Varied terrain, full rivers and streams, picturesque ponds are distinctive features of the Tsaritsyno estate. However, in old times there were no ponds, and by a high bank the full-flowing Gorodenka River used to merge with the Yazvenka River that flew from the east. At some distance downstream from there, a deep ravine cut into the Gorodenka River at an angle.
From the 11th to the 13th century, the Vyatichi people lived here; they were descendants of one of the Slavic tribes, which came to their "new Motherland" back in the 6th century. Traces of their settlements were discovered in the Yazvenka River valley, while their burial mounds were discovered in the park.
For many centuries, the country around Trasitsyno was covered with dry forests with heath-like clearings caused by people's attempts (up to the 16th century, by logging and burning) to obtain new, more fertile farm fields.
The core of the future estate was the Chyornaya Gryaz Heath. This heath was first mentioned in official surveys in 1589. At that time, the heath was a part of the tsar-owned Kolomenskoye estate. These lands were scarcely inhabited.
Only in the early 17th century, the lands around the Chyornaya Gryaz Heath started obtaining their "owners" who received them for service to the state. On 26th January 1633, by the order of the tsar the Babynina Heath, the Chyornaya Gryaz Heath, the Arekhovo Heath and the Korzhavino Heath in the Moscow district of Kolomenskoye village were sold to become a part of the inheritable estate to the okolnichy (a high position at the court) Lukyan Streshnev. It was this first owner who decided on the location of the main courtyard of his inheritable estate: on a cape between the river and the ravine, in the Chyornaya Gryaz Heath.
This date and this name start the history of the Chyornaya Gryaz estate that was later replaced by the Tsaritsyno estate.
The Chyornaya Gryaz Estate under the Streshnevs (the 17th century).
By 1658 the Chyornaya Gryaz Heath had been occupied by the large Chyornaya Gryaz hamlet that contained the Chyornaya Gryaz estate as well as by four smaller hamlets: Kiselyovo, Shubino (later called Petrovka or Khokhlovka), Orekhovo and Shandorovo by the Chertanovka River and the Gorodenka River.
The boyar courtyard of the Chyrnaya Gryaz estate was a typical 17th century boyar courtyard. It was surrounded by a fence and divided into the front courtyard and the back courtyard. The former was occupied by a traditional mansion that consisted of dual cottages with the inhabitable ground floor. The top floor of the mansion was occupied by drawing rooms. The boyar courtyard also contained baths, cellars, a granary and a kitchen. An apple and plum orchard was situated nearby. The back courtyard served as a household courtyard; an additional kitchen, stables and a servants' cottage were situated there.
As soon as the early 1670s, many industries were developing at the estate: crop farming, fruit farming, cattle breeding as well as fishing and flour milling (by the Chyornaya Gryaz hamlet, a fishing pond and a mill were officially registered).
After the founder had died, the Chyrnaya Gryaz estate was inherited by his son Semyon Streshnev; however, since he did not have any children, the estate once again became tsar property in 1673, when his wife died.
Between 1673 and 1682, the Chyornaya Gryaz hamlet was moved to the Kiseleva Heath; there a land lot was allocated for a tsar courtyard and the Kiselevo hamlet was included in the Chyornaya Gryaz hamlet. As a result, three hamlets became officially a part of the Chyornaya Gryaz estate: Petrovka, Shandorovo and Orekhovo; these hamlets contained 24 peasant courtyards with 68 peasants.
The Bogorodskoye Estate under the Golitsyns (the 17th century).
In 1682, by the order of Tsar Ivan V and Tsar Peter the Great the Chyornaya Gryaz estate was granted as an inheritable estate to Ivan Streshnev, a cousin of S. Streshnev.
In 1683, I. Streshnev gave the Chyornaya Gryaz estate to his 18-year old grandson Alexey Golitsyn, the eldest son of Vasily Golitsyn and Dutchess Yevdokiya (born Streshnev).
Under Golitsyns, the Chyornaya Gryaz hamlet was moved to the right, high bank of the Gorodenka River, to the Steblevskaya Heath, forming a new estate of the Golitsyns. The Golitsyns started from erecting the Church of Our Lady of the Life-Giving Spring. After the church had been built, the Chyrnaya Gryaz hamlet became a village and was renamed Bogorodskoye (Russian for "of Our Lady").
In contrast to the purely industrial estate of the Streshnevs, the estate of the Golitsyns was both the industrial centre of their land property and a residence used for recreation and receptions. The duke courtyard was surrounded by a wooden fence.
It was occupied by three mansions of the Golitsyns. In the Large Mansion, there were drawing rooms, lofts, and the octagonal gazebo loft situated on top of the lower floor of rooms. The building was encircled by ambulatories, four porches led inside. In the right part of the courtyard, one opposite another, there were two three-storey mansions, both with ground floors, interconnected by a common lobby. Each mansion was decorated by ambulatories. A sequence of exquisitely finished rooms was used for receptions and banquets as well as for leisure and entertainment of owners.
There were also household outbuildings situated at the master's courtyard: two kitchens (a small one and a large one covered by three plank pavilions), a building for keeping cutlery and linen, two cellars with barns and a storeroom on top used for keeping household tools. Here also stood a servants' cottage and a manager's cottage, with granaries on the first floor.
The range of industries, apart from those that started developing under the Streshnevs, then included horse breeding and brewing. The newly rebuilt and repaired dams included a wooden dam at the Chyornaya Gryaz Pond and a wooden and stone dam at the Razvilovaty (Shipilovsky) Pond that flooded a hay meadow called the Shepelev Meadow.
In September of 1689, after Peter the Great had consolidated his power A. Golitsyn and V. Golitsyn were deprived of their Boyar titles and their property was confiscated. Borogorodskoye was made a part of the tsar-owned Kolomenskoye estate and was again renamed Chyornaya Gryaz.
The Chyornaya Gryaz Estate under the Cantemirs (the early 18th century).
In 1712, by the order of Peter the Great the Chyornaya Gryaz estate was granted as an inherited estate to Duke Dmitry Cantemir, a former gospodar (ruler) of Moldavia. He belonged to the princely Cantemir family that had moved from Moldavia to Russia in the times of Peter the Great. In order to compensate him for the lost Moldavian crown, Peter the Great granted him vast estates in Russia that included the Chyornaya Gryaz village together with its hamlets and lands.
Under the Cantemirs, the Chyrnaya Gryaz estate occupied the location of the former estate of the Golitsyn dukes. In his diary, the young Holsteiner Friedrich von Bergholz who visited the Chyrnaya Gryaz village in 1722 made a brief description of Dmitry Cantemir's wooden mansion built in the Chinese style. According to one hypothesis, the described mansion was in fact a slightly restructured mansion of the Golitsyns.
Under D. Cantemir in 1722, the wooden Church of Our Lady of the Life-Giving Spring that had been built by the Golitsyns was replaced by a stone church with the same name.
After Dmitry Cantermir's death, his estates were inherited by Konstantin, one of his sons. In the mid-1740s, he built a new two-storey wooden mansion that had stone foundations. It featured three risalits, its facades were adorned by pediments, pilasters, architraves and, possibly, wood-carved sculptures and planters.
After Konstantin Cantemir's death (in 1747), all his real and personal property was inherited by his brothers Matvey and Sergey. In 1757, the two brothers divided the property in accordance with an amicable settlement. The Chyornaya Gryaz estate went to the elder brother, Matvey Cantemir, except for a small part of it that went to Sergey.
Under Matvey Cantemir, a greenhouse was built in the estate and was used for growing lemons, bitter oranges, peaches, pears, figs, grapes, etc. In 1759–1765, the Church of Our Lady of Life-Giving Spring was rebuilt. The new stone church featured a side-altar of St. Dmitry. Its three-dimensional forms and architectural details reflected the Baroque style. Built with an octagonal first floor on top of a rectangular ground floor and featuring a stone refectory and a two-storey bell tower, the church would later become a part of Bazhenov's ensemble. In the 1880s, the refectory was expanded and a new storey of the bell tower was built.
After Matvey Cantemir and Sergey Cantemir had divided the Chyornaya Gryaz estate in 1757, two duke courtyards were arranged in the estate on two adjacent rectangular land lots. At each courtyard, a mansion stood in the rear, by the fence, at the central axis; these mansions were distinguished by their richly decorated interiors that reflected the spirit of the age. Along the perimeters of the courtyards, various household outbuildings were symmetrically situated. Two adjacent garden plots sharing the same fence bordered with the courtyards. In front of the mansions, the parterres of a pleasure garden in the French formal style were situated, followed by fruit gardens. In the park, three diverging alley arms formed a semicircle. A square island was arranged in the pond; stairs led to the island along a bank slope.
A gazebo (later dubbed Kantemirovka after the Cantemirs) stood nearby at a semicircular slope covered with planted trees. Later, the Small Palace of Catherine the Great was built at this location.
After Matvey Cantemir and his wife had died in 1771, Sergey Cantemir became the sole owner of the estate.
The Tsaritsyno Estate under Catherine the Great.
In 1775, a new life of the estate started. Empress Catherine the Great dedicated this year to Moscow. When a warmer season started, she moved to the ancient residence at Kolomenskoye and used it as a base for her excursions through the surrounding areas. On 4th May, during the very first trip to the Tsareborisovsky Pond the empress discovered the Chyornaya Gryaz estate that surprised her with its beauty. She was amazed by the hilly terrain covered with ravines and streams, by shady groves and vast meadows, by mirrors of quiet ponds. She immediately took a decision to acquire this land. After only three weeks, on 25th May 1775 the Chyrnaya Gryaz estate (together with the Orekhovo hamlet and the Shandorovo hamlet) was bought from Duke Sergey Cantemir, a retired brigadier, for 25.000 roubles. And on 2nd June the rest of the estate was acquired from his sister's inheritor, Duke I. Trubetskoy, for 5.000 roubles. A little bit later the lands on the left bank of the Chyornyaya Gryaz Pond (belonging to the Pokrovskoye village) were added to the acquired estate. This is how the area of a new Moscow suburban imperial residence was shaped.
On 30th June the empress and her suite moved to a temporary wooden palace that had been built specially for her and Duke G. Potyomkin. In June, the architect Bazhenov visited the Chyornaya Gryaz estate; the empress appointed him to transform the estate of a nobleman into an imperial residence named Tsaritsyno ("belonging to Tsaritsa"). Apparently, it is during those days that the empress formulated her wishes, and the architect made early drafts of his design.
In the autumn, before leaving for Saint Petersburg the empress attended to many issues related to organisation of the estate: to allocation of money for its maintenance, to its staff, and to financial supplies for its gardeners and priests. On 20th November 1775, the empress issued an order to the government about allocation of 30.000 roubles for construction works in the Tsaritsyno village according to designs and under supervision of the architect Bazhenov.
Bazhenov's Architectural Ensemble (1775–1785).
In the summer of 1775, works on a design for the new Moscow suburban imperial residence started. Guided by the tasks formulated by the empress, Bazhenov presented two design variants to her; one of them was approved.
A panorama sketch gives a clear idea about the design of the ensemble as conceived by Bazhenov.
At the location of the estate of the Cantemirs (on the cape), different structures would be built: palaces, buidings, little houses, kitchens, bridges, gates, a magnificent bell tower; on the other side of the ravine — a monumental building of the stables. The original design included four palaces: three for the empress and another one for Grand Duke Paul (the heir to the throne) and his wife. The location of the Main Palace of Catherine the Great was symmetric to that of the grand duke's; the two palaces were built according to the same floor plan. The Medium Palace and the miniature Small Palace of the empress were situated nearby. The buidings and little houses were designed to host the suite and staff. The Kitchen Building was a uniquely large structure. According to Bazhenov, this massive building with inner courtyard was designed to host "court services, cellars, ice cellars, three kitchens, confectionery (in a word, everything you might need) as well as rooms for the staff". Ten years were allocated to complete the ensemble.
In early May of 1776, the construction works started from the foundations of the Figurny Bridge and three little houses between it and the church. The church was the only old building preserved by Bazhenov.
The most important foreground structures depicted in the panorama were the palaces of the empress, the Small Palace and the Medium Palace. The Small Palace was erected at the location of the Kantemirovka gazebo.
In essence, the Small Palace was also a gazebo that provided a beautiful view on the ponds, distant meadows and farm fields from its main oval room. The nearby Medium Palace was larger. Its high, double-height gallery with anterooms could be used for receptions, concerts, plays, or for having rest after walks in the garden.
In 1777, the Small Palace (except for the roof) and the little houses by the Figurny Bridge were completed. The Medium Palace was essentially (except for the vaults of the first floor, the cornice and the parapet) completed in the summer of the same year. Construction of the small Kamer-Yunfarsky Building, to the right of the Figurny Bridge, was started. This building was designed to provide accommodation for ladies of the chamber who were a part of the imperial suite. Up to the half of the height of the towers, the gates at the end of a birch alley were built. Bazhenov used to call them "the gates of a fine figure", and later they were named the Figurny ("Figure") Gates. Bazhenov spent the winter of 1777–1778 in Tsaritsyno and personally organised the supply of construction materials. The construction season of 1778 was, just like the previous one, very productive. The Small Palace, the Medium Palace and the Kamer-Yunfarsky Building were completed and covered with roof tiles; the Figurny Gates were completed.
There were only some difficulties with construction of the Large Bridge that had been started, because many springs were discovered at the construction site. For this reason, many piles had to be hammered; this work was finished the following year only. The construction of the bridge was postponed and was continued in 1784 only.
In 1779, the architect started erecting the main palaces of the ensemble, the Large Palace of the empress and the palace of the grand duke. Early the following year Bazhenov officially proposed to build another palace between the two that would be connected with them with galleries; this extension of the original design was motivated by the birth of two more grand dukes, Alexander and Constantine. The proposal was approved by the empress.
During the summer of 1780 the two main palaces were under construction; however, in general the season proved unsuccessful: in July "fever struck more than half of the masons who then went home." On 17th August, Bazhenov himself was forced to leave Tsaritsyno for Moscow to receive medical treatment, but he planned to start working on a medium building for the imperial family. When the main palaces were finished in 1782, Bazhenov started constructing the Kavalersky Building and the Manager's House. At the same time, the architect came up with a new plan to build gates and a fence between the future Kitchens and the palace of the grand duke.
According to the design, the Manager's House would be situated beyond these gates. The magnificent Kavalersky Building was designed for the suite, the closest circle of the empress: adjutant general on duty, ladies-in-waiting and state secretaries. The building was situated in the very centre of the ensemble. By the autumn of 1782, the main palaces and the Manager's House had been covered with temporary roof tiles and foundations for the gates and the fence had been completed.
In 1784, the most significant (by the amount of work) and the most difficult (for Bazhenov) construction season started. Many structures were under construction: the Kitchen Building, two little houses by the ravine (the present-day First and Second Kavalersky Buildings), the Large Bridge, the galleries and the gates from the Kitchen Building to the palaces. In the completed buildings, finishing works started: the walls were being plastered, stoves were being constructed, floors were being boarded over, doors and windows were being installed. A palace was under construction in Bulatnikovo. All these works employed around one thousand masons, plasterers, carpenter, and other workers. The works were done in an orderly manner and successfully; however, financial support was delayed, while Bazhenov's many complaints did not receive any reply. In the autumn, only 75.000 roubles were allocated; this was less than a half of the promised amount.
In the spring of 1785, the architect started erecting the top floor of the Kitchen Building, was completing the Large Bridge, the little houses by the ravine and the galleries with gates. It was at this time that the "Bazhenov period" in the history of Tsaritsyno as well as the "Tsaritsyno period" in Bazhenov's life finished.
The Large Palace by Kazakov (1785–1796).
In September of 1785, the head of the Office for Moscow Imperial Palaces M. Izmailov informed the architects V. Bazhenov and M. Kazakov that the empress commanded to prepare proposals for corrections in the designs of the buildings in Tsaritsyno. In December of 1785, Bazhenov was the first to bring his proposal to Saint Petersburg. In January of the following year, Izmailov personally brought the proposal of M. Kazakov to the empress; this proposal was given preference.
On 29th January, Bazhenov's employment was suspended for one year, while on 6th February an imperial decree was issued that ordered to disassemble the constructed Large Palace and to rebuild it in accordance with the design of Kazakov. That was the rarest case in the history of architecture: an almost completed palace building was going to be destroyed!
By the middle of the summer of 1786, the Large Palace by Bazhenov had been disassembled. During the following couple of years, the construction of the new palace went very fast and was well financed. By the autumn of 1787, the basement and the ground floor had been completed, while the first floor had been constructed to the window level; in 1788, the first floor had been already finished to the cornice. The Kitchen Building, left unfinished by Bazhenov, was covered with an iron roof. However, by 1790 the financing had stopped. It is possible that this happened due to the financial problems of the state related to the Second Russo-Turkish War that had started in the autumn of 1787. The construction works continued only three years later. Before that, the empress commanded to stop increasing the height of the main building of the palace. Thus, the palace had to be completed in haste and in accordance to the reduced design: its height was decreased by one floor, the finishing of the facades, the parapets and the towers was significantly simplified. This becomes obvious if one compares the original design of Kazakov with the implemented version.
In 1794, the main building of the palace was essentially completed. Preparations for construction of the main courtyard started. For this, the empress commanded to disassemble the Kavalersky Building and the Kamer-Yunfarsky Building, which were situated in front of the main facade. This was done in 1794–1795. In 1796, interior finishing works started inside the palace. Carpenters were making counter floors and tile ceilings in the seventeen rooms of the ground floor and the first floor. It was at this stage that the finishing works stopped. In the autumn of 1796, Catherine the Great died. The new emperor Paul I visited Tsaritsyno in the spring of 1797, while on 8th June the same year an imperial decree commanded to stop construction works in Tsaritsyno. The Palace had never been finished, and several years later people referred to it as "gloomy wreck" or "ruins".
Rise of Tsaritsyno under Valuyev.
The estate underwent changes under its new owner, Emperor Alexander I. He showed little interest in Tsaritsyno as well; however, under his reign in 1801 management of all imperial palaces of the Moscow city and the Moscow area became a responsibility of the Office for Moscow Imperial Palaces, and Pyotr Valuyev was appointed its head. Valuyev belonged to a relatively ancient family. His father served as a cartographer engineer (e.g., he made a first map of Karelia) and retired with a high rank of major general.
Since Valuyev was full or energy and a man of enterprise, his appointment brought significant benefit to the emperor-owned estates. It was to Tsaritsyno that he paid special attention: he was enchanted by the local nature and used to spend a lot of time here together with his family, settling here permanently in summer. For this reason, one of the buildings situated at the estate area was dubbed the Valuyevsky ("Valuyev's") House. Now its location is occupied by the Young Spectator's Theatre.
Valuyev spent ten years to set the economy of the estate in order. And it was indeed in a miserable state. Valuyev himself described the state of the estate as follows: "...as far as the construction aspect is concerned, its vast greenhouses were all in great disorder, … the English Garden had only natural decorations, because the English gardener had left long ago and the fences made by him had been disassembled, cattle was driven through it and people went through it in carriages and on horseback, … lawns, which make gardens especially beautiful, were replaced by hayfield, … , walls and roofs of the palace and other buildings… were covered with bushes and grass... Many forests and groves that belong to Tsaritsyno are abandoned…" Apart from that, since the dam had been damaged the water was let out of the pond long ago. The park made by the British head gardener Francis Reed was trampled down by cattle, the buildings by Bazhenov and Kazakov were coming to ruins. In a word, desolation reigned everywhere.
As a systematic person, Valuyev started from restoring the dam and the pond. In parallel, he started setting the English Garden in order, hiring monthly for this job up to 100 local peasants. Valuyev built baths on the pond and equipped it with rowing boats. Thus, Tsaritsyno regained interest among inhabitants of Moscow who started visiting it for rest and relaxation.
As early as 1804, Tsaritsyno looked inhabited. In the English Garden, paths and rose-beds were made and lawns planted. The English Garden was surrounded by a fence with stone pillars, iron bars and many gates. In the mouths of the Yazvenka River and the Cherepishka River, dams were constructed, which enlarged the ponds significantly. On the ponds, islands were constructed and quays were built along the banks. Inhabitants of Moscow "rushed" to Tsaritsyno as if it were a resort; even the Moscow military governor A. Bekleshov used to visit it. Holiday-makers were offered boating, bathing in the ponds, walking in the park, the Coffee House (described as serving "very good dishes, the best wines and cold drinks") and many other kinds of pastime. The Coffee House occupied the Small Palace, which after finishing and furnishing had been rented out to the Moscow restaurateur Charles Lekenu.
Valuyev set the greenhouses in order as well. The old greenhouses were repaired and two new ones were built out of white stone. Later on, they would be used for growing pumpkins, water melons, grapes and even pine apples! For the purpose of managing the greenhouses and the park, a Prussian gardener, Karl Sigismund Ungebauer, arrived in Tsaritsyno in 1804. The new gardener laid out a fruit garden where various trees (apple, pear, plum, and cherry) and bushes (currant and gooseberry) were planted. The old garden as well as the new one was rented out.
Results of Valuyev's activities could be seen in 1811 already: that year the greenhouses and gardens alone brought a profit of over 5.000 roubles, while in 1802 they did not bring even 1.000.
Besides that, Valuyev was really serious about decorating the park with various structures. Under his management, the following was erected: the Nerastankino Pavilion and the Milovida Pavilion, the Khram Tserery Gazebo, several caverns, the Ruina Tower, grotesque bridges, the Arc on the island, etc. Visitors of the early 19th century park associated the romantic grotesque structures with the underworld full of secret natural forces, while the buildings in the Classical style endowed the park with unique charm. Virtually all the structures of this period were constructed in accordance with designs of Bazhenov's and Kazakov's student Ivan Yegotov.
From 1806 to 1809, the master gardener K. Ungerbauer also directly participated in the construction of household and park buildings. Under his supervision, the Khizhina Pavilion, the Kukhnya Pavilion, caverns, two "greenhouse dams", several little bridges in the English Park were constructed.
During the 1812 Napoleon's invasion the park and mansions suffered serious damage. In particular, the Khram Tserery Gazebo was badly damaged.
In general, not many 18th and 19th century structures have been preserved till our times. For example, out of the many grotesque bridges only two have survived, all the caverns have been destroyed (though one of them was rebuilt during the last restoration works), the Palaty Druzhiny Pavilion, the Turetskaya Palatka Pavilion, the Zhilishche Leshego Pavilion and many others have not been preserved. The majority of the structures have been destroyed by time: after Valuyev's death in 1914, his successors took care only for keeping the park clean, while the park structures were abandoned.
However, even though he obviously brought benefit to the estate, Valuyev himself demolished several structures that had been built as early as in Bazhenov's period. For example, in 1803 the Manager's House was demolished followed by two pavilions (the Shestiugolny Pavilion and the Krestoobrazny Pavilion) in the summer of 1804. The architect Yegotov indicated the reasons for the mentioned buildings having been disassembled: "...I found them in the state of extreme shabbiness such that they were about to crumble, because of many cracks that had appeared in the main walls." Yegotov supplied an additional reason for the demolition by saying that even the late Empress Catherine the Great had ordered the buildings demolished.
In 1803, the Third Kavalersky Building was turned into a hotel for many visitors of Tsaritsyno; plans existed for renting the Medium Palace out, but this idea had never been implemented, though since then the Medium Palace has been known as the Operny ("Opera") House.
In 1812, Napoleon's army entered Tsaritsyno. As the keeper Yegorov reported: «...Since the enemy's army entered the Tsaritsyno village on 12th September 1812, the enemy's soldiers have broken the church doors and stole some things from the church, … in buildings, state-owned furniture has been torn, crushed and broken, state-owned horses with all the harness have been driven away, all the cattle and bread have been taken from the peasants and the money belonging to the state have been robbed from me..." The affected peasants received some help from the state. The palace buildings did not suffer any damage.
In June of 1813, soldiers disassembled the summer palace of Catherine the Great that had been built in 1775. That summer a new building, a stone gallery, appeared on the Tsaritsyno map, beyond the English Pond, on the cape.
In the autumn of 1813 and spring of 1814, the main construction works were being done on the English and Khokhlovsky Ponds. Since the water of the ponds had been let out, it was possible to repair the dam and strengthen what had been seriously damaged by water, namely the islands and quays of the English Pond. This was the last thing done by Valuyev for Tsaritsyno. On 4th June 1814, the head of the Office for Moscow Imperial Palaces died. He was buried in the Novodevichy Convent.
The "Holiday Village" Tsaritsyno (the 19th century).
During the 19th century, the palace and park buildings were gradually dilapidating and coming to ruins. The greenhouse industry was falling into decay. During the whole 19th century, only one palace building, the Third Kavalersky Building, was inhabited. It was rented out and hosted different establishments (e.g., a hotel and an inn).
Very rarely the usually empty Valuyevsky House (dubbed "the summer house of the imperial family") was occupied by temporary inhabitants. In 1849, Emperor Nicolas I approved a proposal to organise a hospital for peasants and an almshouse for windows of court servants in Tsaritsyno. A part of the Kitchen Building was finished for this purpose. By 1852, the finishing works had been completed; however, the building hosted the hospital until March of 1859 only, while the almshouse had never been opened. In 1858, management of the imperial estate was put under inspection, which produced disappointing results: the estate economy was coming to ruins and the estates were scarcely profitable. In 1860, the Tsaritsyno park together with the surrounding buildings and the pond changed its status: it was no longer a property of the imperial family, but a state property. This completely changed the situation: since then, the lands of Tsarytsino had been expected to bring profit to the state treasury. I. Maslov, a manager of the Moscow state property, proposed to rent the Tsaritsyno buildings and lots out as summer houses. The transformation of Tsaritsyno into a holiday location was impeded by the absence of transport connection to Moscow. Tsaritsyno became a popular holiday location only after the Moscow-Serpuchov section of the Southern Railway Line had been opened in 1866. As soon as in late 1866, the Valuyevsky House was turned into a hotel. A real breakthrough in the development of Tsaritsyno as a holiday location happened at the turn of 1870, when the holiday village Novoye ("New") Tsaritsyno was founded to the right of the railway station. By 1873, all the lots there had been rented out for a long period, 96 years. The First and Third Kavalersky Buildings as well as the adjacent land lots were also rented out.
In 1881, six tiled stoves from the Operny House were sold to be destroyed. In the 1880s, the roofs of two towers of the Large Palace had to disassembled due to dilapidation; several rafters and the roof over the middle section fell down.
In 1883–1885, the Tsaritsyno church was rebuilt. A part of the money was collected from local peasants, while the other part was bequeathed by one of the holiday village inhabitants, A. Klementovsky, a doctor of medicine. The church acquired a new warm side-altar, the refectory was expanded and a new four-storey bell tower was built. The bell tower became the vertically dominant building of the Tsaritsyno ensemble.
In 1886, a dam and a bridge over an arm of the Tsaritsyno Pond and to the Pokrovskaya Side were constructed and the adjacent part of the pond was cleaned. Since 1889, the land of the Pokrovskaya Side had been for rent. In 1894, there were over 240 summer houses in Tsaritsyno, while in the early 20th century Tsaritsyno and the surrounding hamlets hosted over 1,000 summer houses. Tsaritsyno was considered an expensive holiday location.
The Tsaritsyno vast ponds made it extremely attractive; the ponds were used for swimming, boating and fishing.
It seemed as if every inhabitant of Moscow visited Tsaritsyno at the turn of the 20th century. Many famous people (e.g., the historian I. Zabelin, the writers L. Andreyev, I. Bunin and A. Bely, and the inventor D. Yezuchevsky) were among the holiday village residents. L. Tolstoy, M. Vrubel, F. Shalyapin and L. Sobinov were among the most famous people who visited Tsaritsyno.
Even during the First World War, Tsaritsyno continued functioning as a holiday location. Some summer houses were occupied by citizens of the countries that were at war with Russia (e.g., Germany, Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria). Others provided shelter for soldiers wounded at battlefields.
The Lenino Village.
After the 1917 Russian Revolution, a peasant and soldier soviet ("council") was organised in Tsaritsyno; since March of 1918, it had occupied the Smotritelny House. In 1918–1925, the soviet was presided by the proletariat poet and the revolutionary F. Shkulev. Based on the former holiday locations of Staroye Tsaritsyno, Novoye Tsaritsyno, Popovka, Vorobyovka, Pokrovskaya Side, the Lenino village was created. Lenino became a rayon ("administrative district") centre. In 1926, it counted almost 5,000 inhabitants, being the largest urban-type village around Moscow.
In September of 1925, the Tsaritsyno ensemble was put under supervision of the Moscow Department for People's Education. Due to the fact that the Tsaritsyno park received a lot of visitors (around 30.000 per year), it was decided that a Tsaritsyno history museum would be created and would occupy the Third Kavalersky Building (in the first half of the 1920s, the pavilion was occupied by a summer orphanage).
On 21st July 1927, the Tsaritsyno Museum of History, Art and Regional Studies was opened. V. Kazantsev was appointed director of the museum. The exposition of the museum occupied four rooms; it reflected the main stages of the Tsaritsyno history: from the times of the Vyatichi people (the 11th and 12th centuries) to the "holiday village" Tsaritsyno (the turn of the 20th century).
In 1927–1929, the Milovida Pavilion, the Nerastankino Pavilion, the Khram Tserery ("Temple of Ceres") Gazebo and the Figurny Gates were restored under supervision of the architect V. Pustarkhanov. The gazebo reacquired a new statue of the goddess Ceres (from the Lukino estate of the Bode-Kolychev family) instead of the old one lost long time ago.
During the compulsory collectivisation of agriculture in 1930, the museum was renamed the Lenino Garden and Kitchen Garden District Museum of Regional Studies. The exposition was based on cartograms and diagrams presenting development of the Lenino rayon, models of fruit and fish preserved in alcohol-filled bottles. In 1937, there was a fire in a cinema; it was decided to move the cinema to the building occupied by the museum, the Third Kavalersky Building. For this reason, on 11th June 1937 the museum was shut down.
Communal apartments that were spontaneously organised in the Khlebny House in the first years after the 1917 Revolution stayed there up to the 1970s. In 1932, interior walls of the Second Kavalersky Builting were disassembled and their brick recycled. The First Kavalersky Building that had been deformed by reconstructions (it had become a three-storey building) was adapted for the Lenino rayon local government. A statue of V. Lenin appeared in front of its main facade.
The Nerastankino Pavilion was used as a park library.
Just before the Great Patriotic War that started in 1941, the Tsaritsyno church was shut down: the building was occupied by a transformer substation. Even before that the cemetery that existed from the late 18th century was destroyed. After the war, the Tsaritsyno architectural monuments were inspected and thereby their miserable condition was confirmed.
In 1958–1961, renovation works were performed in the Tsaritsyno park, under supervision of the architect M. Dyakonov. In 1960, Tsaritsyno (like other areas inside the Moscow Orbital Motorway) was incorporated into the city of Moscow. This started a new epoch in the history of Tsaritsyno.
The Tsaritsyno State Museum-Reserve.
When in 1960s Tsaritsyno became a part of the city of Moscow, its image started changing rapidly. The hamlets, villages, holiday villages and gardens were being replaced by residential areas of new Moscow city districts of Lenino, Orekhovo-Severnoye, etc. Rural roads were turning into thoroughfares. Countryside silence of the Tsaritsyno landscapes was being replaced by never-ending megalopolis bustle.
In the late 1960s, the Mosproyekt-3 Research and Design Institute (a team lead by the architect V. Libson) started developing designs for scientific restoration of the Tsaritsyno architectural and landscape monuments. However, since implementation of these restoration tasks proved to be difficult, the Tsaritsyno ensemble had been again abandoned by the late 1970s.
In 1982, the Ministry of Culture created the State Museum of Applied Art of USSR Peoples The USSR People's Painter I. Glazunov became its first director. Since it was decided that the new state museum would be located in Tsaritsyno, Glazunov was allowed to continue the restoration of the Tsaritsyno ensemble, taking the needs of his museum into consideration. During Gorbachev's Perestroika, the research staff of the museum approached the minister of culture N. Gubenko with a proposal to transform the museum into a Tsaritsyno museum-reserve that would include a multipurpose history, culture and exhibition complex. However, this idea was implemented only in 1993 when the government adopted a decision to establish the Tsaritsyno State Historical, Architectural, Art, and Landscape Museum-Reserve.
For the two decades of its existence, the museum has managed to achieve significant results. Under supervision of V. Anikovich, the director of the museum from 1987 to 2001, restoration of virtually all the Bazhenov's structures (except the Khlebny House) has been completed. The museum possesses vast collections, organises many exhibitions and implements various tour-related and educational programmes. Research work of its employees and material of conferences held here are reflected in its publications including the annual Tsaritsynsky Nauchny Vestnik ("The Tsaritsyno Scientific Herald").
In 2004, the Russian government adopted a decision to transfer the museum under management of the Moscow government. The Moscow mayor Yu. Luzhkov immediately brought forward an action plan. The museum-reserve turned into the largest South Moscow history, culture, exhibition, nature protection, recreation and tourist complex: its total area is over 700 hectares (1,700 acres).
The Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music is located in the historical centre of the city. The building of the museum is a part of one of the most majestic architecture ensembles of St. Petersburg — the Ensemble of Alexandrinsky Theatre. This architectural masterpiece together with the street, which bears his name, was created by the g...
A monumental building, finished with limestone, mined in the quarry of town of Pudost, lifts its head in the highest point of a hill on the shores of the Serebryanoye Lake (literally Silver Lake) in Gatchina. The imperial palace is the only "castle palace" in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg.
But despite the fact that the appearance of the Palace...
The first owners of the Kuzminki estate were G. D. Stroganov and his descendents. In 1722, they were granted the title of Baron.
The Stroganov family was known since the 14th century. During the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible the Stroganovs were granted vast lands in the Transural Region, and the rights to build towns with fortifications and ar...