Peter the Great's famous Kunstkammer (Cabinet of Curios) is located on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island in Leningrad, not far from the main block of the University. It is one of the city's first stone buildings. Construction of the building intended as a museum began in 1718 and lasted ten years. Architects Georg Mattarnovi, Gaetano Chiaveri and Mikhail Zemtsov carried out construction according to Peter the Great's plans. In 1718, the three-storied stone palace rose above the Neva. Its middle section measures six stories high and is crowned with an annular sphere. The centre of nascent Russian science had museum halls which were very spacious in size and provided with numerous windows and lighting facilities.