It’s probably the only building that started life as a barn and ended as an Imperial palace, with an Emperor replacing the cows who previously sheltered under its roof. The Farm Palace at Alexandria, Peterhof, isn’t a major tourist attraction: visitors who shuffle through Rastrelli’s nearby Grand Palace at Peterhof will often make their ways east into the Alexandria Park to see the Gothic Cottage; a few will seek out the ruins of the Lower Palace, where Nicholas II and his family lived when they stayed at Peterhof and which is now undergoing something between a restoration and a reimagining. Most, though, ignore the Farm Palace, even though it’s only a short walk from other attractions in the Alexandria Park. Now, though, after a disastrous fire and a decades-long restoration, the Farm Palace has returned to its former grandeur and is an integral part of the Imperial estate.
The land that now forms Alexandria was owned by a succession of aristocrats and court favorites before it was finally purchased by the Department of Appanages under Alexander I. The Emperor promptly presented it to his brother the future Nicholas I, and it was he who developed the estate as a favorite retreat from the heat of St. Petersburg and the Baroque grandeur of the nearby Grand Palace at Peterhof. Spread over a hundred acres between Peterhof to the west and the Znamenka estate to the east, Alexandria was developed as a deliberately Arcadian, English-style park, with open meadows strewn with wildflowers; glades of oak, birch and linden surrounding streams crossed by rustic bridges; and graveled paths leading to little pavilions high above the Gulf of Finland.1
In 1826, a year after he came to the throne, Nicholas I commissioned Scottish architect Adam Menelas to build a small residence for himself and his family on a hillside in the park. The resulting Gothic Cottage, though not large by Imperial standards, was a comfortable house of exquisite details: stained glass windows, intricate carved paneling, and medieval motifs carried out very much in imitation of the then fashionable Romantic movement sweeping across Europe. When the Cottage was completed in 1829, Nicholas presented it and the entire estate to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, naming it Alexandria in her honor.2
The Gothic Cottage formed the centerpiece of an ensemble which included service buildings, pavilions, and a small Chapel, all designed and executed in a complimentary style. In 1828, Menelas designed the Farm just west of the Gothic Cottage. Conceived very much as a kind of studied bucolic retreat, the building was carried out in the same Gothic style, with iron columns designed to resemble birch trees, carved ornament of garlands, and a roof painted to look like thatch. It contained pens for ten cows imported from England, along with a milk room, a kitchen, and storage for feed. The Emperor even imported an English farmer to tend to the herd.3
In 1838 architect Andrei Stackenschneider added a second building to the complex, separated from the farm by a courtyard. This was meant as a residence for twenty-year-old Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaievich, the future Alexander II. This continued the Farm’s Gothic decoration. In 1845, Stackenschneider enlarged the structure, adding a second floor. The close proximity of the farm to the residence of the Heir became a problem and in 1855 the complex was dismantled and moved to a different part of the park. Once again Stackenschneider was called in, charged this time with enlarging both structures and linking them together to form a suitably large residence. This work took five years, by which time Alexander II had come to the throne. The vastly remodeled Farm Palace, as the building came to be called, became Alexander II’s principal residence when he stayed at Peterhof.4
The finished Farm Palace was built in a U-shape, surrounding a central terrace. With some fifty-five rooms, it was larger than the nearby Gothic Cottage. While not as ornately adorned as the Gothic Cottage, the Farm Palace echoed its general exterior decoration: loggias and balconies rimmed by decorative cast iron railing and columns; lancet windows; protruding bays topped with crenelations; and a steeply-pitched roof over gables set with the same shields and emblems that graced the Gothic Cottage.5 Deliberately asymmetrical in appearance, the building was washed in a bright yellow plaster with windows and decorative details picked out in contrasting white.6
While the interior of the Gothic Cottage brimmed with decorative medieval motifs, the Farm Palace was more restrained. Most of the ornaments were confined to cornices; carved oak doors and wainscoting; window and door frames; and beamed, coffered and paneled ceilings. Stained glass was used sparingly. The rooms were generally light and airy, finished in chintzes, silks, and pastel colors, with ash, birch, and mahogany furniture provided by the St. Petersburg firm of Gambs that mixed Gothic elements with Rococo decorations.
The main entrance to the Farm Palace was hidden away in the interior courtyard. The main reception rooms occupied the central block’s first floor. To one side Alexander II had several formal rooms; those of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, along with her private apartments, were located at the opposite end of the building. Alexander II’s private apartments were situated on the second floor, along with rooms for the couple’s children.
In the black and white marble-floored Entrance Hall, a wooden staircase rose between ornamental cast iron railings. To one side there was what – at first look – seemed to be a wooden cabinet. It was, in fact, the first elevator installed in Russia, although it operated like a dumbwaiter, with servants tugging on ropes to manually raise and lower the apparatus.
The Reception Room was almost sparse in its decoration, with simple chairs of light walnut arrayed against walls hung with engravings and prints. The Drawing Room was hung in an English chintz of pink fuchsias against a cream-colored background; the same fabric was also used on the furniture mixture of Gothic and Rococo revival and for the draperies. Here Maria Alexandrovna displayed a collection of porcelain figurines from Saxony. The Dining Room contained more elaborate Gothic decoration: corner stoves crowned by carved filigree spears over arched mirrors, and walls and ceiling adorned with molding, medieval-style medallions, laurel wreaths, and garlands of roses in white stucco against a pistachio-colored background.8
Empress Maria Alexandrovna’s Boudoir featured a large, curved bay, separated from the rest of the room by an arch, with arched windows looking out onto the garden. The walls were hung with lilac and green chintz; as in the Drawing Room, the chintz was repeated in the curtains and in the upholstery. The half-domed ceiling of the bay was painted with delicate floral designs dotted with birds. This was repeated around the edges of the ceiling. Elaborate wrought iron screens covered with ivy flanked either side of the bay, where the Empress kept her writing desk and chaise-longue. The Empress’s Bedroom was also hung in chintz and furnished with pieces of birch and oak. Her bathroom, with a sunken marble tub surrounded by columns, was finished in Pompeian style, with colorful red, gold, and green arabesques on the walls.9
The largest room on the first floor – the largest room in the Farm Palace – was Alexander II’s Blue Study, which occupied the end of the eastern wing. Rising one-and-a-half storeys and lit by tall bay windows and French doors on three sides, this was a light, airy room, deliberately unpretentious though elegant in execution and design. Delicate molding with medieval-style adornments ringed the white walls, while the ceiling, set above a coved plafond, was crossed with decorative ribbing and bosses. The study took its name from its blue curtains, carpets, and fabric used on the furniture. Two large writing desks stood on either side of the room. One, sparsely adorned, was used for official reports while the other, crowded with an array of framed miniatures of the Imperial Family, served as Alexander II’s usual desk. The sofa and chairs, of light-colored ash covered in blue leather, along with several screens and tables, were executed according to Gothic-style designs. It was in this room that Alexander II worked out the details for the emancipation of Russia’s Serfs in 1861.1
Terraces dotted with statuary rimmed the Farm Palace; canvas awnings provided relief from Sr. Petersburg’s brief summers. Empress Maria Alexandrovna had several gardens laid out, decorated with fountains, sculptures, and a long pergola that framed beds of roses. She had a small Koi pond remodeled into a protected grotto replete with waterfall and decorative bridge. A bronze statue of a boy and a goose stood at the edge of the pond. Near to the Farm Palace Stackenschneider erected the Kitchen building and a structure to house servants.11
Beyond the edge of the lawns, Stackenschneider created a separate compound for the Imperial children. This echoed the similar complex arranged for the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The same conceit drove both creations: outside of lessons, children needed to be engaged in “productive” pursuits as well as play. At Alexandria, there was a miniature farm with garden plots that the children planted and harvested; a fort, with earthen ramparts and cannon; a working mill with water wheel; a mock fire station complete with a watchtower and alarm bell; and a small cottage modeled on a peasant hut that served as a playhouse.12
After Alexander II’s assassination in 1881, the Farm Palace was used to house extended members of the Imperial Family as well as visiting royal relatives. In the summers of 1896 and 1897, the new Nicholas II commissioned extensive renovations and the enlargement of a ramshackle old watchtower and attached building known as Villa Baboon at the eastern end of Alexandria Park; this transformed the structure into the Lower Palace and would become Nicholas and Alexandra’s main residence when they stayed at Peterhof. During this work, the Imperial couple lived at the Farm Palace. It was here, in the summer of 1897, that Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaievna was born.
Following the Revolutions of 1917, the Farm Palace was converted to the Historical and Household Museum; while most of the former Imperial apartments remained the same, other rooms housed cases and shelves of various kitchen wares and implements. In 1932 the museum closed – part of a broad plan which also saw the closure of the Lower Palace and the Gothic Cottage, all of which were deemed to be too closely associated with the last generations of the Romanov Dynasty.13
In World War II, Peterhof lay directly in the path of artillery crossfire. For a time, the Germany Army established an advance headquarters in the palace. Between occupation, artillery, and several fires, the building suffered significant damage. When the Soviets took repossession, windows and doors were made and the roof was repaired, but nothing was done to restore the interior. Instead, rooms were given basic coats of paint – often simply applied in thick layers over the remaining carved ornaments – and the building was turned over to a nearby watch company to use as a dormitory. This situation apparently remained until the 1970s, when the building was shuttered and left empty.14
In 1979 the Farm Palace became part of the Peterhof State Museum Reserve; temporary work was done to preserve the building, but not until 2003 was a serious restoration effort begun. Two years into the project, though, a devastating fire, apparently caused by careless workers, destroyed much of the work which had been completed and authorities had to begin again.
The fire likely turned out to be a blessing. In the second phase of restoration, officials were more diligent in their efforts. They used a number of watercolors, painted in 1858 by artist Eduard Hau, as a guide to recreate the interiors as they had been, and the additional time allowed them to seek out and collect furniture and artifacts which had once been used in the palace. Work was completed in 2010 and the restored Farm Palace was opened to tourists. They can now visit these unique rooms, which are so evocative of mid-Nineteenth Century taste.
Source Notes
1. Petrov, 439-62.
2. City Walls.ru; Petrov, 452; Kuznetsov, 81.
3. Lobanova, 144; Petrov, 452; City Walls.ru; Kuznetsov, 81.
4. Lobanova, 144; City Walls.ru; Petrov, 452.
5. Petrov, 452; Petrova, 81.
6. City Walls.ru; Petrov, 452.
7. Ibid.
8. Petrova, 81; City Walls.ru; Petrov, 452.
9. Petrova, 81; City Walls.ru.
10. Petrova, 81-82; Petrov, 452.
11. City Walls.ru.
12. Petrova, 81-82; City Walls.ru.
13. City Walls.ru; Petrov, 452.
14. Petrova, 81; City Walls.ru; Petrov, 452.
Bibliography
City Walls.ru
Kuznetsov, S. O. Adam Menelas. St. Petersburg: Lenizdat, 1998.
Lobanova, Tatiana. Peterhof. St. Petersburg: Amfora, 2011.
Petrov, Anatoli. Pamyatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada. Leningrad: Stroyizdat, 1985.
Petrova, T. A. Andrei Stackenschneider. Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1978.