Volume 2. The state memorial estate "Pavlovsk". The Pavlovsk palace

The Palace and Park Ensemble “Pavlovsk” is a monument of Russian classicism of the late XYIII – the beginning of XIX century, with its rich collection of Russian, Western European and ancient art.

The losses during the Great Patriotic War, concern not only museum pieces, and they include the destroyed palace with the lost elements of the décor, interiors and facades.

They also include the sculpture made of plaster, which is an integral part of interior decoration: the Egyptian hall, the Throne, Greek halls, in the office , numerous relieves and decorative moldings, frames, mirrors, which were in the interiors, bronze sockets, fittings, highly fretworked doors with bronze plates, art inlaid parquet floors, wrought-iron bars on the stairs and balconies, beautiful ceiling, insert, hard-hit as the frescoes in the toilet of Maria Feodorovna, as well as on the facade of the palace.

In Pavlovsk park of 600 hectares, that is a monument of landscape architecture, about 70,000 trees were cut down, landscape parks were vandalized by numerous craters from bombs and shells, trenches and other defensive buildings and fortifications. The hydraulic system of the park was almost completely destroyed.

On the day of announcement by Germany of the war with the Soviet Union - in June 22, 1941 - the museum began to prepare things for the evacuation.

In mid-July the first phase of 655 unique items, which included: Sevres toilet, a washing device and a dressing-service of Maria Feodorovna on the drawing by Voronikhin and other porcelain, French tapestries, some bronze, some paintings, including works by Guido Reni, Robert G., author's drawings by the architects of Pavlovsk - C. Cameron, J. Quarenghi, Tomona T., Rossi, P. Gonzaga - arrived in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod). There also left for 2nd batch of museum treasures in the city of Gorky, which consisted of 1,659 exhibits.

The third part of all museum exhibits, consisting of 3,168 subjects from Pavlovsk was sent to Sarapul in Udmurtia in August 20.

The part of the museum exhibits from Pavlovsk was sent to the museum store in Leningrad.

Remaining in Pavlovsk values were placed in the basement storerooms. Park sculptures were buried in the ground.

In September 15, 1941 Pavlovsk was occupied by German troops.

24 January 1944 Pavlovsk was liberated by the Soviet army.

Pavlovsky Palace was severely damaged by fire in January 1944.

In 1944-1945, about 30 pieces of furniture, two large portraits: “Peter” by I. Tannauera and “Paul” by Borovikovsky, marble sculptures and vases were collected in the Pavlovsk Park, the city of Pavlovsk and its environs. Out of the burial in the cellars of the palace they extracted ancient sculpture, which was preserved almost intact.

From 1944 to 1949, M. Kuchumov (then the Director of Central storage of museum collections of suburban palaces) traveled several times to the Baltic, Konigsberg, Berlin, to search for the lost museum treasures. As a result of these trips from Riga about 2500 negatives were returned to Pavlovsk Palace Museum, Sometimes they found only fragments of furniture from the remaining elements of the decorative arts.

In the period 1941-44 from Pavlovsk Palace Museum 8,715 from the available 22,133 museum objects were lost.