Peter the Great hoped to escape now and then to the privacy of this charming pavilion in the company of just a few intimate friends. Designed by the architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein, this surprisingly unpretentious building (1721-25)--the first of its kind in Russia--was not completed until after the tsar's death. The second floor could only be reached by a special chair-lift hoisted by a winch, but by the late eighteenth century, a staircase was added after the earlier mechanism failed. The Hermitage commands splendid views of the Baltic Sea.

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