The Taitsi water supply system (TW) was the water supply system of Tsarskoye Selo built according to the order of Catherine II in 1772-1787 in exchange for the outweared Vittelevo water supply system. The military engineer F.V. Bauer was the main architect of the original design and so the water supply system was often named “Bauersky water supply system”. I.K. Gerard, E. Karboniyer (Karbonye) and P. Pozdeyev were also among engineers who took part in building the water supply system. The Taitsi water supply system was a gravity system of outside and underground channels with storage ponds and grottoes. This system was supplied with water from so called Hanniball or Soninsky springs located near the grange of Taitsi which belonged to A.G. Demidov since the 1770s. The Taitsi water channels extension was about fifteen kilometers. Walls and bottom of the water system was original wooden. In 1793 it was found out that the wooden casing of channels rotted through so in 1795-1799 it was reconstructed and the wooden casing was changed to stone facing. The reconstruction work was headed by I.K. Gerard. The Taitsi water supply system delivered more than 12.500 cubic metres of water per day to Tsarskoye Selo in summer time but in winter the supplying often decreased in 3-4 times. Firstly the Taitsi water supply system was intended for supplying the Tsarskoye Selo ponds and fountains but really it supplied with the water all population of Tsarskoye Selo, the town of Sophia, Pavlovsk. In the 1880s the Taitsi water supply system was used for creating the system of centralized water supplying system of Tsarskoye Selo (works were completed in 1887). Since 1905 when the Orlov pressure water supply system, which was supplied from the Orlovsky springs, was put into operation, the using of the Taitsi water supply system, for the supplying of the population by fresh water, was stopped. By that time the engineering state of the water supply system has already been inadequate and in the next tens years it fell out as a result of clogging up, destroying and being overgrown of channels. Single fragments of the water supply system can be seen at the present time. In the 1980s a group of enthusiasts made an unsuccessful attempt of restoring the Taitsi water supply system as a monument of engineering idea of the 18th century.
Literature: V.D. Dmitriyev “The Taitsi Water Supply System”, http://www.stroy-press.ru/print.php?id=7180
N.I. Falkovsky “The History of Water Supplying in Russia”, M., L., 1947, pages 115-118;
M.I. Pylyayev “The Forgotten Past of Saint Petersburg Environments”, SPb., 2006, p.
463
I.A. Krasnov, D.N. Starostin, A.S. Sukhorukova, Ye.D. Yukhneva “Water and the World: Essays on the history of water using.” Part 2: Water in Russia,. SPb., 2007, p-s 46-47
I. A. Krasnov
Persons
Bauer Fedor Villimovich Carbonnier (Carbonie), E. Catherine II, Empress Demidov Alexander Grigorievich Gerard Ivan (Johann Konrad) Kondratievich Pozdeyev, P.
Addresses
Pavlovsk, town Pushkin, town София
