Sights of Peterhof: palaces, fountains and parks. Fountain complex on Lenin Square. How much are the tickets

Fountains are another reason to come to the Northern capital. Fountains of St. Petersburg belong to different historical eras and events, they give strong positive emotions, make you feel the power and beauty of water.

Story

Park art began in the era of Peter I. In 1705, the city was built by masters invited from Europe. The European trend of that time - park and fountain ensembles - influenced architectural appearance future capital.

The first fountains appeared in the Summer Garden. There were about sixty of them, each representing an Aesop fable. Nearby stood a pillar, which described its interpretation. Until now, they have not been preserved, they were destroyed by the floods of 1777 and 1824.

In the 18th century, fountains began to appear in wealthy noble estates.

The history of fountains began in St. Petersburg

In the 19th century, interest in them resumed. Construction moved to yards, squares, gazebos.

In the last century, most of the cultural monuments were abandoned, only since 1996, the reconstruction of old and the construction of new fountains in St. Petersburg began.

fountain season

The opening of the St. Petersburg season traditionally begins in the spring. Fountains turn on in mid-April.

Interesting! In the 2018 season, 52 St. Petersburg fountains and 4 complexes are operating.

Among them are monuments of culture and art:

• "Samson" and "Big Cascade" in Peterhof;
• "Crown" and "Pyramid" of the Summer Garden;
• drinking fountain "Aquarius" at the Kazan Cathedral;
• fountain in the Alexander Garden.

Modern buildings:

• singing fountains in St. Petersburg on Lenin Square;
• "Ball" on Malaya Sadovaya;
• "Omega".

Peterhof

Museum-reserve Peterhof brought northern capital world fame.

Museum reserve

The first fountains started working in 1721 in honor of the opening of a new country residence of Peter.

During the Second World War, some of the fountains were destroyed. There was little time left to prepare for the evacuation. The Nazis entered Peterhof already on September 23, 1941. Many sculptures were taken out, the rest were hidden under the palace or buried in the ground.

Currently, the complex consists of 4 cascades and 173 fountains.

The Grand Cascade is one of the largest fountain structures in the world. It constitutes one architectural complex with the palace, coincides with it in width, consists of 60 fountains. It is decorated with 225 gilded bronze, lead and marble sculptures. During the holidays, he becomes part of the costume performances.

The central element of the cascade is "Samson tearing the lion's mouth". This is a three-meter statue-fountain, rising high up to 21 m. It depicts a mighty young man tearing the grinning mouth of the beast, from which a column of water escapes. The composition was installed in 1734 on the anniversary of the celebration of the Battle of Poltava.

Three Samsons have changed over the history of the Museum-Reserve. The first - cast from lead by the sculptor Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1735, lost its luster over time, in 1802 it was replaced with bronze. This statue was lost during the years of occupation. In 1947, on the basis of archival data and photographs, it was restored.

The ceremonial launch of the Grand Cascade and the Samson Fountain takes place daily at 11:00 am to the anthem of St. Petersburg.

Samson is located in lower park Peterhof

• 10:00 to 18:00 Monday - Saturday;
• Sundays and holidays from 10:00 to 19:00.

How much are the tickets

Note! The autumn holiday, which is called "The Closing of the Fountains" will be held on September 21 and 22. But the fountains will work until October 14, 2018.

Summer garden

The Crown Fountain is located next to the entrance to the Summer Garden from the side of the Champ de Mars. It was one of the first structures built at the beginning of the 18th century. Many jets of water form a crown-like composition. Its shape gave it its name. The Koronny pool is made of white marble.

Summer garden

Destroyed by a flood in 1777, "Koronny" was restored at the beginning of the 21st century during a large-scale reconstruction of the park ensemble based on materials archaeological sites. Among the recreated objects were the Pyramid and Octahedral fountains.

Address: Kutuzov embankment, 2.

Fountains in the center of St. Petersburg

In the very center of St. Petersburg, opposite the Admiralty in the Alexander Garden, there is a fountain of the 19th century. The construction was a hydrotechnical masterpiece of that time.

Petersburgers say that there are fountains in St. Petersburg that make wishes come true.

The one opposite the Admiralty is one of them. You need to stand with your back to the water, make a wish and throw a coin into the fountain and then immediately leave without turning around.

The granite fountain-drinker "Aquarius" near the Kazan Cathedral is an architectural monument of the early 19th century. It was installed on the way to Tsarskoe Selo for watering horses. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was moved to Leningrad, to Voronikhinsky Square, opposite the entrance to the Kazan Cathedral. Every spring, Aquarius is the first to open the fountain season.

"Aquarius" opens a new season

Modern fountain complexes

The complex on Lenin Square near the Finland Station is equipped with light and music. The fountains are placed in 20 bowls, which are illuminated in different colors and move to the beat of the music. The show is interesting to watch in the evening.

During public holidays fountains accompany theatrical performances.

In static mode, the complex operates daily from 10 am to 11 pm.

Fountains begin to "dance":

• on weekdays at 12:00, 21:40;
• on weekends and holidays 12:00, 20:00, 21:00, 21:40.

The program lasts 20-25 minutes.

Important! In the 2018 season, the second light and music complex on Moskovskaya Square is closed for repairs.

Ball fountain

Smooth stone ball weighing more than 700 kg rotates freely, it is worth touching it lightly with your hand. Strong water jets support its heavy weight.

The ball fountain is a copy of a copper ball created by M. V. Lomonosov during the reign of Catherine II. By changing the direction of rotation every hour, it showed the time of day.

Address: corner of Malaya Sadovaya and Nevsky Prospekt.

Omega

"Omega": night illumination

The fountain is made in the form of the Greek letter "omega". It is inclined at an angle of 45 degrees, the water flows in a circle, forming a water curtain. The height of the structure is 7 meters, the diameter of the ring is 13. The presentation of the structure took place in 2006.

Address: Pesochnaya embankment, 40.

Every summer, millions of tourists come to St. Petersburg - a city where amazing fountains are located. Guests of the city get acquainted with the architecture of palaces, the splendor of park and fountain complexes, throw coins into the fountains of St. Petersburg and come back again.

According to a familiar philosophical statement, water is one of those few things that you can look at endlessly. In almost any, more or less major city world, you can find fountains: ordinary, without any pretentious elements or a real architectural miracle. Today we will talk about the ten most unusual fountains in the world.

1. Fountain-waterfall "Pearl Divers", UAE, Dubai. This unusual fountain located in the middle of the huge Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates. It consists of two high waterfall, from the top of which, figures of pearl divers jump down. Each of the waterfalls has a cylindrical structure with a diameter of thirty meters. These waterfalls permeate all four levels of the mall vertically and have overall height- twenty-four meters. The fountain appeared in mall not at the time of its opening in 2008, but only a year later, becoming interesting place relaxation, meditation and meetings for visitors to this shopping and entertainment establishment in Dubai. This building is permeated with symbolism that not everyone can understand without knowing the history. United Arab Emirates. For the Arabs, water is sacred in any of its manifestations, and this is understandable: they live in the middle of the desert. The palm trees that are displayed at the waterfall fountain are a symbol paradise oasis. The fiberglass figurines of pearl divers are a reminder that pearls were an important source of wealth: they were caught in the waters of the Persian Gulf. The creators of the waterfall fountain decided that in the daytime it would be lit by natural light. sunlight passing through the atrium and windows, in the dark, it will be illuminated by a special color-changing lighting.

2. Fountain "Boat", Spain, Valencia. On beautiful square Playa de la Malvarosa, Spanish Mediterranean resort city ​​of Valencia, there is a very unusual fountain "Fuente del Barco de Agua", imitating a boat with a sail, and the hull itself, and the boat, and the sail, are created by water jets. In terms of execution, this fountain is quite simple: metal frame rods are welded together in the shape of a sailboat, thus creating a shape. Many tiny holes were made in these tubes, water jets come out of them under pressure. Thus, water complements the architectural composition. This fountain-sailboat is especially beautiful in the evening and at night: in the evening, because it is especially romantic in the rays of the setting sun, and at night, because the lit backlight gives the impression that the boat is drifting on the sea surface, sparkling with lights.

3. Fountain "Crane hanging in the air", Spain, Cadiz. in spanish resort town Cadiz can be seen interesting fountain, executed in the form of a golden kitchen faucet, which seems to be hanging in the air and water is pouring from it. Of course, the "magic" crane is optical illusion: it does not hang in the air, just in the stream of water pouring out of this faucet, a transparent water pipe is hidden, on which this faucet rests, but due to the high pressure of the water it is completely invisible. And tourists who see this fountain for the first time are wildly delighted. But this cunning idea has already been repeated in some other cities of the world, creating “miracle fountains” similar to this.

4. Fountain "Montjuic", Spain, Barcelona. Spanish magic light and music fountain, located on picturesque hill Montjuic in the city of Barcelona was built in 1929, under the guidance of engineer Carles Bungas, for the opening of the World Exhibition "Fire and the Universe", held in. It was conceived in such a way that the amazing visual show will become a real "miracle" for the participants of the event. After the end of the exhibition, soon began in Spain civil war which interrupted the joy of the people of Barcelona and the work of this wonderful technical invention. And only by the fifties of the last century, the Montjuic fountain was restored. In those days, the fountain had numerous jets that merged into various whimsical figures, and illuminated with a simple backlight. And already in the early eighties, engineers added musical accompaniment - works by the classics Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. Before the 1992 Olympics, held in Barcelona, ​​the fountain was completely refurbished, modernized and improved technically. Today, the magical fountain "Montjuic" or "The Singing Fountain of Barcelona" is a real technological masterpiece: it has five powerful pumps that drive the artesian drinking water, in the amount of twenty-six tons every second, and releasing three thousand six hundred and twenty water jets, fifty meters high. As for the musical accompaniment, the repertoire of this fountain has seven thousand melodies, from classic masterpieces to modern hits of the world stage. This Barcelona attraction attracts up to two and a half million viewers a year with its twenty-minute water-music show followed by a ten-minute break followed by a magical light and music show. The fountain itself covers an area of ​​three thousand square meters and is located at the foot of National Museum arts of Catalonia.

5. Fountain "Swarovski", Austria, Innsbruck. This amazing imagination artwork- a fountain in the form of a green human head, located in the Swarovski Crystal Worlds technology park, in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. The fountain, in the form of the head of a green giant, whose eyes are made of green crystals, is an unusual entrance to the headquarters and the Swarovski Museum, located underground. From the mouth of this head falls powerful waterfall. The building was erected in 1995 and timed to coincide with the opening of the Swarovski Crystal Museum in Innsbruck. Leading designers, sculptors and architects of the world took part in the development and construction of an amazing and unusual fountain, and they managed to embody the best architectural solutions and fantastic ideas in their brainchild.

6. Stravinsky Fountain, France, Paris. The fountain was built in 1983 on the square of the composer Igor Stravinsky in Paris, under the direction of the architect Jean Tinguely. This square is located in the heart, not far from the palace and historic island Cité, next to the Center Pompidou. The fountain has an unusual design: its shallow pool is a place where sixteen unusual mobile bright figures are placed, which move to the rhythms of music from the famous works of Stravinsky, periodically overthrowing water. The Stravinsky Fountain has become a kind of monument to the musical genius, a native of Russia, who moved to Paris before the start of the First World War. This fountain is also known as the Tangley Fountain.

7. Volcano Fountain, UAE, Abu Dhabi. This unusual fountain, at first glance, strikes with the originality of its idea and the amazing embodiment of architectural thought. In appearance, this is a volcano, and from its crater, “lava” periodically splashes out - water illuminated by orange light. This architectural marvel has already become a real calling card UAE. And the fountain is especially impressive at night: it is then, when the backlight is lit, that a surprisingly plausible effect of lava eruption is created.

8. Fountain "Pineapple", USA, Charleston. This pineapple-shaped fountain is located in Waterfront Park in the state South Carolina. Moreover, this architectural work has repeatedly been awarded the awards of the American Society of Landscape Architects, as well as the National Trust for Historical Preservation. You ask: was the choice of fruit random or is there a subtext here? Yes, pineapple is not an accident! When American settlers first discovered this mysterious fruit in local territories and tasted that it was really very sweet, tasty and nutritious, prices for it skyrocketed and only very financially wealthy people, such as planters or aristocrats, could afford to taste it. . Since then, pineapple has traditionally become a symbol of wealth and prosperity, although it is already available at its price to everyone. The Pineapple fountain is also a kind of symbol of the prosperity of this land.

9. Fountain "The Great Cascade of Peterhof". It is often said about the Russian Peterhof that it is a “city of fountains”, and this is true: there are a lot of underground springs on those lands, so the water to the fountains does not even need to be pumped up with pumps. The magnificent fountain complexes of Peterhof have long been recognized as the most exquisite in the world, and the idea of ​​their creation came to the mind of Emperor Peter the Great, who decided that they should be spread out on the shore Gulf of Finland. The Peterhof Grand Cascade is a series of fountains connected by a single concept of the architect. It was built in the eighteenth century, in tribute to the memory of the grandiose victory of Russia in northern war. The cascade has three staircases of waterfalls, seventy-five dizzying fountains, two magnificent grottoes, twenty-nine elegant bas-reliefs, two hundred and fifty-five wonderful bronze sculptures. The length of the facade of this fountain is forty-two meters. Such pompous design is the personification of the sea power of Russia. Palace and park ensemble, erected by Peter the Great back in 1710, has been perfectly preserved to this day, and for good reason, it is called “Russian Versailles” by foreigners, including due to its magnificent fountains, which are in no way inferior to French ones.

10. Fountain-monument "Alexander the Great", Macedonia, Skopje. On the largest and main square the capital of the Republic of Macedonia - the city of Skopje, there is an amazing equestrian monument to Alexander the Great, it is called "Warrior on Horseback" and is a bronze sculpture of the famous commander, whose height is fourteen and a half meters, it is located on a large concrete pedestal. At the foot of this pedestal are eight sculptures of soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx, they are surrounded by a bronze fountain with four lions, also made of bronze. This monument was inaugurated on September 8, 2011, in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the independence of Macedonia. This memorial fountain is incredibly important for every Macedonian and is a symbol of national pride.

Fountains are architectural compositions that bring a piece of joy and a sense of celebration into our lives, it’s good to arrange meetings here, sit and think alone, come in the company of like-minded people, take wonderful photos. We hope that the ten most unusual and amazing fountains in the world that we have listed will be an excellent incentive to travel around the countries where they are located.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers is one of the most famous and beautiful fountains in Rome. The fountain was built in 1651 according to the project of the sculptor Bernini and commissioned by Pope Innocent X. The main part of the fountain is an Egyptian obelisk, which was brought to Rome by the emperor Caracalla.

The composition of the fountain consists of an obelisk and sculptures of river gods from different countries the world around him. River gods from different parts of the world were chosen - the Nile represents Africa, the Danube represents Europe, the Ganges represents Asia and La Plata represents America. Also in the fountain you can see sculptures of various animals, including a lion, horse, dragon, snake and others. The fountain is made in the Baroque style and attracts with the harmony of sculpture and architecture.

Fountain of Neptune

The famous Fountain of Neptune is located in the northern part of Piazza Navona. Once it was called "Fontana del Calderari" - this was due to the location near the blacksmith workshops, which produced pots, pans and other metal products.

In the 19th century, due to the development of urban infrastructure, the dependence of residents on fountains, which were previously used for domestic purposes - drinking and washing, significantly decreased. With the growth of technical progress, the aesthetic role of city fountains also increased, especially after 1870, when an independent Italian state with Rome as the capital. The construction of the Neptune Fountain continued for several decades, as the architects and sculptors who worked on it sought to make their creation consistent with the general style of the square.

In the form in which the fountain exists today, the construction was finally completed in 1878 by Antonio della Bitta. The sculptor added a central statue to the sculptural group of the fountain - "the struggle of Neptune with an octopus." Other sculptors created the rest of the sculptures based on various mythological subjects and depicting nereids, cupids and marine animals.

Fountain of the Pantheon

The Pantheon Fountain was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII and is located in Piazza della Rotonda, Rome, in front of the Roman Pantheon. It was designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575 from marble.

In 1711, Pope Clement XI changed appearance fountain - various pools made of stone were made, and the Macuteo obelisk, created during the period of Ramses II.

In 1886 the original marble figures were removed and replaced with copies by Luigi Amici. Today, the originals can be seen in the Museum of Rome.

Fountain "Boat"

The Boat Fountain was built by order of Pope Urban VIII in 1627-1629 in memory of the flood in Rome in 1598, when the level of the Tiber River rose and reached a mark of 10 meters. The area of ​​Italy at that time was flooded by one meter, and it was possible to move around the area only by boat. When the water left the city, one of the boats ran aground and remained lying on the square.

The fountain was designed by the Italian sculptor Pietro Bernini, father of the more famous sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, who allegedly took part in the work on the fountain after his father's death in 1629.

The biggest difficulty in the work of the sculptors was that the water supplying the fountain and entering it from the ancient Roman aqueduct Aqua Virgo had a very low pressure. Pietro Bernini, using his genius and non-standard artistic vision, designed the fountain in such a way that its main part (oval bath) is located just below the level of the square, and the “boat” itself is above this level and is sunk into the bath at one end. This made it possible to create the height difference necessary for the jets.

Trevi Fountain

Travelers who had a chance to contemplate this magnificent work of art with their own eyes literally freeze in admiration, amazed by its incredible beauty and monumentality. Trevi Fountain - the most famous fountain the eternal city. The dimensions of this massive composition are 20 meters wide and 26 meters high, occupying almost the entire space of the square. It was created on the basis of sketches by Bernini, one of whose main hobbies was the creation of theatrical effects. The Trevi Fountain is so popular with the inhabitants of Rome and tourists that a small area resembles an amphitheater filled to overflowing with spectators, the stage of which is an amazing composition of the fountain, in the center of which is the god Ocean in a shell-cart drawn by two seahorses. Tritons show them the way between the rocks. The bottom of the fountain is littered with coins - legend says that those wishing to return to Rome must certainly throw a coin right hand over the left shoulder, you need to stand with your back turned to the fountain. Another tourist tradition is to drink water from the "lover's tubes" located on the right side of the fountain.

Atelier of the Fontana sisters in Rome

The atelier of the Fontana sisters in Rome is the most legendary place in the history of Italian fashion. It was in it that the best masterpieces for stars from all over the world were created. Initially, the studio became famous for the design of wedding dresses, but over time, the Fontana sisters began to dictate the rules of the entire fashion industry in Italy, and the whole world.

In Piazza di Spagna, in Rome, you can find this studio, where there are many albums of sisters with sketches of world-famous dresses from 1960 to 1990, rare photographs, a historical fashion archive and a large number of dresses from the Fontana sisters. It is amazing to see here the famous dresses of Joan Collins, Audrey Hepburn, Ursula Andress or Queen Frederica of Greece herself, original accessories, touch the fabric of products, feel the lightness of lace.

The atelier allows each visitor to take a tour of the history of the fashion world. You can visit it on your own or as part of a tour by reservation, at least 20 days in advance.

Fountain of the Moor

The Fountain of the Maurus has been standing in Piazza Navona in Rome since the end of the 16th century, but the figure of the Maurus was made according to the sketches of Bernini by one of his students, and the rest of the figures belong to the 19th century.

Sights of Rome