Real connoisseurs of art and history will take great pleasure in visiting Pavlovsk - the favorite summer residence of Paul I, son of Catherine II, and his wife Maria Fyodorovna. Paul and Maria were extremely intelligent and all-rounded people. They were friends of Louis XVI and his wife Maria-Antoinette. While traveling in Europe, the Russian couple stayed in Versailles and got a lot of precious gifts from the French king and his spouse. Many of these kingly presents are now on display in the Great Pavlovsk Palace put up by Charles Cameron and other architects in the classical style at the end of the 18th century.

The Pavlovsk Palace has most exquisite interiors decorated to the tastes of Paul and Maria. These interiors may not blind you with pomp, but for those who know and love this kind of things it will be a great pleasure to observe the Italian Hall, the Grecian Hall, the Hall of War and the Hall of Peace, the Libraries of Paul I and Maria Fyodorovna, the Boudoir, the Gala Bedroom, and the Tapestry Room decorated with very rare Gobelin tapestries from the famous Don Quixote series given to Paul I by Lois XVI. Such tapestries can be found only in one more place in the world - in Versailles.

The Pavlovsk Park is all beauty and peace. It is filled with the spirit of Russia. It is the second largest park in Europe after Richmond in England. It was laid out in the English landscape park style, unlike the parks in Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo which were conceived as French regular gardens. You'll see the difference. In Pavlovsk the park resembles a forest, with a lot of trees, a river crossing huge fields, and a few pavilions lost somewhere on this vast territory. You'll be enchanted by these all-green surroundings that together with the Pavlovsk Palace are among our most cherished treasures.

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