Pavlovsk Park

Lore & Background

From 1792, Italian landscape architect and painter Pietro Gonzaga, who began as a set designer at La Scala in Milan, became chief architect. He planned the landscape meticulously, marking trees to save or cut, and used open and closed spaces and contrasting colors of birch and pine to create theatrical scenes. He also designed the funeral processions of Catherine the Great, Paul I, and Alexander I, as well as coronations of Paul I, Alexander I, and Nicholas I. Gonzaga remained architect until his death in 1831 at age eighty.

Reader's Guide

Pavlovsk Park represents a significant fusion of English landscape garden ideals with continental European influences, shaped by the personal tastes of Tsar Paul I and Maria Feodorovna. Its design by Charles Cameron and later Pietro Gonzaga created a multi-styled park that an English visitor in 1812 called the most beautiful example of the English landscape garden in the Russian Empire. The park's theatrical use of space, color, and seasonal changes, along with its classical structures like the Temple of Friendship and the colonnade with Apollo Belvedere, made it a model of picturesque gardening. Maria Feodorovna's botanical interests added practical and ornamental dimensions, including greenhouses and imported flowers. Today, as a state museum and public park, it preserves the imperial vision of a romantic, varied landscape that combined formal French, Italian, Dutch, and English styles, reflecting the cosmopolitan tastes of the Russian court in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Did You Know?

• The park's dairy was modeled after one in the park of Württemberg, where Maria Feodorovna grew up.
• The Temple of Friendship was originally called the Temple of Gratitude, dedicated to Catherine the Great.
• Pietro Gonzaga began his career as a set designer at La Scala Theater in Milan.
• Maria Feodorovna imported flowers from Holland, including hyacinth, tulips, daffodils, and narcissus.