The palace and park ensemble of Peterhof was founded by Peter I in 1705 on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland.
The Grand Palace is the main building of the palace and park ensemble. The construction of the palace began in 1714 and ended in 1755. The author of the project is Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The main architectural style is Elizabethan Baroque.
The view of the facade of the Grand Palace from the Upper or Lower Park is impressive, but we must admit that the palace itself is quite narrow and is not as big as it looks. The palace is a three-storey building of almost three hundred meters in length.
Anyone who hears the word “Peterhof” immediately associates it with fountains. These fountains are located in the Lower and Higher Parks of the palace and park ensemble of Peterhof. Experts say that the scale of the fountains of Peterhof exceed the scale of the fountains of the French Versailles. The Lower Park complex has more than 150 fountains and 4 cascades, and in the Upper Garden fountains there are only 5 fountains and one cascade.
The most famous fountains are “The Grand Cascade” and “Samson Fountain”.