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The Engineer's Castle, also known as the Michail Castle, was commissioned by Paul I after the Archangel Michael came to him in a dream with the message to build a fortress at his birthplace. Paranoid Paul, fearing an assassination attempt, had the castle built at a furious pace and surrounded it with a moat. His fears were justified only 40 days after the imperial family moved in 1801 Paul was assassinated by his own guards in a palace coup. It is believed that Paul's son, Alexander I, approved the coup but tried to guarantee that his father would not be harmed. The conspirators, however, had over partaken of the bottle to get their courage up and got carried away when Paul feebly resisted. After the assassination no member of the royal family would live here and it became a school of military engineering. The castle, whose four façades are all different, is not a museum and theoretically people without any official business are not supposed to be wandering around inside or in the courtyard. South of the castle is a statue of Peter I sitting on a horse who has a colossal derrière. Paul commissioned the monument and it is inscribed "To great-grandfather from great-grandson."