The Hanging Garden

The Hanging Garden is an architectural construction characteristic of 18th-century palace ensembles. In 1763 Catherine II gave the architect Yury Veldten the task of creating a garden at second-storey level, stables and a riding hall. The Hanging Garden, the first designs for which were produced by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de La Mothe, became part of an ensemble that included the Southern (or Favourite’s) Pavilion, the Northern Pavilion with a grand hall and orangery, and two picture galleries. The garden was designed as a parterre: a broad strip of lawn with flowerbeds and marble sculpture was flanked by curtains of young birches trimmed to a pyramid shape. Later fruit and decorative trees and shrubs were planted here. In the orangery guests admired exotic flora and birds and animals from distant lands.