Ропшинский дворец / Ropsha Palace - 1899-1912

Россия на дореволюционных фотографиях Ропшинский дворец 1899-1912 Russia in pre-revolutionary photographs Ropsha Palace 1899-1912 Музыка; Большой вальс из балета 'Анюта' - Валерий Александрович Гаврилин Music: Grand Waltz from the ballet 'Anyuta' by Valery Aleksandrovich Gavrilin Ropsha Palace is located in Lomonosovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, , about 20 km ( 12 mi) south of Peterhof. The settlement was first mentioned in the documents of the Novgorod Republic in the 15th century, when its name was spelled as "Khrapsha". It passed to Sweden following the Treaty of Stolbovo but was recaptured by Peter the Great during the Great Northern War. Upon hearing about the curative properties of Ropsha's mineral springs, the tsar planned to make it his summer retreat; a timber palace and small church were built there. Subsequently, when he discovered a more favourable location of Strelna he abandoned his previous plans for Ropsha and made a present of it to his senior associate, Prince Fyodor Romodanovsky... Later, under Tsar Paul I, Ropsha palace was rebuilt in a Neoclassical style to a design by Georg von Veldten. A large paper factory was built nearby and the English gardener Thomas Gray laid out an English park with a mosaic of ponds full of fish....Paul apparently planned to rename Ropsha, in commemoration of the dramatic events of 1762, but was assassinated himself before this came to pass. Emperor Nicholas II turned Ropsha Palace and parks into his favorite hunting and fishing retreat. Ropsha also had a military garrison and an Imperial cavalry division was stationed here until 1918. During the Russian Civil War Ropsha saw some heavy fighting, as General Yudenich wrested it from the Bolsheviks on two occasions and later the Soviet Government nationalised the estate... From September 1941 to January 1944, during the Siege of Leningrad, Ropsha was occupied by the troops of Nazi Germany. At the end of hostilities, the palace was restored and used to house a military unit, who kept the place in good order... In 1977-1978, the military vacated the building, the parquet flooring and wooden doors were removed and the windows were boarded up... During the 1980 and early 1990s a series of fires swept through the building, causing the roof to collapse and weakening the external walls. In early 2010, the facade collapsed completely...