On July 17, 2024, the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club, together with the organizing committee of the Golden Trezzini Awards and the Gatchina State Museum-Reserve, held a symposium dedicated to the 240th anniversary of the beginning of the construction of the Birch House in Gatchina Park.
The symposium was attended by members of the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club, guests and partners of the Golden Trezzini Awards, as well as consuls general and representatives of the diplomatic missions of Cyprus, Hungary, Japan, Norway, and Switzerland.
The event began with a walking tour of Gatchina Park, the Birch House Pavilion, and the Gatchina Palace. Guests then moved to the Theater Hall of the Gatchina Palace to discuss the amazing deception pavilion — the Birch House, its equally remarkable creator, the Russian-Swiss François Violier, and how architects and artists from different eras competed in the art of deceiving the viewer.
Welcoming remarks were addressed to the participants and guests of the symposium by:
- Vasily Pankratov, Director of the Gatchina State Museum-Reserve,
- Sergey Lutchenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Urban Planning Policy, Chief Architect of the Leningrad Region,
- Alexey Mikhailov, Acting Chairman of the KGIOP of St. Petersburg,
- Natalia Sidorkevich, Chairlady of the Board of the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club,
- Beatrice Lattayer, Consul General of Switzerland in St. Petersburg,
- Andrey Melnikov, Head of Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Switzerland in Moscow,
- Pavel Chernyakov, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Golden Trezzini Awards.
The meeting began with a speech by Alexandra Farafonova, Head of the Scientific and Stock Department of the Gatchina State Museum-Reserve. Her report, «The Birch House in Gatchina: An Element of the Game in a Landscape Park,» covered the history of this structure, which includes fiction, humor, skill, tragedy, and rebirth — literally from the ashes. The Birch House is a surprise pavilion typical for 18th-century park architecture, with deliberately simple facades hiding unexpectedly luxurious interiors. The exterior of the house imitated a pile of birch firewood, while inside, gilded stucco and numerous mirrors greeted admiring guests. The pavilion was destroyed during World War II and recreated in 1975 by architect A. A. Kedrinsky. However, as Alexandra Farafonova emphasized, it now requires a new restoration.
Elena Borovskaya, Doctor of Art History and Professor at the St. Petersburg Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, introduced the audience to the biography and creative heritage of the Birch House's creator, the Russian architect and painter of Swiss origin, Henri François Gabriel Violier (1750—1829). This Geneva native can be called a «Renaissance man» due to his numerous talents, including painting, miniature work, drawing, watercolor, architecture, construction management, decoration, gardening, theater design, directing, acting, event planning, and fireworks management.
Alexey Guzanov, Chief Curator of the Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve, discussed the typological analogue of the Gatchina Birch House — the lost «Old Chalet» pavilion in Pavlovsk Park. François Violier created furniture sketches for this pavilion and painted its walls and ceilings. Built in 1780 for Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich's wife Maria Feodorovna, the chalet outwardly resembled a hut with a thatched roof but contained exquisitely decorated interiors. The pavilion was significantly damaged in the 1920s and lost during the war. In June 2024, the Pavlovsk Museum-Reserve began work on reconstructing the chalet.
Natalia Bakhareva, Senior Researcher at the Department of the History of Russian Culture at the State Hermitage Museum and curator of the exhibitions «Don't Believe Your Eyes. Deceptions in Art» (2018) and «The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in Russia» (2024), spoke about the bizarre world of inhabitants in deceptive paintings. She noted how artists have long used characters to make illusions in paintings and murals more convincing and entertaining.
The final speaker, Irina Potseshkovskaya, Head of the Department of Architecture at the St. Petersburg Mining University of Empress Catherine II, PhD in Architecture, presented a report on «Optical Illusions in Architecture and Spatial Paradigms.» Using extensive historical material from megaliths and Egyptian pyramids to the innovations of Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel, she demonstrated how architects continually play with the laws of spatial perception to deceive and surprise viewers.
Oleg Dmitriev, director of the CORE branch XP in St. Petersburg and Deputy Chairman of the organizing Committee of the Golden Trezzini Awards, moderated the symposium.
The organizers thank the team of the Gatchina State Museum-Reserve and personally the museum director Vasily Pankratov for their hospitality and high-level event organization. We also express our gratitude to the Embassy of Switzerland in the Russian Federation and the Consulate General of Switzerland in St. Petersburg for their invaluable help in organizing this event.
The symposium was supported by DZM Design architectural studio as the partner.
Photo: Igor Bakustin
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