Location: Ulitsa Yunosti 2 Map
Constructed: mid-18th century
Tel. (495) 370 0160
Subway: Ryazanskiy prospect, Vykhino
Open: mid- Apr- Sep: 10am- 6pm Wed- Sun
Oct- mid- Apr: 10am- 4pm Wed- Sun
Kuskovo Palace and surrounding parks is located in the suburbs of Moscow. Grandiose estate of Kuskovo was constructed by the orders of Count Sheremetyev. The architects for the mansion were Theodore Argunov and after 1763 it was taken over by A. Mironov. The interior of the main palace is decorated with paintings, stucco, gilding, mirrors and decorative fabrics. Much of the marble plates inside are not solid. They were made from a mixture of marble powder and flour mixed with water. Once the mixture dried out it gave an impression of a solid marble pieces. Kuskovo estate once housed open air theatre. Besides the park contains scattered buildings such as Chinese pavilion, the Hermitage, the grotto, Dutch and Italian houses with traditional interior of the time.
Kuskovo was mentioned for the first time at the
end of the 16th century and already as a possession of the
Sheremetevs. In 1623-1624, a wooden church, a boyar court, and
serfs' yards stood here. In the possession of the Sheremetevs,
Kuskovo remained for more than three hundred years, until 1917.
The village of Kuskovo as the patrimony of the Sheremetevs has
been known since the 16th century. The marriage between the heirs of
the Sheremetevs, Pyotr Borisovich, and the Cherkassky princes,
Varvara Alekseevna, made it possible to unite the lands around
Kuskov into a vast estate.
In the 1750s-1770s, according to
the plan of Pyotr Sheremetev, an extensive estate with a palace,
many "entertainment undertakings", a large park and ponds was
created in Kuskovo. The creation of this ensemble is closely
connected with the names of the fortress architects Fyodor Argunov
and Alexei Mironov. The architectural complex was created in the
early classic style of the middle-second half of the 18th century.
In those years, the Kuskovo estate spread over an area of 230
hectares (for comparison, now it occupies 26 hectares). This
included - hunting grounds, picturesque surrounding fields, meadows,
groves. A special decoration of the estate was a menagerie - a kind
of zoo of that time - here you could see hares, wolves, foxes and
even deer.
In the dammed part of the park, on the territory
opposite from the Palace, a 300-meter canal left, which has survived
to this day. The channel ended with a cascading fountain. The island
has survived to this day - another decoration of the estate. In the
XVIII century, it was a funny fortress with bastions. Comic battles
were played out on the water surface of the pond for the amusement
of the guests.
In 1751, the construction of ponds and bypass
channels was also underway; the regular park and the Big Pond
received the borders that still exist today. The landscape behind
the Big Pond was also organized. "Veshnyakovskaya Perspective"
continued the main compositional and planning axis of the estate,
emphasized by an extended straight canal more than 300 meters long
with cascades at the end, a birch perspective and closed with a
light silhouette of an old church in Veshnyaki. To the east of this
axis, a menagerie was laid out, cut through by two diagonal
clearings with an arbor in the center. The diagonal clearing of the
menagerie, the diagonal clearing of the western part symmetrical to
it (“Kuskovsky clearing”) and the canal formed the three-beam part
of the dam, in the center of which the palace was located. In the
autumn of 1752, 700 linden trees were dug up in the Markov forests
for planting in Kuskovo.
In the 1770s, under the leadership
of Blanc, an “English garden Guy” with buildings was laid out to the
north of the regular park. There were many buildings on its
relatively small territory. Residential summer house of the count,
called the "House of Solitude", which adjoined the dairy farm -
"Metereya" and "Founder's Village" with four "village" houses. On
the basis of the Geledenka river, a system of picturesque ponds was
formed, united by a “fast stream”. The stream was cleared, deepened
and lined with stones along the banks, branches and channels were
made. Four reservoirs were called: Lokasinsky in the west, Long
(Nameless), then - Round and in the east - Ozerok, the most "deep
and natural". On the banks of the ponds there were pavilions,
houses, Mount Snail with the figure of Diana, "Chinese Parasol",
"Lion's Cave". Also on the territory of Guy were built wooden
buildings of the Portrait Gallery and the Theater (1787).
In
1775, the palace was built, which dominates the architectural
composition. Its layout corresponds to the fashionable enfilade
arrangement of interiors, the doors of all rooms are on the same
axis, the rooms open one after another. All rooms of the manor house
are sequentially combined into three compositional groups.
The manor complex was designed for lavish receptions and
entertainment. For these purposes, park pavilions and gazebos, a
greenhouse and a cabinet of curiosities, a menagerie and a hunting
lodge were built. There was a small flotilla of rowboats on the
Kuskovsky pond. Spread over 230 hectares, the estate gathered up to
30 thousand guests on the days of especially solemn receptions.
Behind the Great Stone Conservatory was the English landscape
park Guy, with labyrinths and other buildings. Among them were the
Philosophical House, the Temple of Silence, an Indian hut, a
haystack, a lion's cave, a shomier (hut in French), and a house of
solitude in which P. B. Sheremetev died. To create this park, a lot
of effort also had to be made: in certain places, trees matched in
color and shape were planted, alleys were cut through.
Not
far from the current intersection of Veshnyakovskaya and Yunosti
streets was the famous Kuskovsky theater with 150 seats. In addition
to the permanent theater, there was also an "air stage" in the
garden of linden trellises with a large amphitheater for 80-100
seats. “Such an “air theater” was still in Neskuchnoye, the village
of D.V. Golitsyn. The place where the air theater was located has
been preserved to this day, it is located in the eastern part of the
regular park.
On the estate, in those days, there were 17
ponds. “The ponds of Kuskov were full of expensive fish; there were
so many fish that 2,000 crucians were caught at a time with a seine,
and once a shell with pearls was taken out of the pond; in the old
days, there were several fishing huts on the pond, there were yachts
with boats and boats, there was an island with ruins, there were
sailors in coffee and cherry-colored skipper caftans with white
buttons, ”wrote Mikhail Pylyaev, an explorer of old Moscow.
A
worthy setting for the palace complex is a regular park with
beautiful ponds and marble sculptures.
In 1775 and 1787
Kuskovo was visited by Catherine II, the Polish king Stanislaw
Poniatowski and the Austrian emperor Joseph II.
During the
Patriotic War of 1812, Kuskovo was occupied by the corps of Marshal
Michel Ney. Officers of the Napoleonic army were based in Kuskovo.
Many valuables disappeared without a trace after the visit of the
French troops. The woven wallpaper of the walls of the palace was
torn off, the park sculpture was partially broken.
In the
1880s, the estate underwent reconstruction and improvement work.
Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev invited civil engineer Nikolai
Vladimirovich Sultanov, who had just graduated from the St.
Petersburg Civil Engineering School. The Palace and all the park
pavilions were repaired - Swiss, Dutch, Italian, Hermitage. On May
15, 1886, Emperor Alexander III visited Kuskovo with his wife Maria
Feodorovna, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nikolai, Grand Dukes
George, Alexei and Pavel Alexandrovich, Sergei Alexandrovich with
his wife Elizaveta Feodorovna.
In the 20th century
In
1918, Kuskovo received the status of a museum-estate, the museum
exhibitions included collections of porcelain, ceramics and glass
from the State Museum of Ceramics, transferred to Kuskovo in 1932.
During the Great Patriotic War, barracks were set up on the estate,
in which cadets lived Veshnyaki of the Central School of Sniper
Training Instructors. Since 1960, the Kuskovo estate has been within
the boundaries of Moscow.
In 2017-2019, the museum underwent
large-scale restoration work. In 2019, after restoration, the Grotto
pavilion was opened. The shell decoration of the interiors, lost
during the years of the existence of the monument, was most fully
restored. Specialists of the All-Russian Art Research and
Restoration Center (VKhNRTS) named after. I. E. Grabar, work was
carried out on the restoration of “grotic” clay sculptures and
narrative panels inlaid with shells, corals, and mother-of-pearl,
which have no analogues in the museums of our country. It was the
first comprehensive restoration of the entire collection of the
pavilion in the entire hundred-year history of the museum (in the
20th century, work was limited only to maintaining the monument and
conserving the shell decor).
The main value in the decoration
of cabinets is the decoration of 24 types of tropical sea shells
(Mediterranean and Black Seas, Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans).
For the first time, the shells of the Grotto were replenished, which
presented a particular difficulty in identifying them and obtaining
them in the required volume (some types of shells were listed in the
Red Book).
In 2019, the restoration work of the Dutch House
took place. Currently (September 2022), the American Greenhouse is
undergoing restoration.
Palace/Great House (1769-1775)
The palace is the
main building in the country pleasure estate of Count Pyotr Borisovich
Sheremetev in Kuskovo. The “Big House”, as the palace was called in the
18th century, was built in 1769-1775 and was intended for a solemn
reception of guests in the summer. Built of wood in the traditions of
Russian architecture, it has two floors - front and mezzanines, on a
high stone plinth, where wine cellars and utility rooms were located.
The architect of the palace has not been precisely identified. It was
built under the direction of Carl Blanc, using the drawings of the
French architect Charles de Vailly. The Summer Palace of Count P. B.
Sheremetev is a rare example of a country house that has completely
preserved its architectural and spatial design, as well as original
interior elements: wooden floors, stoves and fireplaces; decorative
painting, wood carving and papier-mâché stucco; mirrors and lighting
fixtures. Invited foreign artists, sculptors, carvers, as well as
Russian free and serf craftsmen took part in the creation of the
interiors.
The architecture of the manor house, built in the
style of early Russian classicism, is at the same time typical of stone
palace buildings of the second half of the 18th century. Its façade is
adorned with three columned porticos: the central one is the largest and
most solemn, the pediment of which is filled with magnificent wood
carvings around the “PS” monogram under the count's crown; side porticos
with arched (semicircular) pediments are decorated with carved military
attributes. A central flight of white stone stairs and gently sloping
ramps lead to the main entrance of the palace - descents for the entry
of carriages. The ramps are flanked by figures of sphinxes - fantastic
creatures with female heads and lion torsos.
In 1976-1983. – a
comprehensive restoration of the interiors of the Palace was carried
out. The artistic decoration and the furnishing complex were restored
according to the inventories of the 1780-90s. According to the available
samples and analogues, the woven decoration of walls and furniture, lost
in the 19th century, has been recreated.
Italian house (1755)
It was built in 1754-1755 with the participation of Yu. I. Kologrivov,
who received an architectural education in Rome. In the structure of
estate holidays, the Italian house served as a palace for "small
receptions". And, at the same time, the decoration of the pavilion
reflected the interest characteristic of the 18th century in collecting
“rarities”, rare works of art, which gave the small palace the
originality of a museum.
The purpose of each of the two floors is
easily guessed in the appearance of the pavilion. The palace character
of the interiors of the second floor finds expression in the
architecture of the façade: high window openings, openwork railings of
the loggia and balconies, and the completion of the cornice with an
elegant balustrade. The small rooms on the first floor, visually lower,
with square windows, were designed to accommodate "rarities": rare
paintings made of beads and colored marble, models of Jerusalem and
Bethlehem churches in glass cases, antique sculptures and much more.
Dutch lodge (1749)
Dutch House - located on the shore of the
pond, a two-story garden pavilion with a kitchen on the ground floor and
a living room on the second. According to the date indicated on the
facade, the construction of the house began in 1749. The building was
erected in the laconic style of the Dutch buildings of the 17th century;
the interior was decorated with ceramic tiles in the same style. The
house is an imitation of a Dutch dwelling and was used as an
entertainment pavilion. The gazebos on the sides of the pond (dismantled
in the 19th century) and the garden with a vegetable garden located
around the pavilion were designed to create the illusion of a street
located on the bank of the canal. The exposition of the Dutch House
includes several 18th-century fake figures. There is a similar house in
another estate near Moscow, Voronovo. In the mid-1970s, the house was
filmed in an episode of the feature TV movie "Hello, I'm your_aunt!" as
an English mansion where, according to the script, the main events in
the film take place.
Pavilion "Grotto" (1756-1761/75)
One of
the most interesting buildings in Kuskovo is the Grotto, built in
1756-1761 under the direction of Fyodor Argunov. The tradition of
building garden pavilions of this type originated in the 16th century in
Italy. Grottoes, decorated with shells, mirrors and glass, as well as
tuff, were erected near water bodies and used as baths. In countries
with a more severe climate, where such pavilions began to be built
somewhat later, they served as premises for ceremonial receptions (for
example, the grotto in Versailles) or storage cabinets of curiosities
and exhibition pavilions (grottoes of the Summer Garden and the park in
Tsarskoye Selo, respectively). The vast majority of the grottoes of
Northern Europe were used as places of rest on hot days. Such structures
were popular until the end of the 18th century.
The stone
pavilion is one of the best Russian examples of the Rococo style in
Russia and one of two grottoes (the other being the Tsarskoye Selo
grotto) that have been preserved in Russia. The grotto is the only
pavilion in Russia that has retained its unique “grotto” decoration from
the 18th century, and is the most exotic among the architectural
structures of Kuskov.
The pavilion is located in the southeastern
part of the Kuskovsky park. Placed on a stylobate with intricately
curved lines of steps that depict water spreading in front of the
grotto, it occupies the western shore of the pond. The grotto pavilion
appeared in Kuskovo in the first half of the 18th century and was
originally made of wood. Its first documentary mention dates back to
December 15, 1750, when the decision was made to demolish the wooden
structure. The exact time of the start of work on the construction of
the stone pavilion is unknown; the old one existed in Kuskovo until
1754. The interior decoration of the stone grotto was completed in 1761.
A building of baroque architecture with a central part crowned with
a dome completed with a four-sided lantern. A flowerpot was placed on
the lantern, from which a fountain spouted. The base of the dome is cut
with round lucarnes, surrounded by gilded carvings. At the top, the
pavilion was surrounded by a parapet with balusters, on which the
sculpture was placed, and the pediments of the facades were also
decorated with sculpture - in the center arched and triangular on both
sides. Thirty-two muffed columns of the facade give the building an
unusual expression. There are statues in eight niches. Above the windows
are mascarons in the form of lion muzzles. Window and door openings were
covered with gilded bars. The facade was painted with ocher with
whitewashed architectural details, the dome was painted with green
tones. In the mid-seventies, the statues on the parapet were replaced by
flowerpots, and the stylobate was dismantled. Judging by the images of
the beginning of the 19th century, there was no longer a flowerpot with
a fountain on the dome. At present (2021), white stone sculptures
depicting Juno, Venus, Mercury, Flora, Diana and Ceres are installed in
the exedra niches of the facades.
Interior decoration was a
complex and lengthy process. About fourteen years (1761-1775) with
interruptions. The work was carried out by the "grotic" master German
Johann Focht, hired by Count P. B. Sheremetev under a "signed contract".
On June 6, 1765, a contract was signed for the decoration of the
northern cabinet, and in January 1771, the southern one. There are three
rooms in the Grotto - the central hall, painted in pink and green marble
with red veins, and two rooms - northern (more modest) and southern,
designed, respectively, in cold and warm colors. The interiors of the
Grotto, presented as an underwater cave, embodying, according to the
creator, the elements of stone and water, are decorated with decorative
garlands with ribbons and bows, typical for rocaille decoration in
combination with military fittings. The bizarre curves of fantastic
plants alternate with stripes of fish scales, images of outlandish
animals, birds and fish, and patterns of 24 types of mollusk shells
(“ton helmet”, “noble pinna”, “noe arch”, “pelican leg”, “abalone”,
Astrea rugosa, etc.) against the background of white, yellow and pink
tuff. The gypsum decor echoes the mother-of-pearl stains of the shells.
In total, Focht used mollusk shells of about 40 species in the design,
including 7 extinct by now. The compositions include, as a reminder of
the other world, the skeletons of birds and animals. Placement in niches
of wooden and clay dolls of half human height, decorated with sea and
river shells, bought by Count P. B. Sheremetev in 1775 especially for
the Grotto, “revives” elegant cabinets. Shell sculpture, perceived in
Russia as a rarity, is a unique work of Western European masters of the
second half of the 18th century, which has no analogues in Russia.
Over the years of its existence, the Grotto has been repeatedly
repaired, its exterior and interior have undergone numerous alterations.
After the revolution of 1917 and the Civil War, the grotto fell into
disrepair. Until 1927, it was open to access in the summer seasons, in
the following decade it was closed, but not guarded. All these years the
dilapidation of the pavilion continued. In 1937-1938, the Grotto was
restored, but the work did not have a scientific basis, their nature is
defined as "emergency repair work." The first scientific restoration
began in 1939 under the guidance of the architect N. N. Sobolev, but the
work was interrupted due to the outbreak of war.
The latest (as
of 2021) restoration of the pavilion began at the end of 2017 by order
of the Technical Center of the Department of Culture of the City of
Moscow. According to the project, the Grotto should be restored in the
form in which it existed in the 1780s, with the maximum preservation of
the author's intention. The wooden truss structures of the roofs of the
offices (with a change of roofing) and the central hall were restored.
Stucco decoration, white-stone architectural details (columns, window
sills), metal gratings, balustrade details have been restored on the
facades. Restoration of sculptures in the niches of the western and
eastern facades faced rather difficult tasks. The state of preservation
of the white stone affected by the fungus and covered with layers of
dirt and moss was studied, and its conservation was carried out. The
brickwork of the walls was partially restored, the plaster coating was
restored. The dilapidated fillings of door and window openings were
replaced. About 150,000 shells were used during the restoration of the
interior decor.
Pavilion Hermitage (1765-1767)
The pavilion
during the heyday of the estate was intended only for the elite
- friends of the owner of the estate, who wanted to retire
during the balls that Count Sheremetev arranged. The second
floor could only be reached by means of a lifting mechanism. The
first floor was reserved for servants, with drinks, snacks, and
more served by an elegantly set lift table.
Like other
park pavilions, in the 18th century the Hermitage was used to
receive guests, and its name emphasized the purpose of the
pavilion, intended for entertainment and entertainment in a
close circle of a select society. In addition, his original
device allowed him to retire on the second floor without
servants. Such "hermitages" were then extremely fashionable.
To date, only three park buildings of this type have
survived in Russia: the Peterhof (1721-1724), Tsarskoye Selo
(1743-1753) and Kuskovsky Hermitages.
The Hermitage was
built in 1765-1767, under the "supervision" of Karl Ivanovich
Blank, a famous Moscow architect. A feature of this building is
the close interweaving of several styles. The smooth, rounded
forms of the facades are superimposed by a strict, well-adjusted
order system of classicism, which, however, also contains
baroque features, for example, alabaster busts of Roman Caesars
located in special niches under the cornice.
In the early
1980s, during the reconstruction of the historical appearance,
the frieze fence along the perimeter of the roof and the statue
on the dome were restored. In 2013, the Hermitage pavilion was
opened to visitors. Inside it, exhibitions of the State Museum
of Ceramics are held.
Large stone greenhouse (1761-1763)
By 1763, the Large Stone Orangery was built according to the
project of the fortress architect Fyodor Argunov - the largest
pavilion of the palace and park ensemble of the estate. In
addition to its direct functional purpose, it was also used for
receiving guests: along with glazed galleries for plant exotics,
a “voxal” was arranged in the center of the Large Stone Orangery
- a small round dance hall with choirs for musicians. In the
side risalits there were rooms for games and a gardener's
shelter.
Today, the expositions of the State Museum of
Ceramics are deployed in the halls of the greenhouse.
American Greenhouse (1750s, modern reconstruction)
It was
built by an unknown architect in the 1750s in the northeastern
part of the regular park. The Catalog of Plants of 1786 explains
the term "American greenhouse" as a building of "great heat",
which is a structure on a stone foundation with a different
inclination of roofs, "lying and standing" window frames
oriented to the south, southeast and southwest . The angle of
the frames has been finely calculated to make optimal use of the
sun's rays, especially in winter. Such structures provided a
variety of thermal and light conditions necessary for growing
tropical plants. For better absorption of sunlight, simple
greenish glass was used; the greenhouse is exclusively
utilitarian. At the time of winter 2022, the building is closed
for restoration.
Swiss House (1870s, architect Nicolai
Benois)
The Swiss house was built in the 1870s by the
architect N. L. Benois. This construction was the final one in
Kuskovo. The wooden two-story building is somewhat different
from other structures of the Moscow manor park called Kuskovo:
it is unusual in that the walls of its first floor are painted
“like a brick”, and the decoration of the second floor is
woodcarving.
The second floor, thanks to a large balcony
located around the entire perimeter of the structure, hangs over
the first floor and serves as a kind of terrace for it. The
gable roof, in turn, also protrudes from all sides, protecting
(both from the gable and from the sides) a solid carved wooden
balcony. It is supported by figured balcony columns, which are
also made of wood. The contours of the roof along the entire
perimeter are decorated with openwork carvings.
The
entrance to the house itself is located on its front side. It is
decorated with a carved wooden porch with pillars, exactly the
same as the balcony ones. On this side from the first floor
there are two lattice windows - one small and the other larger,
and from the second - four lattice windows. On the other side of
the house there is a staircase leading to the balcony. It is
also made of wood, and its beginning is made in the form of an
openwork airy wooden porch with the same openwork 2-wing doors.
The last owner of the estate, Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev,
lived within the walls of this house at the end of the 19th -
beginning of the 20th century. Currently, the Directorate of the
Kuskovo Museum is located in the Swiss House.
Air theater
(1763)
The air theater in Kuskovo is a rare example of the
synthesis of architectural, park and stage art. Such theaters,
which spread in Russia in rich Russian estates of the 18th
century, along with terraces, grottoes, cascades, were
characteristic motifs of Italian parks of the High Renaissance.
Arranged in Kuskovo in the 1760s, today it has lost its green
scenes, retaining only the layout and timid outlines of the
relief. It consisted of an amphitheater for spectators and a
stage platform. The stage, located on an artificial hill 1.5 m
high, surrounded by birch bosquets, inside which strawberries
and strawberries were grown, was decorated along the edges with
a high wall of sheared barberry. A spruce trellis served as six
pairs of wings, the care of which was difficult, but justified
by excellent acoustics. From above, the stage was cleaned with a
grass carpet, and during theatrical performances - with wooden
flooring. The turf amphitheater, which consisted of three
semicircular benches with a passage in the center, was designed
for 80-100 spectators. They were offered soft pillows before the
start of the performance. The ratio of a deep stage with an area
of 3250 m² and a small amphitheater was common for green
theaters of the 18th century. The amphitheater was located south
of the stage, so it received sufficient sunlight. The musicians
took their places in the orchestra pit, closed off from the side
of the auditorium by a flower bed. The actors' restrooms were
two round towers made of clipped greenery.
The open
theater made it possible for many who wished to see the
performance: among the spectators were not only guests of honor,
but also a large audience who watched the performance from the
paths of the park. “The common people died with laughter at
every funny word, giving their own sense to everything, and
through this they represented another very entertaining
spectacle,” wrote an unknown participant in the Kuskovsky
holiday.
Kitchen outbuilding (1756-1757)
The wing was
built in 1755 by the architect F. S. Argunov, it housed Russian
and French kitchens, a tablecloth, coffee, bread and
confectionery shops. The building was built in the same style as
the rest of the estate ensemble, its northern and southern
facades are decorated with a colonnade and high arched windows.
The top of the building is crowned with a balustrade with
flowerpots and cartouches (decorative stucco or graphic patterns
on the facades in the form of shields, unfolded scrolls or
maps). In order to avoid a fire, the kitchen was moved during
the construction of the complex to a separate building. A
separate cooking building also saved guests from kitchen aromas
and household fuss. The building is located between the Palace
and the Temple. Servants carried the finished dishes through the
side door on the basement floor directly to the Palace. The
dining room of the Palace with windows just goes to the east
side, where the Kitchen is located. Thanks to the records of the
18th century, we know that there were confectionery, tablecloth,
bread, coffee shops, Russian and French cuisines. So that the
official building does not violate the ceremonial character of
the estate, its southern and northern facades are decorated with
a solemn colonnade, high arched windows, an elegant balustrade
with decorative vases on the roof parapet and cartouches in the
form of military armor and banners, which gives this building
elegance and solemnity. The top of the building is crowned with
a balustrade with flowerpots and cartouches (decorative stucco
or graphic patterns on the facades in the form of shields,
unfolded scrolls or maps).
Church of the All-Merciful
Savior (1737-1739) and bell tower (1792)
The temple is one of
the rare monuments of the cult architecture of the Anninsky
baroque - quadrangular in plan, rises on a white stone plinth
and ends with a dome. The planes of the walls are animated by
pilasters, white-stone sculptures of the apostles are installed
in the niches of the drum, and the figure of an angel with
outstretched wings supports the cross. On the western pediment,
a relief stands out: the God of hosts sits in the clouds,
surrounded by cherubs. The sculptural decoration lends splendor
to the church building, consonant with the architecture of a
pleasure residence. The small inner space of the church in the
18th century was richly decorated: a carved iconostasis with
ancient images in salaries studded with precious stones and
pearls, gilded royal gates, a count's box and choirs. Once
magnificently decorated, with expensive utensils, rich robes and
airs, according to legend, embroidered with gold and pearls by
the crowned neighbor on the estates, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna,
the church has preserved only late paintings on biblical and
gospel stories from the middle of the 19th century. But even
today, the true decoration of the temple is a two-tiered
chandelier for eighteen candles with figures of seraphim.
In 1792, as the completion of the entire Sheremetev plan, a
wooden bell tower was built, built by the labors of the fortress
architects Mironov and Dikushin - the last significant building
in Kuskovo, "closing the circle" in the creation of an
architectural ensemble.
In 1991, the temple was opened to
museum visitors as "the house church of the Kuskovo estate". In
1992, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' appointed a
rector to the temple, at the same time a local religious
organization, the Orthodox parish of the temple, was registered.
After 200 years, in 1992, eight bells were returned to the bell
tower, reconstructed according to the samples of the 19th
century by the Moscow Kolokol enterprise, cast in memory of the
glorious Sheremetev family and in honor of the reconstruction of
the Church of the All-Merciful Savior.
According to the
order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1572 of
October 19, 2009, the church was classified as federal property.
Then the church building was transferred to a local religious
organization on the basis of the “Agreement for the unlimited
use of federal real estate for religious purposes owned by the
Russian Federation” dated December 7, 2010 No. D-30/1248 between
the territorial department of the Federal Agency for State
Property Management in the city of Moscow and the local
religious organization - the Orthodox parish of the Church of
the Holy Trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in Kuskovo,
Moscow, Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Formally,
the church building and the bell tower ceased to be under the
jurisdiction of the museum. It passed into the jurisdiction of
the local parish of the Christmas Deanery of the Moscow City
Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. After that, tourists
lost the opportunity to visit the monument on weekdays: the
temple is remote from residential areas, and services are held
there only on Saturdays and Sundays (entrance to the estate is
free for believers). In 2015, the figure of an angel was removed
from the dome of the temple, restored during the restoration of
the 1970s. As of December 2022, the figure is installed in front
of the church, according to unconfirmed information, the
sculpture will be installed in early 2023. Restoration work took
place in 2018-2019.
Aviary for birds (modern reconstruction)
Menagerie
(modern reconstruction)
Carriage house and dryer (second half of the
19th century).
Manager's house (1810).
During the 200-year history of the estate, many
buildings were lost and have not survived to our time. Some pavilions in
the English part of the park were destroyed during the Patriotic War of
1812. Part of it was dismantled under Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, most
of it under Sergei Dmitrievich and a large-scale reconstruction of the
estate in the second half of the 19th century.
Pagodenburg
(Chinese gazebo)
Pillar gazebo
Theater building in Kuskovo
Soap
(Bath pavilion)
Arbor in a dam grove
kennel
waiter's wing
Gazebo in the menagerie
Decorative ruin in the menagerie - a
gathering place for hunters
"House of Solitude" by Count Pyotr
Borisovich Sheremetev
Art Gallery
Expositions of the architectural and park ensemble of
the estate and exhibitions of porcelain, ceramics and glass are open for
viewing. The Moscow government planned to fix the status of "Specially
Protected Natural Territories of Moscow" for the estate.
Since
2018, it has been renamed the Kuskovo Estate Museum. Since 2022, the
estate "Kuskovo" and the estate "Ostankino" have been merged into a
common museum complex "GMZ "Ostankino and Kuskovo".
Popular films
such as Shirley Myrley (1995) and Hello, I'm Your Aunt! (1975) were
filmed in the manor and forest park, where the Dutch house was presented
as the home of Colonel Chesney. "Ordinary Miracle" (1964, director Erast
Garin). Historical television series “Midshipmen, forward!”, “Vivat,
midshipmen!”, “Secrets of palace coups”, “Institute of Noble Maidens”,
“Secrets of the Institute of Noble Maidens” and others were also filmed
in Kuskovo. Also, the shooting of the clip of the BI-2 group "Black Sun"
was carried out in the estate.
Today it is one of the world's
largest owners of a collection of ceramics and glass from various
countries from antiquity to the present.
The collections of the
Counts Sheremetevs became the basis of the funds of the Museum-Estate
"Kuskovo", which were subsequently replenished and currently number
about 6 thousand works of painting, graphics, sculpture, furniture and
objects of decorative and applied art of the 16th-19th centuries. The
manor has preserved rare pieces of artistic furniture and arts and
crafts, books from the family library and the manor's "Portrait
Gallery", unique in its completeness and historical significance. The
museum has a unique, one of the best in the country and the largest in
Moscow collection of Russian and Western European porcelain, ceramics
and glass.
Exhibitions are organized annually in the museum;
concerts of classical music are held; ancient traditions of manor
festivities, receptions and festivities are being revived.
The
museum is open to visitors all year round.
Monday, Tuesday are
days off. The last Wednesday of the month is a sanitary day.
Every Thursday of the third week of the month is free admission.
Working mode:
In winter from 10.00 to 18.00, ticket offices until
17.30. The Palace and the Grotto are open until 16:00
In summer from
10.00 to 20.00, ticket office until 19.30. Pavilions until 18:00