11 Facts About Peterhof Palace, the Russian Versailles

Peterhof Palace is one of the grandest and most visited palace complexes in the world, hailed as the Russian version of France's Versailles and renowned for its fountains. The Palace was built in 1703 upon the orders of Czar Peter the Great to celebrate his victory against Sweden and since then, it was improved by succeeding members of the Imperial Family. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that welcomes millions of visitors from around the world. Here are fun facts about Peterhof Palace.

1. This wondrous group of gardens and palaces in Peterhof, Saint Petersburg, Russia has been dubbed as the “Russian Versailles”, though many tourists claim Peterhof Palace is incomparable to and is way more majestic than the original Château de Versailles in France.

2. Peter the Great built Peterhof—which translates to “Peter’s Courtyard”—out of his desire to modernize the whole of Russia. His homeland had been known as a primitive and backwards nation for centuries, thus he wanted to construct a grand palace that would get people to finally take Russia seriously.

3. Peterhof drew inspirations from royal sites Peter the Great saw while touring around Europe, and one of those was apparently France’s Château de Versailles.

4. The palace served as one of the residences of the Russian monarchs for more than 200 hundred years until the empire’s collapse in 1917.

5. The bigger part of the massive Peterhof Palace is being occupied by the infamous Lower Gardens or the Nizhny Sad, which has a land area of 1.02 km².

6. The Upper Gardens was originally utilized as a place to grow vegetables, and its three ponds to cultivate fish.

7. Peterhof has a total of 144 fountains and more than 200 statues.

8. The palace was seized and ravaged by the German troops from 1941 until 1944, with some of the fountains destroyed and the palace blown up and left to burn. Restoration of the partially defaced palace began right after the war.

9. At the Samson Fountain stands a statue of Biblical character Samson opening the mouth of a lion, which is a representation of Russia’s triumph over Sweden during the Battle of Poltova that transpired on St. Samson’s Day in 1709.

10. As a result of an anti-German propaganda, the palace’s name was changed into “Petrodvorets” or “Peter’s Palace” in 1944. The original name, however, was also restored in 1997.

11. The Grand Palace, which is situated right above the Samson Fountain and the Grand Terrace, is the largest palace in whole of Peterhof.