Peter the Great Summer Palace – Russia’s Versailles

Peter the Great Summer Palace is located in Russia about 40 kilometres southwest of St. Petersburg, facing the Baltic Sea Gulf of Finland, the main body of the Grand Palace, the Upper Garden and the Lower Garden, set the royal life, office management, ceremonies and festivals in one of the many functions. Peter the Great was deeply impressed by the splendour of Versailles in Paris and ordered the construction of a palace in Russia to rival Versailles as a summer residence. The best architects in the world, represented at the time by France and Italy, were brought together to build this palace. The Summer Palace is the crystallisation of Russian and Western European culture, reflecting the brilliant achievements of Russian architectural art in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In June 2013, I started my trip to Russia and came to the Summer Palace to explore the flavour with longing. At the entrance to the Summer Palace, a scroll of green trees, white columns, yellow walls and golden domes unfolds, full of rich Russian and Baroque mixed flavours.

On one side of the Grand Palace is the onion-headed, gold-domed Church of St Paul the Apostle, and on the other is the Emblem Building, crowned by the golden three-headed eagle weather vane emblem. In front of you is the Church of St Paul the Apostle, with the cross surmounting its five golden domes.

The Grand Palace is situated between the Upper and Lower Gardens, the Lower Garden facing the Gulf of Finland, and in the Lower Garden is the Samson Canal, which runs from the Great Waterfall Fountains in front of the Grand Palace to the Gulf of Finland quay. The canal is surrounded by green slopes on both sides, and the trees on both sides of the canal create a beautiful landscape. Walking along the canal to the pier, with the breeze in your face, the sea gradually opens up in front of you, which is very pleasant. It is said that when Peter the Great came back from the sea, he could take a boat through the canal directly to the Grand Palace, and the royal atmosphere is really extraordinary.

The Grand Palace is big and magnificent. In front of the Grand Palace there is a group of fountains with 37 golden statues, 29 flat bas-reliefs, 150 figures, 64 fountains and 2 trapezoidal waterfalls. Many tourists gathered in front of the pool, waiting for the fountain show, when the time came, several silver water columns rose to the sky, splashing, dancing, the tourists issued a burst of amazement. Rumson Fountain in the middle, Hercules Samson hands to break the lion’s mouth, a spring from the lion’s mouth rushed down from the sky, the water column 22 metres high. The golden sculptures of the figures are bathed in a curtain of colourful water. The Great Lawn is filled with various fountains.

A golden three-headed eagle weathervane sits atop the Emblem Building.

The upper garden, on the other side of the palace, is laid out in a geometric composition typical of European court gardens in the first half of the 18th century. Behind the palace, in the round oak fountain in the fish’s mouth, water spouts leisurely into the pond where the ducks swim.

All the fountains are gradually filled by the natural pressure of the water stored in the dam. The pool on the side of St Paul’s Messenger Church is mainly used to store water for the lower garden. The figures in the fountain are Adam and Eve.

Most of the day’s visit to the Summer Palace was over. Summer Palace interior decoration is beautiful, due to the Summer Palace interior prohibit tourists to take pictures, so no photos can be presented, leaving a little regret.