PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURAL UTOPIA OF HAGA PALACE

Abstract

The article considers the architecture of Swedish classicism on the example of the history of the project creation of the Haga Palace near Stockholm, the most grandiose Palladian ensemble of the 18th century in Sweden. The description of the project’s specific features is made against the background of an analysis of the general historical and cultural background of the era. The role and influence of the personality of the customer and practical co-author of the palace project, King Gustav III, an enlightened Voltairian monarch, is revealed in particular detail. The characteristic features of the Swedish line of the Palladian movement and their manifestation in the Haga ensemble are analysed. The definition of the national style of Gustavian classicism, the actual synonym of the Palladian style in Sweden, is given, and, at the same time, its differences from other branches of the development of Palladianism are highlighted. The article tells in detail about the stages of creating the Grand Palace project. The chronology of the work on the project of various architects, in particular O.S.Tempelman and L.J.Desprez, their contribution to the planning solution of the ensemble, the development of the facade and the specifics of interior decoration are described. In addition, the experience of creating an English landscape park in the royal estate of Haga, designed by court gardener F.M.Piper, is shown. The connections between the architectural style of the project and French classicism and neoclassicism are revealed. Analogies with A.Palladio’s project of the Doge's Palace in Venice and the ideas of the late Renaissance are drawn. Similar features of the megalithic scope of the Haga Palace complex and the project of the ensemble of the Grand Kremlin Palace by V.Bazhenov are pointed out. An assessment of the practical significance of this colossal construction project for the development of architecture in Sweden is given.