Catherine Block

The Catherine Block was the setting for magnificent court banquets, balls and receptions. Built next to Monplaisir, this palace was designed by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna between 1747 and 1759.

The block was named after another famous empress – Catherine the Great – who seized the throne from her husband, Peter III, in 1762. The interiors were decorated by Giacomo Quarenghi and the Scotti family of Italian painters. In the early nineteenth century, they were redesigned in the Regency style for Tsar Alexander I.

The state rooms now exhibit period furniture and a magnificent collection of French bronzes. The main attraction of the Catherine Block is the famous Guriev Service, manufactured at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg. Numbering over 4,500 objects, it was used at imperial banquets in the Winter Palace and, from 1848, in the Grand Palace and the Catherine Block at Peterhof.

The museum is open from 10.30 am to 6 pm; ticket office closes at 5 pm

Closed on the last Thursday of every month