Peterhof is a series of palaces and gardens, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great, and sometimes called the "Russian Versailles". It is located about twenty kilometers west and six kilometers south of St. Petersburg, overlooking the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the adjacent town of 82,000 people. The palace-ensemble along with the city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The dominant natural feature of Peterhof is a sixteen-metre-high bluff lying less than a hundred metres from the shore. The so-called Lower Gardens (Nizhny Sad), at 1.02 sq km comprising the better part of Peterhof's land area, are confined between this bluff and the shore, stretching east and west for roughly 200 metres. The majority of Peterhof's fountains are contained here, as are several small palaces and outbuildings. East of the Lower Gardens lies the Alexandria Park with 19th-century Gothic Revival structures such as the Kapella.

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