St.Michael’s Castle, the only Russian palace in the style of romantic classicism is a unique building, surrounded by many legends and stories, often of a mystical nature. It combines the features of a medieval knight's castle and a secular European palace of the XVIII century.

The palace was designed by architect V. I. Bazhenov on behalf of Emperor Paul I, who wanted to make it his main ceremonial residence. The construction was supervised by architect V. Brenna. He reworked the original design of the palace and created the decoration of its interiors.

In addition to Bazhenov and Brenna, the Emperor himself took part in the creation of the project. He composed several drawings for it. Fedor Svinyin and Karl Rossi were also listed as Brenna's assistants.

Built in the shortest possible time, the castle became the site of the mysterious and tragic death of its owner as a result of a palace conspiracy.

At the beginning of the 19th century, art treasures were taken out of the castle, and its halls were adapted for various departmental institutions and distributed as residential apartments. Later the Central College of Engineering was housed there, and the luxurious interiors of the former imperial residence were rebuilt and adapted to its needs. For many years the castle has been known as “Engineers’ castle”. In Soviet times, various military organizations were located here.

In 1991, the St.Michael’s Castle became part of the architectural complex of the State Russian Museum.

Nowadays the visitors can see the restored ceremonial halls, the historical portrait gallery “Faces of Russia”, the permanent exhibition “Petersburg Society of the Romanov era” in the museum. It is also here where the original marble sculpture of the Summer Garden is kept and temporary exhibitions are held.