One of the shrewdest commentators to travel through Russia, the French Marquis de Custine, noted as early as 1839 that the architecture of St Petersburg was similar to that of Athens or Rome, but that the buildings were arranged in a completely different manner: you couldn't look up at them from below because they seemed to be sunk into the marsh. He also realised that St Petersburg was a city of facades, that buildings with antique porticos or churches might not be what they seemed from the exterior - behind a Greek temple you might easily find a Stock Exchange (Custine was talking about the main building of the Strelka ensemble on Vasilievsky Island, which now houses the Central Naval Museum).
      So it has always been, but that grandiose experiment known as the Revolution made the city even worse: this city is almost the only place on earth where every name, and correspondingly every meaning, has been misplaced. Not one building in the city is used for the purpose for which it was built.
      As a result the city seems rather like the set for a huge stage production which has ended, whose performers have sung their arias and gone and whose stage hands, of which there are very many, have emerged from backstage. They seem like the extras of a completely different play. This lack of correspondence between decorations and performances, between names and objects, constitutes the St Petersburg phenomenon.
       This phenomenon is much less noticeable in the palaces, parks and estates in the suburbs of the city. There you will find the greatest possible harmony between past and present. The high and immortal art of the past neutralises and overshadows the squalor of modern life that we so often come across in downtown St Petersburg.

Peterhof

      Situated 29 km (18 miles) to the west of the city is Petrodvorets (Peterhof; grounds open daily; Great Palace open Tues-Sun llam-5pm; other palaces and pavilions May-Sept Tues-Sun 11am-5pm, Oct-Apr Sat and Sun llam-5pm; entrance fee), one of the most splendid and impressive country estates of the 18th and 19th century. In 1944 the town where it is located became officially known as Petrodvorets (Peter's Palace).

      The southern shore of the Gulf of Finland has been populated by Russians for a very long time and was part of the territory of Novgorod. In 1617, however, it was seized by Sweden, thus depriving Russia of its Baltic coastline. Only the Northern War (1700-21), started by Peter I, restored to Russia its outlet to the sea. Peter often went there and a cottage was built for the tsar on the sea shore in 1705. The house was quite small - it had two rooms and was situated slightly to the west of the present-day park.
      While the Northern War was in progress, Peter did not concern himself much with the niceties of interior decorating, but after the battle of Poltava (1709) and the naval victories at Gangut (1714) and Grengam (1720), he decided to build a town as a memorial to Russia's victory over Sweden, then its greatest rival, near the new capital. He also wanted Peterhof, in all its finery, to demonstrate the power and wealth of the Russian Empire.
      During his trip to France at the end of the 17th century Peter had fallen under the spell of Versailles (the building of which, incidentally, cost France the entire annual income of its population, not to mention the deaths of 15,000 workers during its construction). Peter ordered a "palace and kitchen-garden" (as he called the park and garden) to be built, "better than the French king's at Versailles."
      To build parks and gardens on damp clay soil on the shore of the Gulf of Finland (i.e. 12 degrees north of Paris) required drainage work, the removal of layers of clay and the transport of earth and fertilisers to the site by barge.
      On Peter's orders tens of thousands of maples, lindens, chestnuts and fruit trees and bushes were brought to Peterhof from Europe. Floods and storms often destroyed the plantations, but they were replanted again and again. Ships brought building materials, fountain parts, wonderful statues, paintings and expensive damask fabrics to the estate. One archive document, for example describes the delivery of "12 lead statues denoting each of the months of the year"; another document records the delivery of a lead statue, "half-man, half-fish".      About 4,000 soldiers and serfs worked on the canal for the fountains alone. They suffered from the lack of proper living quarters and food, from the bitter cold and from the remorseless onslaught of infectious diseases which resulted in a high mortality rate. So, in this sense at least, Peterhof succeeded in surpassing Versailles.
      Once the Northern War had ended Peter speeded up the construction work, taking part personally in the drawing up of plans and, according to his habit of putting the maximum amount of detail into each task, showing what and how he wanted things done. Here, for example, is just one quotation from one of his many orders: "Build a cart for Neptune and his four horses, from whose mouths water will flow in cascades, and put tritons on the ledges, so that it looks as if they are playing on horns, the tritons to be set in motion by water, playing various water games." Peter not only thought up themes for groups of fountains, but also gave instructions for building ornamental paths. They were laid in such a way that not a single garden decoration was hidden from the sight of visitors. Peter chivied his craftsmen and ordered: "Appoint officers to keep an eye on every piece of work..."

Peterhof's fountains

      The talented Russian architects Peter Yeropkin and Mikhail Zemtsov played a major role in the building of Peterhof in the initial stages, while its system of fountains, one of the world's greatest, was constructed under the supervision of Russia's first hydraulic engineer, Vassili Tuvolkov. In 1715, together with Vassili Suvorov (father of the future military commander), Tuvolkov was sent to France "to the places where canals, docks and harbours were built, so that they could get a look at the machines and the like." Returning to Russia at the end of 1720, he began the construction of hydraulic installations at such a fast pace that in eight months the first test-run took place to try out the fountains. The intricate piping system stretched from the so-called Ropsha Heights, 22 km (14 miles) away, and was appreciated by specialists as "a masterpiece of hydraulic art of the 18th century," while the beauty, grandeur and technically rational design of the fountains markedly surpassed that of the celebrated waterworks at Versailles.
      In the following years such major Russian and West European architects and sculptors of the 18th century as Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli and his Russified son Varfolomei, Andrei Voronikhin, Mikhail Kozlovsky, Fyodor Shubin, Ivan Martos, Giacomo Quarenghi, Andrei Stakenschneider, Nikolai Benois and many others contributed to the creation of Peterhof's artistic appearance. With the help of these celebrated architects the Hermitage, Monplaisir Palace, Chateau de Marly and Bolshoy dvorets (Great Palace), as well as new fountains and a number of park buildings, were all completed. At the end of two centuries of construction work the famous Peterhof palace and park complex was finished, incorporating seven parks with a combined area of more than 600 hectares (1,500 acres) and more than 20 palaces and pavilions.
      In 1734-35, Peterhof's largest fountain, Samson, was constructed at the base of the Grand Cascade. Peter wanted to immortalise the victory of Russia over Sweden in the form of the demigod Hercules "who wrestles with a nineheaded monster called the Hydra." But instead of Hercules a statue of the Biblical hero Samson, tearing open the lion's jaws, was put in the middle of the fountain.
      This sculpture allegorically portrayed the victory of the Russian forces over the Swedes in the decisive battle of the Northern War at Poltava, a battle which took place on Samson Day, 27 June 1709. The lion symbolises Sweden. In the 18th century there were palisades all along the canal, from the sea to the palace, with recesses in which fountains on the theme of Aesop's fables were built. The so-called Favourite Fountain, built on the principle of Segner's wheel, was also installed: the figures decorating this fountain portray a dog chasing ducks. The explanation for this fountain was as follows: "The favourite dog chases ducks in the water. Then the ducks tell him that he should not bother for he has the strength to chase them but not the strength to catch them." Many such humorous fountains adorn the avenues of Peterhof.
      For two centuries the parks were out of bounds to the public. In the 18th century the guard at Peterhof was ordered "in no uncertain terms" to "make absolutely sure that the vulgar masses or, worse, beggars didn't wander around the garden and were not admitted under any circumstances."
      After 1917, by special decree of the Council of People's Commissars, Peterhof's monuments were put in the care of the state, and on 18 May the first workers' excursion in the history of Peterhof passed through the halls of the Grand Palace carrying a red flag and revolutionary posters.
      The visit to the palace by these 500 people marked the beginning of the Peterhof palace-museums; the gardens and parks of this wonderful area outside St Petersburg have became one of the favourite summer resting places of St Petersburgers and an obligatory stop for tourists from all corners of the globe.

The Great Palace destroyed

      In September 1941, Hitler's invading forces managed to break through to Peterhof, which they occupied for 27 months. As a result, the Great Palace was destroyed, the fountains, statues, dams and sluices were wrecked and about 14,000 trees chopped down.
      The restoration of Peterhof began as early as 1944. The restoration workers were helped by over 2,000 St Petersburgers every week, who went there on Sundays. They dismantled 300 dug-outs and bunkers, and filled in about 30 km (18 miles) of ditches and trenches. By June 1945 the Peterhof parks were open to visitors and the following spring the fountains were turned on.
      The restoration work continued, however, for many more years. A new statue was erected in place of the figure of Samson, formerly at the base of the Grand Cascade but now stolen by Hitler's soldiers. Not far from Samson, at the crossroads of the Monplaisir and Marly avenues, had stood a bronze statue of Peter the Great erected in 1883 by the outstanding sculptor Mark Antokolsky. The Nazis stole this sculpture but it was recreated from a second copy kept in the Naval Museum in St Petersburg.

Restoration work

      The restoration work at Peterhof was accompanied by extensive scientific research. For example, window glass, which in its external appearance does not differ from the few surviving ancient fragments, was made for the Monplaisir Palace with the help of the glass-working department of the St Petersburg Technological Institute.
       The walls of one of the rooms of the Monplaisir Palace - the Japanese room -were decorated with wooden panels with intricate drawings, formerly thought to be made by Japanese and Chinese craftsmen. These panels were used as firewood by the invaders, and it was only by chance that the restoration workers found three surviving panels in a nearby bunker built by the Nazis. It turned out that the panels were not, after all, the work of Oriental craftsmen, but rather of Russian icon-painters from the famous village of Palekh. Contemporary Palekh artists were able to recreate the works of their ancestors quite quickly.
      By contrast, it took over 10 years to restore, from old photographs and drawings, the 2.5-metre (8-ft) shining golden bowl on the roof of the Great Palace, first put there more than 200 years ago but removed during the war. The list of such examples is endless.
 
The Grand Cascade

       What do the large numbers of visitors who set off for Peterhof between spring and autumn on suburban trains, tour buses and, most popular of all, on hydrofoils, see? First and foremost, of course, they see the Bolshoy kaskad (Grand Cascade fountains; open May-early Oct 11am-5pm) running down from the foot of the Grand Palace to the edges of the Lower Park. The Grand Cascade ensemble is made up of 17 steps, 39 gilded bronze statues, 29 bas-reliefs and 142 spurts from 64 water jets. On the upper level of the cascade is the group of sculptures called Tritons Blowing into Sea Shells. The streams of water from these shells fall on to the exquisite Basket Fountain.
       The steps of the cascade are adorned with sculptures of ancient gods and heroes, in order to emphasise the theme of Russia's victory in the Northern War. For example, the sculpture of Perseus with the head of Medusa in his hand and the bas-relief Perseus Saving Andromeda from the Sea Monsters can be interpreted as an allegory of the liberation of the lands on the Baltic by the Russian army.
       Several sculptures from the Grand Cascade serve as satirical allegories on the defeated Swedish king, Charles XII. One of these sculptures is The Frightened Actaeon, Running Away from His Own Dogs - an allegoric depiction of Charles XII, abandoned by his allies after the defeat. Another sculpture ridicules the king's love for himself - Narcissus, Turned into a Flower. Almost every sculpture of the Grand Cascade is imbued with various allegorical meanings.

The Lower Park

       Less decorative, but still very interesting, are the cascades in the Lower Park, known as Golden Hill and Chess Hill. Wide avenues lead to the Monplaisir Palace, the Hermitage Pavilion, other cascades and the fountains known as Adam and Eve. The Great Fountains at the foot of the Golden Hill are of note - the water bursts from them in jets of up to 30-cm (12-in) in diameter. Not by chance were they called Menagerie (Economic) in the past - these powerful streams are hollow. The variety of fountains in the Lower Park is striking. Here you can see the water jets of the Roman Fountains and the Cup, the 505 jets of the Pyramid Fountain and dozens of others: the golden shroud of bell-shaped waterfalls at the foot of the gilded statues in the Monplaisir Garden and around the Marly Palace; streams of water pouring out of the mouths of dragons, dolphins and sea shells held by marine gods, water streaming smoothly over the squares of Chess Hill, through the marble and gilt of Golden Hill; seething waterfalls rushing down the steps of the Grand Cascade and flowing together towards the basin, over which a wide stream of water foams at a height of 20 metres (65 ft) from the lion's jaws being torn open by Samson. The jets of water shooting upwards, the gleaming of the gilded statues and the miraculous intertwining of streams, above which tiny droplets of water create rainbows, all combine to make a magnificent sight.
       In the amount of water it uses, the variety of forms and the length of time the fountains are in operation, Peterhof is second to none in the world. Despite the fact that, in one working season, over 30,000 litres (6,600 gallons) of water are used every second, the fountains can work for 10 to 12 hours a day for up to five months a year. Peterhof is of course first and foremost about fountains, but there is more than this to see. This was the main country residence of the tsars, frequented especially in the 18th and early 20th centuries. For example, a few weeks before the outbreak of World War I, Raymond Poincare stayed here as a guest of Tsar Nicholas II.
       There is, however, not just the one palace here. There are several dozen first-class buildings built in the 18th and 19th centuries, of which nine are now museums. The last two of these to be opened were the memorial museum of the international Benois family (whose members contributed greatly over three centuries to the artistic appearance of the town), and the museum of wax sculptures opened in the summer of 1990. The ambitious creators of this museum intended, eventually, to make it more lavish than Madame Tussaud's in London.
       Peterhof can be reached by a special double-decker shuttle bus from the Baltiysky train station (metro Baltiyskaya), or by hydrofoil leaving twice hourly from the Dvortsovaya Embankment in from of the Hermitage.

Lomonosov

       If you leave Peterhof and travel along the shore of the Gulf of Finland for another 10 km (6 miles) you will come to Lomonosov (open daily llam-5pm, closed Tues and the last Mon of the month; entrance fee), once known as Oranienbaum, 40 km (25 miles) west of St Petersburg. This palace was founded in 1707 by Peter the Great's favourite, Alexander Menshikov, and renamed in 1948 in honour of "the father of Russian science", Mikhail Lomonosov, who opened a factory here in the middle of the 18th century.
       It was often the case with the former pastry-cook, the dazzling Prince Menshikov, that his own residences significantly outshone the court of Peter the Great in size and splendour - as does the Menshikov Palace on the University Embankment in St Petersburg.
Similarly, the Oranienbaum Palace, built on the Izhora lands which he received as a gift from Peter I, turned out to be significantly bigger and more splendid than the palace built at Peterhof by the Russian tsar at the same time. Of course, the Peterhof palace was soon extended, and this main seashore residence of the tsar later overshadowed Oranienbaum, which remained in the possession of the tsar's distant relatives (specifically, the Mecklenburg-Streletskys).
       However, Oranienbaum has at least one very important distinction - it was the only country palace in St Petersburg not to have been destroyed by the Nazis, and therefore it has been preserved in its original form rather than as a reconstruction.
       The most important building at Oranienbaum is the Bolshoy dvorets (Grand Palace), built in 1710-25 by architects Gottfried Schadel and Giovanni Fontana, on the crest of the ridge along the shore. The building consists of a central section and side wings which were extended into octagonal pavilions. A church was situated in the western pavilion, while the eastern pavilion housed a Japanese hall. Terraces sloping down from the palace to the sea are adorned with elaborate balustrades and sculptures.
       In front of the palace, on the empty shore of the Gulf of Finland, a Lower Park was built with fountains, statues, greenhouses and menageries. The strict geometrical planning of the park (the so-called regular style) was embellished with a man-made canal which, according to legend, was dug by 9,000 serfs in three days. The most significant buildings of the middle of the 18th century, when Oranienbaum belonged to the husband of the future Catherine II, are the two-storey palace of Peter III, situated on the high right bank of the River Karost in the eastern part of the Upper Park, and also the Kamenny (Stone) Hall, the Opera House and the entire fortress of Peterstadt.
       The final stage in the creation of the architectural ensemble at Oranienbaum was the construction, in 1762-68, of the famous Chinese Palace with its suite of ceremonial rooms, including the Hall of Muses, the Blue Drawing Room, the Bead Study, the Great Hall, the Lilac Drawing Room and the Great and Small Studies.
       For two centuries visitors have been amazed by the fineness and exquisiteness of the interior decor: the murals and painted panels (the work of Stefano Torelli and Serafin Barozzi), the delicate stucco work, the embroidery and, finally, the parquet floors made of thin layers of maple, oak, ash, walnut, boxwood, larch, rosewood and mahogany. One of the most remarkable rooms in terms of artistic decoration is the Bead Study, with its mosaic floor of coloured smalt (a glass-like alloy). This art, which is rooted in the ancient Orient, owes its revival to Lomonosov. Unfortunately, however, only a part of this masterpiece has survived to be seen by visitors.
       There is one more principal sight at Oranienbaum - the fine architecture of the white and blue Toboggan Hill (Katalnaya Gorka) in the northwestern section of the Upper Park. Such pavilions are purely Russian structures dating back to the 18th century when they formed one of the most popular attractions on public holidays. The design of the Oranienbaum buildings is severe and at the same time grand. This impression is created by the stepped silhouette of the buildings, the delicate colonnade on the ground floor, the smooth semi-circular cornices and slender, elegant dome.
       Lomonosov takes one hour to reach by suburban train (don't be too shocked by the lack of comfort) from the Baltiysky train station at Baltiyskaya metro.
 
Pushkin

       The foundation of Pushkin, 25 km (16 miles) south of St Petersburg dates back to the beginning of the 18th century when royal country residences and summer cottages for nobles were being built around the growing capital. The first to be built here was the small country estate of Saari-Mois (meaning "elevated place" in Finnish) which comes out as Saarskaya Myza in Russian.
       In 1710 Peter the Great presented the lands of this estate to his wife, the future Catherine I. From that time the place was called Saarskoye Selo, and after 1725, Tsarskoe Selo (Czsar's Village). In 1918, its name was changed again, for obvious reasons, to Detskoe Selo (Children's Village) and in 1937 the town was renamed yet again; it is now called Pushkin, in honour of the poet. Stone palaces with 16 front rooms were built for the first owners of Saarskaya Myza (on the site of the future Grand Palace). Serfs from the surrounding villages dug ponds, laid out gardens and built greenhouses and menageries - these were always included in tsars' country residences - where hunts were organised.
       One of the most significant dates in the history of Tsarskoe Selo was the middle of the 18th century when this place became the main summer residence of the royal family (it remained so until 1917). In the 1740s and '50s, thousands of workers, serfs, soldiers and sailors extended and planned the parks and constructed the grandiose building of the Yekaterininsky dvorets (Catherine Palace; open daily 10am-5pm, closed Tues and the last Mon of the month; entrance fee), designed by the Russian architects Andrei Kvasov and Savva Chevakinsky.
       The building was completed during the third quarter of the 18th century when the task was entrusted to the most outstanding architect of those days, Bartolomeo Rastrelli. As a result, a magnificent building was created, astounding the contemporary population by its beauty and
exquisite form. The turquoise, white and gold facade, stretching for 306 metres (1,000 ft), is noted for its splendid decoration, the monumental rhythm of its columns and sculptures and its more than 200 types of stucco ornamentation.
       The building is made even more grandiose by the large square in front of it, enveloped by two semi-circles of single-storey auxiliary buildings. The palace's golden suite of ceremonial rooms, including the world-famous Amber Hall, the Great Hall, the Picture Gallery, the Green Dining Room, the Lyons Parlour, the Blue Study, the Blue Drawing Room and the Maple Bedroom have all gone down in the history of art as matchless examples of Russian baroque architecture and for two centuries they have stunned visitors by their richness, originality, artistic scope and tastefulness. Second only in this respect to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, the Catherine Palace is a valuable treasure house of decorative and applied art. But unlike the Hermitage, the Catherine Palace is still full of life. On New Year's Eve and during the summer months, organisations and wealthy individuals rent the palace to throw a full-fledged tsarist-style ball that costs up to $1,500 a plate.
       By the beginning of the 19th century a few more dazzling buildings had appeared in Tsarskoe Selo: the Hermitage, intended for palace banquets, the Grotto Pavilion, the Island Concert Hall and other structures in the clear, severe, laconic style of Russian classicism which replaced the decorative forms of baroque.
       Meanwhile the natural "landscape" style dominated in the planning of the famous ponds and the extension of the parks, which now cover 600 hectares (1,500 acres). At this time the Alexander Palace and Lyceum (from where Alexander Pushkin graduated in 1817), the Agate Rooms and the Cameron Gallery were built. Particularly striking is the great architectural brainchild of the outstanding architect   Giacomo   Quarenghi   -   the Alexander Palace, which was completed in 1796.
       The famous historian Igor Grabar was to write a century later: "In St Petersburg and its suburbs there are palaces that are bigger and more regal than this one, but none can surpass the magnificence of its architecture. Suffice it to mention the mighty double colonnade joining the two wings of the palace. In terms of the artistic scope of its composition and the refinement of detail, this is a masterpiece of world architecture."
It is a great shame that for several decades no visitors have been allowed to see the interior of the Aleksandrovsky dvorets (Alexander Palace): until recently it was occupied by the military, and it is now under restoration.
       The next most significant building after the Alexander Palace is the Cameron Gallery. The base of the building is made out of huge blocks of deliberately coarsely hewn grey stone, which form the ground floor. In stark contrast to this heavy foundation the architect, Charles Cameron, built a light, airy gallery with pale, graceful colonnades and open sunny terraces.
       Crowning the whole composition a wide staircase, with curved steps in the upper section, leads down to the Great Lake, uniting architecture and nature. On the high stone pylons on both sides of the staircase stand bronze statues of Hercules and Flora, made in 1786 in the Academy of Arts foundry and based on models by Fyodor Gordeyev. On the gallery's terraces there are 54 sculpted busts of ancient Greek and Roman statesmen, scientists, philosophers and mythological characters. These are first-class copies of the ancient originals.
       Further building and finishing touches in the Tsarskoe Selo palace and park ensemble have brought us such masterpieces as the Triumphal Gates in honour of Russia's victory over Napoleon (architect Vassili Stasov), the Evening Hall (designed by Ivan Neyelov), the Granite Terrace (architect Luigi Rusca) and the bronze Girl with a Jug (sculptor Pavel Sokolov). The rapid development of Tsarskoe Selo and its expansion into a sizeable town in the environs of the capital city were encouraged both by the natural desire of many members of St Petersburg's upper classes to be nearer to the imperial family in summer, and by the construction in 1836 of the first regular railway in Russia, linking the town with St Petersburg, on the one hand, and Pavlovsk, on the other.
       A whole town quickly sprang up around the railway station, while the St Petersburg nobility built themselves summer cottages along the Pavlovsk highway. In 1887 a model water supply and sewerage system started functioning in Tsarskoe Selo and there was an electric power station - this was actually one of the first towns in Europe to be fully illuminated by electricity. Life was particularly animated here during the time of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II. He always spent at least six months at a time here with his family in the Alexander Palace, even in winter. Accordingly this palace is the largest of all the country residences around St Petersburg and the balls here overshadowed even those held in the Winter Palace.
       The Empress Alexandra's favourite, Grigori Rasputin, was a frequent guest here (he was actually buried in the park here after his murder, but then removed from his grave by revolutionary soldiers). This is where Nicholas II lived as a private citizen, after his abdication, and it was from here that he and his family were taken into exile to the Urals, where they were villainously killed in 1918.
       The town suffered terribly during World War II, for it found itself on the front line for nearly two years. Thousands of trees were chopped down, houses and pavilions were burned, bridges were destroyed, and much of the museum's treasures that were left after the evacuation were stolen. This includes the famous Amber Hall, which was untraceable, but which now being rebuilt from scratch by local craftsmen. Pushkin takes 30 minutes to reach by suburban train from the Vitebsk train station at Pushkinskaya. Or one can take the No. 20 express mini-bus from the Moskovskaya metro station.

Pavlovsk

       For many years after the foundation of the town of Tsarskoe Selo in the 18th century, the rulers of Russia used the forested area to the south as a hunting ground. In 1777, Catherine the Great made a gift of this area to her adult son Pavel so that he might build his country cottage there. The creation of the future park began shortly after this with the felling of trees, the clearing of thickets to make way for roads and paths and the draining of marshland. With the arrival of the Scottish architect, Charles Cameron, plans were drawn up to construct a large palace and an enormous park that would occupy a territory of 600 hectares (1,500 acres) located 26 km (16 miles) to the south of St Petersburg. The result was to be a splendid example of the art of garden and park design and the most outstanding feature of Pavlovsk (palace and park open daily 10am-5pm, closed Fri and the first Mon of the month; entrance fee).
       Work was intensified shortly after Pavel I came to the throne in 1796, when Pavlovsk received the status of a city and became the Tsar's official summer residence. V. Brenna was invited to replace Cameron as architect. His task was to make the palace and park larger and still more magnificent.
       The third period of construction covers the first quarter of the 19th century when Pavlovsk park was given an artistic completeness akin to that of a landscape painting. Fruitful cooperation between Pietro Gonzaga, Carlo Rossi, Andrei Voronikhin and the reinstated Cameron fortified the expressive quality of the Pavlovsk landscape. With amazing skill and talent, they created a harmony between the buildings and nature and turned Pavlovsk into a priceless ensemble of park and garden art.
       The compositional centre of this ensemble is the Bolshoy dvorets (Great Palace) which can easily be seen from all parts of the park. It is a high stone building crowned with a dome with 64 colonnades. The central block and one-story galleries leading off it to the side wings were designed by Cameron and built between 1782 and 1789. The construction of the square side blocks and the addition of front yard pavilions was completed in the 1790s by Brenna. Voronikhin began decorating the rooms of the palace in 1803 and Rossi added a library to the north westerly part of the palace in 1822.
       The decorations and furniture of the palace rooms are of particular value. The architects used sculptures and paintings, marble, gilt and artistic fabrics to adorn the rooms. Most splendid of all are the Italian, Greek, Cavaliere and Throne Rooms, the War and Peace Rooms and the ceremonial northern and southern suites. When the Nazi occupying forces set fire to the palace much was destroyed. The rooms' architectural decorations, however, remained intact and the palace was once again opened to visitors in the early 1960s.
       Let us now, however, return to the park. Its beauty is unique. If the characteristic feature of 18th-century country residences, such as Peterhof, Yekaterininsky and Tsarskoe Selo, is their geometrically correct avenues and paths running through flower beds and the regularity of the trees planted at equal distances from each other, then Pavlovsk Park is distinguished by its beautiful landscapes that create pictures of nature in a natural setting.
       The greater part of the park's avenues and paths have free curves and winding along them you can see not strategically pruned and symmetrically positioned lines of trees but freely growing flower beds and trees standing all alone, grouped in such a way as to display the natural beauty of their leaves and crowns. The reservoirs of Pavlovsk Park look like forest lakes with reeds at their banks, while the meandering river is like a quiet stream towards which silver willows incline. The wood land park contains elk while, in the lilac thickets, the trill of the nightingale can be heard. Pavlovsk takes 35 minutes to reach by suburban train from the Vitebsk train station at Pushkinskaya metro station.

Gatchina

       References to the village of Gatchina (open Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; entrance fee) can be traced back to 15th-century manuscripts. At the beginning of the 18th century it was the site of the estate of Peter the Great's sister, Natalia, yet true fame came to Gatchina only after Catherine II came to the throne and presented it to her favourite, Grigory Orlov; he, together with his brothers, had played the most active part in bringing her to the throne while her husband, Peter II, was still alive. From 1766 to 1772 Gatchina was made into a vast hunting park and a palace was built there by architect Antonio Rinaldi. In 1782 the palace and park ensemble, located 45 km (28 miles) from St Petersburg, and thus the furthest from the capital, came into the hands of Catherine II's son, Pavel I. Pavel duly created a military town-fortress in the Prussian style.
       At the same time the palace itself was rebuilt according to the design of architect Brenna and took on the appearance of a medieval castle complete with moat and water, underground bridges and stone bastions. After Pavel's murder, life at Gatchina came to a halt and the palace, as we might say today, became an object of preservation. In 1881 it became the tsar's residence once again, with Alexander III staying there almost uninterruptedly for 13 years. After 1917 (or, as Anna Akhmatova used to say, "after what happened happened") Gatchina, like all other royal residences, was nationalised and became a museum.
       There are many things well worth seeing at Gatchina concentrated around the White Lake, down to whose banks stretches a picturesque park that has been planted with much art. When its trees were planted the height to which they would grow was taken into account, as was the colour of the leaves and the time at which they would fall. Strange twisting paths, reservoirs, sunny glades and shady groves have given the park the appearance of untouched "naturalness," in contrast to the formal gardens with their straight avenues, carefully pruned tree tops, fountains and statues.
       The Upper Garden is located nearby and is modelled on Italian gardens, which were traditionally arranged in terraces along the slopes of hills. Among the interesting buildings to be found in the park is the Chesme obelisk, which was erected in honour of the victory of the Russian fleet over the Turks in 1770. Also to be seen are the Eagle Pavilion, Venus Pavilion and the Admiralty where tiny warships were built to be sailed on Gatchina's lakes, the site of make-believe "sea battles" that included broadsides and onboard skirmishes. The palace building stands looking over the gardens and the entire park. According to the design made out by Antonio Rinaldi, the author of the original project, the main facade was built facing the park with a wide staircase decorated with marble sculptures and five-angled towers.
       Among the numerous well-preserved buildings in Gatchina, the Prioratsky Palace of the Malta Order, built by architect Nikolai Lvov in 1798, deserves special mention. That year Pavel I became patron of this order and was elected its grandmaster. The palace has the appearance of a medieval castle and it is interesting to note that it was finished in just three months. Lvov's method was to use wooden moulds which were filled with layers of clay and then compressed. The building has stood the test of time and proved the wisdom of its builder.
       Gatchina can be reached by a one-hour suburban train ride from Baltiysky station.