The Catherine Palace is the former imperial palace, one of the largest in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. The palace is located in the town of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), 25 kilometers south of St. Petersburg.
Both architectural trends of each of the periods, which the palace survived, and personal predilections of Russian tsars of that time reflected in the history and architecture of the palace. The palace was built in 1717 under the direction of the German architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein as the summer residence of Empress Catherine I. In 1743, Empress Elizabeth asked the Russian architect Mikhail Zemtsov and Andrey Kvasov to expand and beautify the palace. Exactly during the reign of Empress Elizabeth the palace acquired its present form and style. In May 1752, she asked the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli to rebuild the palace, because she considered it too old-fashioned and small. After the dismantling and grandiose reconstruction, which lasted four years, the modern palace was completely built in the Russian Baroque style. July 30, 1756, the presentation of the 325-meter Palace shocked the Russian dignitaries and foreign guests. The huge size of the Grand Palace is seen immediately. In addition, the symmetrical axis system of the overhead porticoes of the palace facade corresponds to the basic spatial coordinates of the park plan. The final touch in the construction and decoration of the Catherine Palace was the Main Staircase in the Rococo style, created in 1863 by the Russian architect I. Monighetti.
After the October Revolution, the Catherine Palace was turned into a museum. During the German occupation, the ensemble suffered, the palaces were looted, many of the exhibits were burned. Nowadays, the ensemble is fully restored by restorers N. Baranov, A. Kedrinskiy, N. Tumanov, etc. Today, the exhibition of the Catherine Palace is opened in 32 rooms. The most interesting place of the palace for tourists is the famous Amber room restored in 2003. The main decoration of the Amber Room was made at the beginning of the XVIII century in Prussia, in 1716 it was presented by King Friedrich Wilhelm I to Peter I; in 1746 it was completed and fit in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, in 1755 it was moved to Tsarskoye Selo. During the Great Patriotic War, the decoration of the Amber Room was removed by the German occupiers to Koenigsberg. The further fate of the room was unknown. Since 1979, there has been restoration work of the Amber Room, by the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg it was completely restored by domestic restorers, including by funds of German companies. The fate of the original exhibits of the room is still under a veil of legends and myths.
Catherine’s Palace is the former imperial palace, one of the largest in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. The palace is located in the town of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), 25 km south of St. Petersburg.
The architectural trends of each era the palace survived, and personal predilections of Russian rulers of the time were reflected in the history and architecture of the palace. The palace was built in 1717 under the direction of German architect Johann Friedrich Braunshtein as the summer residence of Empress Catherine I.
In 1743, Empress Elizabeth asked Russian architects Mikhail Zemtsov and Andrey Kvasov to expand the palace. At the time of Empress Elizabeth the palace acquired its present form and style.
In May 1752, she asked the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli to rebuild the palace again, because it felt too old-fashioned and small. After grandiose reconstruction that lasted four years the present palace appeared, built in style of Russian baroque.
In Soviet times, the museum was opened in the palace. During the Second World War the palace was heavily damaged. The restoration took many years and continues to this day.
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Coordinates: 59°42′58″N 30°23′44″E / 59.71611°N 30.39556°E
The Catherine Palace (Russian: Екатерининский дворец, Yekaterininskiy dvorets) is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), 30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The Palace is part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.
History[edit]
Following the Great Northern War, Russia recovered the farm called Saari Mojs (a high place) or Sarskaya Myza, which resided on a hill 65 m in elevation. In 1710, Peter the Great gave the estate to his wife Catherine I, the village of which was initially called Sarskoye Selo, and then finally Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village). In 1723, Catherine I’s Stone Palace, designed by Johann Friedrich Braunstein and built by Johann Ferster, replaced the original wooden house. This was a two-story sixteen-room building, with state chambers finished in polished alabaster, while the upper one included Gobelin tapestry. The southeast portion of the estate included a garden designed by Jan Roosen, with terraces, stone staircases, parterres, trellised arbours, and ponds, while a menagerie was located on the opposite of the estate.[1]
North side, carriage courtyard: all the stucco details sparkled with gold until 1773, when Catherine II had gilding replaced with olive drab paint.
During the reign of Peter the Great’s daughter, Empress Elizabeth, Mikhail Zemtsov designed a new palace and work began in 1744. In 1745, Zemtsov’s pupil, Andrei Kvasov, working with Savva Chevakinsky, expanded the palace to be 300 m long. This included a Middle House, two side wings, a chapel, and the Conservatory Hall, all connected by four galleries with hanging gardens. Then in 1751, Bartolomeo Rastrelli undertook a major reconstruction effort, integrating several buildings, giving the palace its distinctive snow-white columns, sky-blue walls, with gilded stucco, chapel cupolas, and sculptures requiring almost 100 kg of gold. Rastrelli’s interiors were based on a Baroque style. Sculptor Johann Franz Dunker, master gilder Leprince, and interior painter Giuseppe Valeriani were some of the distinguished artists. Other notable rooms included the Chinese Room with its porcelain and Coromandel lacquer panels, the Portrait Hall, the Light Gallery, and the Amber Room with Andreas Schlüter’s amber panels, while 5 anterooms were connected to the Great Hall, which measured 860 square meters. Construction ended in 1756, when the palace included 40 state apartments, and more than 100 private and service rooms. A New Garden was added, while the Old Garden was improved with a deepening of the Big Pond, connected to springs 6 km away, the addition of a Toboggan Slide, plus the Hermitage, Grotto, Island, and Mon Bijou pavilions.[1]
Baroque architecture gave way to Neoclassical architecture in the 1770s, when Tsarskoye Selo became the summer residence of Catherine the Great’s court. Yuri Velten redesigned the south facade of the palace, while the side wings were converted from one-storey into four-storey Zubov and Chapel Annexes. The Main Staircase was replaced by state and private rooms such as the Chinese Room, decorated with Charles Cameron designs, and a new staircase built in the center where the Chinese Room had stood. Cameron’s 1780s interior designs included the Arabesque Room with arabesque painted ceiling, walls, and doors, while Greek and Roman classical motifs were used on the wall vertical panels. Cameron’s Lyons Room used French golden-yellow silk on the walls, while the doors, stoves and panels used Lake Baikal lapis lazuli. The empress’ Bedroom used Wedgwood jasper bas-reliefs designed by John Flaxman and George Stubbs. The Blue Room, or «Snuff-box», incorporated white and bright blue glass on the walls. Giacomo Quarenghi designed the Mirror and Silver Rooms in 1789, while Rastrelli’s hanging gardens were pulled down in 1773.[1]: 18–22
Vasily Neyolov’s 1768 master plan for Tsarskoye Selo was elaborated in 1771 by Johann Busch and implemented. Antonio Rinaldi added the Chesme Column, Morea Column, and the Kagul Obelisk to commemorate the victorius Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774). Neyolov’s Gothic monuments included the Admiralty, the Hermitage Kitchen and Red (Turkish) Cascade, and his Chinese motifs included the Creaking Pagoda and the Great Caprice. Neyolov’s Early Classicism monuments included the Upper and Lower Baths. Neyolov built the Opera House in 1778–79. In the 1780s, Cameron added the Thermae as part of Catherine the Great’s «Greek-Roman rhapsody», and started building the Chinese Village. Quarenghi added a music pavilion and Ceres temple to an Upper Pond island. His Kitchen Ruin folly was added next to the Concert Hall. Neyolov’s Babolovo Palace was added by 1785, and in the 1790s, Quarenghi built the Alexander Palace. In 1809, Luigi Rusca built the Granite Terrace. In 1817, Stasov built the Triumphal Arch commemorating the Russian repulsion of the French invasion of Russia. From 1851 to 1852, Monighetti added the Turkish Bath.[1]: 24–25, 28
With Catherine the Great’s death in 1796, park construction ceased. Vasily Stasov restored the damage caused by the 1820 fire, which included Rastrelli’s chapel and adjoining apartments. In the 1850s, Andrei Stakenschneider decorated the state room ceilings with stucco ornament and Hermitage Museum canvases. In 1860, Ippolito Monighetti reconstructed the central staircase and main porch.[1]: 22–28
When the German forces retreated after the siege of Leningrad in World War II, they intentionally destroyed the residence,[2] leaving only the hollow shell of the palace behind. Soviet archivists had managed to document a fair amount of the interior before the war, which proved of great importance in reconstructing the palace starting in 1957, by the State Control Commission for the Preservation of Monuments under the direction of Alexander Kedrinsky.[1]: 7–9
Layout[edit]
The Cameron Gallery in the 21st century
Although Stasov’s and Cameron’s Neoclassical interiors are superb manifestations of late 18th-century and early 19th-century taste, the palace is best known for Rastrelli’s grand suit of formal rooms known as the Golden Enfilade. It starts at the spacious airy ballroom, the «Grand Hall» or the «Hall of Lights», with a spectacular painted ceiling, and comprises numerous distinctively decorated smaller rooms, including the recreated Amber Room.
The Cameron Gallery in the 18th century.
The Great Hall, or Light Gallery, as it was called in the 18th century, is a formal apartment in the Russian baroque style designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli between 1752 and 1756.[3] The Great Hall was intended for more important receptions such as balls, formal dinners, and masquerades. The hall was painted in two colors and covers an area of approximately 1,000 square meters. Occupying the entire width of the palace, the windows on the eastern side look out onto the park while the windows of the western side look out to the palace plaza. In the evening, 696 lamps are lit on about a dozen chandeliers located near the mirrors. The hall’s sculptural and gilded carvings and ornamentation were created according to sketches by Rastrelli and models by Johann Franz Dunker.
Beyond the Great Hall is the Courtiers-in-Attendance Dining Room. The room was designed by Rastrelli in the mid-18th century. The small room is lit by four windows which look out into the formal courtyard. The architect placed false windows with mirrors and mirrored glass on the opposite wall, making the hall more spacious and bright. Decorated in the typical Baroque interior style, the hall is filled with gilded wall-carvings, complex gilded pieces on the doors, and ornamental patterns of stylized flowers. The ceiling mural was painted by a well-known student of the Russian School from the mid-18th century. It is based on the Greek myth of the sun god Helios and the goddess of the dawn, Eos.
Across from the Courtiers-in-Attendance Dining Room, on the other side of the Main Staircase, is the White Formal Dining Room. The hall was used for the empresses’ formal dinners or «evening meals». The walls of the dining hall were decorated with the utmost extravagance with gilded carvings. The furnishings consist of gilded carvings on the consoles. Some of the furniture which can be seen in the room today is original whilst other pieces are reproductions.[4] The painted mural, The Triumph of Apollo, is a copy of a painting completed in the 16th century by Italian artist Guido Reni.
The Portrait Hall is a formal apartment covering 100 square meters. The room’s walls boast large formal portraits of Empress Catherine I and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, as well as paintings of Natalya Alexeyevna, sister of Peter the Great, and Empress Catherine II.[5] The inlaid floors of the hall contain precious woods. The Drawing Room of Alexander I was designed between 1752 and 1756 and belonged to the Emperor’s private suite. The drawing room stood out from the rest of the formal rooms in the palace due to the fact that the walls were covered in Chinese silk. Other decor in the room was typical for the palace’s formal rooms—a ceiling mural and gilded carvings. The elegant card tables and inlaid wood commode display Japanese, Chinese, and Berlin porcelain.
The Green Dining Room, which replaced Rastrelli’s «Hanging Garden» in 1773, is the first of the rooms in the northern wing of the Catherine Palace, designed by Cameron for the future Emperor Paul and his wife. The room’s pistachio-coloured walls are lined with stucco figures by Ivan Martos. During the great fire of 1820 the room was seriously damaged, thus sharing the fate of other Cameron interiors. It was subsequently restored under Stasov’s direction.[6]
Other interiors by Cameron include the Waiters’ Room, with an inlaid floor of rosewood, amaranth and mahogany and stylish Chippendale card tables; the Blue Formal Dining-Room, with white-and-blue silk wallpaper and Carrara marble chimneys; the Chinese Blue Drawing Room, a curious combination of Adam style with Chinoiserie; the Choir Anteroom, with walls lined in apricot-colored silk; and the columned boudoir of Alexander I, executed in the Pompeian style.
See also[edit]
- List of Baroque residences
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Lemus, Vera (1984). Pushkin Palaces and parks. Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers. p. 9-18.
- ^ The palace was used as barracks and for target practice. Before retreating, the Germans set the palace ablaze (Edmund Stevens, Russia Is No Riddle, Kessinger Publishing, 2005, page 184). After the Soviets retook Tsarskoe Selo, «the Catherine Palace presented a terrible scene. The great hall, the picture gallery and the gala staircase had all collapsed… The Amber Room had been stripped and the gala rooms gutted by a fire… A most terrible sight was Ratsrelli’s vista of golden doorways, now reduced to raw bricks laden with snow. Cameron’s classic suite of rooms was not destroyed but had been much vandalised», etc. Quoted from: Christopher Morgan, Irina Orlova. Saving the Tsar’s Palaces. Polperro Heritage Press, 2005. p. 74.
- ^ «The Great Hall». eng.tzar.ru. Archived from the original on 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
- ^ «The White State Dining Room». eng.tzar.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-06-14. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
- ^ «The Portrait Hall». eng.tzar.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-06-15. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
- ^ «The Green Dining Room». eng.tzar.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-06-12. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
External links[edit]
Media related to Catherine Palace at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Detailed description and history from Tsarskoe Selo in 1910
- Photo Tour of the Cameron Gallery from the Alexander Palace Time Machine
- Charles Cameron — Imperial Architect site on his work in Tsarskoe Selo and the Catherine Palace
- Laskin, David (2006-06-18). «History Is Perennial in the Gardens of the Great Czars». New York Times. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
- Photos of the Catherine Palace interiors at the Wayback Machine (archived March 10, 2007)
- The Catherine Palace ceiling and wall decorations
- Photos and How to visit at archive.today (archived January 29, 2015)
The Catherine Palace is a former Russian residence of the
Russian Imperial family. It is in the town of Pushkin, Saint Petersburg.
The Palace’s town was called Tsarskoye Selo which means Tsar’s village in English. In 1918 the Bolsheviks changed the name to Detskoye Selo. In 1937 the town was renamed to Pushkin to honor Alexander Pushkin.
History[change | change source]
Catherine I of Russia began the building of the palace in 1717. She hired the German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to create the summer palace. In 1733, Empress Anna added to the palace. Then in 1752 Empress Elizabeth had the palace torn down. It was rebuilt in a Rococo style. More than 100 kilograms of gold were used. Many statues on the roof were covered in gold.
Catherine the Great thought the palace was old-fashioned. She employed Scottish architect Charles Cameron. He made one wing into the Neo-Palladian style. He also changed the personal apartments of the Empress.
After Catherine’s death the imperial family began using Pavlovsk Palace and Alexander Palace. The palace was destroyed during World War II. Restoration began soon after the German forces left. Now the palace is mostly restored and is open for tours.
Other websites[change | change source]
Media related to Catherine Palace at Wikimedia Commons
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| Image: Wikimedia Commons |
1. In 1717, Peter the Great commissioned German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to build a summer residence for her wife, Catherine I. The resulting structure was a modest-looking, two-storey palace.
2. In 1733, Empress Elizabeth had the palace expanded with the help of two notable baroque architects of that time, Andrey Vasilievich Kvasov and Mikhail Grigorievich Zemtsov.
3. The unsatisfied empress thought the palace looked cramped and outdated despite the initial expansion, so she commissioned Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, her court architect, in May 1752 to demolish the edifice and replace it with a much opulent structure in an elaborate Rococo style. The construction was completed four years later (July 30, 1756).
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| Catherine Palace south view. Image: Wikimedia Commons |
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| Catherine Palace north view. Image: Wikimedia Commons |
4. The palace’s stucco façade and the statues erected on its roof were finely covered in a staggering 100 kilograms of gold.
5. Catherine Palace measures 325 meters long, and almost a kilometer in circumference.
6. Catherine denounced the lavish spending of private and state funds that came with the palace’s expansion and refurbishment. «…What was done today, was destroyed tomorrow. That house has been pulled down six times to the foundation, then built up again till it was brought to its present state. The sum of a million six hundred thousand rubles was spent on the construction. Accounts exist to prove it; but besides this sum the Empress spent much money out of her own pocket on it, without ever counting,» she stated in her memoirs.
7. The highlight and currently the most visited part of the palace have to be the Amber Room. It was designed by Rastrelli, who made use of amber mosaic panels—originally intended for an amber cabinet at Königsberg Castle—gifted by Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia to Peter the Great. Splendid panels comprised of 450 kilograms of amber, which were fashioned to perfection by Russian and Florentine craftsmen, were also used. The room was further embellished with “gilded carving, mirrors… and further mosaics of Ural and Caucasus gemstones”, according to Saint-Petersburg.com.
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| Catherine Palace Cameron Gallery. Image: Wikimedia Commons |
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| Catherine Palace Ballroom. Credits: Wikimedia Commons |
8. The Amber Room was looted and dismantled within just 36 hours by Nazi Germany’s Army North Group during World War II. The glorious amber panels were then brought to Königsberg to be displayed. The expensive articles, however, were never found again after they were moved for safety’s sake after the Nazi regime started to crumble.
9. Restoration of the Amber Room began in 1982 and was successfully completed $12 million and 20 years later (2003).
Catherine Palace is situated in the town of Pushkin — a little suburb of St. Petersburg. The other name of the place is Tsarskoye Selo, which is translated into English like Tsar’s village. The palace was constructed in the 18th century for the Russian Empress Elisabeth I, the daughter of Peter the Great, as her Summer residence. Elisabeth liked luxury more than anyone, and the palace indeed answers her taste. It is constructed in the style of Russian baroque, richly decorated with gilded carvings. 30 kilos of gold was used for the interior decoration only.
During the tour of the Palace you will walk through a magnificent gallery of gala rooms where balls, receptions, and official dinners took place, see a very interesting collection of furniture and peaces of applied art, which belonged to the Royal family. But the main point of interest is of course the world famous Amber Room. A room, where the whole surface of the walls is covered with natural amber. This interior is unique. Nowhere in the world one can see anything like that. After visiting the Palace we can also have a walk around the beautiful gardens.
Usually the tour to Catherine Palace takes about 4 hours, as it is 24 kilometers from St. Petersburg. If you have a possibility to spend the whole day in the country, we recommend you to take a combined tour of Catherine Palace and Pavlovsk. Pavlovsk is a former residence of Emperor Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great. It is located 10 minutes drive from Catherine Palace. In this case the tour will take 5-6 hours.
More detailed information about Catherin Palace you can find on the official cite of the museum.
We also recommend you to see:
- Alexander’s Palace — a palace which was used by the last Russian Tsar Nickolas II and his family as their private home. You can see a number of exquisite Modern style interiors designed for the last Royal family and a very interesting exhibition devoted to the story of their life and martyrdom. It is located in Pushkin, 5 minutes walk from Catherine Palace. The tour will take about an hour.
- The monument to the defenders of Leningrad — a monument which is devoted to the siege of St. Petersburg (at that time Leningrad) during the World War II. It also has a small but very impressive museum of the siege telling the story of the most tragic page of the history of the city. The monument is situated on the way from Pushkin to St. Petersburg. The stop will take about 40 minutes.
Send request
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Catherine palace tour…It was an amazing place to visit and was just like having a member of the family take you through the palace and gardens. Our guide was very knowledgable and put no pressure on us to get around the rooms and gardens. (Mick Nelson, Swindon) Catherine palace with the amber room guided tour…In St. Petersburg, Russia, I visited so many beautiful sites one of the most impressive and beautiful was Catherine’s Palace and the Amber Room. The palace was so large and so ornate. I was never rushed through rooms, and I was given tons of excellent background info. The tour of the palace was spectacular and our guide went at a good pace, allowing me to take photos and ask questions, no rushing. (Anthony, London, United Kingdom) Catherine palace skip the line tour…If you ever get to St Petersburg this must be on your bucket list. The beauty,the ornatness of this palace is breathtaking, from floor to ceiling from room to room the history is priceless, don’t miss this one! The ticket system at all of the summer palaces is skewed towards large tour groups-making it almost impossible for solo or small group ticket purchasers to avoid hours in the line specifically for Palace tickets. The only way to avoid that is with the «skip the line» tours, and I do feel that my money was well spent. (Katya N, Melbourne, Australia) How to get to Catherine palace St Petersburg quickly…Catherine’s Palace is an absolutely wonderful way to spend a half day. We easily bypassed the lines of other tourists who were in large groups, since we were such a small group. Our guide Maria knew just where to go inside the Palace and the garden, which was so much more time efficient than if we were trying to tour the site by ourselves. This was certainly one of our favorite days in our trip to St. Petersburg. (Ben Symp, San Antonio, Texas) |
The Catherine Palace is the former imperial palace, one of the largest in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. The palace is located in the town of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), 25 kilometers south of St. Petersburg.
Both architectural trends of each of the periods, which the palace survived, and personal predilections of Russian tsars of that time reflected in the history and architecture of the palace. The palace was built in 1717 under the direction of the German architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein as the summer residence of Empress Catherine I. In 1743, Empress Elizabeth asked the Russian architect Mikhail Zemtsov and Andrey Kvasov to expand and beautify the palace. Exactly during the reign of Empress Elizabeth the palace acquired its present form and style. In May 1752, she asked the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli to rebuild the palace, because she considered it too old-fashioned and small. After the dismantling and grandiose reconstruction, which lasted four years, the modern palace was completely built in the Russian Baroque style. July 30, 1756, the presentation of the 325-meter Palace shocked the Russian dignitaries and foreign guests. The huge size of the Grand Palace is seen immediately. In addition, the symmetrical axis system of the overhead porticoes of the palace facade corresponds to the basic spatial coordinates of the park plan. The final touch in the construction and decoration of the Catherine Palace was the Main Staircase in the Rococo style, created in 1863 by the Russian architect I. Monighetti.
After the October Revolution, the Catherine Palace was turned into a museum. During the German occupation, the ensemble suffered, the palaces were looted, many of the exhibits were burned. Nowadays, the ensemble is fully restored by restorers N. Baranov, A. Kedrinskiy, N. Tumanov, etc. Today, the exhibition of the Catherine Palace is opened in 32 rooms. The most interesting place of the palace for tourists is the famous Amber room restored in 2003. The main decoration of the Amber Room was made at the beginning of the XVIII century in Prussia, in 1716 it was presented by King Friedrich Wilhelm I to Peter I; in 1746 it was completed and fit in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, in 1755 it was moved to Tsarskoye Selo. During the Great Patriotic War, the decoration of the Amber Room was removed by the German occupiers to Koenigsberg. The further fate of the room was unknown. Since 1979, there has been restoration work of the Amber Room, by the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg it was completely restored by domestic restorers, including by funds of German companies. The fate of the original exhibits of the room is still under a veil of legends and myths.
Установите соответствие между текстами A–G и заголовками 1–8. Запишите свои ответы в таблицу. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании один заголовок лишний.
1. Building materials
2. The longest on Earth
3. Safe travel
4. Designing a building
5. Invented by accident
6. Comfortable living
7. How did they do it?
8. Why seasons change
A. Most of Africa’s rural peoples use natural resources that are locally available for their homes. In grasslands, people typically use grass to cover the walls and roofs. In forested areas, they use hardwoods as well as bamboo and raffia palm. Earth and clay are also major resources used in construction. In areas with few natural resources, people often live as nomads, moving from place to place. Instead of making permanent homes, they usually use simple shelters or tents made of animal skins and woven hair.
B. An architect must consider how a structure will be used and by whom. An apartment building, a palace, a hospital, a museum, an airport, and a sports arena all have different construction requirements. Another factor is the ideas the structure should communicate. For example, some buildings are made to impress people with a display of power and wealth; others — to make everyone feel welcome. Other things to consider are the location and surrounding environment, including weather, and the cost of materials.
C. Did you know that an eleven-year-old child first created the Popsicle? The boy’s name was Frank Epperson. In 1905, Frank left a mixture of water and powdered soda out on his porch by mistake. It also contained a stir stick. That night, fortunately for Frank, the temperatures fell to a record low. As a result, he discovered the substance had frozen to the stick, and a frozen fruit flavoured ice treat was created. He decided to call it the epsicle, which was later patented by him and named as Popsicle.
D. As Earth goes around the sun, the North Pole points to the same direction in space. For about six months every year, the North Pole is tilted towards the sun. During this time, the Northern Hemisphere gets more direct sunlight than the Southern Hemisphere and more hours of daylight. During the other six months, the North Pole is tilted away from the sun. When the Northern Hemisphere gets the most sunlight, it experiences spring and summer. At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere gets autumn and winter.
E. In southern Peru, there is an isolated plateau where the wind almost never blows. Here, around the year 400 to 650 AD, the people of the Nazca culture created the famous Nazca lines, by removing the red stones covering the ground so that the white earth beneath was visible. These Nazca lines are actually portraits of animals such as monkeys, birds or fish. It is a mystery how such a primitive civilization could create such artwork with precision when they had no means of viewing their work from the air.
F. Antarctica, which is the southernmost and fifth largest continent, does not have twenty-four-hour periods divided into days and nights. In the South Pole, the sun rises on about September 21 and moves in a circular path until it sets on about March 22. This “day”, or summer, is six months long. During this period, if the weather conditions are good, the sun can be seen twenty-four hours a day. From March 22 until September 21, the South Pole is dark, and Antarctica has its “night”, or winter.
G. Any ship that hits an iceberg can be damaged. The most famous iceberg in history sank the “Titanic”, a ship travelling in the northern Atlantic Ocean, on April 15, 1912. The ship’s side scraped the iceberg, which tore holes in the hull. Within three hours, the ship was at the bottom of the ocean. After the loss of the “Titanic”, several nations worked together to establish the International Ice Patrol. Today the U.S. Coast Guard runs the patrol, which warns ships about icebergs floating in Atlantic shipping routes.
| Текст | A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
| Заголовок |
Прочитайте текст и
заполните пропуски A–F частями предложений, обозначенными цифрами 1–7.
Одна из частей в списке 1–7 лишняя. Занесите цифры, обозначающие
соответствующие части предложений, в таблицу.
City
of fountains
Peterhof is a
monument of world architecture and palace and park art. Peterhof includes a
palace and park ensemble of the 18-19th centuries, A_______________________.
Peterhof is a city of fountains as it contains 173 fountains and 4 cascades B_______________________.
Each year up to 3 million people come here to enjoy the splendour of numerous
fountains and the unique parks of Peterhof.
The name
Peterhof was first mentioned in 1705. It was a coastal manor, close to which the
construction of a grand country residence began. The original plan belonged to
Peter the Great. After the brilliant victory of Russian troops over the Swedes,
security of St. Petersburg both from the land C_______________________.
Since that time, the construction of the Peterhof residence grew immensely in
scope.
According to the
plan of Peter the Great, on the one hand, Peterhof was meant to be equal in
splendour with the most famous royal residences in Europe, D_______________________
to access the Baltic Sea. Both were successfully done. The Great Palace was built on a natural hill here, E_______________________. Following the
plan of Peter the Great, F_______________________, the Grand Cascade
with the famous Samson fountain was constructed. This is still one of the most
spectacular fountains in the world. In 1990 the palaces and parks of Peterhof
were included in the list of the world heritage of UNESCO.
| 1. |
and from the sea has been firmly ensured |
| 2. |
which is a former royal countryside residence |
| 3. |
who designs many royal residences in Europe |
| 4. |
and then rebuilt in the baroque style in the 18th century |
| 5. |
who wanted to decorate the main entrance with waterfalls |
| 6. |
that are located in the park on the coast of the Gulf of Finland |
| 7. |
and on the other hand, to become a monument of Russia’s struggle |
Ответ:
Catherine (Yekaterininskiy) Palace is one of the largest palaces in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. Yekaterininsky Palace is a former Imperial palace. It is situated in the modern town of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), twenty-five kilometres south of St. Petersburg. The city itself is a part of Pushkin District of St. Petersburg. The building of the palace started in 1717 by order of Empress Catherine I. The palace was built in the baroque style. During the war, the palace was badly damaged. Its recovery has taken many years and continues by the Leningrad school of restorers on a strictly scientific base. History and architecture of the palace reflect architectural trends of each of the periods, which the palace survived as well as personal predilections of Russian rulers of that time.
Екатерининский дворец-один из самых больших дворцов в окрестностях Санкт-Петербурга. Екатерининский дворец-это бывший императорский дворец. Он расположен в современном городе Пушкине (бывшем Царском Селе), в двадцати пяти километрах к югу от Санкт-Петербурга. Сам город входит в состав Пушкинского района Санкт-Петербурга. Строительство дворца началось в 1717 году по приказу императрицы Екатерины I. Дворец был построен в стиле барокко. Во время войны дворец сильно пострадал. Его восстановление заняло много лет и продолжается Ленинградской школой реставраторов на строго научной основе. История и архитектура дворца отражают архитектурные тенденции каждого из периодов, которые пережил дворец, а также личные пристрастия русских правителей того времени.
1) Установите соответствие между заголовками 1 — 8 и текстами A — G. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании один заголовок лишний.
1. Grand heights
2. Life down below
3. Seaside living
4. The wettest settlement
5. Grand metropolis
6. Desert survival
7. Below zero living
8. Dense living
A. The famous island of Aruba is located in the Caribbean Sea. Its approximately 100,000 residents live mostly along the coast, although there are a few inland settlements. Compared with the rest of the Caribbean Islands, the inhabitants of Aruba live in a considerably drier climate. The island is strewn with cactus plants, and it’s relatively flat compared with neighbouring land masses.
B. Although it doesn’t exist anymore, at one point Kowloon Walled City had more people living in it per square kilometre than any other city in the world. Over 30,000 people lived in the settlement, which was only the size of one city block. It was a dangerous place to live, full of health hazards and shoddy building standards. This is why the Chinese government eventually tore it down.
C. Antarctica is not a continent many people have visited, or probably ever will. Almost completely covered in ice for the entire year, there are no towns or cities there, and the only permanent inhabitants are penguins, seals and other ocean-faring creatures. Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth, with temperatures plummeting to almost -90 degrees Celsius in winter. Despite its icy surface, it hardly receives any rain.
D. Los Angeles may seem like a glamorous place, but its motorways are jam-packed. Still, they’re the best way to get around the city, as the underground, although improved, is not always useful, and the bus system is complicated. Thus, it’s essential to have a vehicle to get around, but to get right across the city could take more than two hours, even driving at high speeds on the motorway.
E. The village of Mawsynram, northeast India, has a special distinction to accompany its name. It receives more rainfall than any other place in the world. On average, almost 12 metres of rain fall in Mawsynram each year. That’s metres, not inches or centimetres. The village lies amongst hills where monsoon winds from southern India converge. It’s highly recommended to bring an umbrella if you visit!
F. Believe it or not, there is life at the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Seven miles below the surface, it’s pitch black because no sunlight reaches that far. There is little for anything to eat down there, and temperatures are not far above freezing point. What could possibly exist down there? And yet, this is the home of many small, fish-like creatures.
G. Mount Everest is generally thought to be the tallest mountain in the world, but it depends on how you measure things. If you start from the very bottom of the base of a mountain, even if it’s below the sea, then Hawaii’s Mauna Kea would qualify as the tallest. From the sea floor to its peak, it’s 10,203 metres high, compared to Mount Everest’s 8,848 metres.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
2) Прочитайте текст и заполните пропуски A — F частями предложений, обозначенными цифрами 1 — 7. Одна из частей в списке 1—7 лишняя.
Pavlovsk Palace
Pavlovsk Palace near St Petersburg has a remarkable story. In its over 200 years of existence, it has been ravaged by fire, ___ (A). But its survival of World War II is perhaps the most interesting period in its history.
The palace was built in the late 18th century on land that belonged to Catherine the Great. She had passed the land down to her son, Paul I, and his wife, Maria, upon the birth of their son, Alexander I of Russia. Scottish architect Charles Cameron, a lover of Greek and Roman architecture, was hired to design the palace. His relationship with Catherine the Great was quite close, ___ (B).
The three of them had competing interests for the interiors, each one disliking the others’ tastes. Eventually the palace was finished, and after Catherine the Greats passing, Paul I made it the official royal residence. His death in 1801 meant Alexander I would become emperor, ___ (C).
The palace stayed in royal hands up until the Russian Revolution, when the royal family fled the country. They left the palace to Alexander Polovotsoff, a prominent museum director, who fought to have it saved as a museum. His success meant that the palace survived, ___ (D).
Just before its seizure, the museum staff hurried to save the art contained in the museum. Furniture was dismantled and shipped off, ___ (E).
Perhaps the cleverest trick involved the statues. They were too heavy to evacuate, so the staff buried them in the gardens. They sank them three metres into the ground, ___ (F). They were right; after the occupation was over, the statues still remained.
1. occupied by foreign troops and nearly completely destroyed
2. and large antiquities were stored in a basement and walled up
3. but it would be seized by the Germans years later and used for military purposes
4. and he designated the house as his mother Marias official residence
5. believing the palace would best serve the country as a museum
6. but clashes would erupt between him, Paul and Maria over style issues
7. thinking the Germans wouldn’t dig that deep to look for them
| A | B | C | D | E | F |
3) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
Before Martin moved to Bali, he…
1) was very unhappy with his life in general.
2) spent some time working there to see if he would like it.
3) was only thinking of the positive aspects of life there.
4) expected life there to be full of inconveniences.
4) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
What did Martin think about lying on the beach and sitting by a pool?
1) It wasn’t something he’d ever be able to do.
2) It was the only thing to do in Bali.
3) It would be something he’d find very boring.
4) It would have to be an occasional thing.
5) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
Martin’s dream jobs were all…
1) educational.
2) sporty.
3) travel-related.
4) hospitality-related.
6) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
What kind of living arrangements did Martin want to secure?
1) A luxurious sort of place.
2) Anything he could find.
3) Something in a good location.
4) A modern type of place.
7) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
‘This’ in ‘None of this was as a result of not trying’ in the sixth paragraph refers to…
1) the place Martin found.
2) the results of Martin’s endeavours.
3) the island life.
4) the rent he had to pay.
Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
How did Martin feel about the power being cut in the beginning?
1) It didn’t bother him very much.
2) He became really annoyed.
3) He worried about being disconnected.
4) He thought he’d get used to it.
9) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
What does the phrase ‘cry over spilt milk’ in the last paragraph mean?
1) Get upset about spoiled food.
2) Worry about unimportant things.
3) Imagine serious health problems.
4) Give up on dreams.