Catherine Block

Rare guest will turn their attention to this palace while walking in the Lower Park of Peterhof. A low-rise not at all pompous building, near the Dutch house of Peter I, is nothing more than the small main palace of Empress Elizabeth.

You shouldn’t rush to run past this palace to Monplaisir or to the merry Shutikhs. Take your time, stop under its windows. Listen up. You will hear music playing inside. This is exactly a waltz! You will hear the glasses ringing. There's a lot of people. They talk, laugh happy young voices. And let only echoes of those distant balls that were held in this house once come to our time.

But while the imperial palace keeps the memory of the past, it lives. How its architects live - great masters who managed to conclude music and happiness in stone.

100 years have passed since the last ball played here. But even now it is so easy to imagine how it was.

White night and dozens of guests in luxurious clothes climb to high porch. The color of summer foliage, fields and hopes is lulled by a green reception room. The blue drawing room beckons to the deepest depths of all the seas and oceans. And finally, here it is - the main hall. The most colorful. The most ceremonial. Ballroom!