Town-Planning Conception of the Livadia Palace and Park Ensemble

Abstract

The work is devoted to the town-planning heritage of Livadia. For the first time, relying on the graphic design sources of the 1860s and the turn of the XIX - XX centuries, the history of the formation of the ensemble of the new and second after Oreanda imperial residence in the Crimea is revealed. The content and characteristics of the imperial private order in post-reform Russia are considered. The central place is occupied by the design of the ensemble, its functional structure and boundaries, the architectural and spatial development of the territories, the principles of planning and development the issues of park construction and the use of the naturallandscape.In the era of historicism and national romanticism, a new trend in the arrangement of the privatelife of Russian monarchs was the appeal to the examples and traditions of the Russian aristocratic manor. The estate of Livadia, with the established complex of a noble manor, was bought by Alexander II from the heirs of Count L.S. Pototsky and presented to the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The subject of the study is the town-planning transformation aimed at adapting and further developing the ensemble in order to accommodate the royal famty, the court the retinue, and the extensive system of services.Livadia reconstruction can be divided into two stages. The first is connected with the most intensive transformations of the environment carried out in 1862-1866 undertheleadership of I.A. Monighetti. The architect proposed the concept of a dispersed system of resettlement and placement of new building complexes outside the front of the estate core - auxiliary household military and other services of the residence. An integral part of the plan was road construction and development of infrastructure along with new sections of territories within the boundaries ofland ownershipThe second stage of active construction in Livadia occurred in 1869 - the beginning of the 1880s, and it was mainty directed to social programs. It was the erection of the second church of the estate in the midst of settlement complexes for personnel of the residence services; school for 120 people, etc. The principles of park construction extended to each of the peripheral sections and complexes. The system of water supp^ along with the engineering and technical support service of the estate and surrounding settlements were created. Livadia resembled a city-residence and a city-garden.For the first time the general plans of Livadia that reveal the scale of architectural transformations during the period of possession of the royal family are published.