Massive white marble vases of very fine quality stand on terraces lining the broad main staircase leading to the palace. The urns are identical, decorated with groups of Nerides and Tritons, aquatic creatures from Greek mythology; subjects appropriate to a riverside palace. During summer months the large latticed basins were filled with plants and flowering bushes. Guests arriving for parties at the palace would enjoy the powerful fragrance of flowering orange trees from the Yelagin greenhouses as they ascended the main staircase.

Des vases gigantesques en marbre blanc d'un travail trés fin sont ornés de bas reliefs représentant des groupes de néréiades et de tritons; avec les corbeilles à fleurs disposées en gradins ils contribuent certainement beaucoup à l'impression que fait ce côté du palais.