Old postcards Pavlovsk Park

Pavlovsk Park grew out of a gift: in December 1777 Catherine II granted her son Paul land along the Slavyanka River. Charles Cameron built the Great Palace here (1782–1786) and the Temple of Friendship (1781–1784), a rotunda in a bend of the river dedicated to the empress in thanks for the estate. Vincenzo Brenna and Pietro Gonzaga later extended the park, and in 1808–1809 Thomas de Thomon added the Mausoleum “To the Spouse-Benefactor” in memory of Paul I.

The vintage postcards of Pavlovsk Park here come from two closely matching sets, dated 1970 and 1972. Both include the Temple of Friendship, the statues of Apollo and of Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy, at the Twelve Paths, the Great Circles parterres, the Cold Bath, the Ruin Cascade, the English Road near the White Birch and the flower garden by the Aviary. Only the 1970 set has the Parade Field, the mausoleum and the palace seen from the Slavyanka; only the 1972 set has Cameron’s Pavilion of the Three Graces (1800) and the palace’s Greek Hall.

A single 1978 card, “Palace Museum”, dates from the year Pavlovsk became the first of Leningrad’s suburban palace-museum ensembles to be revived from wartime ruins.

Because the 1970 and 1972 sets overlap so closely, they work best side by side, pavilion by pavilion.