The pavilion Arsenal (Monbijou) is located in the Alexander Park of the town of Pushkin. During 1747-1750 in the center of the Menagerie architects S.I. Chevakinsky and F.-B. Rastrelli built the hunting-lodge Monbijou (monbijou means my treasure), one of the best park pavilions in the Elizabethian baroque style. It was one of a pair for the Hermitage and had luxuriously decorated facades and interiors. The Arsenal was towered over eight-corner ground, located on the same axis as the Hermitage, and surrounded with a canal too. Diagonal clearings were cut from the Monbijow to corner bulwarks of the fence of Menagerie.
The Empress received Ambassadors of France and Austria in the pavilion Monbijow, that was richly decorated with pictures of hunting plot. The hunting pleasure-lodge Monbijow got dilapidated after a time. During 1817-1834 it was rebuilt by architects A. Menelaws and K. Thorn. The central two-storeyed volume of the Monbijow was done the base of the new composite design. It is considered that architectural motifs of the castle Shrubs-Hill, a Gothic style castle in England which was known according to etchings, were used for decorating facades. The building was transformed into a museum after rebuilding. Emperor Nicholas I ordered to place a magnificent collection of arms, armours, eastern saddle-clothes and he ordered to name the pavilion with the new name as Arsenal. Later the collections of the pavilion Arsenal were transferred to the Imperial Hermitage and other museums. Models of Russian mounted regiments uniforms were placed in the pavilion. Besides collections of glass and porcelain objects of the Imperial porcelain Works were exhibited there. The pavilion Arsenal (Monbijow) was partly destroyed during WWII and it has not been restored yet. Chevakinsky Savva Ivanovich
Menelas Adam Adamovich
Nicholas I, Emperor
Rastrelli Francesco de
Thorn, Aleksandr Andreyevich
Pushkin, town