Saturday, October 6, 2012

Saturday's postcards: Autumn scenes from Pavlovsk Park in Russia



In the category of "Places You Probably Won't Get to See Foliage This Fall,"1 here are two 1989 postcards2 of Pavlovsk Park (Павловский парк) near Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Pavlovsk Park is the sprawling garden area surrounding Pavlovsk Palace, an 18th-century Russian Imperial residence built by Paul I.3 It is now a Russian state museum and public park.

Interestingly, this Russian park was designed by a Scottish architect, Charles Cameron. It was inspired by western European landscape gardens that Paul I and his wife, Maria Feodorovna, had seen during travels in the 1780s.

Here is what's printed on the back of the two postcards:

  • Top postcard: Pavlovsk, The Park, The Old Sylvia, Bridge over the Ruin Cascade, Designed by Vincenzo Brenna, 1793-94.
  • Bottom postcard: Pavlovsk, The Park, The Great Circles Area, Great Stone Stairway, Designed by Vincenzo Brenna, 1799. Lions, Italy, 18th century.

For more on the park, check out the website Pavlovsk Palace and Park, which features the writings of Anatoli Michailovich Kuchumov.

And then get outside and check out some fall foliage in your corner of the world!

Footnotes
1. Of course, if you're one of my readers in Russia, then you might get to go see this particular foliage. If you do, please take a picture and share! (In the past month, Russia was seventh on the list of countries with the most Papergreat pageviews, behind the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, China and France.)
2. The postcards were produced by Aurora Art Publishers of what was then called Leningrad. (Saint Petersburg was renamed Petrograd in 1914, Leningrad in 1924 and then Saint Petersburg once again in 1991.)
3. Interesting historical aside: Paul I was a bit of an eccentric who loved military parades and ceremonies. He ordered watch parades every morning at the palace, regardless of the weather. Soldiers who made mistakes during the parades might be subjected to flogging. Once, the palace guard regiment was ordered to march to Siberia when it screwed up a parade maneuver.

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