Palaces: Kadriog Palace - Tallinn, Estonia

Interesting Places I've Photographed 
Kadriog Palace, Garden, and Fountain

Tallinn, Estonia

Topic: Palaces

Rear View of the Kadriog Palace

GPS: N59° 26.304; E024° 47.513

Quick Description: 

A pair of symmetrically placed circular fountains are located in the formal garden behind the Kadriog Palace, now an art museum.

Long Description:

The original Kadriorg Palace was designed by Gaetano Chiaveri and Mikhail Zemtsov and built by Peter the Great, of Russia, for his wife Catherine I in 1718. The house underwent renovation by Nicholas I of Russia in 1827, resulting it its present Baroque appearance designed by the Italian architect Niccolo Michetti.

Russian royalty abandoned the palace later in the 19th century. It became the Art Museum (KunstiMuuseum) of Estonia in 1921. In the 1930's the president of Estonia to converted the palace and grounds for his personal use but was restored to an art museum in 1946. By 1994, the palace was closed for major repairs and a new KUMU (KunstiMuuseum) building was constructed a short distance away in Kadriorg Park. The building was reopened in 2000 as part of the in art museum complex for display of foreign art collection.

Behind the palace building there is a formal garden that is planted with a progression of flowers from spring bulbs to fall blooming flowers. The rectangular garden is divided into two identical halves. In the middle of each half is a 35' diameter circular fountain encircled by four quadrants of plantings. Each circular basin has 10 jets in a circular pattern that shoot water straight up.