Creaking Pagoda

The Creaking Pagoda (Скрипучая беседка), also known as the Chinese Summer House (Китайская беседка), is a small summer house located between two ponds in Tsarskoe Selo, Russia.

The pagoda is a long but narrow folly that resulted from the 18th-century taste for Chinoiserie, reflected in other buildings constructed for Catherine the Great.

It was constructed near the Chinese Village in 1778 to 1786, designed by Georg von Veldten, also known as Yury Velten, possibly with input from Antonio Rinaldi.

[1] There are gilded wooden sculptures of dragons at the corners of the roof, carrying bells in their mouths, and steps from the main entrance lead down to the water.

The structure fell into disrepair in the 19th and 20th centuries, and was damaged in the Second World War, but it was restored from 1954 to 1956.