Gatchina resembles no other country residence around St Petersburg. There is no gold and no mirrored glass here — instead austere stone, hunting grounds and the character of its owner. The palace, built by Antonio Rinaldi for Count Grigory Orlov, was bought back by Catherine II after his death and given to her son, the future Emperor Paul I. He rebuilt his mother’s gift into what Gatchina remains today: the castle of a knight of the Order of Malta.
The Great Gatchina Palace. The state rooms, restored after the war: the Marble Staircase, the Greek Gallery, the vast Arsenal Hall, and the private rooms of the family of Alexander III — the last emperor to live here permanently. From the cellars an underground passage leads out to the Echo grotto on the shore of Silver Lake: call out your name and the walls will answer you.
The palace park. The first landscape park in the history of Russian gardening, part of a reserve covering more than 550 hectares. You will cross the Humpbacked Bridge, find yourself in the water maze on White Lake, look into the Birch House with its deceptive “Mask” portal, stand beneath an oak of some 240 years, and climb up to the Pavilion of Venus on the Island of Love.
The Priory Palace. Nikolai Lvov’s rammed-earth castle on the shore of Black Lake — built in three months out of compressed soil, and standing now in its third century.
Gatchina is where electric street lighting was first switched on in Russia, where the world’s first series-built submarine was tested, and where the first military aerodrome opened. Your guide will explain how one small town outside St Petersburg came to collect so many firsts.
Gatchina is the least legible of the St Petersburg suburbs. It has neither the gold of Tsarskoye Selo nor the fountains of Peterhof, and without explanation the palace reads as a large grey castle of unclear purpose. Yet it is the only residence built not for ceremonial receptions but for living in: Paul I kept his army and his own order of things here, Nicholas I made Gatchina a military headquarters, and Alexander III moved here for good after his father’s assassination and ruled the country from here — which earned him the name of the Hermit of Gatchina.
A guide supplies what the labels do not: why Catherine II gave the estate to a favourite and then took it back from his heirs to hand it to a son she disliked; how Paul set up a miniature Prussia here, complete with parade drills and Maltese knightly ceremonial; what became of the palace in the war and why its restoration dragged on for decades — the first rooms opened only in 1985. And how a castle of compressed earth came to be built in such a place, and to stand into its third century.
The tour runs by comfortable car with a private guide. The drive from the city centre takes about an hour, which leaves time for both the palace and the park without hurrying. The ensemble is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
By arrangement
| People | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | $475 |
| 2 | $236 |
| 3 | $164 |
| 4 | $130 |
| 5 | $110 |
| 6 | $97 |
| 7 | $88 |
| 8 | $82 |
| People | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 9 | $77 |
| 10 | $73 |
| 11 | $70 |
| 12 | $67 |
| 13 | $65 |
| 14 | $63 |
| 15 | $62 |
| 16 | $60 |
The essentials of St Petersburg in three hours: Palace and Senate squares, the Summer Garden and the Field of Mars, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and the place the city began — told through stories rather than dates.
An hour along the rivers and canals with your own guide: the Venice of the North from the water, the bridges and their superstitions, Chizhik-Pyzhik, and the floods that reshaped the city.
Jewish St Petersburg: the Grand Choral Synagogue in the Moorish style, the history of the community in the imperial capital, its bankers and philanthropists — and how it lives today.
On foot through the imperial capital: Palace Square, Nevsky Prospect and Gostiny Dvor, the well-yards behind the grand facades, and doughnuts in a historic cafe — two hours through the heart of St Petersburg.
