Khotchino

Khotchino, later known as Gatchina, was recorded in a Novgorodian land register in 1500 as a village by a small lake of the same name. It belonged to the Vodskaya division of Novgorod's territory. During the war of 1610–1617 Swedish forces occupied the surrounding lands, and the Treaty of Stolbovo placed them under Sweden. From 1624 Khotchino formed part of the Skvoritsa estate of the Oxenstierna family; Finnish-speaking settlers came to Ingria as part of the Swedish administration's settlement policy.

Russia regained the region during the Great Northern War. In the eighteenth century the Gatchina estate passed through several hands before Catherine II gave it to Count Grigory Orlov in 1765. Work began the following year on a palace designed by Antonio Rinaldi and a landscaped park. Catherine subsequently acquired the estate for her son Paul. Under his rule Gatchina received town status in 1796, transforming the former village into an imperial residence and town.