Catherinehof

Ekaterinhof or Catherinehof (Russian: Екатеринго́ф < German: Katharinenhof "Catherine's Court") is a historic island park that began as an 18 century empress's estate in the south-west of St Petersburg, Russia.

As the succeeding monarchs preferred to develop Tsarskoe Selo as their alternative summer residence, Catherinehof suffered from neglect until 1800, when Emperor Paul donated it to his mistress, Anna Gagarina.

Four years later, the estate passed to the City of St Petersburg, which developed it as a municipal amusement park, with many garden pavilions and a "vauxhall" for musical exercises constructed on the grounds.

[1] Three years after the World War II that greatly damaged the city the park was revived under a new name commemorating 30th anniversary of the national youth Communist league Komsomol, and in 1955 its front half was decorated with a large sculpture portraying the recently famous group of martyred young anti-Nazi underground resistance members of Young Guard cell from the Soviet Ukraine's southeast coal mining town of Krasnodon,[2] whose struggle was described in a novel, named after the group, by Alexander Fadeeyev.

Konstantin Thon replaced the old church with a much larger structure in his hallmark Russo-Byzantine style; but the massive five-domed building was overhauled in the 1890s before being torn down by the Soviets in 1929.

Catherinehof Park.
Festival in Catherinehof by Carl von Hampeln.