Kadriorg Palace

Kadriorg Palace
Kadrioru loss
Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn
General information
Architectural style	Petrine Baroque
Town or city	Tallinn
Country	Estonia
Construction started	1718
Completed	1725
Client	Peter the Great
Design and construction
Architect	Nicola Michetti Gaetano Chiaveri Mikhail Zemtsov

Kadriorg Palace (Estonian: Kadrioru loss, German: Schloss Katharinental) is a Petrine Baroque palace built for Catherine I of Russia by Peter the Great in Tallinn, Estonia. Both the Estonian and the German name for the palace means "Catherine's valley". It was built after the Great Northern War to Nicola Michetti's designs by Gaetano Chiaveri and Mikhail Zemtsov. The palace currently houses the Kadriorg Art Museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, displaying foreign art from the 16th to 20th centuries. The KUMU branch of the museum, showing Estonian art from the 18th century onwards is furthermore situated in the park.

After the successful siege of Tallinn during the final phase of the Great Northern War in 1710 czar Peter the Great of Russia bought a small Dutch-style manor house at Lasnamäe for his wife Catherine. The house today is the result of a drastic renovation ordered by Nicholas I of Russia in 1827.

However, plans for a larger palace in the area soon developed and construction of a new palace, Kadriorg, was started on 25 July 1718. Peter and Catherine visited the unfinished residence on several occasions, but after the emperor's death in 1725 Catherine showed no interest in the seaside property. The great hall with Catherine's initials and profuse stucco decor (attributed to Heinrich von Bergen) survives, while many other interiors have been altered.