This episode is brought to you by the Mazda CX-50. Move and Be Moved.

Hi, it's me again, Kelly McEvers, co-host of the Atlas Obscura podcast. We are on day three of our 12 Days of Wonder countdown to the holidays.

We started the countdown in Arizona and Mexico. Today, we're taking a turn, heading across the ocean and back in time,

to when a princess in Russia built an elaborate and stunningly beautiful palace out of ice.

Producer Sarah Dern has the story.

It's January 1740 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and you are freezing.

Arctic winds whip between carriages, snow coats the winter palace like icing.

But you, being Russian and all, don your

furs and head into the cold. You have a wedding to attend. You have never seen St. Petersburg

so crowded. It's as if the whole of Russia is here. People are laughing and drinking hot cups

of Zietin, a sickly sweet honey drink you've

never developed a taste for. You keep pushing your way through until finally you see it.

There towering above the crowd is Empress Anna's Ice Palace.

It's even more incredible than you imagine.

The palace rises above the frozen Neva River, and it's massive.

Nearly five stories tall.

For weeks, you've watched artisans carve block after block of ice into tables, doors, windows, even playing cards.

All of it carefully painted to look like the real thing.

As you inch your way closer, you see a garden bloom around the palace.

Little birds who are carved out of ice perch on trees also carved from ice, green painted

hedges line walkways, hot steam rises from a bathhouse built of ice.

And in front of the palace, ice dolphins and ice elephants blow red hot fire.

...