The oldest preserved wooden building in St Petersburg is the once home of Tsar Peter the First. The fate of this historic building as a monument was decided long ago, when its original owner was still alive. Built in only three days, the house was designed to resemble Dutch houses and witnessed the birth of a new Russian capital. The Russian ruler spent his first few years in St. Petersburg living as an ascetic on the bank of the Neva River as he gazed out the windows of his cabin at the Peter and Paul Fortress being built. While living in his humble abode, which in no way resembled a royal residence, Peter the Great felt much better than he did living in the white stone chambers of Moscow. Watch RTG’s programme “The Cabin of Peter the Great” and find out why the tsar fled Moscow, what drove him to start construction on a new city on swamp land that was not well-suited for living and what scholars in St. Petersburg discovered when restoring the tsar’s wooden residence.