152 NORTH EASTERN EUROPE
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp160–61 and pp162–3
The remarkable stove in the Summer Palace’s tiled kitchenIvan Krylov’s statue amidst autumn foliage in the Summer Garden
Summer Garden q
Летний сад
Letniy sadLetniy Sad. Map D3. @ 46, 49.
v 3. # May–Sep: 10am–10pm
daily; 10 Oct–31 Mar: 10am–6pm
daily. ¢ Apr. 7 -In 1704, Peter the Great
commissioned this beautiful
garden, which was among the
first in the city. Designed by a
French man in the style of
Versailles, the allées were
planted with imported elms
and oaks and adorned with
fountains, pavil ions and some
250 Italian statues dating from
the 17th and 18th centuries.
A flood in 1777 destroyed
most of the Summer Garden,
and the English-style garden,
which exists today, is largely
the result of Catherine the
Great’s tastes. A splendid
feature is the fine filigree iron
grille along the Neva
embankment, created by
architects Yuriy Velten and
Pyotr Yegorov.
For a century the Summer
Garden was an exclusive
preserve of the nobility. When
the garden was opened to the
public by Nicholas I, two Neo-
Classical pavilions, the Tea
House and the Coffee House,
were erected over looking the
Fontanka. These are now
used for temporary art exhibi-
tions by local artists. Nearby,
the bronze statue of Ivan
Krylov, Russia’s most famous
writer of fables, is a favourite
with children. Sculpted in
1854 by Pyotr Klodt, with
charming bas-reliefs on the
pedestal, it depicts animals
from Krylov’s fables.Summer Palace^0
Летний дворец
Letniy dvorets
Naberezhnaya Kutuzova. Map D2.
Tel 314 0374. @ 46, 49. # May–
Nov: 10am–6pm Wed–Mon. ¢ last
Mon of each month. & 8
Built for Peter the Great, the
modest two-storey Summer
Palace is the oldest stone
building in the city. Designed
in the Dutch style by
Domenico Trezzini, it was
completed in 1714. The
Prussian sculptor Andreas
Schlüter created the delightful
maritime bas-reliefs as an
allegorical commentary on
Russia’s naval triumphs under
Peter the Great’s stewardship.
Grander than his
wooden cabin, located on
Petrogradskaya across the
Neva river, Peter’s second St
Petersburg resi dence is still by
no means comparable to the
magnifi cent palaces built by
his successors. On the ground
floor, the rece p tion room has
portraits of the tsar and his
ministers and contains Peter’s
oak Admiralty Chair. The
tsar’s bedroom has its origi-
nal four-poster bed with a
coverlet of Chinese silk, and
an 18th-century ceiling fresco
showing the tri umph of
Morpheus, the god of sleep.
Next door is the turn ery that
contains some original Russian
lathes as well as a carved
wooden meteorol ogical
instru ment, designed in
Dresden in 1714.
The palace boasted the city’s
first plumbing system with
water piped directly into the
kitchen. The original black
marble sink can still be seen,
along with the beautifully
tiled kitchen stove and an
array of early 18th-century
cooking utensils. The kitchen
opens onto the exquisite
dining room, imaginatively
refurbished to convey an
atmosphere of domesticity.
It was used only for small
family gatherings since major
banquets were held at the
Menshikov Palace (see p142).
A lavish suite on the first
floor was used by Peter’s sec-
ond wife, Catherine, while the
throne in the aptly named
Throne Room is orna mented
with Nereides and other sea
deities. The glass cup boards
in the Green Room once
dis played Peter’s lovely collec-
tion of curiosa before it was
moved to the Kunstkammer
on Vasilevskiy Ostrov.