of the early Middle Ages to the 16th century. The palace building is deployed in such a way that it repeats the outlines of the visible mountains. It is surprising that the architect himself, who so accurately integrated the building into the surrounding nature, never visited Crimea, but used only numerous landscape sketches and relief drawings that were sent to him in England.
The resulting castle could well serve as an illustration for historical novels: five buildings, fortified with defensive towers, different in shape and height, interconnected by many open and closed passages, stairs and courtyards.
The construction was carried out from local greenish-gray stone - diabase, which is not inferior in strength to basalt, which was taken from natural placers in Alupka. Processing it required considerable effort, since complex designs on the exterior of the house could be ruined by one wrong blow with a chisel. Therefore, Russian stone cutters who built white stone churches in Central Russia were invited to carry out the most complex stone cutting work.
The main decorative decoration of the Vorontsov Palace - the motif of a gently sloping pointed keeled arch - is repeated many times in the cast-iron balustrade of the balconies, and in the carved stone lattice enclosing the roof, and in the decorative decoration of the portal south entrance, made in the Moorish style of the Alhambra Palace.
In the design of the seaward southern entrance, a Tudor flower design and a lotus motif are intertwined, which ends with the Arabic inscription repeated six times across the frieze: “And there is no winner but Allah,” just as it is written in the Alhambra of Granada.
In front of the façade is the Lion's Terrace and a monumental staircase in white Carrara marble by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Bonanni. On both sides of the steps there are three pairs of lions: the bottom left is sleeping, the bottom right is awakening, above is a pair of awake ones, and the third pair is roaring.
The rear façade of the palace and its West Side, a variation on the theme of Tudor England of the 16th - early 17th centuries, resembles the harsh castles of English aristocrats.
By the way, this palace was one of the first in Russia to be equipped with hot water and sewerage.
The cost of building the palace complex amounted to about 9 million silver rubles - an astronomical amount for those times. But Count Vorontsov could afford it, since after his marriage in 1819 to Elizaveta Ksaverevna Branitskaya, he doubled his fortune and became the richest landowner in the Russian Empire. Elizaveta Ksaverevna, the same one with whom, according to one version, Alexander Pushkin fell in love in exile in Odessa, personally supervised the creation of the building’s interiors, took care of the decoration of the park and often paid for the work.
Inhabitants of the palace
Mikhail Semenovich did not manage to live in the Alupka Palace for a long time. Another assignment followed - this time to the Caucasus. But in Alupka at the end of the 1840s, his daughter, Countess Sofya Mikhailovna, settled with her children. Then, after the death of Prince Vorontsov (he received the princely title in 1845), the palace, by right of primacy, passed to his only son, Semyon Mikhailovich. In 1882, his widow, Maria Vasilievna Vorontsova, went abroad and took many valuables from the palace. She had no children, the palace was abandoned, and by the end of the 19th century the building, park and farm fell into complete disrepair.
In 1904, the castle received new owners - relatives along the Vorontsov-Dashkov line. The wife of the Tsar's deputy in the Caucasus, Countess Elizaveta Andreevna Vorontsova-Dashkova, née Countess Shuvalova, energetically got down to business. She rented out land for sanatoriums and boarding houses and built more than 120 dachas on the estate.
After the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Crimea, the lands of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs were nationalized. And on February 22, 1921, Lenin’s telegram arrived in Crimea: “Take decisive measures to truly protect artistic values, paintings, porcelain, bronze, marble, etc., located in Yalta palaces and private buildings, now allocated for sanatoriums of the People's Commissariat of Health...”
At the beginning of the 20s South Coast Crimea, museums were created in a number of the largest noble estates, among them the Alupka Museum. The museum's collection was seriously damaged during the Great Patriotic War: much was taken away by the occupiers, including 537 works of painting and graphics. Only a small part of the paintings were found after the war and returned to the palace.
In February 1945, during the Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the Alupka Palace became the residence of the British delegation. Meetings of the heads of the Allied powers - Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt - took place in the State Dining Room of the palace.
Later the palace became the state dacha of the NKVD. In 1952, a sanatorium was located there, and only in 1956, by decision of the Soviet government, the Crimean State Museum opened here visual arts. Since 1990, the palace has been part of the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve. Its collection today includes works of painting, sculpture and applied art, as well as documents, ancient drawings and lithographs that introduce the history of the construction of the palace.
English park
The English park of the palace is the work of the German gardener-botanist Karl Kebach, whom Vorontsov invited to Crimea in 1824, when there was no design for the palace itself. He eagerly set about creating a park, taking into account the relief, climate and local flora, combining, however, everything with the latest achievements of gardening art. About 200 species of trees and bushes were brought here from all over the world. Parcels with seeds and seedlings came from America, Italy, the Caucasus, Karelia, China and Japan. They said that more than two thousand varieties of roses bloomed here at the same time. The German gardener became so famous in Crimea that landowners began to invite him to create or improve their parks and gardens along the entire coast.
Karl Kebach clearly planned the park on the principle of an amphitheater, maintaining connections in its structure with the main palace and other architectural objects. The coastal highway (Yalta - Simeiz) divides the park into Upper and Lower.
The lower park is designed in the style of Italian Renaissance gardens with fountains, marble sculptures, Byzantine columns, vases and stone benches. The upper one was created according to the principle of English landscape parks of the Romanticism era - more natural and natural: in it, rocky debris, shady ponds and preserved areas of the Crimean forest alternate with picturesque meadows, a unique system of lakes, waterfalls, cascades and grottoes. Kebakh created the Upper Park as a place of contemplation of the sea and Mount Ai-Petri, towering above the park and palace, like the ruins of a giants’ castle.
A carefully thought-out drainage system and individual plant care did their job - many, even very rare and whimsical plants, took root well. In total, 250 species of trees and shrubs grew in the park by the end of the 19th century. The plants of Vorontsovsky Park were so popular that seedlings were even sold externally to other gardens and estates.
The glory of Vorontsov Park as a masterpiece of landscape architecture was strengthened by the artists who worked here on sketches: Isaac Levitan, Vasily Surikov, Aristarkh Lentulov... And the parks, gardens and vineyards that belonged to Count Mikhail Vorontsov and his relatives - the Naryshkins and Pototskys, completely changed the appearance of the coast from Alushta to Foros.
One of the most interesting buildings in St. Petersburg is the Maltese Catholic Chapel, hidden from the eyes of citizens and tourists behind the facade of the Suvorov School.
How the Maltese Chapel appeared in St. Petersburg
By the end of the eighteenth century, the Russian fleet became the main threat to the fleet of the Ottoman Empire. This led to a rapprochement between the Order of Malta and the Russian Tsar. In 1797, Paul I organized a new main priory of the order on the territory of the Russian Empire. The Hospitallers needed a patron since they were expelled from Malta by Napoleon.
Emperor Paul greatly favored the Maltese. On the territory of Russia, he provided members of the Order with “all those distinctions, advantages and honors that the famous Order enjoys in other places.” Three commanderies were organized, the head of the Main Priory in Russia was introduced into the State Council. Russian nobles were encouraged in every possible way to join it.
In 1799, Emperor Paul awarded the Commander's Cross to commander Alexander Suvorov. The Hospitallers opened the Corps of Pages in St. Petersburg, which produced many military leaders. The Corps of Pages later became the Suvorov School. It was then that a Catholic (Maltese) chapel appeared on the territory of the military school.
However, Paul’s flirting with the Catholic Church, his rapprochement with Rome did not like the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church) and the entire policy of the emperor towards a foreign religious order was another, among many others, reason for his murder in St. Michael’s Castle in St. Petersburg on the night of March 13 1801.
The new Emperor Alexander I, in the very first months of his reign (August 1, 1801), renounced the title of Grand Master of the Order and ordered the Maltese cross to be removed from the state emblem.
However, the Corps of Pages (now the Suvorov School is based in the building) and the Maltese Chapel remained in St. Petersburg. Lately she has served as concert hall. So in order to look at this unusual building for our latitudes, you need to buy a concert ticket.
p.s. Unfortunately, the chapel is currently under renovation and there are no concerts. But they do conduct excursions. Official website of the chapel:
Vorontsov Palace.Vorontsov Palace is a palace in the central part of St. Petersburg, located on Sadovaya Street opposite Gostiny Dvor. Built by the architect Count Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli in 1749-1757 for Chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov. The palace is distinguished by the rich, elegant decoration of its facades and luxurious interior decoration. The palace has more than 50 state halls and rooms. The palace is decorated with stucco, gilded carvings and other elements characteristic of the Baroque style.
Vorontsov Palace is the main building on the territory of the estate of Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, a noble nobleman, state chancellor, participant in the palace coup of 1741, which brought Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to power.
The construction of the palace was carried out according to the design of the court architect of Elizabeth Petrovna - Federico Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the period from 1749 to 1757.
The estate occupied a vast area between Sadovaya Street and the Fontanka River. Breaking the traditions of urban estate construction, Rastrelli placed the palace not near the river, but closer to Sadovaya, separating the building from it with an artistic fence.
The border of the extensive courtyard-garden, located behind the fence, is formed by the main building of the palace and its side wings. A similar layout with the letter “P” has long been called “peace” in Russia. 
The main three-story building with a quadrangular courtyard is located in the depths of the estate. Two symmetrical two-story wings are brought forward and placed along the red line of the street. The central part of the main facade is decorated with double columns and pilasters, the windows are decorated with decorative frames. 
The palace was built in the style of a magnificent and elegant Baroque. As you know, Rastrelli was a master of this style, which reached its peak in Russian architecture during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. This is evidenced by such names of this style of the mid-18th century as “Rastrelli Baroque” and “Elizabethan Baroque”.
Behind the main building, a regular garden was laid out, extending to the Fontanka, with numerous pools, fountains, alleys of trimmed trees, and other “ventures”.
Above the one-story building facing the park, there was an open terrace overlooking the river. From here there was a beautiful view of the fireworks taking place in the Anichkov Garden. The interiors, also decorated in Baroque traditions, were also luxurious. Fifty ceremonial halls were located in an enfilade pattern along the main facade and in the side buildings. In the central part of the Vorontsov Palace there was a large double-height hall; another spacious hall housed the Vorontsov Library, then one of the best in St. Petersburg.
In 1763, M.I. Vorontsov was forced to cede the palace to the treasury to pay off debts for 217,600 rubles, since construction required huge investments. 
After the accession of Emperor Paul I to the throne in the late 1790s, the palace was transferred to the Order of Malta, and the chapter of Russian orders was also located here. The former Vorontsov Palace was ordered to be called the “Castle of the Knights of Malta.” The order's coat of arms was strengthened above the lattice gates of the palace: a white Maltese cross with four bifurcating rays on a red background.
Two temples were built on the territory of the estate - Orthodox Church and the Catholic Chapel of the Order of the Knights of Malta (architect Giacomo Quarenghi).
Later, the Corps of Pages was located in the palace. For the needs of this educational institution, which was located in the palace from 1810 to 1918, in 1827 the premises were rebuilt according to the design of the architect Alexander Egorovich Staubert; At the same time, the previous baroque decoration of the interiors was lost. 
Today, organ music concerts are held in the Maltese Chapel. The decoration of the interior of the chapel is well preserved - a colonnade of the Corinthian order, paintings, stucco decoration of the walls, lined with artificial marble. The restoration of the chapel was carried out in 1927 by the architect N.P. Nikitin.
After the revolution, the First Petrograd Infantry School for the command staff of the Red Army was located here, on the basis of which the Leningrad Infantry School named after. S. M. Kirov. In 1958, the building was completely given over to the Suvorov Military School.
Address: Russia, Republic of Crimea, Alupka, sh. Dvortsovoye, 18
Date of construction: 1840
Architect: Furasov P.I.
Coordinates: 57°19"07.5"N 43°06"40.4"E
Short story
The luxurious palace, named Vorontsovsky in honor of Count Vorontsov M.S., is a unique building that became the embodiment of the Romanticism era. It is located on the Crimean peninsula in the city of Alupka.
The beginning of its construction dates back to 1828, when Governor-General Vorontsov, responsible for the Novorossiysk region, chose the site for the construction of the future main building and drove pegs into it. However, the palace did not appear quickly - its construction took 20 years.
Initially, the project of the future Vorontsov Palace was developed in the style of strict classics, and the famous Italian architect named Francesco Boffo and his colleague from England Thomas Harrison.
The year 1829 was the beginning of the implementation of their joint project, and as all the preparatory work was completed, the foundation was immediately laid and the first masonry was made. However, an unpleasant surprise soon occurred - in the midst of preparing working drawings, architect Harrison died.
To keep the construction going, Boffo needed a new partner. It was Edward Blore, a young architect working in the romantic direction of English architecture.
Stone staircase with white marble lion sculptures
Why did Count Vorontsov choose him and decide to make changes to the project of the future palace in the Crimean Alupka? The fact is that in those years he was in England, and he was impressed by the local architecture and new fashion trends in the construction of buildings. Therefore, the count revised the already developed project and entrusted the new architect with adjusting it so that the result of the work would be a real castle, combining the rigor of English architecture and the luxury inherent in Indian palaces.
And since 1832, construction work on the construction of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea has already been carried out according to an updated project, but without distorting the previously completed stages. The execution of all work was entrusted to the best craftsmen - stonemasons, modelers, stone and wood carvers, artists, furniture makers and other workers, who approached the orders entrusted to them with all responsibility. As a result, the construction of the palace cost Vorontsov 9 million rubles.
From left to right: formal dining room, winter Garden
Layout of the Vorontsov Palace
The entire palace complex, erected by order of Vorontsov, is represented by several solid buildings, designated as:
- central;
- dining room;
- guest;
- library;
- economic.
The building intended for receiving guests was later called Shuvalovsky, since on the right side there was the room of Vorontsov’s daughter, who became Countess Shuvalova after her marriage.
Northern façade of the main building
Oddly enough, the construction of the palace began with the construction of the dining building, and this work took 4 years (from 1830 to 1834). The construction of the central building took 6 years - 1831 - 1837. From 1841 to 1842, work was carried out on the construction of a billiard room, which complemented the building with a dining room. For the construction of the guest building, all towers, outbuildings, wings and the design of the Main Courtyard also took a lot of time (these were 1838 - 1844). And finally, the library building, built from 1842 to 1846, joined the palace complex.
The decoration of the central staircase were sculptures of lions, the production of which was entrusted to the Italian master Giovanni Bonnani. And the entire luxurious palace ensemble ended with a lion terrace, that is, many figures of lions.
Right - Clock Tower
Features of the architecture of the Vorontsov Palace
The Vorontsov Palace, which became the decoration of Alupka in Crimea in the mid-19th century, was a kind of innovation that violated some architectural and construction principles. In those days, it was customary to place the buildings of palace ensembles in a strict geometric grouping, but the architect Blore deviated from this rule and distributed all the buildings that were part of the Vorontsov Palace on the ground so that they stood in the direction from west to east, as if in accordance with the movement of the mountains. This approach allowed all the buildings to fit harmoniously into the local landscape - the Vorontsov palace complex found its place in the Crimean expanses.
Moving from building to building, you can clearly trace the stages of development of medieval architecture, starting from its earliest forms and ending with the traditions of the 16th century.
Shuvalovsky building
However, when developing projects for all buildings, the emphasis was still placed on the English style. Why is Vorontsov Castle in Crimea so attractive? Its feature is appearance, reminiscent of a castle-fortress from the ancient VIII - XI centuries. When you find yourself in the courtyard of the utility buildings, you involuntarily stumble upon blank walls and find yourself in confined spaces, and when you try to get to the central building, you find yourself surrounded by round watchtowers. Further, the general impression of inaccessibility is complemented by narrow loophole windows and high walls of rough masonry. But suddenly an openwork appears suspension bridge, made of cast iron, and brings a festive touch to this harsh composition. And so, as you move away from the arch of the western entrance, signs of the architecture of the following eras become more and more apparent.
West Entrance Towers
Having crossed the openwork bridge and getting rid of the feeling of enclosure, you can find yourself in the Front Courtyard, which offers a view of Mount Ai-Petri. But this is not just a view - it is a unique picture, because the landscape is, as it were, limited by an architectural frame represented by a clock tower, an eastern wing and a retaining wall with a fountain.
The architecture of the main building of the Vorontsov Palace in Crimea is also interesting. Its walls are extended out of the plane at different levels, as required by the English Tudor style. The central part is decorated with a main entrance and decorated with bay window projections and side projections. The roofs of the towers are onion domes. The northern facade of the building is decorated with narrow polyhedral semi-columns, the crowns of which are pinnacles (decorative tops).
Chapel
Graceful pinnacles and battlements, domes and chimneys, decorated with flower-shaped finials, smooth out the roughness of the stone texture of the walls and their massive luggage.
Considering the carved stone decorations that decorate the Vorontsov Palace, it is worth noting their pronounced similarity with some elements of Western and Eastern architecture. Thus, true architecture connoisseurs will immediately notice the Gothic chimneys and minarets of the mosque, and it is precisely this compatible incompatibility that makes the palace complex special. This similarity is especially acute as you move to the southern facade of the building, called the main one. In the rays of the sun, its outlines seem unusual and bizarre.
From left to right: formal dining room, winter garden, main building
But the main motive for the design of the palace are arches of the most varied shapes - they are gentle, keel-shaped, horseshoe-shaped, and pointed. And you can see them everywhere, from the balustrade of the balconies to the decoration of the portal of the southern entrance to the Vorontsov Palace. Besides, architectural ensemble, erected by order of the Governor-General, also has its own “zest” - these are 6 identical lines in Arabic, indicating that the winner is only Allah. You can see the inscription in a niche decorated with a Tudor flower and an Indian lotus.
Description of the park surrounding the Vorontsov Palace
During the construction of the palace, work was also carried out to lay out the adjacent park. But if the construction of the Vorontsov Palace took two decades, work on creating the park does not stop to this day. On an area of 40 hectares, a wide variety of plants brought from all over the world coexist harmoniously.
Shuvalovsky passage with a view of the openwork bridge
In general, the palace park is divided into Upper and Lower. The upper park is decorated with several glades - Kashtanovaya, Contrast, Solnechnaya. And each of them is notable for its trees (Italian pine, oriental plane tree, yew berry, Himalayan cedar, Chilean araucaria, or monkey tree, etc.). In addition, on the territory Upper Park there is Swan Lake, where these beautiful birds really live, Upper and Mirror lakes and a waterfall.
In the Lower Park, surrounded by the most beautiful and rare representatives of the flora, there is a small tea house, which at one time was used by the Vorontsov family to spend holidays on the seashore. Then this place was often illuminated with fireworks and fireworks.
Shuvalovsky passage with a view of the western gate
Being here, you can really feel the holiday atmosphere, because it was not without reason that the architect chose the place to build the house here. Surrounded by many unique plants, it creates the feeling of being in a fairy tale, since the entire territory of the Lower Park is conducive to creating an enchanting mood. And the lower part of Vorontsovsky Park in Crimea is designed in the Italian style of a regular park.
Use of the Vorontsov Palace complex in different years
Since 1990, the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka has become a palace and park museum-reserve. Several interesting exhibitions are located in nine state rooms. Thanks to their content, everyone can get acquainted with the way of life of the count’s family, who lived in the palace before the October Revolution, and the character of the palace’s interiors.
Exit from the yard
But in 1990, the opening of the Vorontsov Palace as a museum was secondary - its building was first used as a museum in 1921.
But with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War of 1941, valuable museum exhibits could not be saved, and the building itself was repeatedly threatened with destruction. However, thanks to the efforts of one of the museum employees S.G. Shchekoldin. The Vorontsov Palace Museum still survived. Of course, many artistic treasures were lost during the war, but after it ended, some paintings were still found and returned to the museum.
