Russia - The Mikhailovsky (Engineers') Castle

The Summer Gardens. The Mikhailovsky (Engineers') Castle.

Sent by Svetlana, a postcrosser from Siberia, Russia.

"Mikhailovsky Garden is one of the rare monuments of the landscape architecture of the 18th — the 1st third of the 19th century. It is a unique combination of two different styles of the landscape art: of the regular or French and the landscape or English. It is also a bright example of architectural unity of a building (Mikhailovsky Palace) and a landscape (Mikhailovsky Garden), created after the design of the great architect Carlo Rossi.

Mikhailvosky Garden belongs to the three-dimensional complex of the St Petersburg centre, along with the Summer Garden and the Field of Mars. The Garden has many times changed its plan in accordance with the tastes of its owners and the fashion trends.

Originally the territory of the modern Summer, Mikhailovsky, and Engineers Garden was occupied by villages and an estate with hunting grounds of a Swedish captain of horse Konau — this can be seen at the 1698 plan. In 1716-1717, the architect J.-B. Leblond, commissioned by Peter the Great, made a general plan of the three Summer Gardens. The first and the second were situated on the territory of the modern Summer Garden. The third was the one that housed the palace of Catherine I. The territory of the modern Mikhailovsky Garden belonged earlier to that third Summer Garden and was called «the Swedish garden."(Source)