Peterhof is one of the most magnificent European palace-and-park complexes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, twenty-nine kilometers outside St Petersburg. Peter the Great founded Peterhof in 1710. He was attracted by the convenient location of this place between Kronstadt and St Petersburg. Moreover, he saw excellent possibilities for the creation of extensive gardens in the formal style, with palaces, sculptural decorations, fountains, and cascades. Here a country residence soon arose, conceding nothing in the wealth and magnificence of its decoration to the greatest summer palaces and parks of Western European monarchs.

In the spring of 1714 there began almost simultaneously the building of the Palace of Monplaisir or the Small Mansion, and, on the edge of the terrace, the Upper or Great Mansion. This was the beginning of the Peterhof palace-and-park ensemble. From the outset the sea and the park were united in a single composition, and all the palaces and cascades were built to face the coast. The conclusion, in 1721, of the peace of Nystadt, which marked the end of the Great Northern War, gave a new impetus to the building of Peterhof. Most important for the formation of the Peterhof ensemble was the decision to give the sculptural decoration of all three cascades - the Marly, the Ruin, and the Great Cascade - a single theme: the victories and prosperity of Russia which had now consolidated its position on the sea and become one of the great European powers. The inauguration of the imperial residence, an occasion marked by great festivities, took place on 15 August 1723.

From 21 September 1941 to 19 January 1944, Peterhof was in enemy-occupied territory. The Great Palace was severely damaged by an explosion and a great fire. The cascades, fountains, sluices, and canals of Peterhof, together with those parts of the hydro technical system that fed the Peterhof waterworks with water from Ropsha springs, suffered serious damage or were completely wrecked.

The restores did an impossible - they restored: The Great Palace and other palaces, 176 fountains and 4 Cascades, the Upper Park and the Lower Park. Risen like the legendary Phoenix from the ashes, Peterhof delights one with its radiant, festive beauty, its harmonious union of nature and art, of architecture, sculpture, and water. Its wonderful parks, cascades and fountains, majestic palaces, numerous gilded statues of ancient gods and heroes, remarkable collections of sculpture, painting and works of the minor arts make Peterhof a veritable gem of art - unique in the world.