The Summer Garden, the oldest in St. Petersburg and a beloved creation of Peter I, is today a jewel among the city's parks. It is located on an island of the same name, surrounded by the Neva, Fontanka, Moika, and Lebyazhya Canal.

In 1704, Peter I ordered the creation of a large garden for himself, similar to Western European parks, and he developed its original plan himself. Initially, it was an ordinary garden, but by the 1710s its layout was completed: longitudinal alleys appeared from the Neva, as well as transverse and radial paths, dividing the garden into bosquets.

At Peter I's request, who loved water entertainment, the garden was adorned with numerous fountains located along the alleys, in the bosquets and green cabinets, as well as in the center of the Karpiev Pond.

The garden's design was developed by both Russian and foreign architects and gardeners, such as Ivan Matveev, Domenico Trezzini, Jean-Baptiste Le Blond, and others. The Summer Garden quickly became the center of political and official life, a venue for court ceremonies and celebrations.

The first professional project of the garden was created by the Dutch gardener Jan Rosen. In 1717, Peter the Great made changes to the garden's plan and closely monitored its arrangement.

The layout of the garden was simple: three parallel alleys led from the Neva inward, intersected by several perpendicular ones. The garden was bordered by the Neva and Fontanka rivers to the north and east, and by artificial canals to the west and south.

The northern part of the garden, adjacent to the palace, was called the First Summer Garden, while the southern part, with utility buildings and an orchard, was the Second Summer Garden. They were separated by the Transverse Canal.

The alleys of the Summer Garden were lined with shrubs, forming green walls. The bosquets featured various garden projects, such as an oval pond with a gazebo and a 'Bird Yard' with a pigeon house. In the center of the 'Crossed Gully' was a fountain with a sculpture. The most ornate was the bosquet 'French Parterre' with a gilded sculpture and flowerbed.

On the banks of the Fontanka, from 1714 to 1725, a Grotto was built, the first such structure in Russia. Its walls inside were decorated with shells and tuff. The Grotto housed a fountain with a gilded chariot of Neptune, symbolizing Peter I.

The Second Summer Garden featured a Labyrinth with fountains and sculptural groups based on Aesop's fables. Here stood Peter I's Summer Palace, built from 1710 to 1712, and the Second Summer Palace for Catherine Alexeyevna, erected from 1721 to 1726.

The work on the garden's arrangement was entrusted to architect Ivan Ugryumov. He drained the marshy area, created a system of water bodies, and built a harbor. From 1710, active construction of architectural objects in the garden began, and it remained closed to the public for a long time.

In the 1730s, Francesco Rastrelli built a wooden palace for Empress Anna Ioannovna. Under Elizabeth Petrovna, the garden was opened to the public, and new flowerbeds and parterres were laid out according to Rastrelli's design.

In the second half of the 18th century, the garden lost its relevance, but during Catherine II's reign, the famous fence from the side of the Neva was built, completed in 1784.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the garden had lost many old buildings, but new ones appeared, such as the Coffee and Tea houses. In 1855, a monument to Ivan Krylov was erected.

Peter I's Summer Palace has survived to this day and serves as an example of architecture from that time. The collection of sculptures in the garden, mostly by Italian masters, belongs to the Russian Museum.

In the late 1990s, restoration of the garden began, and in 2012 it reopened to visitors after comprehensive restoration.