Tzarskoye Selo is the pearl of the Russian arts. It is associated with Pushkin, who spent his youth there (nowadays there is a Pushkin Lyceum Museum and the Pushkin Dacha Museum). Great architects and garden designers labored here. The city is only a few-years younger than Petersburg, founded on the site given by Peter the Great to his wife Catherine in 1710. In the middle of the 19th century, the Ekaterininskv Palace was built here, bringing worldwide fame to its architect B. Rastrelli.
When the huge palace already stood in splendor in Tzarskoye Selo, in the middle of the 18th century, Pavlovsk did not yet exist. There was only forest there, and it only saw the light of day thanks to the Empress Catherine II's love of hunting. In the 1860s the procession headed by Catherine herself appeared here more and more frequently.
The first buildings in Pavlovsk were two small hunting lodges jokingly called “Krik" and “Krak". In 1777 Catherine presented all of this forest together with the surrounding villages and peasants living there to her son Pavel, the successor to the throne. The village of Pavlovskoye was the earliest name of Pavlovsk. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron was invited here, and created many remarkable works of architecture including the Pavlovsk Park.
Peterhof. the famous Petersburg suburb, can be reached by train from the Baltiysky station, or by hydrofoil from Dekabristov Square.
"The City of Fountains" was Peter the Great’s prime residence with the park, palace, canal and cascade all designed by himself — and all these surprised Europe no less than Petersburg itself.