Turkish bath. Gothic gates in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin)

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Located on a man-made peninsula in the southwestern part of the Big Pond Catherine Park. On a sunny day, the radiance of its golden dome and delicate white and pink walls can be seen from a distance. And today we will take an amazing journey into the world of the Arab East.

Turkish bath reflected in the water mirror of the Big Pond

History of the construction of the Turkish bath

The Turkish bath is the last building on the territory of the Catherine Park. It was conceived as a memorial monument to the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829. By decree of Emperor Nicholas I in 1848, the development of the project was entrusted to K. Rossi. However, the proposals of the famous architect were not suitable, and the work was headed by the architect I.A. Monighetti(1819-1878). Construction lasted from 1850 to 1852. The work was supervised by A.M. Camuzzi.

Turkish mosques were taken as a sample Adrianople(Edirne, Türkiye). This was a kind of “response move” - the Turks in the conquered territories often set up baths in churches. Also in the Turkish bath were placed trophies - marble details from the Sultan's palace Esque Soral in Adrianople. Many of them date back to the 16th-17th centuries.

The interior decoration is made in the “Moorish” style, one of the trends of historicism popular in the mid-19th century (you can read more about what styles were popular in the 19th century in the article). The Turkish Bath has six rooms: Canopy, Dressing Room, Soap Room, Domed Hall with an Alcove, Hexagonal Room and Service Room. There was no heating in it. It was practically not used for its intended purpose. During a walk in the park in the summer, you could hide from the heat in it.

After the revolution, it was preserved and opened in the late 1930s as a museum. During the war, the Turkish Bath was seriously damaged by artillery shelling. In 1948, a boat station was built there. During the restoration of 1953, only the walls were restored. In 2006-2009, a large-scale restoration was carried out, thanks to which it was possible to return the building to its original appearance. Many details, such as the double-sided cascading fountain, had to be assembled literally from fragments.

Ticket price: 100 rubles, reduced price 50 rubles, school ticket 30 rubles. You can also pick up an audio guide at the ticket office and listen to the tour.

Photos of the interiors of the Turkish Bath

There is such an amazing pavilion in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoe Selo.

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The Turkish bath is the last building built on the territory of the Catherine Park. The pavilion was modeled after the Turkish mosques of the city of Adrianople (now the city of Edirne in northern Turkey). The pavilion represents a memorial to the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829.

For reference: The Turks often built baths in churches in conquered territories, and the construction of the Turkish Bath became a kind of counter-move. Trophies were placed in the pavilion - authentic marble parts brought to the emperor from the garden of the Sultan's palace Esque Soral and the Turkish Sultana's bathhouse in Adrianople: columns, door decorations and wall plaques, fountain bowls and other items.

Nicholas I invited Carlo Rossi to build the structure, but the emperor did not like the architect’s project and the work was entrusted to Ippolit Monighetti.

The Turkish bath was built in 1850-1852 on a small man-made peninsula of the Big Pond.

The pavilion served as a decoration for the park; it was built without heating and was never used for its intended purpose - only on summer days, while walking, it was used as shelter from the heat.

The dome of the building is decorated with relief patterns, and the tall minaret (the tower from which Muslims are called to prayer) ends in a spire with a crescent.

The interior of the Turkish Bath is decorated in the Moorish style (this architectural style arose in the era of Historicism and Neo-style at the end of the 19th century).

The building had six rooms - the Canopy and Dressing Room, the Soap Room and the Dome Hall with an alcove, the Hexagonal Room and a service room.

• The walls of the dressing room are decorated with colored mosaics, modeling and ornamental paintings; a cascading fountain is located in the niche
• The soap house was illuminated from above, and there were two bowls for water in its walls. Through the semi-circular arch you can enter the luxurious Dome Hall
• In the middle of the Central domed hall there is a white marble pool, in which there was a painted gilded fountain. The walls are decorated with marble boards with relief ornaments and poetic texts.

During the Great Patriotic War, the building was badly damaged by a direct hit from a shell. In 1953, the facades were restored and a boat station was located in the pavilion. The Turkish Bath Pavilion was completely restored in 2005-2008 and now exhibits items from the collection of the State Museum-Reserve Tsarskoe Selo.

Opening hours of the Turkish Bath in 2019

• During the summer
  • From 11:00 to 18:30
  • Day off: Wednesday
  • The pavilion may be closed in rainy weather
• In winter
  • The pavilion is closed

Ticket prices for the Turkish Bath pavilion in 2019.

• Full ticket - 200 rubles.
• Reduced ticket for students (from 16 years old) and students - 100 rubles.
• Discount ticket for pensioners in Russia and Belarus - 100 rubles.
• Visitors under 16 years of age are free.

The Turkish Bath Pavilion is located in Catherine Park in the southwestern part of the Big Pond on a small peninsula. The pavilion was built in 1852 in honor of victories in the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829. and by order of Nicholas I. It was used for its intended purpose as a bathhouse.

The first project of the “Turkish Bath” was carried out by K.P. Rossi in 1848. But his project was rejected. The drawings were sent to Monighetti to design a Turkish bath using marble decorations brought from the garden of the Sultan's Esque Soral palace in Adrianaple as trophies. Monighetti's project was approved in 1850.

The “Turkish Bath,” despite the fact that it was conceived as a structure of a military memorial nature, was very different from the memorial structures erected in Moscow and St. Petersburg during the period of late classicism.

Looking for the architectural image of the “Turkish Bath”, Monighetti took as a basis the traditions of architectural romanticism of the late 18th century. Monighetti felt the peculiarities of the landscape of the Tsarskoye Selo park and continued the romantic trend of the 1770-1830s. With his Turkish construction with the picturesque silhouette of the pavilion, built on the interplay of a slender minaret and graceful domes, Monighetti worthily completed the ensemble of the part of the park adjacent to the pond.

Since the pavilion was built on a cape, the shore had to be strengthened. First, the shore of the pond was strengthened, and then the earth was removed to a depth of 3.2 m, and after compacting the bottom, a layer of concrete was laid on it. The foundations of the “Turkish Bath” are rubble. The vaults were built on brick pillars under the floors. The dome of the building is gilded and crowned with a spire with a crescent. The large dome and doors are decorated with stucco with Turkish ornaments.

The inside of the pavilion is decorated in Moorish style. Numerous elements of the pavilion's interior were brought from Adrianaple as trophies. The walls of four rooms are decorated with stucco ornaments and lined with colored mosaics. Gilding and Olonets marble are widely used in the interior decoration of the pavilion. In the central octagonal hall there is a swimming pool with a fountain in the center. There are also marble fountain boards brought from Turkey with carved verses.

The “Turkish bath” was built as a bath without heating. It was not used for its intended purpose, but two washbasins were still equipped with taps for cold and hot water.

The entrance to the vestibule opens up a portal decorated with ornaments; the lower part of the walls are covered with multi-colored marble mosaics, and the upper part is decorated with modeling and ornamental painting. There is a cascading fountain in the niche. A niche separates the dressing room from the soap room and is made of gilded carved Olonets marble. The soap room has an overhead light and the same decoration with ornaments as in the dressing room; there are two bowls and taps for cold and warm water in the wall. From this room, an arch leads into a round domed hall, the portholes of which allow even light into the room.

In addition to the elegant decoration, the interiors of the pavilion were luxuriously decorated with various “Byzantine” items, lamps and furniture made according to Monighetti’s drawings. Here was a bronze clock made according to the architect’s drawing, which was included in the catalog of highly artistic objects from the Tsarskoe Selo palaces in 1888.

At first, the “Turkish Bath” was used for its intended purpose, but later it became just a pavilion for relaxation. After the revolution, the pavilion was mothballed, and after restoration in 1939 it was opened as a museum. During the Great Patriotic War, the “Turkish Bath” was almost destroyed. In 1953, only the facades were restored. Further major renovations turned the beautiful pavilion into a utility room at the boat station.

In 2002-2003 A project for the restoration of the pavilion was developed, which included: restoration of facades, interiors, repair of structures and utility networks, engineering equipment of the premises, waterproofing of the basement, lighting of the building, landscaping of the territory. In 2008, the minaret was re-laid, the dome with gilded overlay was restored, and the fountains are awaiting their turn for restoration. The fountains will work, and water supply has been installed to them. After the restoration is completed, the pavilion will become a museum.

Project of the Turkish Bath pavilion. This project was not implemented. Nicholas I decided to carry out the intention of his grandmother-empress by decorating the park with a pavilion dedicated to the victories of the Russian army over the Turks, but during another victorious war for Russia with Turkey in 1828-1829 and the conclusion made as a result of it Treaty of Adrianople.

The pavilion's original design was prepared in 1848 by the architect Carl Rossi. He used sketches of a bathhouse as a model harem The Old Palace in Adrianople, made in 1829-1830 by order of Nicholas I by the emperor's librarian Karl Seger (1788-1840) and battle painter August Desarno(1788-1840). The marble details of its decoration, exported to Russia, were supposed to be used in the interior of the bathhouse.

Rossi's project was rejected by Nicholas I himself, but his drawings in February 1848 were sent to the chief architect of the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo palaces, Ippolit Monighetti (he was only 29 years old at that time). The architect was asked to draw up his own project, but be sure to use marble parts taken from Adrianople. Monighetti himself visited Turkey and used his own watercolor image of the Adrianople mosque as a prototype for the pavilion. The location for the construction of the pavilion (on the peninsula of the Big Pond) was also determined by the emperor on April 30. In mid-May 1848, the architect presented Nicholas I with his version of the future pavilion. It was supposed to build Turkish bath-hammam with a Coffee Room, a Divan (with a fountain in the middle and a balcony), a Dressing Room, a Large Bath, which was supposed to be a round hall with a dome (it was an obligatory element of the hammam, allowing drops of water formed by steam to flow down the walls) and a niche with a transition to the Small sauna and hot bath (with different temperatures). The original design included a water tank and a firebox. The pavilion was supposed to resemble mosque with a dome and minaret. Monighetti's project was approved in April 1850.

After the architect submitted estimates for the construction of the pavilion on August 28, 1848, construction was postponed due to lack of money. Only on April 11, 1850, the emperor approved Monighetti’s project, but ordered the pavilion to be built without heating and reduced the estimate. On May 6, 1850, Monighetti presented a new version of the estimate, without heating, for a total amount of 37,838 rubles and 12 1/2 kopecks in silver. Minister of the Imperial Household and Appanages P. M. Volkonsky replied to the architect:

The Sovereign Emperor assigned thirty thousand silver rubles for this construction... this amount must be used, trying to make all possible savings, because His Majesty does not intend to make an increase on this subject.

On June 10, the Tsarskoe Selo Palace Administration announced tenders for the construction of a Turkish bath according to the approved project, but there were no people willing to take on the contract with such an estimate. Monighetti insisted on giving the contract to the architect Agostino Camuzzi, who agreed to adhere to this estimate even before the auction was announced. Camuzzi supervised the construction for two years. In October 1852, the construction of the Turkish Bath was completed. Landscape The work was supervised by senior gardener I.F. Piper.

Monighetti submitted his own for approval to Nicholas I sketches furniture and decorations that he intended to place in the Turkish bath (21 items), for a total amount of 4,000 rubles. The emperor approved the sketches and estimates, metal furniture was ordered in Galvanoplastic establishment of the Prince of Leuchtenberg, wooden furniture - from the court master Gottlieb Jacobs, and upholstered furniture - from French Master Filippo. Some of the items were purchased through stores in Moscow to reduce costs (wooden, inlaid mother of pearl, bone and tortoiseshell shell dresser, table, stools, porcelain and copper gilded vessels, hookah, incense burner, coconut spoons decorated coral Chubuki with crystal mouthpieces pearl fan) .

By the autumn of 1853, the decoration of the interiors of the Turkish Bath was completed. According to the time of its creation, the Turkish Bath is the last building on the territory of the Catherine Park.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the pavilion was mothballed, and in 1941 it was opened as a museum. During Great Patriotic War the pavilion was badly damaged. During the restorations of 1949 and 1953, the façade of the building was restored. It was turned into a utility room for a boat station, and the walls inside the building were painted over. After the restoration of 2006-2008, when the interior was restored, the pavilion is used in the warm season as a museum pavilion.