Antonio Rinaldi designed the palace for Count Grigory Orlov, a favorite of Catherine the Great, who gave him the Gatchina Manor in 1765. Construction began on May 30, 1766, and the palace was completed in 1781. The design blends Classical architecture with features of a medieval castle and an English hunting castle.
The central block is an elongated rectangle with two five-sided towers at its corners. Two curved galleries connect it to near-square three-story blocks, and octagonal three-tiered towers mark the gallery corners. The exterior used Parik limestone, and Pudost stone for the vestibule and parapet.
Paul I received the palace and rebuilt much of it in the 1790s, and Vincenzo Brenna led a Neoclassical redesign of the interiors. German forces occupied the palace until January 1944, when a fire destroyed the decoration of the halls. Restoration of the interiors began in 1976 and continues. It has been a museum since 1917.
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