The Summer Palace

The room was designed for Alexei Makarov, secretary of Peter the Great, who would indwell there receiving petitions and registering documents for Peter the Great. The walls are draped with light cloth; their lower part – with Dutch tiles of the early 18th cen­tury.

During the renovation in 1964 the modelling on the ceiling was reconstructed after the drawing of the secretary’s room in the Monplaisir Palace (Peterhof). The ceiling is decorated with a picturesque plafond – The Triumph of Minerva dedicated to Russia’s victories in the Northern War (1710–1721) and four medallions depicting war paraphernalia.

There is a table with a chess-board that Peter the Great used to play chess with his secretary. A musical clock made in England hangs on the wall.

There is also a Spanish rosewood bureau decorated with gilded bronze. From the inside it is decorated with tortoise shell, ivory and painted mirror inlays.