Colonizer's Park, Landscape park in Petergof, Russia
Colonizer's Park is a 29-hectare landscape park in Petergof, laid out by architect Andrei Stackenschneider under Nicholas I with garden master Pyotr Erler. Its core is the Olga Pond, dug in 1837–1838, with banks lined by willows and two artificial islands, Tsaritsyn and Olga, holding pavilions and gardens. The park is bounded by Erlerovsky Boulevard, Borodacheva Street, the Olga Pond embankment and the Samsonovsky Canal.
The park was laid out under Nicholas I to a design by architect Andrei Stackenschneider, with garden master Pyotr Erler, on the site of the drained Okhotnoye swamp; the pond was dug in 1837–1838. In 1842–1844 the Tsaritsyn Pavilion was built on the eastern island as a gift for Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, and in 1846–1848 the Olga Pavilion rose on the western island. Both pavilions were badly damaged in the Second World War and restored between 2001 and 2005.
The park's name comes from the Alexandrian German colony that bordered its southern edge, moved there in 1833 and named after Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Locals call the park "Ostrová" (the Islands). Its two artificial islands in Olgin Pond held the Tsaritsyn and Olgin pavilions, reached by ferry, boat and gondola; the imperial couple took breakfasts and afternoon tea there in seclusion.
The park lies in central Petergof, bounded by Erlerovsky Boulevard to the south, Borodacheva Street to the east, the Olga Pond embankment to the north and the Samsonovsky Pond canal to the west. The Tsaritsyn and Olga pavilions on the two islands of Olga Pond can be visited in the summer season, from late May to early October. The pond was dug in 1837–1838 as part of the water system feeding the fountains of the Lower Park.
Between the two islands, a white-painted electroplated copy of P. A. Stavasser's sculpture "The Mermaid" once stood in the water of Olgin Pond; it has not survived. A second sculpture, a copy of K. M. Klimchenko's "Narcissus", stood west of the Olgin Pavilion. In 1845 gardener P. I. Erler released 15 pairs of rabbits on a small island in a newly dug pond.
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