Eine Aussicht auf Reval (Tallinn) samt ihrer Befestigungen

Ragnar Nurk: A view on talllinn with her fortificationsKeywords: Karl (Carl) Ferdinand von Kügelgen (1772–1831);cityscape, realism, Tallinn, first half of the 19th century,artillery fortificationSummary:The article introduces one of the best examples of the once popular Tallinn cityscape motif: a painting that is artistically significant but also valuable as a historical document. The oil painting from the the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia is attributed to Karl (Carl) Ferdinand von Kügelgen (1772–1831), a landscape painter from Rhineland who had family ties in the Tallinn region and spent the last years of his life there. Besides that fact, the technical mastery also supports the attributionto Kügelgen. The representation is historically accurate – true tothe period of time when Kügelgen resided in the city, and the detail of depictions implies substantial knowledge of the Tallinn area. Still, art historian Voldemar Vaga has drawn attention to the fact that in contrast to Kügelgen’s typically Classicist and slightly beautifying depictions of reality, this painting is Realist to the smallest detail. The motif under scrutiny is common both in painting and in graphic art from the 1820s to 1850s. The paintings with this motif depict a declining provincial city and a fort of the Russian Empire that had reached its height in the medieval times. Kügelgen’s painting shows clearly the expanse of the entrenchments taking up the space between the city centre and the outskirts and it also exposes a dissimilarity in construction methods as well as a spatial separation between the two areas. An outstanding depicted detail is Nunnavall (German „Nonnenwall”), an earthen entrenchment seen just in front of the city wall together with a polygonal stone construction between the sections of the entrenchment – the most realistic extant  depiction of this feature. From other images and the city plans of the time we can infer that initially there were two stone  constructions – placed at both intersections of the entrenchment. One of the constructions is later incorporated into the larger  Skoone bastion that can be seen on the background of the painting. The depiction of these buildings suggests that they functioned as caponiers – a type of a bunker for the defenceof the moat, and not as bastions. Also, it is possible that these buildings were actually built later than the rest of the rampart, e.g. from the period of the Livonian War (1558–1583). Tody The Old Town and its surrounding city wall have survived much the same as depicted in the painting. In contrast, the earthen entrenchments have been entirely flattened and in their place parks have been developed.CV :Ragnar Nurk is a doctoral student at the Institute of History of Tallinn University, and works as an archaeologist. His master’s thesis on the development and architecture of a section of Tallinn bastion zone near Anthony‘s Hill (German „Antonius-Berg”, Estonian „Tõnismäe”) earned him the Estonian Academy of Sciences Student Research Prize in 2011

Eine Aussicht auf Reval (Tallinn) samt ihrer Befestigungen

Ragnar Nurk: A view on talllinn with her fortificationsKeywords: Karl (Carl) Ferdinand von Kügelgen (1772–1831);cityscape, realism, Tallinn, first half of the 19th century,artillery fortificationSummary:The article introduces one of the best examples of the once popular Tallinn cityscape motif: a painting that is artistically significant but also valuable as a historical document. The oil painting from the the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia is attributed to Karl (Carl) Ferdinand von Kügelgen (1772–1831), a landscape painter from Rhineland who had family ties in the Tallinn region and spent the last years of his life there. Besides that fact, the technical mastery also supports the attributionto Kügelgen. The representation is historically accurate – true tothe period of time when Kügelgen resided in the city, and the detail of depictions implies substantial knowledge of the Tallinn area. Still, art historian Voldemar Vaga has drawn attention to the fact that in contrast to Kügelgen’s typically Classicist and slightly beautifying depictions of reality, this painting is Realist to the smallest detail. The motif under scrutiny is common both in painting and in graphic art from the 1820s to 1850s. The paintings with this motif depict a declining provincial city and a fort of the Russian Empire that had reached its height in the medieval times. Kügelgen’s painting shows clearly the expanse of the entrenchments taking up the space between the city centre and the outskirts and it also exposes a dissimilarity in construction methods as well as a spatial separation between the two areas. An outstanding depicted detail is Nunnavall (German „Nonnenwall”), an earthen entrenchment seen just in front of the city wall together with a polygonal stone construction between the sections of the entrenchment – the most realistic extant  depiction of this feature. From other images and the city plans of the time we can infer that initially there were two stone  constructions – placed at both intersections of the entrenchment. One of the constructions is later incorporated into the larger  Skoone bastion that can be seen on the background of the painting. The depiction of these buildings suggests that they functioned as caponiers – a type of a bunker for the defenceof the moat, and not as bastions. Also, it is possible that these buildings were actually built later than the rest of the rampart, e.g. from the period of the Livonian War (1558–1583). Tody The Old Town and its surrounding city wall have survived much the same as depicted in the painting. In contrast, the earthen entrenchments have been entirely flattened and in their place parks have been developed.CV :Ragnar Nurk is a doctoral student at the Institute of History of Tallinn University, and works as an archaeologist. His master’s thesis on the development and architecture of a section of Tallinn bastion zone near Anthony‘s Hill (German „Antonius-Berg”, Estonian „Tõnismäe”) earned him the Estonian Academy of Sciences Student Research Prize in 2011

Domenico Trezzini’s Imperial Gate in Narva

Before the devastation of the Second World War, the well-preserved historic city Narva, on the eastern border of the Republic of Estonia, was known as a pearl of late 17th century Swedish Baroque architecture. The development of the most promising economic and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Sweden in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland was halted as a result of the Great Northern War. However, after the bloody and destructive siege of 1704, there was a short period in which Peter I tried to highlight Narva as his victory trophy, which was to undo the disgrace of his previous defeat in the Narva battle of 1700, resulting in several construction projects (for example the house, or “palace”, of the Tsar himself and the remodelling of one of the churches into the orthodox cathedral). According to the personal testimony of Domenico Trezzini, famous first architect of St Petersburg, his first work in Russia was the city gates in Narva. Letters exchanged between construction project leader Ulyan Senyavin and governor general Alexander Menshikov confirm that the “architect from St Petersburg” was heading the construction of the city gates at least in 1705. Moreover, Peter I probably personally revised the design for the sculptural programme, demanding the figure of Paul the Apostle be set above the gates. The citations of these and other relevant sources were published by the recent biographer of Trezzini Konstantin Malinovsky, attracting the attention of the author of the present paper. Partly because of misinterpretations of earlier Russian authors Malinovski did not manage to reach a conclusion as to whether it was a temporary triumphal arch in the place of the breach, or a real city gate, and if so which gate. In the Russian State Military Historical Archives in Moscow, among a full set of drawings documenting the fortifications of Narva as of 1728, i.e. shortly after the Great Northern War, there is also one sheet dedicated to the Emperor´s Gate that surprises with its rich sculptural decoration. During the Swedish era the new gate designated for the same location, in between the bastions of Gloria and Honour, was to be called the King´s Gate. Despite the opinion of the eminent Swedish art historian Sten Karling that this gate was built of stone before the 1704 siege, a closer look at the Swedish fortress plans (especially that of 1703 found only recently) makes it highly improbable. It is quite likely that the gate was made by Trezzini out of carved stones collected on the site before the war, which might explain the close resemblance of its architecture to the earlier Swedish fortress gates, especially Karl´s Gate in Riga. The Emperor´s Gate on its own became the prototype for Peter´s Gate at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg, as Peter I himself ordered it to be made “resembling the one in Narva”, although the gate itself was throned by St Peter, another of Peter I spiritual patrons. Trezzini, as is now clear, took over almost all the sculptural décor from Narva, expanding on it. The symbolic meanings of the statuary, here only covered at the most basic level, are ripe for further discussion. &nbsp