Great Menshikov Palace is located on the territory of the Palace and Park ensemble of Oranienbaum town of Lomonosov. Represents the oldest and the Central building of the Park. Great Menshikov Palace, the Lower garden, the Picture house, Sea channel and Lower houses form a single complex of Peter the great, preserved until today, compositional unity, stylistic integrity and completeness.

Oranienbaum Great Menshikov Palace, and Peterhof, located on the edge of a natural hill. The length of the main facade, which faces the Gulf of Finland and the Lower garden, is 210 meters. The main part of the Palace is two-storied, join one-story gallery. They are deployed in an arc and end of the Church and Japanese pavilions. Perpendicular to the galleries of the pavilions are two wings. Thus, the Palace in the layout represented by the letter "P". The border South of the inner court of the Palace form the wings.

Great Menshikov Palace is a Petrine Baroque monument. It was built for a very close associate of Peter the Great – Alexander Menshikov. Construction was started in 1711, under the direction of architect Francesco Fontana, in 1713 he was replaced by Johann Gottfried schedel. In addition, the work on the Palace was attended by Johann Friedrich Braunstein, Andreas schlüter, and Nicolas Pinault. It was he who rounded up the gallery, connecting the Palace and the side pavilions. The decoration continued until 1727, until opals A. D. Menshikov. But so far the original finish is not maintained, during the XVIII-XIX centuries the interior has changed.

Contemporaries noted the unprecedented luxury country residence of a Prince. In scope at the time it surpassed the Peterhof. 'abri de La Matre, French Explorer, described him thus: 'Oranienbaum – magnificent pleasure Palace... Nothing can go with it in comparison, neither the splendor nor in other respects".

From the Finnish Gulf to the gate of the Lower garden was approached by a Sea channel, as in Peterhof, terminating in shaped harbour with a jetty.

As to the peculiar origin of the name Oranienbaum (translated from German – "orange tree"), there were several assumptions. The most famous, more like a legend, is that the lands of the future residence of Menshikov was a greenhouse with with wild orange trees. On every tree there was the inscription "Oranienbaum". According to another version, the name was borrowed from the German city of Oranienbaum. The third assumption is that, choosing the name for his estate, Alexander Danilovich wanted to do something nice for Peter and I used a slightly changed name Oranienburg, which the Emperor in 1703, gave a new estate Menshikov not far from Voronezh. Finally, according to the latest version, Oranienbaum was named in honor of the English king William of orange. The king caused a deep respect and sympathy of Peter the Great, bordering in youth worship.

In the 1750s, under the direction of Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli was finished work on finishing the front yard on the South side of the Palace. In the 1760s-1770s, Antonio Rinaldi working on restructuring the terraces in front of the Palace and the creation of the system of figure of stairs leading to the Lower garden.

Repair and restoration activities on a Large Menshikov Palace, the active phase of which was launched at the beginning of 1990-ies were carried out by the architect-restorer Dmitry Alexandrovich Butyrin.

In 2010, restoration of facades of the Palace was completed, and in early fall 2011 at the Palace Museum was opened.