Pavlovsk with the Palace and the Park

After the gold of Peterhof and the baroque of Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk feels like a deep breath. It is the quietest and most English of the imperial residences: a restrained yellow-and-white palace and a vast landscape park designed like a series of stage sets along a winding river.

Catherine II gave the land to her son Paul in 1777, and the Scottish architect Charles Cameron began the palace in 1782. The house you see was shaped above all by Paul’s widow, Maria Feodorovna, who lived here for three decades after his murder. Burnt out in the war, it was restored by 1970, largely thanks to museum director Anna Zelenova, who evacuated the collections before the occupation and then spent thirty years putting Pavlovsk back together.

The route

The drive. About forty minutes from the city. You are collected from your hotel or apartment.

The palace. Forty-five of more than three hundred rooms are open: the domed Italian Hall, the colonnaded Greek Hall, and the state apartments of Paul and Maria Feodorovna. They are furnished to the architects’ own drawings and hold the antique sculpture and paintings the couple brought back from their European tour.

The Slavyanka valley. The heart of the park, composed like a painting by Pietro Gonzago, a theatre set designer, with bridges, groves and a winding river.

Pavilions along the way. Cameron’s Temple of Friendship on a bend of the river. The Apollo Colonnade, partly brought down by a storm and left as a romantic ruin. The Rose Pavilion, Maria Feodorovna’s literary salon, recreated in 1996. The Pil Tower, which looks like a crumbling mill outside but holds an elegant salon. And the mausoleum to Paul I in the secluded New Sylvia.

Your guide explains who Paul really was, the “Russian Hamlet” who ruled for four years and was murdered in his own castle, why the arms of Pavlovsk carry a Maltese cross, and which of the park’s most romantic features came about by accident.

Good to know

• The tour lasts about four hours, including the drive.
• The car and tickets to the palace and park are included; meals are not.
• In the park your guide works with your party alone. Inside the palace, the visit is made as part of a museum group.
• The park covers 600 hectares, so expect a good walk. The ensemble is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The tour can be booked privately or as part of a group.

Who it suits

Travellers who prefer calm parks to crowded palaces, garden lovers, and return visitors who have already seen Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo.