1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oranienbaum

ORANIENBAUM, a town of European Russia, in the government of St Petersburg, lying 100 ft. above the sea on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, opposite Kronstadt. Pop. (1897) 5333. It is well known for its imperial palace and as a summer resort for the inhabitants of St Petersburg, from which it is 25 m. W. by rail. In 1714 Menshikov, to whom the site was presented by Peter the Great, erected for himself the country-seat of Oranienbaum; but confiscated, like the rest of his estates, in 1727, it became an imperial residence. In 1743 the empress Elizabeth assigned the place to Peter III., who built there a castle, Peterstadt (now destroyed), for his Holstein soldiers.