When Catherine the Great deemed a palace the appropriate wedding present for her favorite grandson Alexander Pavlovich (later Alexander I) she assigned the work to the great Italian architect working in Russia Giacomo Quarenghi. The result stands out even in the neighborhood of larger more ornate palaces around St. Petersburg. Sparing in the use of ornament, Quarenghi relied on harmony of proportions and allusions to the style of Roman villas. Illustrated by nineteenth-century watercolors, pre-1917 photographs, and contemporary photographs of recently restored rooms, this concise overview outlines the history of the palace as a residence of the imperial family and points out the distinctions of the original 1793 design and some noteworthy revisions such as Nicholas I℗£s apartments designed by R. Mel℗£tser around 1900 in art nouveau style.--Summary written by John W. Emerich, Bronze Horseman Literary Agency.