Engineering Castle - the place where Paul was born and died

Built at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, at that time Mikhailovsky and now the Engineers' Castle, the castle was to become the main residence of the Emperor Paul the First. The place was not chosen by chance: the merger of the Fontanka with the Moika was always associated with the imperial family name.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were summer gardens in this territory , broken at Petra, and later in 1745 they erected a summer residence for Pavel's cousin Elizabeth Petrovna, in whose walls the future Russian emperor was born.

His happy childhood spent here, the monarch always remembered with warmth. And one day he said that he wanted and died in the place where he was born.

The engineering castle was designed by Bazhenov for a long twelve years, immediately after Paul ascended to the throne. The dilapidated summer residence was demolished, and in 1797 the Mikhailovsky Palace was built.

The Emperor was so in a hurry to finish the construction, that for the sake of the ceremony of holding the bookmark for the day he mourned for Catherine II and Peter III.

For as long as four years, Pavel personally watched the work.

The name of the new palace - "Mikhailovsky Castle" - was associated with his fascination with chivalry and the closeness of his soul to the image of the eponymous archangel. The architecture of medieval buildings always attracted him. Therefore, the "locks" decree of Paul called his other residences, both urban and suburban: Winter, Tsarskoye Selo, and so on.

Building materials from all other large construction projects were delivered to the Mikhailovsky or Engineer's Castle as soon as possible: decorative stone, columns, sculptures were brought from the Academy of Arts and Tsarskoye Selo, a frieze placed over the main gate - from St. Isaac's Cathedral, parquet - from the Tauride Palace.

The main entrance to the palace was radically transformed. Approaches to the building began from the Italian street, passed through a semicircular triple gate, the average passage of which was intended only for the royal family.

Behind the gate was a wide and straight alley, along which the stables and riding arena were located. It ended at the three-storied guardhouse, followed by the fortifications.

The Place de la Concable ended with a broad moat, and through it a wooden bridge was raised.

On the first day of February 1801, the imperial family moved to the Mikhailovsky Palace, and in just forty days Pavel was killed. His desire came true: he was born and died in this place.

In 1819 the palace was transferred to the engineering school. Hence his other name - the "Engineer's Castle" - was officially given to him from 1823.

Known for his penchant for showy effect, to parades and balls, Pavel practically "stuffed" his palace with wealth and luxury. The engineering castle, the photo of which strikes not only the monumentality of the building, but also the luxurious interior decoration, combines a wide variety of interiors from malachite, marble, jasper and lapis lazuli with wooden carvings, an amazing molding, velvet upholstery trimmed with silver, Famous artists.

The Mikhailovsky Palace was always full of mysteries and legends. They say that on the day of the consecration of the castle to the sentry of the tsarist army a golden-haired young man appeared, who ordered something to be handed over to the emperor. Immediately after the murder of Paul, the imperial family left the palace. However, another year his ghost in the Engineering Castle frightened the employees of the Court Office, who moved here.