The Main Staircase Massive white marble vases 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.

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