The Summer Garden

The Summer Garden Railing from the side of the Neva River

After the decree of Catherine II about the building of the railings separating the Summer Garden from the road running along the bank of the Neva River, the work was undertaken by Georg Friedrich Veldten, who had started the design of St Petersburg granite embankments several years before that.

The monumental railings of thirty-six granite columns and slender poles cast in Tula became a real architectural masterpiece. The fan-shaped structures flanking the railings, added in 1830 by Ludwig Charlemagne-Baudet, were a fine perfection of the trellis. At first the railing had three gates opposite the main alleys of the garden. In 1867 the central gate was dismantled and in their place a marble chapel was built, a memorial to the “miraculous saving” of Emperor Alexander II from the deadly danger during the assassination attempt by the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, near the railing gates on 4 April 1866.

In 1931 the chapel was dismantled, and a railing element was erected at its place; the original composition was not restored. The reversion of its historical layout to the railing is a task for contemporary restorers.