Summer garden is probably one of the most known abroad Park in St.Petersburg and also one of the coziest and elegant place in the city center. It was originally laid out as a regular park by the decree of Peter the Great in 1704. An architect Ivan Matveev was commissioned to build the garden. The unique detail of Summer garden is that it is surrounded by the water from each side. The natural boundaries of the park are the Neva river and the Fontanka river from the north and east and Moika and Lebyazhya (Swan) kanavka from  the southern and western. The garden was created as a regular (architectural) park with a clear layout, the straight alleys, neatly trimmed trees and bushes. The trees were planted all year round. During the 18th century the great architects such as Leblon, Mattarnovi, Zemtsov took part in the developing of the site: Summer Palace for Peter the Great was built, one of the embankments was mounter from the side of Neva river, etc. Due to the plan of Peter the First the park was to become a place of rest, combining features of a city and a country manor. There were held luxurious balls and celebrations for noble families. Originally it was forbidden to visit park without an invitation from Peter the Great, but later it was permitted to walk in the park but only for decently dressed people. After the great flood of 1777 some pavilions were destroyed and the architect K.Rossi restored one of them to the Coffee House. During this reconstruction appeared the famous railing by artists Velten and Egorov, which nowadays is one of the city’s symbols. Later was mounted the Tee House by the blueprints of L.Sharleman. Two parts of Tee House, used as a storehouses, were connected with a central gallery with 12 pairs of marble columns, and the track was covered with white and black marble slabs. In the middle of 19th century Peter Klodt created and mounted in the Summer Garden his famous sculpture to Ivan Krilov – Russian fabulist. Other sculptures for the Summer garden were brought from Italy by Peter the Great during his reign. In the 18th century more than two hundred sculptures were mounted in the park, but later one part of them was destroyed during the floods and the others were moved to the Summer Royal residences and the Hermitage.

Nowadays the Summer Garden is closed for the reconstruction. It will be finished in 2013 and it is promised that all the pavilions, sculptures and other sights of the most popular park in Saint Petersburg will be restored; new fountains will be created as it was originally planned by Peter the Great.