Rotunda (Perm)
Rotunda
Granny – Rotunda is the gentle nickname which the owners of the Gorky Park gave to the architectural construction, one of the symbols of our city. Actually, you can’t imagine the regional centre of Prykamye without this elegant garden summer-house, which is the compositional centre of Gorkovsky Park. Different kinds of activities take place at the square next to Rotunda.
In autumn of 1824 Perm was being decorated to the arrival of the Emperor Alexander I. The pavements were built, the houses were repaired, the obelisks were erected. At the same time the architect of the Ural mountain administration I. Sviyazev got an order from the Perm’s governor to build a summer – house Rotunda at the country garden ( at that time it was the name of Gorkovskiy Park). Sviyazev was a remarkable person indeed. He was born in 1797 in the family of a serf. Eighteen- year - old Sviyazev entered the academy of Arts. But soon, after the emperor’s order to forbid the serfs to study, he had to leave the Academy. He worked as an assistant of an architect projecting the Petergof’s paper – making factory. He showed all his outstanding abilities there. In 1820 the Academy ransomed the talented architect from the serfdom, and in 1822 he held a post of an architect of the Ural mountain administration.
The member of the Academy of architecture, the author of more than sixty textbooks and tretises, Sviyazev built 31 buildings in Perm, among them – the bell – tower of Spas – Petropavlovskiy Cathedral ( the art gallery nowadays), Krylov’s house, the building of the Nobel Assembly. Rotunda in the Country garden took the deserving place in the range of his masterpieces.
The circle summer – house erected on the stone foundation consists of twelve columns, which support the half – spherical cupola. This is a wooden construction, but due to decoration it seems to be stone. Some time ago Rotunda became dilapidated and it was unsafe. But it was restored by strengths of Perm architects and now it looks perfect. The historians insist that the Emperor was pleased with his visit of Perm. Undoubtedly, he appreciated Sviyazev’s creative work. Beside his meetings with the authorities of the city, merchants, clergymen, he visited Sviyazev’s house. It was the single visit of an Emperor to our city and Rotunda, which became the decoration of Gorky Park, still keeps a memory about that event.
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