Chinese Village (Saint Petersburg)

Russia / Sankt Petersburg / Pushkin / Saint Petersburg / Aleksandrovsky park
 folly, draw only border, listed building / architectural heritage, apartment complex

The Chinese Village in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoe Selo ( eng.tzar.ru/museums/palaces/alexander_park/new_garden/v... ) was Catherine the Great's attempt to follow the 18th-century fashion for the Chinoiserie.

Probably inspired by a similar project in Drottningholm, Catherine ordered Antonio Rinaldi and Charles Cameron to model the village after a contemporary Chinese engraving from her personal collection. The village was to consist of 18 stylized Chinese houses (only ten were completed), dominated by an octagonal domed observatory (never completed at all). After Catherine failed in her ambition to procure a genuine Chinese architect, the Russian ambassador in London was instructed to obtain for Tsarskoe Selo a replica of William Chambers' pagoda in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - a central structure of the Chinoiserie architecture.

Yandex panorama: yandex.ru/maps/-/CCU5m6x49A
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   59°42'52"N   30°23'10"E
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This article was last modified 2 years ago