Ice palace
Encyclopedia
An ice palace or ice castle is a castle
-like structure made of blocks of ice
. These blocks are usually harvested from nearby river
s or lake
s when they become frozen in winter. The first known ice palace (or, rather, ice house, ледяной дом in Russian
) appeared in St. Petersburg, Russia and was the handiwork of Empress Anna
.
In the cold winter of 1739–1740, Anna Ivanovna gave an order to build a palace made of ice in St. Petersburg. The palace and the surrounding festivities were part of the celebration of Russia's victory over Turkey. She ordered the architect Pyotr Yeropkin
to design the building. It was built under the supervision of Georg Kraft, who left a detailed description of the palace.
The palace was 20 meters tall and 50 meters wide. Huge ice blocks were "glued" together with water. The garden was filled with ice trees with ice birds and an ice statue of an elephant. The outer walls were lined with ice sculpture
s. Before the palace there were artillery pieces also made of ice. The palace was also furnished with furniture made of ice, including an ice bed with ice mattress and pillows. The whole structure was surrounded with a tall wooden fence.
The festivities involving the Ice Palace included a mock wedding of two jesters. Prince Mikhail Alekseyevich Galitzine
had married an Italian woman. Empress Anna saw this as an affront because she was a Catholic
, not Eastern Orthodox. The wife died soon after but Anna did not forgive Galitzine and decided to punish him in an unusual manner. She first ordered him to become a jester.
The Empress selected prince Galitzine a new wife, an unattractive Kalmyk
maidservant Avdotya Ivanovna Buzheninova. She forced the prince to marry her and displayed the newlyweds in a procession where they rode an elephant, dressed as clowns, and were followed by a number of circus freaks
and farm animals. In the palace the newlyweds were closed naked into an icy nuptial chamber under heavy guard. The couple survived the night because the bride traded a pearl necklace with one of the guards for a sheepskin coat.
Empress Anna died the following year and the castle did not survive the next summer. The Russian reading public was made aware of Anna's mock palace in 1835, when Ivan Lazhechnikov
(1792–1869) described her escapade in The Ice House, one of the first historical novel
s in the language. The novel was made into a film as early as 1927.
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Many ice palaces have been built since. In North America
, one was built in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
in 1883.
Eagle River
, Wisconsin
, has constructed an ice castle most years going back to the late 1920s.
The capital city of Minnesota
, St. Paul
, has played host to several ice palaces since 1886 as part the city's Winter Carnival
. Some palaces have featured ice blocks numbering in the tens of thousands. A 1992 structure had 25,000 and stretched to a height of 150 feet (45.7 m). One built in 1941 had 30,000 ice blocks. St. Paul last built an ice palace in January 2004.
Every year since 1954 the Quebec City Winter Carnival
in Quebec City
has featured ice palaces or ice castles of various sizes, depending on the budget, and has often used them to imprison briefly those persons who were judged to be too glum in this time of good cheer.
Saranac Lake, New York
has an annual winter carnival in which an ice palace is built. This tradition dates back to the 19th century, when it was initiated to raise the spirits of tuberculosis
patients who came to the town for recuperation over the long winter.
Saparmurat Niyazov
, the recently deceased president of Turkmenistan
, ordered the construction of a huge ice palace near the capital city of Aşgabat
in April 2004, a remarkable project considering Turkmenistan's climate.
Although the appearance of the original ice palace is disputable, it has been rebuilt each year since 2005 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia
and is open to the public.http://www.spb-guide.com/city/photos/sub/64/
In 1895, the mining town of Leadville, Colorado, was in an economic slump, due to the depletion of gold and silver ores, and the Panic of 1893. The townspeople were looking for a way to increase tourism in the area, and hit upon the idea of a giant ice castle. City leaders financed the endeavor, and the structure was completed in December of that year. It was opened to the public New Year's Day, 1896, and was an immediate sensation. It was huge. Gleaming blue-white walls three feet thick surrounded an ice skating rink, restaurants, ballrooms, a merry-go-round, and a toboggan slide. Thousands of tourists came to Leadville to see the frozen castle. Special trains brought visitors up the mountains of Colorado, and word spread rapidly around the country. The colossal structure was built on a site roughly five acres in size, on the west side of Harrison Avenue, using almost 5 tons of ice. Boiling water was poured over this, which quickly froze, thus strengthening the walls even further.
The Ice Palace remained open for only three months, and it was not a financial success. An early spring thaw ensured that the structure would not last but a short time. Because of the fact it did not pull in much money, the Leadville city council decided not to rebuild the following winter. Periodically, there has been a resurgence of interest in building another Ice Palace, but nothing has ever come of it. The original site has since been built up with houses.
There have been modern developments in ice construction, including the now widespread use of snice
as a mortar-alternative, instead of the more simple, but less reliable, use of water alone.
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
-like structure made of blocks of ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
. These blocks are usually harvested from nearby river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s or lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
s when they become frozen in winter. The first known ice palace (or, rather, ice house, ледяной дом in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
) appeared in St. Petersburg, Russia and was the handiwork of Empress Anna
Anna of Russia
Anna of Russia or Anna Ivanovna reigned as Duchess of Courland from 1711 to 1730 and as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740.-Accession to the throne:Anna was the daughter of Ivan V of Russia, as well as the niece of Peter the Great...
.
Anna Ivanovna's palace
Pyotr Yeropkin
Pyotr Mikhailovich Yeropkin was a Russian architect credited with replanning Saint Petersburg after Peter the Great's death. It was Yeropkin who designed the famous Trident of the Nevsky, Voznesensky, and Gorokhovaya thoroughfares as the city's structural center...
to design the building. It was built under the supervision of Georg Kraft, who left a detailed description of the palace.
The palace was 20 meters tall and 50 meters wide. Huge ice blocks were "glued" together with water. The garden was filled with ice trees with ice birds and an ice statue of an elephant. The outer walls were lined with ice sculpture
Ice sculpture
Ice sculpture is a form of sculpture that uses ice as the raw material. Sculptures from ice can be abstract or realistic and can be functional or purely decorative...
s. Before the palace there were artillery pieces also made of ice. The palace was also furnished with furniture made of ice, including an ice bed with ice mattress and pillows. The whole structure was surrounded with a tall wooden fence.
The festivities involving the Ice Palace included a mock wedding of two jesters. Prince Mikhail Alekseyevich Galitzine
Galitzine
For Orthodox clergyman and theologian, see Alexander Golitzin.The Galitzines are one of the largest and noblest princely houses of Russia. Since the extinction of the Korecki family in the 17th century, the Golitsyns have claimed dynastic seniority in the House of Gediminas...
had married an Italian woman. Empress Anna saw this as an affront because she was a Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, not Eastern Orthodox. The wife died soon after but Anna did not forgive Galitzine and decided to punish him in an unusual manner. She first ordered him to become a jester.
The Empress selected prince Galitzine a new wife, an unattractive Kalmyk
Kalmyk people
Kalmyk people is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose descendants migrated from Dzhungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist government...
maidservant Avdotya Ivanovna Buzheninova. She forced the prince to marry her and displayed the newlyweds in a procession where they rode an elephant, dressed as clowns, and were followed by a number of circus freaks
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
and farm animals. In the palace the newlyweds were closed naked into an icy nuptial chamber under heavy guard. The couple survived the night because the bride traded a pearl necklace with one of the guards for a sheepskin coat.
Empress Anna died the following year and the castle did not survive the next summer. The Russian reading public was made aware of Anna's mock palace in 1835, when Ivan Lazhechnikov
Ivan Lazhechnikov
Ivan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov , September 25, 1792 – July 8, 1869, was a Russian writer.-Biography:Lazhechnikov was born into the family of a rich merchant in Kolomna in 1792. He received a well-rounded education from private tutors at home...
(1792–1869) described her escapade in The Ice House, one of the first historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s in the language. The novel was made into a film as early as 1927.
Other ice palaces
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, one was built in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1883.
Eagle River
Eagle River, Wisconsin
Eagle River is a city in Vilas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,443 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Vilas County. The city is known for being a popular "Northwoods" vacation town...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, has constructed an ice castle most years going back to the late 1920s.
The capital city of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, St. Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, has played host to several ice palaces since 1886 as part the city's Winter Carnival
Saint Paul Winter Carnival
In 1885, a New York reporter wrote that Saint Paul was "another Siberia, unfit for human habitation" in winter. Offended by this attack on their Capital City, the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce decided to not only prove that Saint Paul was habitable but that its citizens were very much alive during...
. Some palaces have featured ice blocks numbering in the tens of thousands. A 1992 structure had 25,000 and stretched to a height of 150 feet (45.7 m). One built in 1941 had 30,000 ice blocks. St. Paul last built an ice palace in January 2004.
Every year since 1954 the Quebec City Winter Carnival
Quebec City Winter Carnival
The Quebec Winter Carnaval Festival events include a winter amusement park, with attractions such as skiing, snow rafting, ice sculptures, snow sled-slides and outdoor shows and is usually held in February....
in Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
has featured ice palaces or ice castles of various sizes, depending on the budget, and has often used them to imprison briefly those persons who were judged to be too glum in this time of good cheer.
Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake is a village located in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406. The village is named after Upper, Middle, and Lower Saranac Lakes, which are nearby....
has an annual winter carnival in which an ice palace is built. This tradition dates back to the 19th century, when it was initiated to raise the spirits of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
patients who came to the town for recuperation over the long winter.
Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov; , was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006...
, the recently deceased president of Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
, ordered the construction of a huge ice palace near the capital city of Aşgabat
Asgabat
Ashgabat or formerly Poltoratsk between 1919–1927) is the capital and largest city of Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia. It has a population of 695,300 , 2009 estimates around 1 million people in Ashgabat, and is situated between the Kara Kum desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range...
in April 2004, a remarkable project considering Turkmenistan's climate.
Although the appearance of the original ice palace is disputable, it has been rebuilt each year since 2005 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and is open to the public.http://www.spb-guide.com/city/photos/sub/64/
In 1895, the mining town of Leadville, Colorado, was in an economic slump, due to the depletion of gold and silver ores, and the Panic of 1893. The townspeople were looking for a way to increase tourism in the area, and hit upon the idea of a giant ice castle. City leaders financed the endeavor, and the structure was completed in December of that year. It was opened to the public New Year's Day, 1896, and was an immediate sensation. It was huge. Gleaming blue-white walls three feet thick surrounded an ice skating rink, restaurants, ballrooms, a merry-go-round, and a toboggan slide. Thousands of tourists came to Leadville to see the frozen castle. Special trains brought visitors up the mountains of Colorado, and word spread rapidly around the country. The colossal structure was built on a site roughly five acres in size, on the west side of Harrison Avenue, using almost 5 tons of ice. Boiling water was poured over this, which quickly froze, thus strengthening the walls even further.
The Ice Palace remained open for only three months, and it was not a financial success. An early spring thaw ensured that the structure would not last but a short time. Because of the fact it did not pull in much money, the Leadville city council decided not to rebuild the following winter. Periodically, there has been a resurgence of interest in building another Ice Palace, but nothing has ever come of it. The original site has since been built up with houses.
There have been modern developments in ice construction, including the now widespread use of snice
Snice
Snice is a portmanteau of snow and ice. It refers to a type of frozen water whose physical characteristics make it an intermediate between snow and ice: snow-ice. The use of snice has become normative in modern ice construction, in buildings such as the winter ice hotels constructed annually in...
as a mortar-alternative, instead of the more simple, but less reliable, use of water alone.