When a king travels, he'll need somewhere to stay -- somewhere nice. One of the most spectacular vacation homes ever built, Peterhof (also "Peter's Court") is the name that collectively applies to the greater complex of gardens, buildings, fountains and galleries, created by Peter the Great in the early 18th century as his summer residence.

This lavish palace is located atop a cliff looking out upon the Baltic Sea. Built to Peter's specifications, somewhat more modestly, 300 years ago, Peterhof was added to over the next 200, eventually becoming the site of the largest network of gravity-fed fountains in the world. Extensively damaged in World War Two by an occupying Nazi force, the magnificent buildings and grounds have since been restored and are visited by thousands of tourists every year. They were designated a World Heritage Site along with the entire city of St. Petersburg.

Peter the Great -- Emperor of all the Russias

Peter I of Russia, later made Emperor, was the powerful ruler that commissioned the building of St. Petersburg as his capital and Peterhof as his residence. That he would choose a position so close to the sea to spend his time is hardly surprising given his life-long love of the sea and study of Naval power. In fact, it was during his reign that the Royal Russian Navy first came into existence just two years after he ascended to full power. During his reign, Russia gained back control of the Baltic and Black Seas and built their first naval bases, including the Kronshtadt base that his visits to led to his choice of St. Petersburg and Peterhof as his capital.

He ascended to the throne in 1682, when only 10 years old, with his infirm brother Ivan V as one of two co-Tsars ruled by his half-sister and regent Sophia. Preferring to design and build ships to hold mock sea battles with rather than spend his time in court, Peter did not become sole ruler of Russia until his brother and mother both died by 1696. At the age of 24 he set about remaking Russia to his liking, most notably beginning a 200-year long campaign to Westernise it. During an extended trip through Europe beginning in 1697 to gain support for overthrowing the Ottoman ruler, he spent several months with East India Company shipbuilders in the Netherlands, learning all he could about ship and lock construction before going home to Moscow to build a Navy.

His lifelong love of the sea made Peterhof a natural choice, and he spent many hours in the gardens looking out to sea and supervising the activities at Kronshtadt. He was responsible for constructing many of the major buildings in his lifetime, though many of them were embellished or added by his successors. By the time of his death in 1725, St. Petersburg was established as the capital of what had become the Russian Empire during his reign. Without a living and legitimate male heir, his wife Catherine I became Empress.

Site Selection

There was no St. Petersburg until the Peter created it. Just 3 years after his defeat by the King of Sweden in the Battle of Narva in 1700, the city was founded as a permanent post on the Baltic Sea that he had every intention of taking back and in fact, did just a few years later. What better way to create a great and modern city with grand statuary than by starting one from scratch? Work was begun when local stonemasons were forbidden to build anything else from 1703 onward, so they could concentrate all their efforts on the new city. The tax code was also changed at that time so that taxes were collected from all his subjects and not just the landed nobility.

While the city of St. Petersburg does not have a harbour naturally deep enough to handle ocean-going vessels, the nearby seafloor has a precipitous drop-off that makes the islands south and west of the city a better place to catch a ship to Europe and other points west, which Peter and his successors did regularly.

The site for Peterhof was chosen as early as 1805, during what came to be known as the Great Northern Battle that eventually secured the Baltic sea for Russian use, for it's view of the sea and proximity to the new Kronshtadt fortifications on the island of Kotlin. It allows viewing of both the port and city, including all the ocean-going traffic in and out of the area. Situated atop a cliff, 26 Km (~16 mi.) southwest of his namesake city, the palaces were meant to be a seasonal vacation spot for the whole court. The gardens look out over the Gulf of Finland, which is an inlet of the larger Baltic Sea that connects the Russian mainland with the Scandinavian countries, Germany and Poland. Fond of things Germanic, the name Peterhof is in fact a German name that was changed for many years under the Soviets to the more Russian-sounding Petrodvoréts (or "Peter's Palace") until reverting back in 1997.

One of the most distinguishing physical characteristics of the site is the 16m (~52 ft.) cliffs that separate the upper and lower gardens are only 100m (~110 yd.) from the shore. Over 200m (~220 yards) long, they are made of sturdy stone The two-story grotto that is covered with brownstone, is not a natural feature, and instead, was created from imported rock. The Lower Gardens dominate the landscape, covering over 102 hectares (~252 acres) of the site, and would become Peter's favourite part of the complex, where he spent much of his time in later years, until his death.

By: Elizabeth Jean
Elizabeth Jean writes water fountain and related articles for Garden-Fountains.com, the #1 destination on the internet for wall fountains, garden fountains, and Distinctive Water Features.

Featured by Resourcesforattorneys.com, a Legal services and Lifestyle Information resources directory.

Visit our Discount Travel Directory.

For travel jokes, humor and satire see Travel Jokes from Resources For Attorneys.

For articles about travel within the United States visit Travel America - Travel Blog, a Travel Destinations resource provided by USA City Directories.

Legendary, beautiful, marvelous... This is Saint Petersburg - "the Northern Venice" of Russia - far and enchanting, attractive and fascinating. This is the city where you can find what you have desired for a long time, it is the place in this great World where your dreams come true!

St. Petersburg was founded on the Neva River by Tsar Peter the Great, on the 16th of May, 1703. Surely, the city is considered to be not a very old one, but it undoubtedly has a rich and powerful history, the study of which can help you to understand that a good deal of the greatest dates in the world and Russian history is connected with St. Petersburg. They say, the city is the cultural capital of Russia, and anybody can hardly deny this fact. At a glimpse, one becomes aware that culture permeates through all the city, leaves its trace in all the spheres of St. Petersburg life. Firstly, the look of the city - its architectural grandeur, luxurious parks, inviting streets, avenues and lanes, plenty of rivers and canals, the view of the Gulf of Finland - gives us an estimate of the large scale and grandiosity of St. Petersburg. Secondly, the enormous number of cultural institutions - museums and art galleries, palaces of culture, theatres, concert and music halls, movie theatres, and so on and so forth - grant a lot of diverse positive impressions which give us an idea of the great potential ability of art to influence our life making it better, richer, brighter.

No matter if you come to St. Petersburg alone or with your family and friends, whether you on vocation or on business, you should certainly visit some of the greatest St. Petersburg places of note. Slip not the chance to stroll along the most famous avenue of the city - Nevskii Prospect -where you will see many historical and gorgeous buildings, the marvelous sculptures of the Anichkov Bridge, the picturesque Griboedov Canal... An autobus city tour will help you to see other avenues and streets with their beautiful sights. A night city tour will give you a chance to see all the beauty of the illuminated city, and to watch a very well-known and attractive eye-catcher - swinging open of the city bridges. If you are tired of roads and traffic jam, take a boat city tour on rivers and canals of St. Petersburg. It will allow you to enjoy the marvelous sights of the city being afloat.

After that, indubitably, you will wish to visit a celebrated place.

There is a wide range of famous museums in St. Petersburg, and the first ones to visit are: the Hermitage (or the Winter Palace) which is so huge that one can scarcely observe all the treasures kept there in even a several years' time, the Russian Museum which is one of the greatest picture galleries in the World, the Peter and Paul Fortress situated on the Zayachiy Island which was erected for the purpose of defense and which is a historical museum at present.

Irrespective of your religion you should visit the splendid Orthodox cathedrals of St. Petersburg which present architectural and decoration masterpieces, beginning with the Kazansky Cathedral with its mighty semicircle of columns, the St. Isaac's Cathedral which is one of the biggest dome buildings in the world and which has a colonnade permitting you to observe the city center, and the Spas-na-Krovi Cathedral with its unique outer décors.

And never miss the opportunity of going to the illustrious suburbs of St. Petersburg, such as Peterhof with its renowned fountain cascades located in front of the Great Peterhof Palace, the Pavlovsk Ensemble with its vast park where you can feed squirrels in summer, Pushkin where there is still the spirit of the great poet's age.

In actual fact, it is impossible to enumerate all the values of this great magnetic city, it is much better to see everything with one's own eyes. Saint Petersburg always greets any tourist with outstretched arms!

By: Alexandra Korneeva
This site www.hotels-of-saint-petersburg.com can be of great help for you if you plan to visit Saint Petersburg or just want to know it better. There is much information about the city, and a database of comfortable apartments and hotel rooms where you can stay during your visit.

Featured by Resourcesforattorneys.com, a Legal and Lifestyle resources directory.

Visit our Travel Directory.