• Director(s):

    DESCOMBES (Emmanuel)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2017

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

The gardens of Peterhof Palace, on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, with their gilded and marble statues and their dazzling waterfalls and fountains, were created for the eighteenth-century Tsar Peter the Great, Emperor of All Russia, for political reasons.
 

Peter the Great was fascinated by Louis XIV's gardens at Versailles, which he visited in 1717. He commissioned prints of the estate and hired one of Le Nôtre's pupils, the architect Le Blond, to design a palace and grounds that would equal and even surpass Versailles. His aim was to place Russia on an equal footing with the great European powers. Making a French-style garden in Russia's harsh northern climate represented a considerable challenge.