Visiting Peterhof (Petrodvorets)

Second day of our visit at St. Petersburg is dedicated visiting Peterhof. We left early in the morning. Near the Baltic train station is a bus station from where each 10 minutes a bus leaves for Peterhof. For 60 rubles you can jump in one of them and spend 45 min watching the St. Petersburg and surrounding area. The bus stops close to the entrance of the Peterhof estate.

The palace and park at Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets) is one of St. Petersburg’s most famous and popular visitor attractions. Often they are referred to as “the Russian Versaille”, but we think that the comparison does a disservice to the grandeur and scope of this majestic estate.

However, from the historian tales, Versailles was the inspiration for Peter the Great’s desire to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of his new city. Peterhof – which means “Peter’s Court” in German – became the site for the Tsar’s Monplaisir Palace, and then of the original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter’s granddaughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade.

During the 18th and 19th century’s improvements to the park continued. Catherine the Great moved the court to Pushkin, but Peterhof once again became the official Imperial Residence in the reign of Nicholas I, who ordered the building of the modest Cottage Palace in 1826.

In the Second World War, Peterhof was ravaged by German troops. However, it was one of the first to be resurrected and, thanks to the work of military engineers and over 1,000 volunteers; most of the estate’s major structures had been fully restored by 1947. The name was also de-Germanized after the war, becoming Petrodvorets, the name under which the surrounding town is still known.

The palace and park are once again known as Peterhof.

As you enter the estate we pass a beautiful park and some fountains.

In front, between trees, you can see the grand palace. The Grand Palace at Peterhof was designed to be the centerpiece of Peter the Great’s “Russian Versaille”. Around 1720, the Tsar gave up on attempts to establish his court at Strelna, mainly because the boggy ground proved entirely unsuitable for the canals and fountains that he envisioned. Moving his attentions further east to Peterhof, the Tsar began to draw up his own plans for the grounds and palace. Work had already begun on a modest palace, designed by Jean-Baptiste Le Blond, in 1714, and that building was completed in 1721.

Meanwhile, fired by Peter’s untiring enthusiasm, a massive amount of work had been completed around the palace, including the landscaping of the Lower Park, the digging of the Sea Canal, and the building of Monplaisir, Marly Palace, and most of the Hermitage. The original Higher Palace was somewhat inadequate for its surrounding splendors, and Peter instructed Le Blond and his pupil, Johann Braunstein, to expand the building.

Work was halted after Peter’s death in 1725, and Peterhof was almost abandoned until Peter’s daughter Elizabeth came to the throne in 1740. Elizabeth commissioned Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who had already completed the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg, to build a genuinely regal palace. Rastrelli chose to retain the original building within his design, and the result is supremely elegant and surprisingly restrained. The long, narrow palace, which was built in the last decade before baroque made way for neoclassicism, has minimal decoration, and Rastrelli’s chief stylistic flourishes are the two white pavilions with gilded cupolas at the end of the wings. Beige and white, the palace is majestic without being overwhelming, and provides a perfect backdrop both to the elegantly formal Upper Garden, and to the spectacular Grand Cascade.

Unfortunate we came in a day when we couldn’t visit the inside part of the castle. Maybe we’ll have better luck next time.

Opening Hours: Daily, 10.30am to 5pm. Closed Mondays and the last Tuesday of each month.

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