Oranienbaum Palace

Oranienbaum (Russian: Ораниемба́ум) is a Russian royal residence, located on the Bay of Finland west of St. Petersburg. The Palace ensemble and the city center are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

In 1707, four years after he founded Saint Petersburg, Peter the Great gave the grounds near the seaside to his right-hand man, Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov. Menshikov commissioned the architects Giovanni Mario Fontana and Gottfried Shadel, who built his residence, the Grand Menshikov Palace from 1710 to 1727. The central part of the Palace is connected by two galleries with the two-domed Japanese and Church Pavilions. The Lower Garden, decorated with fountains and sculptures, and the Upper Garden were laid out at the same time. The Palace is located near the Lower Park, whose composite axis is a channel leading to the sea. This channel is an imitation of one designed by Peter himself at his nearby residence of Peterhof.