Summer is the best time to visit the museum-turned Lacoste fountain in the Summer Garden, but first we recommend that you familiarize yourself with its history.

The “fountain and machine craftsman” Paul Sualem, who came to Russia together with J.-B. Le Blond in 1716, took part in the construction of the water cannon.

The construction of the Lacoste fountain began in 1733, but the water cannon was not completed until 1736. Such a long construction period can be explained by the fact that the Lacoste fountain was originally planned to be intricate, similar to the neighboring “Favorite”.

The water cannon was designed with two chambers: with a mechanism and rotating figures on a drum. The central composition of the fountain could have been the figure of Anna Ioannovna’s jester – Lacoste, who began his career at the court of Peter the Great. Probably, according to the plan of the architect of the water cannon, the figure was supposed to “throw” water and make sounds with the help of special mechanisms arranged in the fountain’s design.

Archaeological excavations conducted in 2010 revealed that the fountain had gone through two construction periods: initially, “Lacoste” had a lower chamber, in which it was supposed to install a mechanism that would set in motion the complex multi-figure composition of the fountain. However, apparently, the mechanism was never installed on “Lacoste”, and the original plan was changed. And on the plan of Saint-Hilaire (late 1760s), the fountain is presented as a single-jet, devoid of any intricate figures.

Archaeological excavations conducted by the expedition of P.E. Sorokin established that the brick structures of the fountain were at a depth of 0.6-0.7 meters from the surface of the earth. The brickwork of the fountain’s base from the 1730s is well preserved, as is the cast-iron pipeline that runs through Lacoste towards the Main Alley. A brick vaulted collector approaches the fountain from the eastern side, through which water entered the lower chamber of the fountain – to the wheel and mechanisms. No facing elements were found.

Thanks to the cleaning and conservation of the fountain structures, it became possible to turn the water cannon into a museum, which became a kind of “time capsule” carrying the “breath” of the 18th century – the Golden Age of the Summer Garden.