The Oak Study

Unlike its counterpart in the Great Palace, the Oak Study in the Marly Palace created to the designs of Johann Braunstein, was covered with smooth oak panels and only after they had been fitted the strikingly expressive mascarons in carved ornamental frames were installed. The carved decor was most probably designed by Nicolas Pineau. On the pilaster strips between the panels miniature twin carved tropheys were placed. The furnishings of the Study were unassuming and practical - a Dutch bureau adorned with an ivory inlay, books and a clock on its top, an armchair next to it and a table near the window. According to tradition, the table decorated with carved wood and a slate inset was made with the participation of Peter the Great himself.

The Library

Peter the Great's contemporaries, who visited his palaces, paid attention to the fact that in all of them the Emperor had small subsidiary libraries, right in his studies or nearby. In the Marly Palace a separate room was allotted for books. Peter's libraries usually included books on navigation, mathematics, park gardening, geographical atlases, etc. Today they are preserved in the English-made bookcase of the early eighteenth century. The globe standing in the Library was also produced in England at the same time. Visitors can see on the wall the painting Sea Port with the City Gate of Rotterdam by the Dutch artist Abraham Storck (ca. 1655 - ca. 1710).

The western part of the Lower Park has, on the one side, an independent layout which sometimes does not match the structures in the eastern part of the park, while on the other there is a certain symmetry in the location of main sights on the plan of the park. Among such sights may be mentioned the Golden Hill Cascade with two Méenager or Economical Fountains at its foot corresponding to the ensemble of the Chessboard Hill, the Eve Fountain which is on the same avenue as the Adam Fountain, and, lastly, the Hermitage Pavilion which stands, like the Monplaisir Palace, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland.