Wandering Camera

Album 123
(Translated by Ilya Saprykin)

 

As I have already said in the previous album, there're Grottos in the Grand cascade. Actually, there're two of them - Upper and Lower, but after a number of attempts at understanding, which is which (using people's help and reference literature), I've dropped the idea.

 

Entrance.

Built to the design of Leblon, although looks a bit different on pre-WWII photos.

Inside there's a number of galleries. One of them is closed.
And through the other one excursions are travelling. I couldn't take a closer look, as the stairs are really narrow, and when a lot of people are climbing them, you just can't stop, but I've managed to take some photos.

Tubes, for the most part, that deliver water to the fountains of the Grand cascade (and others, I presume).

Despite the fact that these must be official premises, they are decorated at places with various masks and statues. There's some kind of a musem there (statues, photos, telling about the fountain system and grottos).
Speaking about the tubes, I'd say some words about how Peterhoff's fountains work.
Water for them is being drawn from the pools on the Ropshinskije heights (22km from Peterhoff). The entire system (gateways, channels) was built in 1720 under the supervision of hydraulics mechanic V.Tuvolkov. It still works today.
From Ropsha the water flows by the channel into a couple of pools first (some 4-5km away from the park), and from these pools via a system of tubes to the fountains.

At first the tubes were wooden, but in the middle of the XVIII century they were replaced by iron ones. After the WWII the system must have been restored, using far more up-to-date technologies.

The walls and ceiling by the entrance (serving as exit as well) to/from the grottos are decorated in this very interesting manner. And the stones don't fall on visitors' heads :)
In the foreground is the "Pan and Olymp" statue.

My digital camera couldn't handle such an amount of gold. This can be compensated - if only I had more time and a tripod.

In the center of one of those premises there's a fountain-cracker "Showery table". It looks like a table with "fruit" (artificial), but if one tries to take such a "fruit", the fountain that's hidden inside the table starts pouring water on the hungry visitor's head. Of cause everybody on the excursion gathered round this fountain, so all I have is a description
The "Basket" fountain and Naval channel can be seen through the grille.
This is where our story of the grottos ends - there's a lot more interesting ahead :)

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