It looked quite impressive…and then we spotted the fountains up the walkway. There were some small fountains pouring into a canal and we could make out some larger spouts of water close to the Palace, but we had no idea what we were about to see.

There were fountains everywhere!

And they were gorgeous in the sunlight as they shot past one another. It was so far beyond anything that we were expecting that we just stood there for a minute taking it all in.

There were even fountains on the roof of the carriage house!

We wandered around the estate property which seemed to go on forever and there were even more fountains scattered along the paths.

The north-west section of the grounds backed up to the Gulf of Finland and was set off by a tree-lined levee that was really picturesque.

It was easy to see why Peterhoff was used as a ceremonial Palace by the likes of Catharine the Great, Elizabeth, Alexander I and Nicolas I. The estate even housed the original Hermitage museum.

The Palace ended up being closed so we walked around to the front where we were greeting by sprawling English gardens (and even more fountains).

The Palace was fantastic and well worth the trip along the Gulf.