Peterhof, the lower park. Photo credit: Alex 'Florstein' Fedorov / commons.wikimedia.org (CC BY-SA 4.0)
300 years have passed since the opening of Peterhof, which for almost 200 years remained the summer residence of Russian emperors, Vechernyaya Moskva reports. On this day, August, 15 (old style), 1723, the first Russian emperor invited the first guests to Peterhof and conducted the first tour around the park.
Peter the Great began thinking about a majestic ensemble in Peterhof after he visited Versailles. He dreamed of proving that Russia could compete with Europe in artistic elegance.
Peterhof was conceived as a facade of a young empire, and the idea was brought to life, although Peterhof palaces are in many ways inferior to those of Versailles. Only in Peterhof one can see the water extravaganza, which brings together more than 200 fountains. These monuments of engineering art are still working properly, even despite the destruction caused by the Great Patriotic War.
This is facilitated by the original water supply technology. While in Versailles and in the residences of other monarchs water is supplied with the help of pumps, then in Peterhof it flows by itself through a special conduit, laid taking into account the natural inclination of the area to the sea. And the pressure of water is so strong that the jet of the most important of them - "Samson tearing apart the mouth of a lion" - rises to a 20-meter height.
Russkiy Mir
