Back to Russia, Part 2 - Macros,Water and Fences at Catherine Palace & Park

Earlier this week I posted photos of the Catherine the Great's Palace and Park near St. Petersburg Russia (see below) with the promise to end the week with a sampling of fences and gates for Friday Fences .  Here is a collage of the ornate gold gilded gates opening on to the front of the palace.  Next there are wrought iron fences in the classic French motifs of arrows, scrolls, and flowers.  Also included, living fences of precisely trimmed hedges accented with white benches.  Finally, as we were leaving the palace grounds we were treated to an impromptu flute concert on the side of the palace grounds.  I'm calling the benches surrounding the area where the flautist is playing a "fence" just as an excuse to include this photo!  BTW, this is my first attempt at making a photo collage, so hope you can click on individual photos, if you want to see the detail of the fences.

--Photos of Palace and Park--

Catherine Palace and Park in Pushkin

September 2012

Last week I started a series of posts from my trip to Russia last year with a tour of Peterhof, Peter the Great's palace just across the Gulf of Finland from St. Petersburg.  This week we'll travel southeast from St. Petersburg for a look at Catherine the Great's Palace and Park, first built in the mid-1700s.

The palace itself is an example of opulence and excess built for the tsars of Russia on the backs of the Russian people.  As one friend commented, after seeing examples of ruling class wealth, it is not surprising that there was a bloody revolution in Russia.  There's so much to see that this week will concentrate on the exterior of the palace and the French-style park surrounding it.

Catherine the Great is said to favor this shade of blue seen on the palace--and accented with an abundance of gold gilded features on the facade and roof of the palace and the ornate gate into the palace grounds:

Architectural columns, called atlantes with standing or kneeling figures, are along the front facade of the palace:

In front of the palace the upper garden is laid out in the French style with clipped grass and scrolling gravel stone beds in contrasting colors bordered by walkways:

And then to the water features, first here's a statue showing off Venus' strong swimmer thighs :-):

Moving down into the park, on the left you see the Cameron Gallery reflected in Great Pond and on the right is yellow Upper Bath, which was reserved for the imperial family.  Lesser beings had to use the Lower Bath!

Further on out in the park, you can see the brick Dutch-designed Admiralty with the Chesma Column adorned with ships' prows just visible.  Then on the far side of the pond is the 

Turkish Bath with its pink/gold dome and minaret:

Again, a very long post and this is only the outside of Catherine Palace and Park.  Check back on Friday for a great variety of Friday Fences.  Linking to the following memes:

NF Waters for Sunday

Macro Monday

Watery Wednesday II