Gatchina - decorative and park ensemble

Gatchina Palace was built in 1766–1781 to designs by Antonio Rinaldi for Count Grigory Orlov; in 1783 Catherine II gave Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul. The palace stands on a rise above the White and Silver Lakes, and since almost a quarter of the Palace Park is water, many of its pavilions sit on islands and shores.

The 1984 set is about the park itself. It includes the palace and terrace seen across the White Lake, a tower of the Arsenal Quadrangle, the Venus Pavilion on the Island of Love (a copy of the pavilion at Chantilly, 1792–1793), the Eagle Pavilion and the Eagle Column, the oldest structure in the park, the Birch House with its Mask portal, the Poultry House pavilion, the Octagonal Well, the Iron Bridge, and the Menagerie and Sylvia gates.

Dated 1984, the set comes after the major post-war restoration: the Birch House, destroyed in 1944, was rebuilt in 1973, and the Venus Pavilion was fully reconstructed in 1974–1979. These Soviet postcards of Gatchina therefore show the park buildings already restored. The 1984 set places the Eagle Column, first recorded in 1770, alongside the pavilions Paul added in the 1790s.

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