Mikhailovsky garden

The Mikhailovsky Garden is a large area of parkland and landscape garden in the centre of Saint Petersburg.

The garden was one of the early developments of the city soon after its foundation. Previously it had been part of the estates and hunting grounds of a Swedish noble, but after its capture during the region's conquest by the Russians in the early 1700s, it became part of the imperial estates, and was granted by Peter the Great to his wife Catherine for her palace. Catherine's palace, on the banks of the Moyka River, was known as the Golden Mansion, and the surrounding land was developed by Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as a garden both for pleasure, and to provide supplies for the imperial household.