Volume 5. The state museum reserve "Gatchina"

S.N.Balaeva

M.A.Velichko

The plan scheme
the ground floor


The plan scheme
the second floor


The plan scheme
the third floor


The plan scheme
Cellar

Gatchina Palace is the only palace - castle in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. The huge size, the walls lined with local limestone, ten towers, an underground passage leading to the lake, make it different from other suburban residence of the imperial St. Petersburg.

Gatchina Palace was built in 1766-1781 by the project of the architect A. Rinaldi for the favorite of the Empress Catherine II, the Count Grigory Orlov.

Valuable works of different countries and times were collected in the palace. The Chinese gallery had the unique collection of Oriental art, which was based on Chinese porcelain. Galleries and corridors were decorated by the beautiful portraiture. There were a lot of the furniture of the XVIII century in the rooms, the bronze of the best French masters - clocks, candelabras and vases was visible everywhere.

In the 19 of may in 1918 Gatchina Palace was opened to the public, becoming the historical and art museum.

The general inventory was held at the palace in 1938-1939, 54,030 items were registered. The museum had about 24 thousand volumes of books and magazines, the photo collection, which included about 13 thousand photos and negatives.

In first days of the Great Patriotic War the museum staff began to prepare exhibits for the evacuation.

In June and August five levels of exhibits left from Gatchina to the rear. More than eight thousand exhibits Gatchina Palace were sent to the city Sarapul (Udmurdiya), almost three thousand - were taken by cars to Leningrad, where they were remained in St. Isaac's Cathedral during the blockade – in general 11,929 items.

The lost museum values
of the suburban
palaces-museums
of Leningrad






Museum storehouse
in Sarapul

The large sculpture was buried in the ground.

German tanks entered Gatchina in the 13 of September in 1941. During nearly two and a half years, the city was occupied by the Nazis.

It is known that part of the cultural values of Gatchina were moved by German invaders to Riga, and in May in 1944 to the city Lerberg in Bavaria.

In the 26 of January in 1944 Gatchina was liberated by Soviet troops. Museum workers returned to Gatchina in the 31 of may in 1944. They saw the palace burned and destroyed.

In 1944, the preparatory work for the restoration of the palace started. They were looking for museum objects, located in various places, including private people. One of the most important and famous discoveries were 465 paintings from the collection of Gatchina Palace, found at Riga Castle in March 1945.

The subjects were even in the Gatchina, and in its outskirts.

Gradually the burial sculpture were opened. Three statues of the Greek galleries, statues of the Egyptian-man and the Egyptian-woman from the White Hall, three antique busts and the bust of Nicholas I by Ivan Vitali survived.

In the first years after the liberation of Gatchina about 4 thousand items from the collection of Gatchina Palace Museum were found. The total number of remaining items was 15,878.

In 1976, the palace began the restoration works. The first restored halls were opened in the 8 of may in 1985. The restoration work continues at the palace.

In the spring of 2002 in Moscow the ceremony of the transfer of the pictures by Lemokh "Peasant Girl" to Gatchina Palace took place. The picture had been in the palace before the war and after the war it was in the private ownership.

In the 22 of June 2002 in Gatchina Palace German side gave seven paintings from the pre-war collections of Gatchina, Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo, four of them belong to the Gatchina Palace.

  
Destructions in the Gatchina palace