Catherine Park in Tsarskoe Selo. Catherine Palace (47 photos) Catherine Park Square

I invite you to take a walk through the wonderful park, which is located in the center of Moscow. The park is located between Soviet Army Street, Olympic Avenue and Suvorov Square. The closest metro station to the park since 2010 is Dostoevskaya, but we walked from Novoslobodskaya metro station.

Catherine Park has the status natural complex city and a monument of landscape art. The area of Catherine Park is 16 hectares.
Until the 15th century, the park contained a chain of ponds in the bed of the Naprudnaya River, which flowed into the Neglinnaya River downstream in the area of modern Samotyochnaya Square. The development of the territory along the Naprudnaya began in the 16th century. The Holy Cross Monastery was moved here, and later the Church of St. John the Warrior was built. In the second half of the 18th century, next to the Church of St. John the Warrior, the count's country estate was built V.S. Saltykova, and next to the estate there is an extensive park, the central element of which is a large pond along the Naprudnaya. In 1807, the estate was rebuilt into the building of the Catherine Institute of Noble Maidens, and the park at the institute was named Catherine.

Since February 1928, the Catherine Institute became the Central House of the Red Army (abbreviated CDKA, now Central house Russian Army)

In 1818, a square was laid out in front of the building, which was named Catherine’s Square by the institute (now Suvorov Square; behind it, the Catherine Park with a pond was built.

The park has stands dedicated to the Great Patriotic War:

There are many old majestic trees in the park.

A three-hundred-year-old willow with a diameter of 176 cm and a trunk girth of -527 cm. This tree is an undoubted decoration of the park.

Beautiful flower beds are pleasing to the eye.

In the central part of the park there is the Big Catherine Pond with an area of 1.9 hectares.

The most pleasant thing is to sit on a bench like this and admire the swimming ducks, the beautiful reflections of the trees in the surface of the pond and enjoy the no longer hot September sun.

Cafe on the shore of the pond.

In the summer, there was a boat rental here, and there were a lot of boaters on the pond.

The Rotunda of Catherine II, restored according to ancient drawings, according to legend, in the old rotunda, located in the same place, the Empress loved to drink tea with Count Saltykov. In a nearby greenhouse, lemons were grown for their tea parties.

Small Catherine Pond.

a small stream that flows into it.

This is the quietest area of the park. Mostly older people walk here.

In the background is social rehabilitation center veterans of the Armed Forces.

Beautiful memorial Complex in memory of Alexander Suvorov.

Chapel in honor of St. Alexander Nevsky and the Holy Great Martyr John the Warrior. Previously, on the site of the chapel there was the Church of St. John the Warrior.

This blue building houses a very clean free public toilet

And another pond.

I must say that the area for mothers with children completely fell out of my field of attention. It is there, well equipped and there are a lot of kids hanging out there. But, since I was tired, I wanted quiet, cozy corners. And there were enough of them. In general, the most important advantage of this park is precisely its clear zoning, when no one bothers anyone. Can you imagine how beautiful it is here in the spring, when the fruit trees bloom? What a pity that in my native Rybinsk there are no such parks at all!

Next to the park there is a museum of the USSR Armed Forces, and on part of the former territory of the park there is an open-air exhibition of weapons.

and the Theater of the Russian Army. Very beautiful building

Today I would like to tell you about one of my favorite places in Moscow - Catherine Park (previously "CDSA Park") , tell some of his stories, maybe read yours and, I hope, find in the comments someone who also cares about this park. The story, as you might guess from the title, in this post will be about the eastern part of the park. I wanted to talk about it for several reasons: this is my living in those parts for more than two decades, and the memories that overwhelmed me after a recent visit there; and that the location for the central part of the capital is truly unique and green. Well, here we are at the eastern entrance.

(The commandments read: don’t saddle an iron horse, don’t smoke, don’t bring dogs, don’t follow the lead of the green serpent). I understand everything, but bicycles? True, if you are an agile cyclist, it will take a long time to catch you in order to drive you out of the 16 hectare territory of the park. I didn’t see the bike patrol there :)

I wanted to put in the header a photo that I took recently, but for some reason I don’t like it. The sign above is periodically redone, but I have not yet come to an understanding of the reasons for this. If we compare the two photographs, the latest innovations include the disappearance of the “Do not park cars at the gate” sign, the appearance of two lights and the replacement of the previous name plate with a new one. The monogram "EP" logo was rejected, no less.

Let’s go in and immediately get some Wikipedia:
The park has two entrances - western, from Suvorov Square (near the building of the Russian Army Theater) and eastern, from Olimpiysky Prospekt (opposite the Olimpiysky sports complex).

I’ll make a small amendment - there are four entrances to the park (there is also a southern gate and a northern gate, but I can’t say anything about them yet, though).

In the central part of the park there is a pond with an area of 1.9 hectares.

The pond is large (there is also a small second one now in the western part). In summer there is a rental of boats and catamarans.
It was thoroughly restored in 1998, when it was completely drained, deepened, the banks were lined and improved (although its former swampiness is always in my heart). The capital's poachers (they suddenly appeared) set nets at night in the remaining puddle at the bottom to profit from carp and crucian carp. The builders also did not disdain fish. I don’t know if the fish were destined to die, but new fish of different breeds were introduced into the new life of the pond. Local binge-watchers even said while playing dominoes that one of them almost saw a sturgeon there. Such amazing stories"Dominoshnikov" caused a restrained smile.

Now, due to the time of year, the view is rightly grey:

In spring, ducks always fly to the pond and breed. Sometimes even the ice is still standing, but they are already here.
Ducks are different, I can only say that you should beware of close contacts with this character, especially when there is a brood nearby:

The red duck or Ogar defends its brood fiercely, I saw a couple of times how a duck flew at a man who was reading a newspaper spread on a bench, it was both funny and scary for him, the duck really didn’t like the way he shook the newspaper. Naturally, both adults and ducklings love bread - feel free to bring it and feed it in the spring and summer.

In summer there is a rental of boats and catamarans. View from the former "boat station".

And this is what it looked like in 1966:

It is noteworthy that both photographs were taken from the “boat station”, the boats from which set sail only in the second photograph. In the updated park, you can rent a boat for yourself in the place marked in red.
The “boat station” has not received ships for a long time; there is a cafe there, which functions normally in the summer:

And in winter, “at half strength” and with half the assortment, if you allow:

And once in the early 90s there were no cafes and no boats either, but what can I say, there weren’t many things in the whole country in those years:

(cameras, for example)

This long-suffering marina is worth noting. The photograph below is dated (approximately) 1939 and is captioned lower left "new boat landing". At its dawn, this is how it was:

To sum up the situation with the former boat station, I will say that a cafe took root there already N years ago, winter prices in it are ridiculous for the center - I checked.

In one of the pictures, you can see a blue spherical building - a planetarium.

(thanks for the photo: orbicraft )

The planetarium is small, but works well for children and adults. There is even a “googly-eyed” website. If you check the schedule, you can visit the planetarium yourself or with your family.
If you are an armchair stargazer and are interested, here is the directions:

There was an old dance floor in the park, from Soviet times, but, as I was told yesterday orbicraft it (being with a roof full of snow) collapsed grandiosely. And it was like this:

(saved football battles for local youth on rainy days)

Eh, I'd like to see how this roof falls. It's good that no one was hurt.
The journey through the eastern part of the Catherine Park comes to an end and we go to the exit leading to sports complex Olympic:

And from the past there is the same way out, although not as “luxurious”:

Let me summarize the eastern part of the park:

In winter - ice rink on the pond, along the perimeter of the pond there is a ski track. Playground one at the entrance, very small. There are no slides. Eat cafe, which is better to visit in the summer, but probably the summer prices are completely different. In winter you can have a drink in the cafe Tea coffee, have an easy snack, sit (albeit in a cramped space) in the warmth.
For true connoisseurs, in winter they organize ice hole and gentlemen “walruses” can use it. I just don’t know - is the water cleaner in winter? :)
The park is great for sports, jogging, and exercises., paving stone paths are not slippery, but they won’t be suitable for roller skates or boards the best option. The park is also good for picnics, but watch the warning signs “about some lawns” and, of course, no fires, you never know.
Suitable for summer wedding photography, and in winter, when there is a lot of pure snow and everything has not yet begun to melt, it is very suitable. In fact, the decor of the park is a bit banal for photos, but they love it.
In summer you can feed the ducks, but remember about the villain Ogar. In any season you can visit the planetarium, if you check his schedule in advance, the “show” doesn’t happen often. Boats and catamarans are rented in the summer, it seems like I even saw a transparent ball there that you have to climb into. Personally, I appreciate the park for its indescribable greenery and liveliness in summer d, and in winter for silence and pleasant melancholy.

For some, the disadvantages of the eastern part may seem to be the absence of any attractions and entertainment (once upon a time they existed), I do not consider this a disadvantage. There are enough benches in the park for everyone, and most often there are one or two people sitting on each long bench. For some reason, it is common for our people to try to occupy a vacant one and consider a bench “occupied” if there is at least one rider per 7 meters of it.
I won’t write about toilets, because I don’t know how things are going with this. In winter I didn’t see any booths, in a cafe, I didn’t think to ask at the “boat station”. The question remains open.
The more active part of the park is the western one, but I’ll tell you about it next time. Visit Ekaterininsky and other parks in the capital, spend more time outside. Thank you very much for your attention.

From the estate to the palace and park ensemble: an architectural and historical cheat sheet

In the 1630s, the stone Church of St. John the Warrior was built. It has not survived: the temple was demolished in the 1930s for the construction of the CDKA hotel. But recently, in Catherine Park, the church was not just restored, but a memorial complex was opened: the stele of A.V. Suvorov, the Chapel of Alexander Nevsky and the Church of St. John the Warrior.

At the end of the 18th century, the country estate of Count V.S. was built on the site of the future park. Saltykova. A large manor park with a pond in the center was built nearby. Other ponds were buried, and the Sinichka River was enclosed in a pipe.

In 1807, the estate was transferred to the Catherine Institute of Noble Maidens, and the park was renamed Catherine.

In the late 1860s, the Catherine Institute began leasing former garden lands north of the pond. Because of this, a system of small plots was formed, and Bolshaya and Malaya Ekaterininskaya streets were built to access them. The park itself has shrunk a lot.

The development of the 20th century changed the surrounding area: residential buildings, the Red Army Theater, Olympic Avenue and the Olympic sports complex, the Museum of the Armed Forces... And Catherine Park retained its historical layout - straight alleys with diagonal intersections. At the same time, there you can see both young plantings and trees over 100 years old, 3 ponds, a decorative bed of the Sinichka River, a greenhouse, a rose garden, and the sculpture “To the Stars” of 1958 by G. Postnikov.

They say that......in the old rotunda in Catherine Park, Catherine II loved to drink tea with Count Saltykov, and in the nearby greenhouse they grew lemons for their tea party. The Empress Rotunda was restored according to ancient drawings.

After we have become acquainted with the city, let's walk along its paths and admire its sights. And our walk today will be dedicated to the Old Garden.

Old garden in Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo

The Old Garden (and Catherine Park as a whole) is separated from the city by the Cascade Canal. It was originally dug to drain the area. In 1775-1777, 12 cascades of Pudost limestone and a granite embankment with a cast fence were built. Architects V.I. Neelov, Yu.M. Felten and engineer I.K. Gerard took part in the construction. The Cascade Canal originates from the beak of a fountain swan near the Catherine Palace.

Cascade Canal in Catherine Park of Tsarskoe Selo

On the bank of the canal we will see an interesting building in the Gothic style - the Hermitage Kitchen, architect V.I. Neelov. It was built in 1775-1776 and was used for its intended purpose. Its other name is Court bakery. The Hermitage Kitchen was also the entrance to the territory of the Catherine Park, which is why it was also called Red Gate.

History of the Old Garden

Dutch (Old) Garden is the oldest part of Catherine Park. It was built in the 1720s on the site of the Saar Manor orchard. The work was supervised by Dutch gardeners J. Roozen and I. Voht. In 1743, during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a large-scale reconstruction of the park began, and the territory of the Old Garden was expanded. Architects involved in the construction of the Catherine Palace took part in the work: A.V. Kvasov, S.I. Chevakinsky, F.-B. Rastrelli.

Old, or as it is also called, Dutch garden made in the regular style, popular in the first half of the 18th century. Its main axis is connecting the Catherine Palace with the Hermitage. Everything in the garden obeys the principle of strict symmetry. Trees and bushes were skillfully trimmed, playing the role of a kind of building material: halls, offices, and green galleries were built from them. Pavilions were also built here and sculptures were erected. Over time, the structure of the Old Garden was damaged. After the war, during restoration work, it was restored according to surviving drawings and drawings.

The old garden is divided into three sections:

The upper garden, which includes three terraces,
Lower Garden – from the last terrace to the Fishing Canal
The Hermitage section - from the Fish Canal to the Cascade Ponds.

Upper and Lower Gardens merged into Palace area, or the Dutch Garden itself.

Parterre

On the first terrace of the Upper Garden, I. Vokht created two symmetrical stalls with a whimsical baroque pattern made of coal, brick, broken glass and colored sand. They are revealed in full glory if you look at them from the state rooms of the Catherine Palace. In the center there are marble sculptures “Peace” and “Splendor”.

Bosquets

On the second terrace there were green bosquets made of trimmed trees and shrubs:

Mirror Ponds and Upper Bath

On the third terrace in 1720-1722, two symmetrical ponds were dug, called Mirrored. In 1777-1779, on the shore of one of them, according to the design of the architect I.V. Neelov, a Upper Bath, in the style of early classicism. Its other name is “The Soap House of Their Highnesses.” For a long time it was used for its intended purpose, and since 1911 a museum was set up here in memory of the 200th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo. During the war, the Upper Bath was destroyed and restored during the restoration of 1952-1953.

Lower Bath

Not far from the Upper Bath is Lower Bath, created according to the design of I.V. Neelov in 1778-1779. It served as a men's bath for the courtiers and therefore received the second name “Cavalier Soap”. The building is hidden behind a wall of trimmed bushes; only the dome of a classical building is visible above the greenery.

Along Hermitage Alley sculptures were installed, which, by order of Peter the Great, were purchased from Italy to decorate the gardens of St. Petersburg. Here we will see the heroes of ancient mythology and allegory: Perseus, Andromeda, Galatea, Hercules, etc.

Hermitage Alley in Catherine Park of Tsarskoe Selo

Fish Canal

The Palace and Hermitage sections of the Old Garden are separated Fish Canal. It was dug in the early 1720s and is the oldest canal in the park. The Fish Canal connects the Big Pond with the Cascade Canal. Once upon a time, fish were bred and caught there for the royal table. According to legend, Peter the Great personally planted a spruce alley along it. It died during the war and was resumed in the post-war years. Bridges, originally wooden, were thrown across the canal. In 1774-1775, according to the design of V.I. Neelov, two granite and two metal bridges were built. Another bridge, at the confluence of the Rybny Canal with the Cascade Canal, was designed by V.P. Stasov in 1855.

Hermitage

The center of the Hermitage site is the Hermitage Pavilion, which you can read about in the article.

Walking along the Fishing Canal, on the shore Big Pond we will see an elegant white and blue building in the Baroque style - . Its construction lasted three decades - from 1749 to 1779. Architect F.-B. Rastrelli, interior decoration by A. Rinaldi. The grotto is the first structure on the banks Big Pond. Under Catherine II, this was a place of solitude and relaxation. In the 19th century, a bank was built in front of it and a pier was built, which was decorated with two bronze statues - “The Dying Gaul” and “Gladiator”. Inside the Grotto there is a statue of Catherine the Great in the image of Minerva, cast in 1789. The grotto has excellent acoustics.

Sculpture "The Dying Gaul"

Grotto Pavilion and Ferry on the Big Pond

A magnificent panorama opens from the pier at the Grotto Big Pond:

Gate "To my dear colleagues"

The buildings of the Old Garden are being completed gate "To my dear colleagues", made in the Empire style. They are located in the south-eastern part of the Catherine Park and were erected in honor of the victory over Napoleon. The cast iron gates were created according to the design of the architect V.P. Stasov in 1817. The 5.7 m long columns were cast at the Petrozavodsk iron foundry and brought to St. Petersburg. The total weight of the gate is 100.6 tons. In 1828 a portcullis was added to the gate. The inscription “To my dear colleagues” belongs to Emperor Alexander I.

Gate "To my dear colleagues" in Tsarskoe Selo

Detail of the fence of the gate “To my dear colleagues” in Tsarskoe Selo

The walk through the Old Garden is over. New walks in Catherine Park await us ahead. See you again!

Tsarskoye Selo. Catherine Park. Chapter “Regular part of Catherine Park (Old Garden)” of the book “Pushkin. Palaces and parks";

The Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace, numerous pavilions, cascades, bridges and memorial monuments are inseparable from the surrounding parks and together with them form one grandiose whole.

Catherine and Alexander parks went through two main stages in their development. The first of them was the period of construction of regular gardens, the second led to the creation of extensive landscape parks. The new parks included, as independent parts, the old gardens, which, after the cessation of tree trimming, had lost their regular character, but retained, with minor changes, the original layout.

The construction of parks was an innovation for Russia at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Peter I himself supervised the creation of several parks in the new capital and its environs, at the same time showing exceptional care for the preservation of forests, which were needed primarily for shipbuilding.

Felling forests near St. Petersburg and on the territory of the city itself was prohibited without special sanction under pain of the most severe punishments. An exception was made only for those owners of country houses on the banks of Gulf of Finland, “who would want to clear and cut through the forests for a walk, just as they usually clean up groves.” In forest thickets turned into parks, it was allowed to build “promising roads or alleys.” [ TsGAVMF, f. 212, d. 4, 1719, part 2, l. 486. Decree of June 23, 1723 ]

Russian gardens of the 17th century and European medieval gardens had a utilitarian character. Fruit trees, berry bushes, flowers and herbs were grown in them. Usually, places that were distinguished by their beauty, picturesqueness and wealth were chosen for the construction of estates and gardens. natural resources. And on the Sarskaya manor, in the first years after its transfer to the ownership of Catherine I, the greatest attention was paid to the cultivation of fruits, berries and vegetables.

In the orchard on the manor in 1718 there were over one and a half thousand apple trees, eight hundred cherry trees, many hundreds of black and red currant and gooseberry bushes. [ T.B. Dubyago. Towards the restoration of Catherine Park in Pushkin. Scientific works of LISS, vol. 10. M. - L., 1950, p. 72. ] Only after redevelopment in the 1720s. it acquired the character of a pleasure garden - covered alleys, trellis pavilions, and decorative ponds appeared in it.

The new aesthetic principles of park construction could not be reconciled and combined with their utilitarian use. Fruit trees gradually migrated from the territory of Tsarskoye Selo gardens to greenhouse farms. [ Greenhouses and greenhouses were located in the Old Garden along a stone fence. Vegetable beds were built in curtains as early as the 1760s. ]

The study of the best European examples, and especially the gardens of Versailles, played a major role in the development of Russian landscape art in the first half of the 18th century and in the emergence of individual palace and park ensembles.

The personal library of Peter I contained essays published in France in the second half of the 17th century, dedicated to Versailles, Trianon and Marly. They served as aids in the work on creating royal residences in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, and above all the ensemble of the Upper and Lower Gardens in Peterhof.

Catherine I, the owner of the Sarskaya Manor, could not even think of a garden that rivaled not only the famous works of Western European gardening art, but also Peterhof. The scale of construction on the manor was very modest, and the size of the garden was insignificant. Only after the reconstruction of the entire ensemble, which began in 1743, the territory of the Old Garden expanded, it was decorated with new pavilions; The New, or Upper, Garden was laid out between the palace and the Menagerie.

The question is who was the author of those new ideas that found their embodiment in the 1740s and 1750s. in gardening and park work in Tsarskoe Selo, can only be decided tentatively. The thread that points the way to his decision is an order dated June 13, 1745: “to find the French master Girard, take him to the village of Tsarskoye and show him the current parterres there in the garden, instead of which to be new, order him, having done it, to announce the drawings , and when he announces it, report to Her Majesty.”

[TsGIAL, f. 466, op. 36/1629, 1745, d. 67, l. 24-26. For information about Nicolas François Girard, see the collective work “Russian architecture of the first half of the 18th century. Research and materials", published under the editorship of academician. I.E. Grabar (M., 1954, pp. 365-368). Girard was not a “craftsman” in the sense that we understand this word today. He was Leblond's assistant and came to Russia with him as one of his "draftsmen" (dessinateur). An architect and specialist in landscape construction, Girard worked for a number of years on orders from gr. X. Minikha and was not in public service. His leading role in the development of garden projects at Tsarskoe Selo, confirmed by the cited document, is very likely. ]

Girard, if he was the author of the project for the reconstruction of the Old Garden, was bound by the already established layout. It is possible that this prevented him from developing the composition of the Old Garden in width and depth, deploying it, as was done at Versailles, along the continuation of the central axis of the ensemble, over vast spaces. [ T.B. Dubyago. History of the development of Catherine Park in Pushkin. 1947, p. 25. Manuscript in the GIOP archives. ]

The transfer of the experience of Western European park builders to Russian soil and even individual borrowings did not determine the final result and the general impression left by Russian parks. They retained their original national character. This could not be otherwise, since the appearance of the parks was formed gradually, not only as a result of the long-term, purposeful activities of their builders, but also under the influence of local natural conditions, having their own specifics. The composition of vegetation in parks and the replacement of some groups by others depended on these conditions.

Numerous documents of the 18th century indicate that the most common and valued tree in the regular parks of Tsarskoye Selo was the linden tree, which is easy to trim, suitable for planting in damp low-lying areas, tolerates northern frosts and humid climate coast of the Gulf of Finland.

After the refusal to trim trees, the main species used by Tsarskoye Selo gardeners when planting in alleys became oak, which does not tolerate crown trimming and is of little use in regular park construction.

Oak trees were planted in the alleys of the regular Old Garden only because of the lack of linden trees. There is a known order dating back to the 1740s about transplanting oak trees planted “according to prespective directions,” that is, in alleys, into a birch grove behind the Fishing Canal and replacing them with standard linden trees.

The garden was decorated with numerous works of decorative sculpture. The garden builders cherished the idea of creating fountains - one of the mandatory accessories regular park. But it had to be abandoned, since there were no sources that could be used for their device. It was possible to build only one fountain in the Old Garden. The reservoir into which water was pumped for it was apparently installed in the attic of the palace. The fountain did not last long.

Based on what began in the 1740s. During the reconstruction of the Old Garden, the idea was to build the Hermitage on the continuation of the central alley of the Old Garden, on the main compositional axis of the ensemble.

Work on finishing the Hermitage was still ongoing when Rastrelli began construction of the Grotto on the shore of the Great Pond in the Old Garden. The grotto connects the watery expanses of the Big Pond with the green areas of the garden. After its construction, a new, additional axis perpendicular to the main one emerged in the garden’s layout.

The territory of the Old Garden also expanded: the Lower Ponds became its southern border. The new northwestern border was secured by the construction of the monumental Katalnaya Mountain. A place was chosen for this pavilion on the top platform of a hill overlooking a pond and a garden. In the middle of the Big Pond, on an island, a new spectacular pavilion “Hall on the Island” replaced the old wooden lusthouse.

But further development palace and park ensemble went not along the path of expanding regular gardens, but along the path of constructing landscape parks on the adjacent territory.

After the refusal to maintain the regular Old Garden in the form it received in the 1740-1760s, its character and viewing opportunities radically changed. In the middle of the 18th century, the palace and park pavilions located on the territory of the Old Garden were visible all at the same time. They dominated the ensemble of the garden, towering above the rows of trimmed trees and shrubs that had clear, geometrically regular outlines. This is how we know the Old Garden from famous images painted by M.I. Makhaev and F.G. Barisien.

The trees subsequently blocked the view of the palace from the park. The Hermitage turned out to be hidden in the depths of the garden. But the Old Garden has not lost its charm. Time is the enemy of regularity and the ally of landscape park construction. Freely growing trees have spread their branches widely, and now in mighty oaks and old linden trees, the same age Grand Palace, we see the main decoration of the park.

The modern appearance of the oldest part of Catherine Park is very far from the original, although it has retained a geometrically correct regular layout - a frequent and complex network of straight alleys. This is explained not only by changes in the nature of vegetation. New structures appeared in the Old Garden in the second half of the 18th century, such as the Hermitage Kitchen, the Upper and Lower Baths, and granite bridges on the Fish Canal. One of the two rectangular symmetrical ponds on the third ledge of the garden was redone and became round with two semi-lunar ponds on the sides.

Alleys of old linden trees that have preserved traces of shearing, and an alley of beautiful powerful oak trees lead the visitor away from the palace into the depths of the Old Garden. They are crossed by a “spruce prospect” along the Fishing Canal. The perspective of the Fishing Canal and the alleys on its sides divides the oldest part of the garden into two parts - the upper, processed in the past with ledges that are still noticeable today, and the lower, with the Hermitage in the center.

Light wooden bridges were originally thrown across the Fishing Canal. They were later replaced by granite and metal bridges. [ In the decree of November 11, 1774, one of the points concerned the construction of two stone bridges across the Fishing Canal. “In the Old Garden,” the decree said, “through a transverse channel, make two stone bridges on arches from hewn granite, one along the alley past the Grotto, and the other on the Hermitage Alley.” The bridges were built in 1775-1778. Design drawings of the bridges were presented to Catherine II by V.I. Neelov (TsGIAL, f. 487, op. 13, 1774, d. 3, l. 30). ] The fishing channel ends with a “small lock” and a dam, designed in the 1770s. in the form of a cascade of cut stone. At the base of the dam there is a pile of boulders.