English Park and the palace ruins
The largest and most abandoned park in Peterhof — a former boar hunting preserve.
English Park is the largest in Peterhof, over 170 hectares, and yet almost deserted. Its pond appeared back in 1720: the Troitsky Stream was dammed, and the water from here still flows through sluices to the western side of the Grand Cascade. Under Anna Ioannovna, a menagerie was set up around the pond, where wild boars were kept for hunting. Catherine the Great removed the boars and invited the English gardener James Meders — thus appeared one of the first landscape parks in Russia, without trimmed alleys. On the hill stood the English Palace by Quarenghi; it was destroyed during the war, and now only fragments remain. The park is semi-neglected, but that is exactly what makes it good: old trees, bridges, and silence.
Walks in Peterhof / Day trips
⌚ Old Peterhof: the station, the boar menagerie and the "Raketa"
The flip side of Peterhof, where locals live: a station with history, the abandoned English Park and a factory that began as Peter's lapidary works.