The Cold Bath with the Agate Rooms

The central part in the ensemble that Cameron constructed for Catherine II is taken by the Cold Baths pavilion.

The model of the Cold Baths was completed in 1780 and in the spring of that same year construction of the pavilion – a fairly small two-storey building – began. Its lower floor contained a bathing hall, a warm bathroom and a Russian steam bath. The upper floor consisted of six richly finished rooms for relaxation and amusements that became known as the Agate Rooms.

The architectural treatment of the facades of the Cold Baths, and of the complex as a whole, is founded on contrasting decoration of the storeys. The lower storey is separated by a cornice from the second and is faced with massive rough-hewn blocks of large-pored Pudost limestone that seems to have been eroded by wind and rain, creating the illusion of great age, of the “genuine antiquity” of the edifice. The second storey, by contrast, is light and bright: niches painted the colour of terracotta stand out against the light yellow of the walls. Round moulded bas-relief medallions with mythological subjects are placed along the top of the walls. The longer north-east wall is pierced by semicircular windows, the end walls by rectangular French windows placed within arches. The niches between the windows contain sculptural figures of mythological characters.

The main, south-west façade of the Cold Baths opens onto a terrace held up by vaults resting on massive brick pillars. The terrace serves as a base for the Hanging Garden and is a linking element between the Cameron Gallery and the Great Palace.
In designing the Cold Baths Cameron apparently took as his starting point the plan of the Thermae of Constantine, which were destroyed in the early seventeenth century but are known from measurements taken by Palladio. The rooms in that bath complex included an apodyterium for undressing, an unctuarium for the application of oils; a sphaeristerium – a large exercise hall; a calidarium – hot bath; a laconicum –steam room; a tepidarium – a warm room with heated water; and a frigidarium – a cold room with a pool. The fact that at Tsars koye Selo the architect was trying to reproduce the layout of Roman thermae is also borne out by documents. Among the rooms on the lower floor they refer to one with a tin-lined pool in the centre, a “hot bath” and a “relaxation room”.

In the second-storey interiors Cameron used coloured stone, painting and mouldings. The floors of the Cold Baths were decorated with parquets that Christian Meyer had produced to Yury Velten’s designs for the house that was being built in St Petersburg for Alexander Lanskoi. (Due to the favourite’s untimely death they were not required.)

Despite the ravages of the war years, the original décor of the pavilion’s interiors has survived. At the present time the rooms on the lower floor of the Cold Baths are used for temporary exhibitions.