We explore the historic legacy of three of Europe’s Imperial dynasties, the French, Russian, and Habsburg Empires. Their royal palaces, cathedrals and other great public buildings of the 16^th to the 19th centuries are some of the world’s most remarkable and spectacular cultural monuments.

Moscow’s 16^th century St Basil’s Cathedral, one of Russia’s most iconic, beautiful buildings,  commemorated Tsar Ivan’s military victory which began the Russian Empire. In France, Louis the 14th’s grand Palace of Versailles became the seat of the French government in 1682. The lavish Catherine Palace outside St. Petersburg was the Russian royal family’s summer residence. Hapsburg Empress Maria commissioned her enormous Schönbrunn Palace in the Viennese countryside. When Marie Antoinette provoked the French Revolution in 1789 with her lavish lifestyle, the days of absolute, autocratic power were ending.