There are lots of places that you can visit during your tour to Russia. From museums to historical sites, palaces, cultural centers, religious places, and many more. You can also visit gardens and parks during your tour to Russia, especially in St. Petersburg, because of the number of parks and gardens in this city. While places like Peterhof, which has one of the most beautiful cascades show in the world, or Pushkin with its spectacular gardens are almost definitely on your tour to Russia program; some places are up to you if you want to visit them during your Russia tour or not, such as Tauride Garden, one of the most beautiful public parks in St. Petersburg.
Grigory Potemkin was one of the generals of the Russian military, who, during one of his military campaigns, was able to add Crimean Khanate to Russia, and from 1783 Crimean Khanate became part of Russian territory. His success during that campaign granted him two important things; first, Catherine the Great granted him the title of Prince, and second, by order of Catherine the Great, a palace was built for the new Prince Grigory Potemkin, who was one of the favorites of the Empress. The origin of the Tauride Palace and its beautiful garden began from this point in the history of St. Petersburg. The latter called Tauride Palace, which was the former name of the Crimean peninsula.
Like many other nobles and officials, Prince Grigory Potemkin had a favorite architect, Ivan Starov. Prince Grigory Potemkin commissioned him to build his palace inside the city of St. Petersburg. Another reason that Potemkin had chosen Starov was the fact that he was master in designing in Palladian style. He also asked for a harbour in front of the palace that connect to the Neva River by a canal as well as a garden for the palace. It took about six years for Starov to design and build everything Potemkin asked for from 1783 to 1789. Prince Grigory Potemkin considered as one of the greatest nobleman in Russia in the 18th century, he was even more respected than Peter the Great himself in the south since they thought he had done more for Russia than the Peter I. His residence in St. Petersburg was one of the greatest palaces of Russia, therefore, it served as a model for other noble residences across the empire. Unfortunately for the Prince, shortly after the construction of his palace ended, he fell out of favor of the Empress. He spent all of his short time in the palace to regain the Empress’s trust by holding several balls and impressive parties, but it didn’t help him a lot and he left St. Petersburg for Romania. Shortly after his death in 1791, Catherine the Great purchased the palace to build her residence in the town. Although the palace had a magnificent design already, Catherine the Great commissioned architect Fyodor Volkov to reconstruct the palace and garden. Fyodor Volkov had altered some parts of the palace and garden to improve its look for the Empress. He constructed the theater at the east wing of the palace as well as the church at the west wing. However, he spent more of his talent in redesigning the garden, including constructing the Admiralty Pavillion, orangery, and the iron fences. The interior design of the palace, unlike its exterior, was quite more luxurious as Catherine the Great requested. The domed hall at the center of the palace built with the 75-meter-long columned gallery, which was one of the largest ones in all Russia, and it also had a winter garden inside it. Each room inside the palace, especially the major ones, such as the Tapestry Parlour and the Chinese Hall, had different majestic designs. Unfortunately, Paul I, who succeeded the throne after his mother, loathed the way his mother and her government lived, so he gave the palace to his favourite cavalry regiment, which they used it as their barracks. That almost destroyed all the interior designs.
In the 19th century, the Italian architect Carlo Rossi and Russian Vasily Stasov were commissioned to restore the palace and its garden; from then until 1906, the place used to host the balls and exhibitions, but then it turned to the seat of Imperial State Duma, the first Russian parliament. After the February revolution, the palace housed the Russian Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet, but after the October Revolution, the Tauride Palace had turned to the High Party School. From the 1990s to the present day, the Tauride Palace has been the house of the IPA CIS (Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States). Although one of the attractions of this place is the Potemkin Evenings, in which some of the top local ensembles gathered to perform the 18th century music with authentic instruments, the real attraction of the Tauride is its garden.
The Tauride Garden was laid between 1783 to 1789, at the same time as the construction of the palace. The Tauride Garden was one of the most beautiful places in the 18th century, with Romantic style design that blend with nature. It has several ponds, canals, and picturesque rolling landscapes. Even the trees in that garden were brought to St. Petersburg from England. You could find peacocks and swans in that garden. The orangery of the garden had produced pineapples, watermelons, peaches, apricots, and melons. However, most of the garden features were added after Catherine the Great purchased the palace, including the orangery, pavilions, and bridge. In the middle of the 19th century, the Tauride Garden became a public park for everyone, especially for children because of all the entertainment provided in the garden, such as camel-riding during summer and sports centers in the middle of the park. The same as other parks and gardens in St. Petersburg, Tauride Garden turned to the vegetable garden to provide food for the besieged city. A garage was also established in the park to repair the vehicles. The garden went under reconstruction after the war.
Today, Tauride Garden is one of the attractions of St. Petersburg in Russia tour, which many people visit it during their tour to Russia. Besides the sports centers that became quite popular among the locals, the picturesque landscapes attract lots of people from Russia tour. The fountain of A Boy with a Duck is one of the popular places in the garden both for locals and tourists who have decided to enjoy a visit to this garden during their tour to Russia. The orangery of the garden is also another attraction of St. Petersburg in Russia tour because of the movies that had been shot in the orangery of the garden. If you love Russian cinema, you would probably recognize the set if you visit this orangery on your tour to Russia. We at the Star Travel Group also recommend our tourists who want to have a quiet time inside the busy city of St. Petersburg to visit this place on their tour to Russia. You can visit our weblog to learn more about other attractions of St. Petersburg, as well as several tips about how to travel to Russia.
