Lomonosov (Oranienbaum)
The original palace on the property, Menshikov's Great Palace (Bolshoi Menshikovskii Dvorets), stands on a terrace overlooking the sea and offers visitors a look at a lavishly decorated dining room, study, bedroom, and a number of other rooms. Nearby is Peterstadt Dvorets, the modest palace that Peter III used. That it seems small, gloomy, and isolated is perhaps appropriate, as it was here in 1762 that the tsar was arrested, then taken to Ropsha, and murdered in the wake of the coup that placed his wife, Catherine the Great, on the throne. The building that most proclaims the estate's Imperial beginnings, however, is unquestionably Catherine's Chinese Palace (Kitaisky Dvorets), designed by Arnoldo Rinaldi. It's quite an affair—baroque outside, rococo inside, with ceiling paintings created by Venetian artists, inlaid-wood floors, and elaborate stucco walls. Down the slope to the east of the Great Palace is the curious Katalnaya Gorka. All that remains of the slide, which was originally several stories high, is the fanciful, dazzling pavilion, painted soft blue with white trim, that served as the starting point of the ride, where guests of the empress could catch their breath before tobogganing down again.
