The fifth daughter of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna was born July 11, 1792.
Empress Catherine, in anticipation of yet another grandchild, as has always been present at birth, had not slept for two nights and worried for his daughter: Maria Feodorovna, and this time is very difficult and dangerous to himself, was giving birth. Dissatisfaction from the appearance of another girl Catherine expressed very clearly: on the occasion of the baptism of Olga Pavlovna not made any conventional rewards and gifts to approach the court.
In the "Notes" secretary Catherine A. Khrapovitsky noted in 1792: "July 11 midnight in the outcome of the second hour was born Grand Duchess Olga ... I congratulated the morning as usual. Told me: "A lot of girls, all married will not tell anyone."
Dissatisfaction, which the Empress tried to hide for irony, feel and in a letter to Baron Grimm: "The Grand Duchess hostess offered us fifth daughter, who has the same broad shoulders, as I have. Since she was born July 11, the day of St. Olga, who was baptized in Constantinople in 956, then I said: "Well, we will have one holiday instead of two." That's it, and named Olga".
Fortunately, not all the news of the birth of the princess so lightly.
The famous poet Derzhavin, for example, wrote on the occasion of the ode "On the birth of Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna."
Portrait of Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna.
However, unlike the older brothers and sisters, the life of Olga Pavlovna was quite short - less than three years.
In January 1795, Catherine reported in one of his letters: "15 th died Grand Duchess Olga. And imagine why? For weeks eighteen, as she revealed a hunger that she constantly asked to eat, because she grew too great for his two and a half years at that time came many of the molars at once, and after sixteen weeks of suffering and a slow debilitating fever occurred daily painful agony: she died between seven and eight o'clock in the evening ...».
Welcome the birth of Grand Duchess G.R. Derzhavin wrote another ode - "On the death of Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna."
Olga was buried in the Tomb of the Annunciation of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
In 1808, at her grave a monument was erected: a marble pedestal in the form of a column, surrounded by a bronze meander overlaid on top and bottom - a wreath. On the pedestal installed sculpture kneeling angels.
Tombstone Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna
