Summer garden > The maze

The maze

The extensive part of the Second restoration was occupied by the «Fable Grove» with a garden maze (landscaped by C. Schreuder, architected by M. Zemtsov), which Peter the Great had ordered to lay out to imitate the Versailles Maze. The exemplary project by the architect Jean-Baptiste Le Blonder was selected as the prototype for the layout of the site. The construction works began in 1718 and were completed after Peter the Great’s death.

The Maze consisted of four flower-beds laid out on each side of the central alley mirrorwise. The intricate system of pole-hedged garden paths wound among various sorts of trees, fruit-trees among others. In trellis pavilions and niches on the Maze lawns there were fountains, decorated with gilded sculptural groups of birds and animals of lead. In September, 1724 Peter the Great ordered to construct «water-spitting structures» (fountains) adorned with figures of Aesop's fables’ characters. According to the inventory of the restoration of 1736, there were 30 «fable» fountains in the Maze and an octahedral «Apple» fountain in the central alley. The structures of the Garden Maze were almost totally ruined by the flood in 1777, and Since that time they have never been reconstructed. In 1780s the fountain basins were filled up, and the sculptures were remelted. The body of the former «Fable Grove» was seriously damaged by floods in 1824 and 1924 as well.

During the archeological research of 2009-2011 they found and studied the remaining fragments of the fountain constructions and the water supply system, and also verified the layout of the Garden Maze.