Summer Palace (Rastrelli)

After Elizaveta Petrovna ascended the Russian throne in 1741, she commissioned Rastrelli to demolish the palace of her predecessor and build a "Venetian-style" residence for herself.

The new Summer Palace, completed in 1744, was the chief residence of Empress Elizabeth in the Russian capital.

It was a large and imposing mauve-walled edifice with 160 gilded rooms, adjacent church and a fountain cascade.

In 1762, Catherine the Great moved her court to the newly built Winter Palace, effectively sealing the fate of the older residence.

A year after her death in 1796, Emperor Paul (who had been born there in 1754) ordered the dilapidated palace to be demolished and replaced it with a new residence, St. Michael's Castle.