On a chilly March afternoon, we set off from the southern outskirts of Saint Petersburg bound for a short trip to Peterhof Palace. This palatial complex is located on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, some 30 km west of Saint Petersburg. Nothing but empty land was to be found there until, in the year 1705, Peter the Great of Russia decided to build there a summer palace for himself. The spot was chosen by Peter himself due to it being, at the time, the farthest point reachable for sea vessels off the coast of the Tsar’s new Capital City, as well as its vicinity to Kotlin Island which was to function as the city’s main harbor and defensive outpost. Peter’s plan came to be materialized into one of the most sumptuous examples of Tsaric grandeur, often dubbed as the Russian Versailles.
Peter’s descendants kept inhabiting and rearranging the palace until it was finally nationalized after the Russian Revolution. The site was then captured by the German army in 1941 and held until 1944 when the siege of Saint Petersburg was finally broken. Heavily looted by the German troops, the palace was found in ruins when the Soviets recaptured it. Works to restore the palace to its original state began almost immediately after the war ended and still continue today.
Today Peterhof is one of the most popular destinations for tourists around the greater area of Saint Petersburg. Crowds of tourists swarm there all year round to marvel at the magnificent beauty of this designing feat.
In our case, getting there in winter, we didn’t have the chance to enjoy the sophisticated, lush gardens and the elaborate fountains of the complex, to which it mostly owes its fame. Although, the number of visitors was dramatically lower than it would have been in the summer, and the given opportunity to walk it around in relative serenity paid off for it.
