Yelagin Palace
Rossi's palace for the dowager empress, tired of traveling to Pavlovsk.
The island is named after its first owner, Ivan Yelagin, and the name stuck even though the owners changed. In the early 19th century, Alexander I bought the island for his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, who found it hard to travel to distant Pavlovsk and Gatchina. The reconstruction was entrusted to engineer Betancourt, and Karl Rossi became the chief architect — it was his first major work in St Petersburg. He built the palace, pavilions, the Kitchen and Stable buildings. Today the whole island is a culture and leisure park, and the Spit (Strelka) is where Petersburgers watch sunsets over the gulf.
Walks in Peterhof / Day trips
🌳 Petersburg: Aptekarsky, Kamenny and Yelagin Islands
Green Petersburg: tropics in the greenhouses of the Aptekarsky Ogorod, Art Nouveau dachas on Kamenny Island and sunset at the Yelagin Spit.