Chinese Village

The Chinese Village in the Alexander Park of Pushkin is an ensemble that was supposed to consist of 18 houses in the Chinese style, surrounded by galleries and forming an octagonal square with a lane leading to the observatory. The center of the composition is an octagonal pavilion-observatory, the facade design of which was borrowed from an engraving depicting a Chinese pagoda in a 1669 Amsterdam album. In the 1860s, the limestone figures of Chinese men on the Big Chinese Bridge were replaced with painted zinc figures from the "Genke, Pleske & Moran" factory. As a result of the renovation under a contract with a Danish company, 28 apartments were created in the village houses.