Hermitage Pavilion
A dining room for the select few: the table was raised from the kitchen straight up to the guests.
The word 'hermitage' means 'a place of solitude'. In Europe such small houses were built for reflection, but in Russia hermitages quickly turned into pavilions for feasting. The Peterhof Hermitage was the first of its kind in Russia: a kitchen on the ground floor and a dining hall on the first floor. The pavilion is surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge. The main wonder is the mechanism that raised a fully laid table from the kitchen straight into the hall: servants did not interrupt the conversation, and guests wrote their orders on a slate board and sent it down. Academician Likhachev wrote about this pavilion in his book 'The Poetry of Gardens'. The photo shows a drawing by Rastrelli: this is how the pavilion looked during his alterations.
Walks in Peterhof / Day trips
⛲ Lower Park from the "back entrance": Marly, the Hermitage Pavilion, Monplaisir
We enter the Lower Park from the quiet western side and walk against the tourist flow: Marly's fish ponds, the dining room with a rising table, Peter's little house and the Samson Fountain.
🥾 All of Peterhof in a day: from west to east
A big hike for those who love walking: from Sobstvennaya Dacha through the entire Lower Park, the Colonist Islands and the cathedral — to the Cottage Palace in Alexandria. Return by bus or taxi.