Peterhof

Peterhof is a palace-and-park ensemble on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, founded by Peter the Great as a grand seaside residence intended to surpass the splendor of the French Versailles. The first mention of Peterhof as a wayside court dates to 1705, and construction of the imperial residence began in 1712; the Grand Palace was laid down in 1714. Originally the tsar planned to build his main residence with fountains at Strelna, but the engineer Burkhard Münnich demonstrated that the terrain around Peterhof would allow the fountains to be fed by gravity alone, without pumps, once water was raised to the required height — and so the present stretch of coastline was chosen.

The ensemble took shape over two centuries and unites several palace-and-park complexes: the formal Lower Park and Upper Garden of the 18th century, and the landscape parks of the 19th century — Alexandria, the Kolonist Park, the Lugovoy Park and others, nine parks in all. The compositional centerpiece of the Lower Park is the Grand Cascade — a grandiose system of dozens of fountains and gilded sculptures in front of the Grand Palace, at the center of which stands the famous fountain "Samson Rending the Jaws of the Lion," symbolizing Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War. Today about 150 fountains operate at Peterhof without a single pump, running on the hydraulic system devised back in the time of Peter the Great.

Every year the ensemble is visited by millions of tourists, and the traditional ceremony of "opening" the fountains in early spring, accompanied by a theatrical performance at the Grand Cascade, has become one of the city's main festivals.

During the Great Patriotic War, Peterhof lay in occupied territory and was almost completely destroyed: before the German troops arrived, museum staff managed to evacuate several thousand items of decor and about 50 statues, but the fountain cascades and many buildings suffered severe damage. Restoration, begun immediately after the war, continues to this day: the Lower Park reopened in 1945, the fountains came back to life a year later, and the statue of Samson was recreated by 1947. Together with the historic center of Saint Petersburg, Peterhof is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and remains one of the most visited suburban residences in Russia.