Another Russian palace

While sitting in the optometrist's office this afternoon, I picked up a magazine and found an article about Pavlovsk, a palace built near St. Petersburg beginning in 1777 by Catherine the Great for her son and heir, Paul, and his wife, Maria Fyodorovna, who had been born a German princess. In that same year the future Alexander I, who would be instrumental in defeating Napoleon, was born to them. Click here for more of the history of Pavlovsk.

Paul himself would be emperor for only four years. He was assassinated in 1801 in a palace coup and Alexander put on the throne in his place.