The Palace of Peter I

About museum

Strelna is one of the oldest settlements on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. Finno-Ugric peoples and the Votians settled here in the 7th–8th centuries. In 1617, under the terms of the Treaty of Stolbovo with Sweden, these lands were named Ingermanland. However, in 1703, during the Great Northern War, Russia reclaimed the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. In 1711 A. D. Menshikov received an imperial decree to build in Strelna a couple of huts, cattle and poultry yards, and a "small fish pond." Peter I planned to create in Strelna a grand palace-and-park ensemble with fountains and cascades, but after significant water sources were discovered near Peterhof he moved his efforts there. The palace miraculously survived the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and served as a hospital and a kindergarten. In 1987 it was transferred to the State Museum-Reserve "Peterhof" and was restored in 1999. Today the personal belongings of the emperor are kept in the Palace of Peter I in Strelna, and nearby there is a revived historic kitchen garden and fruit orchard.