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Monday, 16.07.2007
Summer Palace
Peter the Great’s Summer Palace in the north east corner of the summer garden was built 1710-1714 according to a design by Domenico Trezzini, Petersburg’s first chief architect. The famous German architect Andreas Schlüter contributed to the interior design. The modest two-story palace was Peter’s summer residence. He lived in the ground floor, on the first floor lived his wife Catherine and their children.
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Today’s visitors can view original pieces from those days. The furniture and Dutch tiled stoves, carvings and glass articles, luxury fabrics and mirrors, tapestries, porcelain, ceilings and paintings were typical of court life in the early 18th century. The Tsar’s original sleeping gown laid out on his four-poster is a nicely sentimental touch.
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Originally, the waters of the Neva and Fontanka lapped around the house, and Peter could spring into a boat immediately on stepping out.
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| Coordinates |
Nab. Kutusova 2
Nearest Metro:
Nevski Prospekt/Gostiny Dvor
Opening hours:
11.00am – 6.00pm (from 1st May to 10th November)
Closed: Tuesdays
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The residence was correspondingly threatened by flooding. The flood waters indicator afixed to the wall is impressive, because, in contrast to other such plaques in the city, it genuinely shows the height the catastrophic flood of 1824 reached, as marked by the detritus left behind and later removed.
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N.B.: The summer palace is only open in summer and only in dry weather! (sb/rUFO)
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