ORANIENBAUM, a town of European Russia, with a population of about 4000, lies 100 feet above the sea on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland opposite Cronstadt, and is well known for its imperial palace and as a summer resort for the inhabitants of St Petersburg, from which it is 24 miles distant by rail.

In 1714 Menshikoff, to whom the site was presented by Peter the Great, erected for himself the country seat of Oranienbaum; confiscated, like the rest of his estates, in 1727, it became an imperial residence. In 1743 the empress Elizabeth assigned the place to Peter Theodorovitch, who built there a castle, Peterstadt (now destroyed), for his Holstein soldiers. The rise of the town was fostered by the appointment in 1764 of an official for the reception and entertainment of foreign immigrants entering Russia via Cronstadt.