PETERHOF  , a

town of Russia, in the government of St Petersburg, 18 m . W. of the capital, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland . It was founded in 1711 and has grown up round the palace built by Peter the Great in 1720; pop., 11,300 . Peterhof is almost exclusively a residential town, but gem-cutting and the manufacture of agricultural implements are carried on . The palace has undergone alterations and additions, e.g. by Catharine II., but retains a distinct Petrine stamp . It is builton a height 50 ft. above the sea, and contains portraits of the Russian imperial family and other pictures . A statue of Peter the Great was set up near the palace in 1883, and one of Francis I. of France in 1896, a gift from the town of Havre to Nicholas II . Peterhof is connected with Oranienbaum on the west and with Stryelna on the east by series of gardens and villas .