Catherine the Great was apparently an imperial hot pants.
In 1741 Catherine the Great issued an edict of toleration for Buddhism.
A city of Russian glory built by Catherine the Great, it has a big place in the national psyche.
To the same end, Voltaire sojourned with Prussia's Frederick the Great, and Diderot spent time at the court of Russia's Catherine the Great.
Back on the metro and it's a further 20 minute ride to Tsaritsyno, another large, forested estate. The principal attraction here is the unfinished summer palace of Catherine the Great.
The egg was made by Henrik Wigström, "Fabergé's last head workmaster". Its surprise (now lost) was "a mechanical sedan chair, carried by two blackamoors, with Catherine the Great seated inside".
