The Hall of the Muses in the Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum in 1947

The Hall of the Muses in the Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum in 1947. Oranienbaum was the only one of the suburban residences of Saint Petersburg that did not fall under occupation during the Great Patriotic War.

The Germans were stopped on the approaches to the town in September 1941, and behind it there formed the cut-off Oranienbaum Bridgehead, which was held for twenty-nine months thanks to the artillery of Krasnaya Gorka and supplies brought by sea from Kronstadt.

That is why the Menshikov and Chinese Palaces survived with their original decoration intact, whereas Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk and Gatchina were burnt and plundered by the Germans. The town was under constant shelling and was badly damaged, but was nevertheless not destroyed.