Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Leningrad Oblast, Russia
The Great Gatchina Palace was built in 1766–1781 in Gatchina town by Antonio Rinaldi for Count Grigori Grigoryevich Orlov who was a favourite of Catherine II. The Gatchina Palace is located on the hill above Lake Serebryannoe.
Perhaps the most neglected of St. Petersburg’s suburban palaces in the post-war period, Gatchina is also probably the most lived-in, with four Tsars considering it their family home.
First appearing in records in 1499, Khotchino – the old name for Gatchina – was a Russian village under the rule of Novgorod the Great. Won and lost by the Livonians and then the Swedes in the course of the 17th century, it was regained for Russia by Peter the Great during the Northern Wars.
Peter founded an Imperial Hospital and Apothecary there, but it was not until 1765, when Catherine the Great bought the village and surrounding lands for her favourite, Count Grigoriy Orlov, that work began on the palace and park.
Epic Russia Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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