Audio tour Tsarskoye Selo

Tsarskoye Selo was founded as a small country retreat for Empress Catherine I – the third & last wife of Peter the Great. The Estate developed continuously for two centuries, comprising new parks and gardens, pavilions, follies and palaces. The “small retreat” grew into a luxurious facility of parks and gardens. But the park area fell behind enemy lines during WW2, and was ruinously damaged. The Estate we see today is not only the work of its original builders, but a testament to the work of restorers who had to rebuild two centuries of finery in just a few decades, against the background of soviet financial stringency. Today Tsarskoye Selo is an exquisite gem of St Petersburg’s surroundings.