Walks around Saint-Petersburg#47. The beginning of Peter the Great.

My main omission in the stories about St Petersburg probably is that I did not tell you about the construction from which the majestic city actually began. Of course, this is the Lodge of Peter the Great from which it all began. This was the first building in 1703 in St. Petersburg, along with the then built Peter and Paul Fortress. All his summer days, Tsar Peter the Great from 1703 to 1708 spent here in a room hardly exceeding the area of 60 square meters. This building was built for Peter the Great by soldiers in just three days. And these three days have probably decided a lot for the entire history of Russia.

image source

The place for construction was chosen not accidentally, from the windows of the house one could see the Peter and Paul Fortress, the water expanses of the Neva, maneuvers of ships and military formations.
The house was built of pine logs with characteristic metal ornaments typical of Russian architecture of the time. But in the interior of the house a lot reminds of the time spent by Peter the Great in Holland. Peter ordered to hew the logs and paint the walls under the red brick masonry, make shingles on the roof like clay tiles, and install large windows with small glass compartments.

image source

image source

There was no stove or chimney in the house, since it was the summer residence of Peter the Great and although he was a man of great health, he was spending his time here only in a warm period.
After the Summer and Winter palaces were built, Peter the Great did not live in this house and the house was empty. In 1777, the house was badly damaged after the flood and Empress Catherine II ordered to install a foundation, to cover the walls with bricks and cover the roof with an iron.
These works were completed and only in 1844, under the direction of the architect Roman Ivanovich Kuzmin, the house was restored anew.
In this form, the house exists today. Since 1930, there is a museum showing us what a simple way of life was by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great.

image source

image source

image source

This was the original appearance of Peter the Great's house without the outer shell of his later brick "apron".

Later I will try to tell the biography of Peter the Great in more detail in one of my stories. Thank you for attention. I'm waiting for you again on my page, where you can learn about the history, culture and art of St. Petersburg.