Street leading to the Palace

In Elizabeth's reign it took over 100kg of gold to decorate the palace exteriors, an excess that was deplored by Catherine the Great when she discovered the state and private funds that had been lavished on the building.
An exterier view of top of the Palace Chapel (Church of the Resurrection) -Today the Palace Chapel, looted and partially destroyed during the war, is being prepared for restoration.

Entrance Gate to the Catherine Palace (known until 1910 as the Great Palace of Tsarskoye Selo) museum

The Catherine Palace is named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great, who ruled Russia for two years after her husband's death. Originally a modest two-storey building commissioned by Peter for Catherine in 1717, the Catherine Palace owes its awesome grandeur to their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who chose Tsarskoe Selo as her chief summer residence. Starting in 1743, the building was reconstructed by four different architects, before Bartholomeo Rastrelli, Chief Architect of the Imperial Court, was instructed to completely redesign the building on a scale to rival Versailles.

Former Gardens in front of the Palace.

Formal Entrance

The display of the Catherine Palace (known until 1910 as the Great Palace of Tsarskoye Selo) museum covers covers the almost 300-year history of this outstanding edifice and presents the work of architects involved in its construction and decoration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and also with the achievements of the restorers who returned the palace to life after the Second World War. Of the 58 halls destroyed during the war years, 32 have been recreated.

The resultant palace, completed in 1756, is nearly 1km in circumference, with elaborately decorated blue-and-white facades featuring gilded atlantes, caryatids and pilasters designed by German sculptor Johann Franz Dunker, who also worked with Rastrelli on the palace's original interiors. (A Caryatid is a female figure used as an architectural support in place of a pillar. The male equivalent is an Atlantes)

When the German forces retreated after the siege of Leningrad, they intentionally destroyed the residence, leaving only the hollow shell of the palace behind. Prior to World War II, Soviet archivists managed to document a fair amount of the interior, which proved of great importance in reconstructing the palace. Although the largest part of the reconstruction was completed in time for the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg in 2003, much work is still required to restore the palace to its former glory.

The Catherine Park, like most of the parks around the Imperial palaces, features both a formal garden and a landscape park. The Formal Park, which is directly behind the Catherine Palace, was laid out during the reign of Empress Elizabeth by a team of architects supervised by Rastrelli.

Characterized by the rigid symmetry of its alleys and box hedges, the garden is well maintained, although its most interesting structures - the Upper and Lower Baths and the ruined Hermitage Pavilion - are not currently open to visitors.

Another exterier view of top of the Palace Chapel (Church of the Resurrection)

Continued restoration work

Statues in the stable area outside the palace