From the beginning of its existence during the Peter the Great era, St. Petersburg has experienced lots of upside and downside in its history. Many vital points in St. Petersburg’s history could change the fate of this beautiful city. For example, if Empress Anna didn’t transfer back the capital to St. Petersburg from Moscow after the Peter II’s reign, we could’ve lost one of the top tourist destination cities on tour to Russia. The same goes for Catherine the Great era. If she didn’t have military support and couldn’t convince them to a coup against Peter III, St. Petersburg couldn’t have experienced its golden age during Catherine the Great’s reign. Although no one can say what would happen if these vital points in St. Petersburg’s history wouldn’t happen, we should be happy to have St. Petersburg as one of the top tourist destinations on Russia tour. In this article, we’re going to see what did happen during the Paul I’s reign in St. Petersburg, but if you want to learn the facts about previous eras of St. Petersburg’s history, you can always check our weblog.
Paul I’s relationship with his mother, Catherine II, was in bad terms even before Catherine became the Empress. Paul was in the care of Empress Elizabeth, who was Peter III, Paul I’s father, aunt. Although Empress Elizabeth had an obsessive love for the child, she sometimes mistook the child as an object, and neglect him for a while. That distance between him and his mother, Catherine II, was the beginning of their conflict. When Empress Elizabeth died, Paul I’s father, Peter III, became the Emperor, and Paul I became the crown prince. However, in less than six months, Catherine II took power from Peter III with a coup, but Paul I remained as the crown prince. After Peter III died in prison, Paul I suspected his mother and his lover, Grigory Orlov, who had killed his father, which increased his anger toward his mother. When Alexander I, Paul’s son born, Catherine the Great decided to make him the heir to the throne because she knew that she couldn’t trust her son, Paul. However, before Empress Catherine II died before she can announce that matter, and Paul I destroyed her will in fear of revealing Alexander I as the Emperor; thus, he became the Emperor.
After Paul I became the Emperor, the first thing he had done was relocating his father’s remains to Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in a coronational ceremony because Peter III never had one. He also made Count Orlov, who had played a significant role in deposing Peter III, and probably his death, to walk in front of Peter’s coffin, holding the Imperial Crown. Although Paul I’s reign only lasted for five years, he left a significant mark in St. Petersburg’s history during his time. One of the main things he had done was to invite the defeated members of the Maltese Order to Napoleon to Russia, and granted the title of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta to himself. That was one of the reasons why he was assassinated. Paul always hated the luxurious lifestyle of his mother and those around her. To this end, after taking the throne, in the first act, he turned the palaces granted to him before becoming the Emperor, namely Pavlovsk and Gatchina, into a military camp. He was also terrified of being killed by courtiers and was always suspicious of living in The Winter Palace. To this end, he decided to change his residence from the Winter Palace to the castle he intended to build. Of course, only for forty days was Paul I able to live in that unusual castle he had built in the center of St. Petersburg near Mikhailovsky Garden. After forty days, he was killed by the courtiers and guards of the castle to make what he had always feared come true. Although Alexander I, the eldest son of Paul I, was offered the throne, he didn’t know the transition of power would be carried out through assassination. However, he didn’t punish the assassins after becoming the Emperor, and the court physician declared apoplexy the official cause of death. You can visit Paul I’s grave inside the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral during your tour to Russia.
One of the notable figures in Emperor Paul’s era was Vincenzo Brenna, who, before becoming Paul I’s favorite architect, was only designing interior designs for existing palaces in St. Petersburg. He was the architect who designed the interior of the Pavlovsk’s grand palace and Paul’s second palace at Gatchina. However, when he had shown Paul I his design, they immediately connected through their ideas and imagination. After that, he made significant changes in Pavlovsk and completely rebuilt the Grand Palace at Gatchina, one of Antonio Rinaldi’s masterwork. You can check out each one of these imperial estates during your tour to St. Petersburg. However, his most significant mark in St. Petersburg architecture, and Emperor Paul I’s legacy in St. Petersburg is the Mikhailovsky Castle or St. Michael’s Castle. This unusual medieval castle in the middle of St. Petersburg is one of the most striking buildings in the city that you can see during your Russia tour. Vincenzo Brenna had designed this magnificent castle with the help of his assistant, the famous Italian architect Carlo Rossi, and Emperor Paul’s sketches. This castle is one of the places where you shouldn’t miss visiting during your travel to Russia.
Although he wasn’t very popular among the people of St. Petersburg, there are three monuments to Paul I in the city, one in Gatchina, one in Pavlovsk, and a new one in the courtyard of Mikhailovsky Castle, which was erected in 2003. If you want to learn about other eras of St. Petersburg history, or the top attractions of St. Petersburg during the Russia tour, you can always check our weblog. You can also learn a lot about how to travel to Russia by visiting our weblog.
