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The "Battle of the Palaces" occurred in the Russian Empire in the last decade of the reign of Catherine II (1784–1796) and the reign of Paul I (1796–1801), with ripple effects extending into the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. A bitter standoff between Catherine and Paul, her only legitimate son and heir, manifested itself in transient political and ideological conflicts, but also had a lasting, tangible impact on Russian architecture. Both parties materialized their political statements and their understanding of sovereign power in expensive[1] construction projects involving the most illustrious architects of the period – Vasily Bazhenov, Vincenzo Brenna, Charles Cameron, Matvey Kazakov, Giacomo Quarenghi, and Ivan Starov. Catherine's palace projects followed the neoclassical canon of the Age of Enlightenment, while Paul deliberately leaned to emerging Romanticism. Buildings that stylistically fell apart from these programs were demolished or rebuilt without hesitation. The "battle" began in 1785 with the demolition of the main palace in Tsaritsyno, and culminated in 1796 with the demolition of Pella, the largest[2] imperial palace in the Saint Petersburg area.
Until 1722, the order of succession in Russia was based on primogeniture. In 1722 Peter I parted with tradition and enacted the monarch's right (and, in fact, obligation) to name his or her successor at will. The change was followed with a series of palace coups; for most of the remaining 18th century, the throne was occupied by women: Catherine I, Anna, Elizabeth, and Catherine II. Catherine II ascended to the throne through the murder of her husband, Peter III, when their only legitimate son, Paul, was seven years old. Paul retained affection to his late father throughout his life; however, with age, this feeling mutated into hatred for his mother.
At the beginning of Catherine's reign, Paul was vital for her survival, being the living symbol of dynastic continuity;[3] however, by 1772, as Paul was coming of age, he began displaying desire to participate in government,[4] thus potentially challenging his mother's absolute power. Catherine thus devised a plan to remove Paul from any involvement in politics: Paul had to marry, retire to quiet family life,[3] and produce a son that might become a better candidate for succession.[5] This son, future emperor Alexander I, was born in 1777, and Catherine eagerly prepared him for an illustrious future, although she never elevated her choice to a level of monarch's written will. Paul, in turn, grew more and more suspicious of anything done by his mother,[6] and even almost boycotted Alexander's 1793 wedding ceremony.[7] The political struggle between Catherine and Paul, which initially "had secret significance hidden from the uninitiated but known to the court",[8] soon became public, being well known not only to Saint Petersburg but also to numerous foreign courts.[9]
Catherine began changing architecture of Russia upon her ascension to throne.[10] She embraced two concepts, architecture as allegory of her political ideas, and architecture as policy of implementing these ideas.[11] Her tastes developed in stages, from French Rococo to Gothic Revival, until finally settling on Palladianism in the 1780s.[11] Catherinian neoclassicism was based on French models leaning to ancient Roman forms.[11] The choice also reflected Catherine's lifelong Greek Project,[12] the drive to take over Black Sea Straits from the Ottomans and re-establish the Byzantine Empire with her grandson Constantine as emperor.
Paul, who detested Catherinian Enlightenment, considered classic architecture a dry, emotionally inadequate reproduction of antiques.[13] Dmitry Shvidkovsky pointed to a 1782 meeting between Paul and French artist and antiquary Charles-Louis Clérisseau at Château de Chantilly as the event that could have shaped Paul's architectural tastes. Clerisseau, who knew he was admired by the empress, reprimanded the Russian heir-apparent for not paying him attention before and promised to report Paul's "disrespect" to Catherine; little else could hurt Paul's feelings more.[13] The bitter exchange sealed Paul's tastes in favor of emerging Romanticism and, at the same time, French Baroque,[14] and sowed the seed for the "Battle of the Palaces".
In 1775 Catherine approved Vasily Bazhenov's drafts of Tsaritsynno Palace, but upon actually seeing the nearly complete structure on June 14 [O.S. June 3] 1785, she found it highly displeasing, scorned Bazhenov and ordered immediate demolition. In her June 19 [O.S. June 8] 1785 letter to Paul she only mentioned that "Kremlin Senate and Tsaritsyno are not ready yet". The mechanism of destruction was already underway, although at a slow pace. Catherine signed a formal decree to raze Bazhenov's palaces and authorized Matvey Kazakov's drafts on February 17 [O.S. February 6] 1786.
Neither Bazhenov's affiliation with free masons, nor his Gothic Revival architecture were at fault.[15] Bazhenov, however, made a mistake by sticking to the 1775 plans that provided for two identical palaces for Catherine and Paul centered around the public core building. In 1775 the equality of mother and son was in line with Catherine's policy, but by 1785 their relations were irreversibly strained. Catherine dismissed Bazhenov and invited Kazakov to rebuild the palace with only one main building – her own.[8] It was structurally completed in 1790s but abandoned after Catherine's death. It stood in ruins for over two centuries and was rebuilt into a modern convention center in 2005–2007.
Pavlovsk, Paul's (and later Maria Feodorovna's) estate since 1777, was designed and built by Scottish-born Palladian neoclassicist Charles Cameron. Paul disliked Cameron simply because he was his mother's protégé.[8][16] Cameron's Pavlovsk was far from Paul's vision of what an imperial residence should be: it lacked moats, forts and all other military paraphernalia so dear to Paul; "Cameron created a markedly private world for the Grand Duke. The palace could have belonged to anyone... not to the tsar of Russia in waiting."[17] In 1786, while demolition crews in Tsaritsino were razing Bazhenov's towers, Paul dismissed Cameron and replaced him with Vincenzo Brenna.
Paul personally hired Brenna, then employed by Stanisław Kostka Potocki, in 1782, and used him in 1783–1785 to visualize his architectural fantasies;[18] the heir and the architect developed a particular spiritual bond, sharing the same philosophy of art: "Paul was the first emperor of the Romantic era, Brenna was the precursor of Romantic Neoclassicism."[19] Brenna left Cameron's palace core intact, extending it with side wings; although he remodeled the interiors, they bear traces of Cameron's style to date. However, Maria's private suite and the militaria displayed in public halls are attributed to Brenna alone.[20] More important, Brenna "militarized" the setting by building a Gothic folly, Bip fortress, on the ruins of actual Swedish forts of the Great Northern War. Paul was so fascinated with Bip that he listed the folly on the Army register of real fortresses.[21]
After the death of Catherine, Paul and Brenna expanded the Pavlovsk estate with real military barracks, officers' quarters and a hospital. Paul instructed Brenna to scavenge Catherine's most recent, incomplete, buildings for materials; Cameron's Rose Field Pavilion[22] (Russian: беседка на Розовом Поле), New Gallery[23] and Temple of Memory in Sophia park[24][25] disappeared without trace, while the Chinese Village in Tsarskoye Selo lost its elaborate exterior finishes.[23]
In 1784 Catherine ordered construction of a country residence for her grandson, Alexander. The name, Pella Palace, invoked the memories of Alexander the Great and Pella, the capital of ancient Macedon. The message was clear: Alexander, then seven years old, was the new ruler, although legally Paul remained first in line for succession.[26] Pella, designed by Ivan Starov, was the largest Russian imperial palace of the period, and more complex in composition than anything in Russia.[26] The core palace was encircled with twenty four smaller buildings in Palladian style connected with double-colonnaded galleries.[26] Catherine called Pella "rising phoenix", alluding to Alexander's ascension to power after her own death.[27]
After Pella, Catherine commissioned two more palaces for Alexander. The first, a diminutive Alexander Dacha near Pavlovsk, was designed by either Nikolay Lvov or Charles Cameron. It was completed in 1789; unusually for Catherinian architecture, it combined a neoclassical ground floor and an Oriental tented belvedere with a gilded dome.[26] The dacha, once described as a "temple of the rosebush with no thorns", was later abandoned, sold to private owners.[23] The second, Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, was built in 1792-1796 by Giacomo Quarenghi as a wedding gift to Alexander and Elisabeth (Louise of Baden). The palace survived Paul's reign and passed to Alexander's brother, future tsar Nicholas.
Immediately after Catherine's death, Paul ordered Pella to be demolished and materials to be reused for construction of St. Michael's Castle in St. Petersburg. Demolition, authorized by Paul on December 7, 1796 actually commenced in May 1797, starting with connecting galleries. By January 1801, six of the nine buildings were completely demolished; three others were razed during Alexander's reign.[28] Not only were the buildings demolished, but virtually all images of it also vanished.[26]
Paul's dreams, visualized by Brenna in 1780s, materialized in Saint Michael's Castle – the emperor's principal Saint Petersburg residence intended to replace the Winter Palace associated with Catherine's reign. The site chosen for the castle was highly significant to Paul: it housed the wooden Summer Palace of empress Elisabeth, it was Paul's birthplace, but also a place where his dreaded mother was proclaimed empress by the same people who killed his father.[28] Paul said that he had a vision of Archangel Michael who instructed him to erect a church on his birthplace,[28] and indeed the castle designed by Brenna had a prominent church integrated in its western facade. Authorized immediately after Catherine's death, the castle was completed by Brenna in four years and occupied by the royal family shortly before Paul's own death. It had a strong Baroque styling clearly contrary to Catherinian palladianism.[29]
Paul I was killed in Saint Michael's Castle 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1801. Brenna, Carlo Rossi and many other Italian artists employed by the late emperor left Russia. Alexander and his court relocated to Winter Palace, his Office of the Court (Russian: гофинтендантское ведомство) converted the redundant castle into offices and living quarters. Soon the former palace housed nearly 900 residents,[14] including future Field Marshal von Diebitsch[14] and, ironically, retired Charles Cameron and his wife.[14][30] In 1819 the building was converted into a military college; palace park, forts and moats eventually disappeared.
During the decade that separated Paul's death in 1801 and the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Saint Petersburg court and its architects refined and modified Catherinian neoclassicism into the Russian version of Empire style. Alexander I has not actively engaged with architecture until post-war reconstruction, although he clearly preferred the art of Quarenghi, Thomas de Thomon and Andrey Voronikhin;[31] construction of Voronikhin's Kazan Cathedral was launched just weeks after Paul's death. Outside Saint Petersburg, various Romantic styles based on Neo-Gothic architecture coexisted with prevailing official art. The aging architects involved in the "battle of the palaces" retired, making way to a new generation: