Pavlovsk (Russian: Па́вловск "[the town] of Pavel" after Emperor Pavel (Paul) of Russia) is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District in the suburban part of the federal city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south from Saint Petersburg proper and about 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) southeast from Pushkin.

Pavlovsk is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments".

A wooden fortress was built by Russians on the place of Pavlovsk and was known from at least 13th century as part of an Administrative division of Novgorod Land.

On 13 August 1702, the Russian army led by Peter the Great and Fyodor Apraksin met Swedes at the Izhora river and pushed them to the fortress.

[3] Paul I, an avid fan of the military, had long dreamed of building a stone fortress on the ruins of the Swedish forts.

After the death of Catherine, Paul and Brenna expanded the Pavlovsk estate with real military barracks, officers' quarters and a hospital.

This was a present to Paul and his wife Maria Feodorovna on the occasion of the birth of their first son, the future Emperor Alexander I of Russia.

Catherine commissioned the Scottish architect Charles Cameron, who had previously done much work for her in the nearby Tsarskoye Selo, to design a palace and a park in Pavlovskoye.

[7][8][9] Between 1782 and 1786[8] Cameron built the original palace core that survives to date, the Temple of Friendship, Private Gardens, Aviary, Apollo Colonnade and the Lime Avenue.

He also planned the original landscape including the huge English park with numerous temples, colonnades, bridges, and statues.

"[11] Constrained financially, Paul and Maria closely watched Cameron's progress and regularly curbed his far-reaching, expensive plans.

[16] Maria Feodorovna enjoyed animal husbandry (she used to milk cows herself) and thus built a large farm at the edge of the park and a wooden pavilion for studies.

During that time, it was frequently visited by famous poets and novelists including Sergey Glinka, Nikolay Karamzin[6] and Ivan Krylov.

But he also improved the roads of Pavlovsk, donated significant amounts to the church and established an orphanage and a school for middle-class children.

It regularly hosted evening festivities, and Johann Strauss II (1856), Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Feodor Chaliapin were among the celebrities who performed there.

[20] Michael Pavlovich died in 1849 leaving no heir, and thus Pavlovsk became property of a son of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia.

[15] On 30 April 1909, a young officer, Colonel Oleg Pantyukhov, organized the first Russian Scout troop Beaver (Бобр, Bobr) in Pavlovsk.

In a general motion to replace the Tsar's name, the town was renamed to Slutsk, after revolutionary Vera Slutskaya who died nearby in 1917.

[23] In 1989, it was included into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as part of the Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.

Sediments of that time form a layer thicker than 200 meters on top of the Baltic Shield consisting of granite, gneiss and diabase.

[29][30] Prior to the founding of the town the area was covered by temperate coniferous forests (mostly pine and fir) with an admixture of broad-leaved trees and fens.

Intensive economic activities changed the original forest landscape to agricultural land with small groves of aspen, birch, alder and willow.

Water analysis performed by Greenpeace in 2008 reveals contamination levels exceeding the permissible norms by tens or hundreds times, with such chemicals as oil, lead, acetone, mercury, chloroform and others.

[41] The modern structure of local government bodies consists of: The head of the municipality of the city of Pavlovsk is Valery Viktorovich Zibarev.

It features a black double-headed eagle with a white Maltese cross on its chest and the Order of St. Andrew hanging on a chain under it.

On top of the cross there is a red shield with a monogram combining Russian italic letters П and М standing for Emperor Paul and Empress Maria.

The Bip fortress, a favorite of young Paul I, was burned down during World War II and only its walls remained; it was restored by 2010.

More prominent however is the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in honor of Paul I, an active Orthodox church built in 1900–1904 by Alexander von Hohen in the Russian Revival style.