The Travel Palace (Small Palace of Peter I) is the earliest building in the suburb of Strelna near Petersburg that has survived to this day from the Petrine era. The palace is located near the shore of the Gulf of Finland, in the southern part of the Neva Bay, on a low hill left after the retreat of glaciers, surrounded by ravines, near the Strelka River.

Modest both in size and decoration, the wooden building was intended for the emperor’s stops during his constant trips from Petersburg to the under-construction Kronstadt and the country residence in Strelna.

Construction began in 1716 (according to another version — 1710–1711). Peter I entrusted the building to architect Jean-Baptiste Le Blond. After his death, all work in Strelna passed to architect Nicolo Michetti. In 1719–1720, at the emperor’s request, he rebuilt and expanded the house to have a place to celebrate the laying of the Large Stone Palace. From this time dates the erection of the mezzanine with a ceremonial hall and a six-column portico of the strict Tuscan order with a small terrace on top.

Initially, the sovereign wanted to build his grand fountain residence precisely in Strelna, but later chose Peterhof.

Small fountains arranged in front of the pediment shot water up to 10 meters high.

In 1711, Peter I ordered the Governor-General of Petersburg, Menshikov, to build “a couple of huts for arrivals” in the “Strelna estate,” as well as to “make a cattle and poultry yard” and “a small fish pond.”

The sovereign’s order was fulfilled, and besides the palace, a vegetable garden and apiary, a garden and a pond were created, where salmon and carp were bred for the tsar’s table. A wooden Transfiguration Church was built at the estate, where military relics from the Petrine era were kept. According to legend, Peter I was married to Catherine, the future Empress Catherine I, in this church, and two centuries later, and this is no longer a legend, the widow of Pushkin, Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, and Pyotr Lanskoy were married there. The church burned down during the Great Patriotic War, and in memory of it, a wooden cross was erected on the ruined church foundation.

However, Peter’s plans for Strelna soon changed: it was decided to arrange the emperor’s country residence not there, but in Peterhof. It turned out that despite the large amount of water around (the Kikenka and Strelka rivers), Peter’s desire to build his Northern Versailles here, a counterpart of the French Versailles with large fountains and cascades, was unfeasible — water did not flow into the fountains by gravity, and installing pumps in the early 18th century was a complicated and expensive task, although the first steam engine was built in the mid-17th century, several decades before the described events. In Peterhof, where conditions for building fountains were created by nature itself, it was easier, faster, and economically more advantageous to arrange these structures.

In 1722, Peter I gifted the palace, which was no longer needed, and the adjacent lands to his daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth later began to use the building as a travel palace, stopping here for short rests during trips along the Peterhof road. After Peter I’s death, no ruler stayed here overnight again.

The palace was repeatedly restored and rebuilt (wooden structural elements were replaced with new ones, the palace was completely dismantled and reassembled) — balconies were removed and returned, rooms were demolished and added. Such alterations took place in 1750, 1799, and 1837–1840. However, this estate always remained in the private possession of the Romanov dynasty, never passing into other hands.

In 1749–1750, Elizabeth Petrovna’s chief architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli rebuilt the dilapidated palace, laid a stone foundation under it, and arranged two flower beds with sculptures in front of the house.

In the 18th century, a hospital briefly operated in the palace.

In 1797, Emperor Paul I gifted the Small Palace of Peter along with the Large Stone Palace to his son, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich.

In 1837, architect Christian Meyer restored the palace’s century-old appearance, already considering its museum value as a memory of the first Russian emperor and his undertakings. In the 19th century, rare plant species, new potato varieties, and other botanical rarities were experimentally grown in the vegetable garden at the Travel Palace.

After the October Revolution, the palace was nationalized and turned into a maternity hospital. During the Great Patriotic War, it was occupied and damaged in battles (in October 1941, the Strelna landing force was deployed near the palace).

From the liberation of the territory from the fascist invaders in 1944 until the early 1950s, the palace stood empty. After restoration work in 1951–1952, the building housed a nursery.

In 1981, a decision was made to transfer Peter I’s wooden palace to the state museum-reserve “Peterhof,” but the full transfer was only completed in 1987. From 1987 to 1999, the palace was under restoration. The park and two fountains designed by architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli were also recreated.

After the restoration was completed, the museum in the palace building became accessible to visitors. Among its exhibits are a lifetime portrait of Peter I, a portrait of Ivan Balakirev, a cast of the emperor’s hand, and a patchwork quilt sewn by Empress Catherine I herself.

The Travel Palace is now also the main information center on the history of Strelna.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Путевой_дворец_(Стрельна)

https://www.spb-guide.ru/dvoretz_petra_v_strelne.htm