Kadriorg Art Museum

This guide to Kadriorg Art Museum in Tallinn begins with a puzzle: a plaque marking construction starting in 1718, completion declared in 1725, the same year Peter the Great, the tsar who ordered it, died. It follows Peter's ambition to build a seaside palace to rival his own Peterhof, the Italian architect Nicola Michetti he hired, and the Venetian stucco masters and Riga sculptor who worked alongside Russian soldiers digging the canals below. You'll hear how Catherine gave the estate its name, and how her interest faded within a year of Peter's death, leaving the palace half realised for a century. Stand in the great hall, under stucco that has survived since the 1720s, before moving on.