Museum-Reserve “Pavlovsk”. Revived beauty

The Pavlovsk Palace and Park Ensemble was occupied by the fascists on September 17, 1941 and released during the battles for Leningrad on January 24, 1944. During the period of occupation by the Nazis in the park were cut down 70,000 trees, pavilions were destroyed, blown up bridges and dams, in January 1944 the palace was damaged by fire.

Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War there was carried out the work on evacuation of museum collections in the rear, as well as the shelter of the palace and park sculpture located in the museum. Sculptures of the halls of the palace were walled up in one of the compartments of the basement, park sculpture was buried in wooden boxes near the same location.

Under the leadership of museum director A. I. Zelenova under unfinished military action was organized the work on the revival of the old image of Pavlovsk. The authors of the project of restoration of the palace were the architect F. F. Oleinik and S. V. Popova-Gunich. The works were carried out by the Leningrad organization "Fasadremstroy" led by chief O. O. Gendelman. Paintings are made by A. A. Treskin together with a group of artists on his sketches. Stucco works were conducted by Brigade of I. I. Kalugin, decorative sculpture recreated by N. I. Maltseva and T. P. Shabalkina.

In 1948-1949 in the park were planted about 65,000 trees, there were restored bridges, dams and pavilions. The Pavlovsk Palace has become the first suburban palace, restored after the Great Patriotic War. During the works, which were carried out over the architectural ensemble of Pavlovsk there was first developed a domestic scientific method of restoration of historical and architectural monuments. The period of the restoration work to restore interiors and landscapes of the palace and park complex, as well as the museum is depicted in photographs transmitted by the Pavlovsk Museum Reserve. In addition, the proposed collection includes a historical calendar, issued a by the Presidential Library on the basis of this material.