2-982-324 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Peter the Great's Palace in the Summer Garden, St. Petersburg, 1858. 'This far-famed garden, which is the great lounge of the population of St. Petersburg, is on the Neva, close to the Troitzka bridge, and bounds the eastern end of the Champ de Mars...It is the oldest garden in the city, contains a number of tine old trees, and is therefore of incalculable value in the centre of the stony masses of the city...In one corner of the Summer Garden stands the palace in which dwelt Peter the Great. It is a little low, white house, with a few tasteless bas-reliefs, painted yellow...In the interior, a few articles of furniture, formerly used by Peter, are still preserved. The house seems to have grown ashamed of its littleness, for it hides itself completely among the tall linden-trees of the garden, as though fearful of intruding into the company of the stately palaces that have grown up around. How different it must have looked when it was yet sole lord of the wilderness-when it stood alone amidst a mob of fishermen's huts'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.