In the 18th century it was fashionable among wealthy Europeans to construct special pavilions called "Hermitages" or "places for seclusion". The first Russian Hermitage was built in Peterhof by decree of Peter the Great. This graceful two-storey Peterhof Hermitage on a moted island right on the shore of the Gulf of Finland was envisioned by Peter the Great as an informal dining room for his closest associates. Designed by Johann Braunstein, the Hermitage was begun in 1721, but not completed until shortly after Peter's death. Today the Hermitage is home to paintings, landscapes and battle scenes by French, Dutch, Flemish and German artists of the 17th and 18th centuries, which were chosen from the stocks of the State Hermitage to approximate the tastes of Peter.
