From the outside it may have the austere look of a military institution, but step inside and you can tell that the Gatchina Palace was home to the Romanov family, though the rooms are not as luxurious as the palace in Pushkin. The palace has various temporary and permanent exhibitions including a weaponry display and the church at the top of Gatchina’s main pedestrian mall is also worth seeing. But the big attraction is the underground tunnel running from the palace to the ornamental lake! As already mentioned, Gatchina’s palace was badly damaged during World War II and some restoration work is still in progress.