Having seen the gardens of the French kings, Emperor Peter the Grat wanted to create his own “Versailles”, and to even surpass it. But, in choosing the site of his future residence, he set a key condition – the water in the fountains should be “self-propelled”, through a fall in height, rather than by using expensive pumps as were employed in Versailles. Peter had begun developing this idea for a grandiose park and palace ensemble on the shores of the Finnish Gulf when he first began to fight Sweden for an outlet onto the Baltic Sea. Many of Peterhof’s fountains are dedicated to the victories of the young Russian fleet over a more experienced and powerful opponent. The main jet of water, Samson, is dedicated to the decisive battle of Poltava. The concept for the new, sumptuous residence the drafts that reveal all of its main constructions – these were all the work of Peter the Great himself. On August 8, 1721, with his own hands, he knocked out the plug and the water from the spring streams flowed into the channel leading to the fountain jets of the new residence. The water only reached Peterhof on the following day. Every year, this even is marked on a Sunday in August as a fountain celebration.