Catherine Palace and Park, St. Petersburg (must see)

The Catherine Palace is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), 30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars.

Although Stasov's and Cameron's Neoclassical interiors are superb manifestations of late 18th-century and early 19th-century taste, the palace is best known for Rastrelli's grand suit of formal rooms known as the Golden Enfilade. It starts at the spacious airy ballroom, the "Grand Hall" or the "Hall of Lights", with a spectacular painted ceiling, and comprises numerous distinctively decorated smaller rooms, including the recreated Amber Room.

The Great Hall, or Light Gallery, as it was called in the 18th century, is a formal apartment in the Russian baroque style designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli between 1752 and 1756. The Great Hall was intended for more important receptions such as balls, formal dinners, and masquerades. The hall was painted in two colors and covers an area of approximately 1,000 square meters. Occupying the entire width of the palace, the windows on the eastern side look out onto the park while the windows of the western side look out to the palace plaza. In the evening, 696 lamps are lit on about a dozen chandeliers located near the mirrors. The hall's sculptural and gilded carvings and ornamentation were created according to sketches by Rastrelli and models by Johann Franz Dunker.

The Catherine Park is the large landscaped area to the south of the Catherine Palace. The park has two parts: a formal 18th century Dutch-style garden and a natural English garden.

The formal garden was laid out in 1720 by masters of Dutch landscape gardening on three parterres in front of the Imperial Palace. At the same time, a reflecting pool was constructed on the third parterre, and two ponds were made on the Vangazi creek flowing from the hill: the Upper (Large) and Mill ponds (later included in the cascade of Lower ponds).

The main features in this garden are the Upper bath, Lower bath, Hermitage, Cave, Hermitage Kitchen, Moreyskaya column, Vorota gate, and Orlov gate.

The main features of the English park are: the Dutch-style boathouse the Dutch Admiralty, Hall on the Island pavilion, Chesme Column, Marble Bridge, Turkish bath, the Pyramid, Red Cascade, Gothic Gate, Ruin Tower, Orlovsky gate, Granite terrace, "Girl with a Jug" fountain, Concert Hall, Catherine Palace kitchen ruins, Creaky Summer House, Evening Hall, Kagul Obelisk, and Private Garden.