Majes­tic and ele­gant, the Great Peter­hof Palace, whose facade stretch­es along the ter­race for almost 300 meters, occu­pies a dom­i­nant posi­tion in the com­po­si­tion of the Peter­hof ensem­ble, link­ing the Upper Gar­den and the Low­er Park into a sin­gle artis­tic whole. “Spread­ing its wings” over the water extrav­a­gan­za of the Grand Cas­cade, it unites and forms around itself a har­mo­nious sys­tem of alleys, archi­tec­tur­al struc­tures and foun­tains.

The cur­rent appear­ance of the palace was formed over almost a cen­tu­ry and a half. In the Peter the Great era, it was a small two-sto­ry build­ing, the width of which did not exceed the width of the Great Cas­cade; it was called the Upper or Moun­tain Cham­bers and served for recep­tions and cel­e­bra­tions. The idea of ​​the loca­tion and orig­i­nal appear­ance of the palace belonged to Peter him­self, and was embod­ied by the archi­tect I.F. Braun­stein and such out­stand­ing archi­tects as J.-B. Leblond and N. Michet­ti. In 1732, two gal­leries were added to the palace accord­ing to the design of M. Zemtsov, but the mod­est Peter the Great’s palace no longer cor­re­spond­ed to the splen­dor and lux­u­ry of the Russ­ian court of that time.

This was the rea­son for its restruc­tur­ing, car­ried out by F.B. Ras­trel­li. The beloved archi­tect of Empress Eliz­a­beth Petro­v­na had to com­plete a dif­fi­cult task — not only to cre­ate a pearl of Eliz­a­bethan Baroque, but also to pre­serve the walls of Peter the Great’s palace, inte­grat­ing them into the new sur­round­ings. Ras­trel­li coped with the task bril­liant­ly. Anoth­er floor appeared in the palace, the cen­tral space increased sig­nif­i­cant­ly, to which were joined the wings of one-sto­ry gal­leries, com­plet­ed by side build­ings — the Church build­ing and the build­ing under the coat of arms. The inte­ri­ors of the palace, cre­at­ed by the archi­tect, amazed with their dynam­ics and fab­u­lous lux­u­ry. The walls of the halls were dec­o­rat­ed with gild­ed carv­ings, mir­rors cre­at­ed the impres­sion of end­less per­spec­tives and visu­al­ly enlarged the inte­ri­or space. The Oak Cab­i­net of Peter I, pre­served by Ras­trel­li, became a rel­ic placed in the mag­nif­i­cent frame of the new palace.

In the 60s and 70s of the 18th cen­tu­ry, baroque pomp went out of fash­ion, and the inte­ri­ors of the palace began to take on dif­fer­ent shapes, in accor­dance with the new clas­si­cist style. At this time, stuc­co com­po­si­tions became the main ele­ment of dec­o­ra­tion, cre­at­ing the impres­sion of nobil­i­ty, sim­plic­i­ty and sophis­ti­ca­tion of artis­tic taste. By order of Empress Cather­ine II, archi­tect Yu.M. Fel­ten re-dec­o­rat­ed the Din­ing Room, Throne and Chesme Halls, and J.-B. Vallin-Delam­otte cre­at­ed in 1766–67. two Chi­nese cab­i­nets.

The palace also changed in the 19th cen­tu­ry. In 1846, by order of Emper­or Nicholas I, in the east­ern wing over­look­ing the Upper Gar­den, archi­tect A.I. Stack­en­schnei­der, hav­ing built on the third floor, cre­at­ed eight inte­ri­ors on the occa­sion of the wed­ding of the Emperor’s daugh­ter Olga Niko­laev­na with Prince Charles of Würt­tem­berg. Since then, the east­ern wing began to be called the Olga half of the Great Peter­hof Palace.

The archi­tec­tur­al appear­ance of the Grand Palace, formed as a result of all the recon­struc­tions, bears dis­tinct traces of var­i­ous artis­tic tastes and styles, but tal­ent and pro­fes­sion­al respect for each oth­er allowed archi­tects of dif­fer­ent eras to cre­ate a fin­ished work.

The Great Peter­hof Palace has long been the cen­ter of social life. Cel­e­bra­tions, recep­tions, balls and mas­quer­ades were held here, to which up to three thou­sand guests were invit­ed. In the court church, wed­dings took place, chil­dren were bap­tized, and prayer ser­vices were held to com­mem­o­rate mil­i­tary vic­to­ries.

Dur­ing the Great Patri­ot­ic War, the Grand Palace was burned and blown up. It seemed that it would be impos­si­ble to raise it from the ruins. But already in May 1964 the first revived halls were opened. And today, vis­i­tors can expect a fas­ci­nat­ing jour­ney through the mag­i­cal palace, filled with objects of dec­o­ra­tive and applied art, mag­nif­i­cent fur­ni­ture and excel­lent works of sculp­ture and paint­ing.