Saint Petersburg vacation. Petergof.

Welcome to another historical place of Saint Petersburg - Petergof (actually means Peter's city). The palace ensemble along with the city center is recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Site. The palace ensemble included the palace itself, few churches and a huge park with a big number of beautiful fountains and buildings. Petergof is sometimes referred as "Russian Versailles". We didn't get inside the palace, because at that day it was closed, but we had enough time to enjoy the beauty of the park, gardens and fountains. On the photo below you can see the main fountain ensemble Grand Cascade from the top. This is one of the biggest fountain cascades in the world. It includes more then 60 fountains, 250 statues and reliefs. Construction began in 1715 after Peter's order. The water from the fountains fall into a pool that is connected with the Sea Channel, that ends up in the Gulf of Finland. The fountain in the center of the pool is the main fountain of the Cascade - famous Samson Fountain. Cascade looks absolutely beautiful.

Few photos from the Upper Gardens

Neptune Fountain

View on the Palace from the Upper Gardens

Nice alleys. They must look gorgeous when plants that cover them become green. Unfortunately the beginning of May is still too early for these northern places.

And Lower Gardens again. View from the alley near the palace.

The Samson Fountain. It was placed in the middle of the Grand Cascade in 1735 and it's water jet (21 meter) is the highest among all Petrgof's fountains. Separate conduit was made to provide such effect. The initial statue of Samson was made by Rastrelli, then it was remade by another artist during Cascade reconstruction. During the Second World War the statue of Samson was taken to Germany and it was lost after that. So after the war Samson was remade once again according to the drawings and layouts.

Front view of the Grand Cascade.

The Gulf of Finland

One more view of the Gulf of Finland.

Marly's Palace.

Marly's Fountain ensemble or Golden Mountain

Sculptures of ancient gods on the top of Golden Mountain Fountain.

Lion's Cascade

Monplezir Garden near Monplezir Palace and Catherine's Building.

The Sun Fountain

Small Rose fountains and the Oak Fountain.

Triton Fountain

It is located near Greenhouse Building in beautiful romantic style.

Well, I can say, that Petergof is a great place to visit, a lot of fabulous things to see. It was a good sunny day and walking along nice alleys from fountain to fountain and from garden to garden was a pleasant thing to do. The only inconvenience was a bit cold weather and wind from the Gulf of Finland, so keep this in mind while travelling to Saint Petersburg and take some warm clothes with you, unlike we did.
Hope you enjoyed my Petergof story. Will be back soon with the next portion of Saint Petersburg beauties. Yes, I'm not finished yet :)
You can find my previous posts about our Saint Petersburg vacation here: Moscow part, Saint Petersburg - the City, The Hermitage Museum.