Petrovsky Travel Palace

The palace was commissioned by Empress Catherine II and built by the architect Matvey Kazakov between 1776 and 1783. It became one of the most striking examples of memorial architecture, designed to evoke the defeated "Turkish fortresses" of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. This concept largely shaped the palace's architectural character: an eclectic exterior, alluding to Gothic, Oriental, and Old Russian styles, was layered upon a symmetrical Classical composition. Paul I incorporated the palace into the coronation ceremonial, and from then on, every future monarch was required to stay there upon arriving in Moscow before the coronation. Throughout the 19th century, emperors used the palace as their official residence in accordance with this tradition. During the great fire of Moscow in 1812, Emperor Napoleon I stayed at the palace. After the Napoleonic invasion, it was restored by the architect Pyotr Ivanovich Tamansky. In the Soviet era, the Petrovsky Travel Palace became the Palace of Red Aviation: from 1923 to 1997, it housed the N. E. Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, whose most famous graduate was Yuri Gagarin. Since 1997, the palace has been under the jurisdiction of the Moscow City Government. In 1998, its historic name — the Petrovsky Travel Palace — was officially restored. Following extensive restoration work, the palace reopened in 2011 as the Official Reception House of the Moscow Government. In 2023, the protected status of the Petrovsky Travel Palace as a federally significant cultural heritage site (monument) was formally confirmed.