Architect to Lecture on St. Petersburg's Winter Gardens
On January 28, a lecture titled «Winter Gardens of St. Petersburg with Andrey Reiman» will be held in St. Petersburg. The event, organized by the DK Lurie Cultural Center, is intended for an audience aged 12 and over and is dedicated to a unique architectural phenomenon.
Winter gardens, often categorized as «secret» or «hanging», by the turn of the 19th–20th centuries had become an almost mandatory element of the formal interiors of St. Petersburg mansions.
The tradition of decorating rooms with plants dates back to the 18th century, but its heyday came in the second half of the 19th century. Inspired by the example of French nouveaux riches (newly rich) of the Second Empire era, St. Petersburg«s wealthy actively built mansions with winter gardens.
«Hanging» gardens were placed at second-floor level, which required complex engineering solutions. Many of them were «secret»—hidden from the eyes of passersby. An exception is the winter garden in the mansion of Matilda Kshesinskaya, part of which is visible from the street.
At the lecture, architect Andrey Reiman, a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Architects and Chairman of the Council for Landscape Architecture, will talk in detail about the history of these gardens and show examples.
The event will take place on January 28 at 18:00 at the Matilda Kshesinskaya Mansion, located at Kuibysheva Street, 2-4 (entrance from Kronverksky Prospekt). Detailed information is available on the DK Lurie website.
