Among the great historico-cultural complexes in the environs of Leningrad the latest to be created was Paviovsk. Its fame rests on the splendour of the palace with its classical architecture, its sumptuous interiors and great art collections, and on the beauty of the spacious park, which covers around 1,500 acres and is one of the country's largest and most picturesque. A country residence of the Russian imperial family, it was created by a succession of outstanding architects, painters and sculptors within a relatively short span of time: begun around 1780, it was virtually completed by 1825. Construction was started and the first variant realized by the architect Charles Cameron, after whom his ideas and general design were developed and carried out by Vincenzo Brenna, Giacomo Quarenghi, Andrey Voronikhin, Thomas Jean Thomas de Thomon, Carlo Rossi, Pietro Gonzaga and others. Men of rare talent and superior culture, they built up a complex characterized by exceptional unity of style, however different their artistic individualities and aesthetic ideals

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