Oranienbaum was granted town status in 1710, and was initially applied to the
Oranienbaum palace complex, built between 1710 and 1725 opposite
Kronstadt, in the neighbourhood of the royal residence
Peterhof Palace, by the architects Giovanni Mario Fontana and Gottfried Johann Schadel, and was intended for
Alexander Menshikov, a close associate of
Peter the Great. The original name of the town translates to "
orange tree" in
German (in modern German, the word is
Orangenbaum) and is believed to have been derived from the palace complex which had
greenhouses to grow exotic plants such as orange trees. According to another version, the name means “Tree of Orange” in honour of
William III of Orange, stadtholder of the Netherlands and king of England, who was the idol of Peter the Great, or it was borrowed from the toponymy of Germany (the city of
Oranienbaum in the
Principality of Anhalt named by Princess Henrietta Katharina Nassau-Oransky after her home place) simply as a “beautiful” name in the fashion spirit of the Petrine era. During
World War II, the town was heavily involved in the
Siege of Leningrad, where
Red Army forces managed to establish a
foothold at Oranienbaum, in the rear of the forces of
Nazi Germany. This foothold had a major importance in the launching of the
Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive in early 1944, which finally ended the siege (see
Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive). In 1948, the town was renamed to its current name Lomonosov, in honor of the
scientist,
poet and
glassblower Mikhail Lomonosov. In 1754, Lomonosov had founded a
colored-glass factory near Oranienbaum, in the village of Ust-Ruditsa. An unofficial nickname,
Rambov, a Russified
contraction of the old name Oranienbaum, is popular among the local residents. Lomonosov can be reached by
suburban train from St. Petersburg's
Baltic Terminal to Oranienbaum Station. ==People from Oranienbaum==