Gatchina (Finnish Hatsina) is a Russian town (since 1796), the administrative center of Gatchina municipal district of the Leningrad Region.

Gatchina stands on the Izhorskaya hill in the upstream of River Izhora, 46 km to the southwest of St. Petersburg. It is a point on the highway St. Petersburg - Pskov.

It is the railway junction Gatchina-Varshavskaya of the lines Tallinn - Tosno, St. Petersburg - Pskov.

Gatchina and its surroundings is a popular tourism and recreation area.

Gatchina with the overall area of 29 sq. km has the population of 92 937 people (as of October 14, 2010). It is the largest populated locality of the Leningrad Region.

Gatchina is one of the most beautiful towns in Russia. Old world charm and dynamism of modernity, quiet verdant streets and modern industrial enterprises, St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics and imperial palaces – it is all Gatchina of today.

Shady streets and parks of Gatchina remember Zhukovsky and Kuprin, Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein, Botkin and Chigorin, as well as many other people representing the cream of Russian culture.

Gatchina is the cradle of Russian military aircraft. Nesterov and Chkalov, and the first Russian aviatress Zvereva piloted over Gatchina, where Gakkel and Kotelnikov tested their parachutes. The first Russian submarine started its his first voyage on the Gatchina lakes.

The historical core of Gatchina is a palace and park ensemble created in the 1760s in beautiful hilly countryside around a chain of lakes.