🖼 Priory Palace

Гатчина, ул. Чкалова, 22

The only surviving rammed-earth palace in Russia, on the shore of Black Lake, built for the Order of Malta.

The palace was built by the architect Nikolai Lvov; the emperor accepted it on 22 August 1799.
The rammed-earth walls were raised in three months of 1798 and cost 2,000 roubles against 25,000 for stone ones.
Before construction, the strength of rammed earth was tested on the trial corner of a cottage: ladies poked it with umbrellas, officers hacked at it with broadswords.
From the Black Lake side the palace looks as if it stands on an island; its appearance has no symmetry.
In the 1880s singers of the Court Chapel were housed in the palace — it was adapted to accommodate 50 people.
Restoration went on from the early 1980s and was mostly completed by 2004.
According to legend, an underground passage led from here to the Grand Palace; restorers did find a stone tunnel, but where it goes has not been established.

Part of these routes