The Orangery Fountain

In the centre of the Orangery garden there is a round pool, with a stone surround and a four-pointed star of tufa, from which rises a bronze sculptural group, depicting a Triton struggling with a seamonster. A jet of water almost eight metres high rises from the open mouth of the monster; its impetuous force enhances the dynamic quality of the sculpture. At the points of the tufa star lie four bronze turtles. With their heads peering out of their shells, they seem to be watching the contest; thin two-metre streams of water shoot from their gaping mouths.

The fountain was conceived and designed to complete the layout of the Orangery area. A pool for it was dug in 1722, but it was only in 1726 that Usov constructed a fountain, and decorated it with a lead group made by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli. 150 years later the old sculpture was replaced by a galvanoplastic group, created by the Berlin sculptor Barella from drawings by David Jensen; it was set in the pool, with the original lead turtles. During the occupation period from 1941 to 1944 the Orangery with its garden and fountain was completely destroyed. Gurzhy re-created the sculpture of Triton Fighting a Sea Monster and the four turtles in 1956, and so this fountain, typical of the 1730s, began its second life.