Winter Palace, St Petersburg, seen from Palace Square

NOTES: Located on the bank of the River Neva, this Winter Palace was the fourth and final to be built. It was constructed between 1754 and 1764 for Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, and designed in Elizabethan Baroque style by several architects, most notably Bartolomeo Rastelli. It was the official residence of the Russian Imperial family from the 1760s until 1917.