The Kuzminki estate is one of the oldest estates in Moscow. It is located at the metro station of the same name, so getting to Kuzminki is very easy. You can also get here from other stations: Volzhskaya, Ryazansky Prospekt, if you wish, you can also go from Lyublino and Tekstilshchikov. To whom it is convenient, in general.

From st.m. Kuzminki to the park to go ten minutes. The entrance to the park will be marked by an arched sign with the inscription " Manor Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki". The English landscape park, designed by the architect D. Gilardi in 1811-1820, spreads over a large area. As far as I know, this is the largest manor territory in Moscow.

The owners of Kuzminki at one time were two famous noble families: the Stroganovs and the Golitsyns. Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov in 1702 was granted these lands by Peter I for good service. It was a sign of high disposition towards him from the side of the king.

But Grigory Dmitrievich practically did not use the received territories in any way. The construction of the estate complex in Kuzminki began only with his children. For the most part, this was done by Alexander Grigoryevich Stroganov, who later became the sole full owner of the estate.

Under A.G. Stroganov, the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God is being built. This icon was the former shrine of the Stroganov family, so the church was consecrated in her honor. By the name of the church, the estate received a new name - the village of Vlaherna. A manor house and other outbuildings are being built near the church. All of them were originally made of wood.

The daughter of Alexander Stroganov, Anna, who inherited Kuzminki after his death, in 1757 marries Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn. Anna Aleksandrovna became the last owner of the Kuzminki from the Stroganov family and the first from the Golitsyn family. MM. Golitsyn received as a dowry from his wife, in addition to the estate, salt pans, iron foundries in the Urals, ancient documents, and many others.

At the foundries of Mikhail Mikhailovich, real masterpieces of iron casting were created to decorate Kuzminki. The estate has turned into a real open-air museum. All wooden buildings were rebuilt and made of stone. Most of them have survived to our time.

At one time, the village of Vlahernskoe was put on a par with Peterhof and the Parisian Versailles.

horse yard

Now what we saw in Kuzminki is the remnants of former luxury. Of all the buildings, only the church and the Horse Yard function. It has recently been restored, as well as two grottoes on the other side of the pond. The grottoes were a good shelter from the summer heat and heat. In the Great Grotto, which has only one entrance, theatrical performances were staged under the prince. There was no theater here, as in, so a grotto was adapted for these purposes.

The horse yard is open to visitors, but we decided not to go there. Asking the cashier selling tickets: “What is there?”, We received an indistinct answer: “Well, this is a horse yard!”, The cashier said, pouting her lips in displeasure. Then it became clear that there was nothing interesting there. Although, maybe I'm wrong. If anyone was there, write. It will be interesting to read.

Grotto

In Kuzminki, I was surprised that it took about 20 minutes to walk from the entrance to the park to the estate itself, which is quite a long time when compared with other estates where we were. The maps of the park in some places are not entirely clear. Only when you are near the Horse Yard, you begin to understand where you are and where everything is.

IN Kuzminki park several ponds, but you can’t swim in them, like in most reservoirs in Moscow. A cafe-ship runs along the pond near the Horse Yard, where you can leisurely explore the park, sitting at a table and drinking cold beer, lemonade (whatever you like best).

On the territory of the park, mainly near the Mill Wing, on the dam, there are several cafes. Here they sell ice cream, kvass, beer, various souvenirs and trinkets. Not far from the entrance to the park, from the side of the station. m. Kuzminki has an amusement park and a platform for karting. But we did not see the cards themselves. Therefore, it is not clear whether there are races or not.

As I have already said, of the entire complex of buildings of the Kuzminki estate, only the Church of the Blachernae Mother of God, the Horse Yard and the Mill Wing have been restored. Plus, there is a honey museum. What was in the museum building before, I, unfortunately, do not know. The rest of the buildings require restoration. Among them are the Lord's house, the Orange greenhouse, the kitchen building. We got to the Animal Farm, which is also in need of repair. On the way to it, they saw another building without a sign with a description, which you will not immediately notice among the trees. The master's house could not even be photographed because of the trees surrounding it.

Therefore, having decided to go to Kuzminki, do not expect to see luxurious palace buildings here, as in, or in. It doesn't exist here. People come to Kuzminki to relax, sunbathe on the banks of the ponds, ride bicycles and roller skates. We met a lot of people on bikes. Perhaps somewhere in the park there is a rental. Kuzminki are very popular among residents of the city of any age category. People here have picnics, barbecue, play volleyball. And just sitting in a cafe on the shore of the pond, in my opinion, is a great pastime. Concerts are sometimes held near the Horse Yard. We just stumbled across this one. The songs they sang were not modern, so we were not particularly interested in it. Besides, we were about to leave. But all the seats near the stage, which served as a small terrace near the sculptures, were occupied.

One more fact concerning the estate in Kuzminki, which is simply impossible not to mention. Literally a week after visiting the park, the well-known program “The Battle of Psychics” was shown on TV. One of the tasks took place in the Lord's house of the Kuzminki estate. It turned out that ghosts live there, ghosts that the guards often hear. Some of them were even captured on camera. They look like round white phantoms. So, not everything is calm in the kingdom of Denmark ...

A walk in the Kuzminki park left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction. Yes, we walked in the park, sunbathed, rested. But the fact that the estate turned out to be non-working upset us. I read somewhere on the Internet that in 2010 several more buildings of the complex should be restored. I hope that among them will be the main palace - the Lord's House. After its restoration, it will be necessary to go to Kuzminki again.

Photo by *vadim* / photosight.ru

The Golitsyn estate Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki, now located within Moscow, has not always been one of the most popular Moscow parks. The beginning of the history of Kuzminki as a nascent architectural and park ensemble is usually dated to 1702, the year Peter I granted the local lands to Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov, his favorite, for faithful service to the tsar and the fatherland. Construction on these lands began under the sons of Grigory Dmitrievich - Alexander, Nikolai and Sergey. In 1716, a small wooden church grew here, which, in honor of the Stroganov family icon - the Blachernae Mother of God - was consecrated as Blachernae. It also gave the name to the nearby village.

The Stroganovs became the third family in Russia to receive a baronial title. After the death of Grigory Dmitrievich, Alexander Grigoryevich, the future chamberlain at the court of His Majesty, who received the priest's land near Moscow during the division of the inheritance, was engaged in the construction and improvement of Kuzminok. It was through his efforts that a magnificent cascade of ponds was created in Kuzminki - after the construction of a dam on the Churlikha River. Subsequently, when in 1754 Kuzminki inherited the daughter of Alexander Grigoryevich from her first marriage - Anna Alexandrovna Stroganova, who married a representative of another noble family - Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn - the estate passed into the possession of the Golitsyns, whose descendants consider the estate their property to this day. It was under Mikhail Golitsyn that Kuzminki acquired the look they have now - a picturesque English Empire park with many interesting buildings and pavilions that are of incredible value as genuine architectural monuments of the 18th - 19th centuries.

Getting to the estate on your own is quite simple. There are several route options: from the metro station "Volzhskaya" or "Kuzminki".

Leaving the Volzhskaya station, you will see a gate with a bright sign "Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki" in front of you. Walking along the picturesque paths past a small pond that forms a cascade with the nearby Lublin pond, you will walk along an alley planted with birches past the Center for Military-Patriotic Education of Youth of the South-Eastern Administrative District and “ Museum of crews and cars».

Museum of carriages and cars

By the way, if you are a fan of antiquity in general and retro cars in particular, you should visit this museum. There you seem to be making a trip in a time machine to the Soviet Union: a huge garage-type room, where narrow shelves are closely lined with old telephones, clockwork, Soviet toys and other interesting things, makes you forget about the passage of time. In the fenced courtyard of the museum and in the building itself, several dozen cars from different eras are on public display, and the building houses a collection of cars from the Auto-Review magazine. At the entrance to the museum there is a telephone booth, which is very reminiscent of Cheburashka's house.

Continuing the walk along the asphalt path, in 10-15 minutes you will come to the very complex of manor buildings. The majestic building will rise first on your way horse yard, built in 1805 and rebuilt by the famous architect Domenico Gilardi in 1823, is perhaps one of the most famous buildings in Kuzminki. In order to view it completely, it is better to go a little further, to the bridge over the dam - there you will see a majestic panorama of the water surface of the pond, above which rises an elegant complex of buildings in the Empire style, popular in the first half of the 19th century. The horse yard consists of a stable building, several buildings of sheds where carriages stood, and two residential outbuildings. All these buildings are connected by a common fence with Music pavilion, which is at the center of this whole composition.

horse yard

Music pavilion

The music pavilion is decorated with the famous sculptures by P.I. Klodt, repeating the sculptural images from the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. They were made by Klodt himself and cast at the Golitsyn factories, like their more famous "brothers".

Sculptures by P.I. Klodt

To date, both the Musical Pavilion and the Horse Yard are functioning: on weekends and holidays, concerts are held on the steps of the pavilion, and an equestrian school operates on the territory of the Horse Yard.

On the other side of the dam, there is an elegant structure, which is called just that - “ House on the dam", or mill wing.

The House on the Dam, or the Mill Outbuilding

This building, which separated the Upper and Lower Kuzminsky ponds, was erected in the 1840s, on the basement of the Kozminki mill. According to legend, the mill that was located here earlier (which, by the way, was one of the oldest local buildings) gave the name “Kuzminki” to these places, and the mill, in turn, was named after a miller named Kozma who once built it. The mill was repeatedly rebuilt, and at different times such eminent architects as A. Voronikhin, D. Zhilardi, I. Egotov and I. Zherebtsov had a hand in it. Only in the middle of the 19th century, the upper floors of the mill, which regularly supplied local residents with various varieties of wheat and rye flour, was decided to be demolished, and on its base the architect M. Bykovsky built the House on the Dam, which has survived to this day. This two-story wooden building in the Renaissance style is surrounded by water on all sides, and, despite this, it served both the owners of the estate and the Soviet authorities well: the Golitsyns settled here visiting guests, until 1976 the house was rented out to summer residents, and after that the Museum was located here veterinary medicine. The outbuilding has now been completely restored.

Before moving further across the bridge, to the main house of the estate, let's go back a little and look briefly into an inconspicuous at first glance corner - to the so-called poultry house, or Forge. This building is located not far from the Horse Yard, on the other side of Zarechye Street, it is not so easy to find it - it lurks among the trees.

Birdhouse, or Forge

The poultry yard in the estate has been known since 1765; it was built to keep decorative birds. In it, along with geese, ducks and turkeys, swans, guinea fowls, peacocks, Egyptian pigeons and other exotic birds walked around. Initially, the poultry house was wooden, then in 1805-1806 it was rebuilt in stone according to the project of architect I.V. Egotova. The compact central house, where the poultry keeper probably lived, was connected to two symmetrical outbuildings by semicircular wings-gallery covered with a net, in which bird aviaries were placed in the summer, transferred to the outbuildings during the cold season. In 1812, during the Moscow fire, the poultry house was seriously damaged by fire, all the birds died. During the restoration of the estate after the French invasion, D.I. Gilardi rebuilt the remains of the Aviary into a Forge, which was designed to provide horseshoes and other equipment to the nearby Horse Yard. The ensemble of the former Poultry House has undergone major changes: the outbuildings and galleries were dismantled, the central building was rebuilt into a two-story one (the forge itself was located on the ground floor, and the upper floor was given over to the blacksmith’s housing), while the magnificent dome that adorned it was dismantled, and the building was crowned much simpler gable roof. In this form, the Forge existed until the middle of the 20th century. In Soviet times, it was used for housing and was disfigured by numerous outbuildings. In the 1970s, the dilapidated building was abandoned by the residents, and, having remained ownerless, it was empty for about 30 years, continuing to collapse and gradually turning into ruins. Only by 2008, on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the family of the princes Golitsyn, the ensemble of the Ptichnik-Kuznitsa was restored according to the original project of Egotov and now pleases our eyes.

Well, we follow further, past the Mill Wing, deep into the estate. Having passed along the bridge, which is very favored by the newlyweds (it is completely hung with wedding locks), we get to the elegant, magnificent front yard. To our right, behind the openwork lattice of the cast-iron gate, guarded by griffins, rises the Lord's House, the Western and Eastern Wings. An exquisite entrance bridge stretches from the gate to the house, which is decorated with candelabra lanterns. A little further away is the Egyptian Pavilion, or Kitchen.

Master's house, panorama, 19th century

All this splendor was designed by the architect I.V. Egotovym in 1804-1808. According to the plan of the architect, the front yard was separated from the rest of the estate by a brick fence and a moat filled with water. Cast-iron "Egyptian lions" - griffins guarding the entrance to the estate, which are designed by the sculptor Campinioni, are freely located on the forged metal fence.

Despite the fact that the cast-iron gates look rather organic against the general background, they appeared here not so long ago, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, and were called upon to protect the princely family from summer residents who had taken a fancy to the local expanses. The front yard was built according to all the canons of that time: torches were inserted into the lanterns that illuminated the entrance bridge, tall trees were not planted - the complex of buildings had to be clearly visible, so only low flower beds and shrubs bloomed in front of the main house. One thing is a pity: unfortunately, the original building of the manor's house has not been preserved to our time. It was destroyed by fire in 1916, and a new building designed by the architect Toropov was built in its place in the 1930s.

Building Kitchens, which is now in not the most brilliant condition, is actually one of the unique monuments of the Empire style in architecture. The fact is that the strict genre framework of the Empire style here is diluted with motifs of ancient Egyptian art (hence the second name of the Kitchen - Egyptian pavilion).

Kitchen, or Egyptian Pavilion

Slightly sloping walls, tapering windows, a portico decorated with palm-shaped columns and the head of a sphinx enhance the sense of the presence of the spirit of an ancient civilization. Food was stored in the cool cellars of the pavilion, the kitchen premises themselves were located on the first floor, and the "kuhmistrs" - princely cooks - lived on the second floor. In 1839, for convenience, the Kitchen was connected by a covered gallery with the manor house.

Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God

Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God.

The current church is by no means the first to stand on this site. The first wooden church here was built in 1716 under the Stroganovs and consecrated in honor of their family icon - the Blachernae Mother of God. It was this church that gave the name "Vlakherna" to the village located here. This first temple did not stand for long - in 1732 it burned down, and a new temple was built in its place, also wooden and with the same name. But the second temple did not please the owners of the estate for long - and it died from a fire in 1758. The current church - the third in a row - was built by 1762, and already by 1785 it was reconstructed on the initiative of M.M. Golitsyn in the classic traditions by the architect R. Kazakov.

It was here that for a long time there was the legendary icon of the Blachernae Mother of God, with which many wonderful legends and traditions are associated. This icon dates back to the 7th century, and it came to Russia as a gift to the father of Peter I, Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1653. According to the charter attached to the icon, it was created at Blachernae Monastery in Constantinople. This icon was revered by the sovereign: he took it on military campaigns, as he believed that it would help him win in battle and save him from troubles. The Blachernae icon is made in a rare relief technique - wax mastic, and the relics of Christian saints are mixed into its wax, which gave it truly miraculous properties. According to legend, the icon put to flight the enemies who attacked Constantinople in 626. The image of the Mother of God Hodegetria, kept in the church in Kuzminki, is a copy from the Blachernae icon, kept in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. However, according to the family tradition of the Stroganovs, and later of the Golitsyns, not one, but two icons were brought to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, one of which has rightfully belonged to them ever since. Being brought to Russia, the shrine did not lose its miraculous effect: when in 1830 a cholera epidemic raged throughout Russia, not a single person fell ill in Blachernae alone - against the thousands who died everywhere in the district. And during the second outbreak of a terrible disease in 1871, the icon saved the locals from inevitable death. It is not surprising that the Blachernae icon is one of the most revered in Russia to this day: it is even honored on July 2 in the church named after it and remaining an outstanding monument of history and culture.

Directly opposite the church is bathroom house, or soapy, which acquired its modern look at the beginning of the 19th century.

Bathroom house, or Soap

This pavilion belonged personally to the husband of the owner of the estate - M.M. Golitsyn. In addition to the actual bath rooms, the master ordered the construction of private quarters here: a bedroom, a dressing room where hunting accessories were stored, a dining room and a hall. There was also a special room that preceded the exit to a small garden. However, soon after the death of the prince in 1804, Soapy Street fell into disrepair and was demolished. On the site of the old premises, the brilliant Domenico Gilardi built a new building in the Empire style in 1816-17, generally retaining the layout and functional features of the first building.

Over time, Soapy Street suffered greatly: it burned down repeatedly, it was dismantled and rebuilt countless times. There were living quarters, the Novo-Kuzminskoye village council and even a slot machine hall (a landmark of the Soviet past). And only in 2008, as a result of large-scale restoration work, the building and the fountain in front of it were restored.

On July 8, 2008, an unusual monument was erected not far from the Bathroom House - Bench of Love and Loyalty.

Bench of Love and Loyalty

It is on this day that the feast of Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom is celebrated, he is also the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity. For the manufacture of the monument, a French cannon was used, which participated in the battles of 1812, donated by an unknown collector. Newlyweds and lovers have chosen this modest monument, which has acquired ribbons and locks with the names of happy couples in a record short time.

Let's go back to the ponds and take a look grottoes, which are constant companions of every empire park. The grottoes in Kuzminki, located opposite the Musical Pavilion (opposite bank of the pond), are a clear confirmation of this.

Trekharkochny and Big grottoes. Photo by Mikhail Grizzly / mgreport.narod.ru

The graceful Three-arch and Large (Single-arch) grottoes in Kuzminki appeared after the construction of the Front Yard. When the ground was leveled under it, a slope formed on the bank of the pond, where artificial "underwater caves" gracefully fit. Grottoes in Empire parks are quite common: a vivid example of this is the Ruins grotto in the Alexander Garden. The temperature in the grottoes is always a few degrees different from the temperature in the open space: this helped the walking public to take refuge in the shady coolness and take a break from the midday heat. Amateur theatrical performances were also staged in the Big Grotto. There was no serf theater in Kuzminki, so the owners themselves and their guests took part in them. The grottoes have another little secret. As mentioned above, the Big Grotto is located directly opposite the Music Pavilion, so the sound that reached it during musical performances was reflected and resonated, creating a more voluminous sound effect.

Until 2004, the grottoes in Kuzminki were in a very deplorable state, and only after a large-scale reconstruction, these interesting landscape structures received a new life.

Continuing your walk along the bank of the Upper Kuzminsky Pond, you will soon come to the famous Lion's Quay, the mention of which is first found in documents in 1762. Photographs of this wonderful building are found in almost every work devoted to the estate culture.

Lion harbor. Photo by Mikhail Grizzly / mgreport.narod.ru

It is known that the pier, like other estate buildings, was repeatedly reconstructed and rebuilt. The original version of the structure looked like this: two rounded platforms were connected with the help of gracefully curved stairs, decorated with white stone sculptures: vases, images of lying lions and dogs. In 1830, during one of the reconstructions by D. Gilardi, the upper platform of the pier was rebuilt, instead of a stone balustrade, a forged metal lattice appeared, and instead of plaster sculptures, the famous Egyptian lions cast from cast iron appeared. Having survived several more restorations, in the Soviet years the monument gradually fell into decay: in 1945, the pier lost its main pride - the lions, which "moved" to Lyubertsy near Moscow. There they decorated the building of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and the decaying pier gradually turned into a pile of hewn cobblestones, while maintaining the status of an architectural monument right up to 1997. And only in the 2000s, the unique Round Pier was completely restored according to the remaining evidence and documents.

Going down further along the shore of the pond, we will inevitably come to orange greenhouse- a structure, the fate of which is still unclear. Like the Egyptian pavilion, the Orangerie is a unique architectural monument, which, unlike most buildings on the estate, remains in a dilapidated state.

orange greenhouse

The greenhouse in Kuzminki was known throughout Moscow: apricots, peaches, oranges, cherries, lemons and oranges and many other fruits grew here. The architectural solution of the building again refers us to the Kitchen building: the motifs of Egyptian and Greek art are also very noticeable here. The greenhouse is the only building in the estate where authentic interiors with ancient Egyptian themes have been preserved - perhaps you will not find such ones not only on the territory of the estate, but also in Moscow. Until 2001, the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine was located here, and since the institute left the building, it has gradually deteriorated and crumbled. The former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, who, by the way, loves the Kuzminki estate very much, issued a decree in 2004 on the restoration of the Egyptian Pavilion and the Orange Orangery, but work has not yet begun.

Not far from the decaying greenhouse of the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God is the so-called Slobodka- a complex where the courtyard people who served the estate lived. It was first mentioned in documents dating from the second half of the 18th century. The buildings that made up Slobodka changed, like other estate buildings - only their functions remained unchanged. The structure of Slobodka included such buildings and facilities as the Servant's Wing, the Priest's House, the Laundry Wing and the Hospital. Initially, wooden buildings were rebuilt over time, changing their appearance: the unsightly houses of service people and utility rooms became impossible to recognize after the intervention of Domenico Gilardi, who, on the orders of the master, radically changed the plan and facades of houses in Slobodka. All the buildings of Slobodka were connected by a common fence, and the road passing from the other side of the complex was named Poplar Alley - according to the trees planted here.

In a buiding Servant's wing there is an interesting museum on Slobodka - “ Museum of Russian Estate Culture”, one of the branches of the Museum of the History of Moscow.

Servant's wing

Here you will be told about the estate life and way of life, as well as about the history of the noble families of the Stroganovs and Golitsyns. Authentic exhibits illustrating the life of the 18th-19th centuries will help you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the noble estate life, imagine the lifestyle and worldview of the people of that time. In this interesting museum, which has been operating since 1999, you can visit one of the entertaining interactive, costumed, thematic excursions that revive the everyday traditions of everyday life of the 19th century.

One of the most famous buildings of this part of the estate - Barnyard, or Milk's farm.

Animal Farm, or Dairy Farm

The place where the barnyard will be located was determined even under the Stroganovs. But the buildings that have survived to this day date back to the 1840s. The current farm building was designed by the architect Alexander Gilardi, the nephew of the already mentioned Domenico Gilardi.

The dairy farm is a one-story building made of red brick, forming the letter "P" in plan, with two-story outbuildings. Grooms and cattlemen lived in the outbuildings, and the stalls were located in the one-story central part of the building. In the middle of the Animal Farm was an elegant pavilion, decorated with luxury; it is believed that it was intended for the residence of one of the members of the count's family. It seems strange to choose a place to build a personal pavilion; but nevertheless it really was too rich and magnificent to be in the possession of service people: parquet floors, graceful balconies and sculptures of bulls decorating the courtyard, made by Baron P.I. Klodt, clearly pleased the eye of one of the noble persons.

The Animal Farm with the opposite bank of the pond, where the Propylaea and the pier were located, was connected by an interesting Plashkotny Bridge - a bridge on pontoons, which we can see in the painting by the Austrian artist I.N. Rauch. The bridge was installed only for the summer period, and dismantled for the winter.

It so happened that the farm did not fulfill its intended purpose for so long: in 1889, after the reorganization of the internal premises, the Animal Farm was transferred to the expanded Blachernae Hospital, which lasted right up to 1978. Since the hospital vacated the Animal Farm building, it has gradually deteriorated, like many other buildings on the estate.

After visiting Slobodka and Animal Farm, walking towards the church along one of the rays of the famous French park, made in the likeness of a park in Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg, you will get to two more interesting museums. The first one is Literary Museum of K. G. Paustovsky- was opened in 1975, but moved to Kuzminki only in 1987, and since then it has occupied gardener's house(also called " gray dacha»).

Gardener's House, or Gray Dacha

The museum's collection includes about 17,000 items, illustrating not only the life and literary work of Konstantin Georgievich, but also about his environment, the time in which he lived: personal belongings of the writer, documents and manuscripts, paintings by illustrators, the writer's wife and son, as well as a variety of film and photographic evidence. A lot of interesting exhibits, as well as the incredible enthusiasm and dedication of the museum staff will make visiting the Literary Museum interesting; perhaps you will even become seriously interested in Russian literature.

As you probably already noticed, the Kuzminki estate is famous not only for its architectural and park ensemble, but also for various museums. Next to the Literary Museum of G.K. Paustovsky is located Honey Museum, he is Museum and educational center of beekeeping.

Honey Museum

The apiary in Kuzminki appeared under the Golitsyns - there was always fresh honey on the table of the princes. The museum is a demonstration apiary with 50 demonstration hives, where you, dressed in a special protective suit, can study the whole process of honey production and feel like a real beekeeper. In the museum, children and their parents will be offered a choice of several interesting excursion programs, a video film will be shown and children will be delighted with fun themed games. The only condition is that you can get into the museum only on weekdays and by appointment. In addition to the beekeeping museum, the educational center also houses the School of Practical Beekeeping and the Honey Lovers Club.

The former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, is very fond of bees. And, as mentioned above, he also loves Kuzminki very much. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Museum and Educational Center for Beekeeping in Kuzminki became the home of the "mayor's" bees. And that is why here in 2005 appeared bee monument- one of the most useful pets. The monument is made up of three low columns stylized as honeycombs, and on the central one sits a bee, which the locals affectionately dubbed Kuzey - in honor of the estate.

Monument to the bee Kuza

If you are not completely tired yet, then you can walk a little more and get into the realm of a winter fairy tale - the official Moscow residence of Father Frost.

Moscow residence of Father Frost

It appeared in Kuzminki in 2004, and by 2006 a whole complex of elegant buildings had grown here: Father Frost's tower, Father Frost's post office, a magical miracle mill, a fairy-tale well, a Creativity tower, a Snow Maiden's tower, an ice skating rink, a trail of fairy tales and a game sports town. A variety of events take place here throughout the year: games, festive festivities and tours of the towers do not stop here after the New Year's fireworks have died down. It is very pleasant to be here both in winter and in hot summer: under the dense shade of trees it is good to hide both from snowfall and from the hot sun. Of course, children will really like it here, who will have something to do here. What's there: even adults will want to take part in interesting master classes and go back to childhood for a moment, forgetting about age.

Kuzminki is a unique Moscow estate, an architectural and park ensemble, a museum, educational and educational center where everyone will find something to their liking. Shady alleys, fresh forest air and the charm of a bygone gallant era will not leave anyone indifferent.

"Kuzminki" , architectural and artistic ensemble of Russian classicism of the 2nd half of the 18th - early 19th centuries, the former country estate of the princes Golitsyn, since 1960 is located in the city of Moscow. Founded by Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov at the beginning of the 18th century. The earliest mention of the settlement dates back to 1623-24.
In the cadastral book of the Moscow district compiled at that time, the “wasteland that was the Kuzminskaya mill…” that belonged to the Nikolo-Ugreshsky monastery appears. In the documents of the end of the 17th century, its name is already found in a slightly different interpretation - the Kuzminki mill.
Let's start with the name. Why is the estate called "Kuzminki"? You will say that you have heard this legend more than once - a long time ago, mills were built on the banks of the Goledyanka River, and they gave the area its first name - the Mill. However, there is another legend. In old Russia, the peasants greatly revered Saints Cosmas and Damian, healers and patrons of livestock. In honor of them arranged crowded holidays, which were called Kuzminki. On the free meadows of the Goledyanka River, peasants from all over the district gathered for such holidays, which gave the name of the area - Kuzminki. Which version is more reliable is up to you to judge.
I don’t know from which entrance you got into the park when you walked here before, but today we will choose the road that leads to the main house. Here is the obelisk informs us about the name of the area and the owner of the estate. And here they used to be triumphal iron gates, crowned with the coat of arms of the princes Golitsyn.
In 1826, at the Ural factories of the Golitsyns, according to the project of the St. Petersburg architect Carl Rossi, for Pavlovsk were cast Nicholas Gate. After 6 years, gates for Kuzminki are cast according to the same models. Take a closer look: as many as 16 massive columns support a powerful vault. Their height is about 10 meters, and 18 thousand pounds of cast iron (about 300 tons) were used for casting.
The central span was intended for horse riding, i.e. for crews, and two side spans - smaller - for walking.
Now the roads are located in the same place as before. Therefore, we can easily imagine the size of the cast-iron gates, and from this obelisk determine the place where they were located. The gate itself has not survived.- they were melted down for the needs of the Fatherland, but the street running from the former gate along the park is called the Cast Iron Gate.
Behind the gate begins a straight wide linden alley. Previously, it was decorated with cast-iron cabinets with hanging chains. Its length was as much as 700 meters. The crowns of linden trees were trimmed in the form of balls, and the alley was called very solemnly - Blachernae Avenue.
On both sides of the alley is a large park Now it's just thickets of bushes and trees with winding paths running here and there. However, in the time of the Stroganovs and Golitsyns, its right and left parts differed significantly from each other. On the left was French or Regular park. And on the right - landscape, or, as they said then, English garden.

french park . Parks of this kind first appeared in France. The French believed that nature itself was ugly. Only a person can give beauty to it, and this beauty is based on the laws of geometry. Therefore, in such parks, alleys, straight as arrows, divide the entire territory into different geometric shapes: trapezoids, rectangles, triangles, etc. The trees in the park were trimmed in the form of a green sculpture: various animals, fish, birds and even people of the same geometric shape. French parks are beautiful in their own way, just remember the famous Versailles. But the Russian soul does not tolerate dryness and straightforwardness. This is probably why French parks did not take root on Russian soil. So the layout of Kuzminsky Park is quite rare. In the center is a huge round glade, and twelve alleys diverge from it like rays in all directions. Let's imagine what the central part of a regular park looked like. In the middle of the clearing is a huge flower bed, in the center of which is a statue of Apollo, the patron of the arts. It was to this statue that all 12 glades converged. And each alley began with a sculpture of some muse from Greek mythology and the gods Mercury, Venus and Flora.

On the right was a landscape, or, as they said then, an English garden., is the largest part of the estate. That is where we will go with you. There are almost no buildings here, except for the Horticulture complex. The head gardener was always invited from abroad - Switzerland or West Germany. A wooden house with a mezzanine was built especially for him. It was called Gray Dacha. Now here is Paustovsky Museum. Festivities and holidays were held throughout the English park. By the way, not only titled persons were allowed to walk. It was only necessary to follow the established rules: do not pick flowers and fruits, do not pick berries and mushrooms, and do not spoil trees - for all this they were mercilessly fined. Previously, there were cast-iron benches and sofas everywhere so that you could relax and admire the beautiful place. It seems that this is a virgin forest, and the paths and paths are accidentally trodden by people. In fact, this is all the work of a whole army of workers and gardeners, artists and decorators. Carefully selected not only trees and shrubs, but even herbs. Every corner had to be beautiful at any time of the day and year.
According to legend, Peter I himself often visited the village of Blachernae, loved it for its beauty and sometimes came here to take a break from their state cares and labors. A house was built especially for him. The Great Emperor walked along these paths, went into a small wooden church in the village of Blachernae and prayed before the holy icon of the Mother of God and, they say, even planted an oak tree with his own hands. On the site of the house where Peter I stayed, in 1846, a cast-iron obelisk was erected. Until our time, only its skeleton has been preserved. The monument reported that the Emperor stayed at the residence of the Stroganovs near Moscow. Nashchokin's notes say: “And that same year, in 1722, the Sovereign, with those regiments with which he deigned to go from Moscow, returned from the Persian campaign to Astrakhan, and from Astrakhan he deigned to go to Moscow. And, in December, in the last days, His Majesty, without entering Moscow, deigned to stay in Stroganova, near Moscow, which is known as the Mill ". And one more mention. From the travel journal of Peter I it follows that on May 14, 1724 "His Imperial Majesty deigned to go to the Stroganovs in the Mill, and everyone arrived in Moscow."
Well, now we have reached the end of the linden alley. The road took us to the main house of the manor. Now is the time to talk about her. After all, it wasn’t just that a manor suddenly appeared among the forest and fish lands belonging to the Simonov Monastery? And the thing is that in 1702, Peter I granted these rich lands to the famous merchants Stroganovs, who even before Peter the Great enjoyed universal respect and rendered many services to the Throne and the Fatherland. The certificate of donation has not yet been found in the archive. And scientists determined this date, referring to indirect data from archival documents that they kept in the 1760s. There are two references - to 1702 and to 1704. A second date was chosen to celebrate the 300th anniversary.
So, the last eminent person in the family. Born 1656, died November 21, 1715. He was buried at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kotelniki. The sole owner of all the huge Velikopermsky, Zauralsky, Solvychegodsky, Ustyug and Nizhny Novgorod estates of the Stroganovs. He owned salt, foundry and ironworks in the Urals and many craft workshops. Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov had a collection of handwritten books and a wonderful church choir. He built churches in Solvychegodsk, the village of Gordeevka, Nizhny Novgorod, the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. He took an active part in the reforms of Peter the Great and received eight grants from Peter I for new lands. Provided significant assistance during the Northern War, granted a portrait of Peter I with diamonds.
In the 16th century, the Stroganovs founded a salt industry. During the Time of Troubles, they helped the government, providing it with generous financial assistance - they donated 842 thousand rubles, a grandiose sum for those times. Then the Stroganovs received the title of "eminent people." At the end of the 17th century Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov turned into the largest salt producer. In his hands shamelessly was 60% of all salt in Russia. In a word, such a Sovereign as Emperor Peter the Great could not but pay attention to the merits of the famous merchants and honored them with his favor - in 1722 they were granted the title of barons.
By the way, another toponymic legend is connected with the name of the Stroganovs.. The first mentioned in their genealogy, Spiridon, who was the son of one Khan prince, converted to Christianity against the will of his parent. The parent, accordingly, became angry and, again according to the legend, sent an army of many thousands to Moscow. In response, Moscow also sent a considerable army led by Spiridon. The Russians were defeated, and Spiridon was captured and tortured. They tied him to a post and ripped off his skin with iron claws. The body turned into a bloody mess, and the person died from blood loss. This torture was called planing. Spiridon was planed, and his son Kuzma was nicknamed Kuzma Planed. Later, the nickname was transformed into the surname Stroganov. (Based on a story by Nicolaus Witzen, borrowed from the Dutch geographer Isaac Massa). N.M. Karamzin was the first to express his distrust of this story; subsequent historians have definitively refuted it and it is now accepted by the majority, especially on the basis of evidence brought by Count Volegov, that the Stroganovs came from Veliky Novgorod, from among the rich local citizens, and that their ancestor was Spiridon, who lived during the time of Dimitry Donskoy.
Under the Stroganovs, the transformation of dense forests began. However, under Georgy Dmitrievich, who, in fact, was granted the area, no significant changes occurred. The mill worked, the forests remained dense, and the land was uninhabited. In 1715, after the death of the owner, the estate was inherited by his widow Maria Yakovlevna and sons Alexander, Nikolai and Sergei Stroganov. Apparently, the main initiative in the arrangement of the estate belonged to the eldest of the Stroganov brothers - Alexander Grigorievich. Contemporaries characterized him as a kind person, distinguished by rare charity and who loved art. To begin the construction of the patrimony, it was necessary to uproot the age-old pines and drain the reserved swamps. It was then that the first artificial ponds appeared on the Goledyanka River, later one of the main landscape attractions of Kuzminki. They built a wooden manor house, also wooden outbuildings and a wooden church.
At different times in Kuzminki there were successively three documented churches. The first of them was built in 1716 by the Stroganovs, who received a blessed letter, that is, permission to build it. That church was wooden, consecrated in honor of the family shrine of the owners of Kuzminki - the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God and had a chapel of Alexander Nevsky. According to this church, the whole estate got its name - the village of Vlaherna. The church was destroyed by fire in 1732, at the same time a new one was built in its place. Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God also wooden. She, in her turn, died from the “fiery ignition” on November 18, 1758. The current church is the third in a row. It was built in two stages. In 1759-62, a church building was built, as well as a separate wooden bell tower, the author of the project was Zherebtsov. However, by 1779 the church building was in need of repair. Prince M.M. Golitsyn soon rebuilt the building in the forms of mature classicism and built a new bell tower instead of the old one. These works were carried out according to the project of the architect R. Kazakov in 1784-85.
The church contained a family heirloom - Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God(Hodegetria), dates back to the 7th century AD. One of the most revered Greek icons in Moscow. Brought from Constantinople as a gift to the father of Peter I, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1653. Together with the icon, a letter was sent, in which its origin was associated with the Blachernae Monastery of Constantinople, and the history of its veneration with the early history of the Hodegetria of Constantinople. The icon was kept in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the tsar took it with him on military campaigns. The celebration of the icon took place on the fifth week of Great Lent - the Saturday of the Akathist. The Blachernae icon is embossed, made in the wax-mastic technique. The relics of Christian martyrs are added to the wax, so the icon is a reliquary. According to the iconographic type, the Hodegetria list, close to the Smolensk icon of the Mother of God, was created in the second half of the 15th and early 16th centuries, possibly as a repetition of an ancient icon on an old board. On the icon there is a Greek inscription - "God-protected". Currently, the icon is in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Moscow Kremlin. One of the revered relief copies of the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries was kept in the Stroganov-Golitsyn family estate in the village of Vlakhernsky. They were granted for their services to the Fatherland the father of the already mentioned Grigory Stroganov. According to the built temple, the area received a third name - the village of Blachernae.
Blachernae is the name of a place in Constantinople. A long time ago there was a church with a miraculous icon. This icon patronized Constantinople and the Byzantine emperors. According to legend, she put to flight the enemies who attacked the city in 626. The icon showed its wonder-working ability more than once while already in Russia. In 1830, a cholera epidemic broke out. It was difficult to point out at least one place in Moscow or near Moscow that was free from a raging disease. Thousands of people perished every day. And yet in Blachernae not a single person not only died, but did not even fall ill. The Mother of God showed her intercession in 1871, when another cholera epidemic broke out in Moscow. It is not surprising that Muscovites and neighboring residents were in awe of the icon and considered it miraculous. By the way, all three names - Kuzminki, Melnitsa and Blachernae - were used until 1917, we meet all three names in newspapers, guidebooks, letters and diaries of contemporaries. The day of July 2 became a local Christian holiday of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. In 1920 Blachernae Church was closed, and the icon of the Mother of God was transferred to the Dormition Church in Veshnyaki. When it closed in 1941, the icon went to the Tretyakov Gallery, where it is kept in storerooms to this day.
These beautiful wrought iron gates appeared at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, when Kuzminki turned into a summer cottage. Apparently, in order to isolate the princely family from the idle dacha public. Under the Golitsyns, the passage was open. Through the bridge, decorated at four corners with cast-iron floor lamps with griffins, one could get to the Main House. In general, the design of the main entrance was typical for that time: there are cast-iron bowls with lanterns on the floor lamps. Lanterns appeared not so long ago, and earlier torches were lit in these bowls on holidays. They illuminated the entrance to the Front Yard, the Front Yard itself, and the square in front of the church. Opposite the entrance is the main house-palace, on the sides of which there are outbuildings. Guests came here, the owner of the estate lived here. Therefore, trees were never planted in the front yard, but only flowers and low shrubs - all buildings should have been clearly visible.
How did the Kuzminki come into the possession of the Golitsyns? In 1757 daughter of Alexander Anna Alexandrovna Stroganova married a brilliant young court prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn. Among her huge dowry were our Kuzminki and the Ural factories. The fact is that in Kuzminki there was a huge amount of a wide variety of cast-iron products: from entrance gates, monuments, fences and lanterns to openwork benches and sofas in the park. And all this cast iron was made at the own factories of the Golitsyn princes. Kuzminki was even called a kind of open-air museum of iron casting. Having received the Kuzminki estate, Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn rebuilt it at the end of the 18th century. At this time, architects Bazhenov, Kazakov, Egotov, Zherebtsov work here.
During the Patriotic War of 1812 Kuzminki were plundered and destroyed by the French army and experienced hard times. The restoration of the estate is already being carried out by the youngest son of Prince Mikhail - Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn, whose name is associated with the highest dawn of the estate. It was under him that the luxurious park became a favorite vacation spot for Muscovites. Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn was a very famous person in the first half of the 19th century, and became especially famous in the field of charity. The fact. That he was the tenth child in the family, the youngest of the boys. When his brother died in 1821, Sergei Mikhailovich became the owner of a huge fortune of two families - the Stroganovs and the Golitsyns. Prince Golitsyn was chairman of the Moscow Board of Trustees and for 50 years remained his honorary guardian. Sergei Mikhailovich not only headed many charitable institutions, but also invested his money in them. In addition, the prince was the director of two hospitals, which also required considerable investment. Understanding charity as disinterested help, Sergei Mikhailovich distributed a lot of money to the orphans, the sick and the poor. And for this activity, Prince Golitsyn received all the available civil orders. Up to the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. However, in his personal life, Sergei Mikhailovich was not very lucky: with his wife Evdokia Ivanovna, they lived, as they said then, “on the road”: she was in St. Petersburg, he was in Moscow. The salon of Princess Golitsyna was very popular: the whole color of St. Petersburg society gathered here. The princess arranged her receptions almost at night, they usually ended at 3-4 in the morning. Young Pushkin was a frequent guest of the princess's salon. He was attracted by the hostess herself, and her extraordinary mind, and the society that gathered here. And Sergei Mikhailovich lived in Moscow, was known as a "Moscow old-timer", was friends with the Moscow Governor-General, was a trustee of the Moscow Orphanage and Moscow University.
So the main house. The main house was rebuilt and completed more than once, so this building does not look like an old manor house at all. Only cast-iron lions remained at the entrance to the palace, and above the windows there are bas-reliefs on mythological themes. The main house was connected by a colonnade, and for some time by a solid gallery with side wings, also made of wood. They were decorated with columned porticos with lions at the entrance and beautiful stucco work on the top of the facade. The side wings were so beautiful that they were called the Classical Pavilions. In the center of the courtyard was a green lawn or flower garden, and possibly a fountain. The main house was built at the end of the 18th century by the architect Egotov. After the fire in 1916 - 1930. rebuilt by the architect Toropov. It overlooks the main courtyard and is connected by galleries with strictly symmetrical one-story wooden wings with 6-column porticos, built in 1814-1815 by architect I.D. Gilardi. The western wing was restored in brick in 1952-1953.
Next to the left wing, a little deeper from the fence, we see Egyptian pavilion or kitchen outbuilding. Here, not far from the manor house, was the kitchen. In order not to spoil the impression, the building was made in the same style. Once upon a time, a covered gallery led from the kitchen to the house - so that the food would not cool down while it was being carried into the house. And below were vast cellars in which wines and products were stored. Why was the Kitchen Outhouse called the Egyptian Pavilion? Take a closer look: the slightly sloping walls and the trapezoid-shaped window in the mezzanine are reminiscent of Egyptian buildings, in particular, the pyramids. The columns at the entrance end with lotus petals. And the stucco is made in the form of a winged sun and the heads of a sphinx. In all other respects, this is an ordinary building.
front yard it is separated from the rest of the estate by a brick wall and a moat, which used to be filled with water. Cast-iron "Egyptian" lions lie on the cast-iron fence with their muzzles facing the courtyard, which, as it were, guard the front courtyard from all sides. These figures were designed by the sculptor Campioni. Santino Campioni, born in 1774, son and student of the sculptor Pietro Campioni. He studied under the Italian marble sculptor Bolo. From 1795 he lived and worked in Moscow. He performed mainly ornamental works, designed the palace of Paul I in Gatchina, the facade and interiors of the Grand Kremlin Palace. In Kuzminki Kampioni, sculptures of lions and a double-headed eagle were created for the obelisk in honor of Peter I, the decoration of the Lord's house was carried out.
To the left of the front yard is the economic part of the estate - the so-called "Slobodka". There is Barnyard , or, in other words, Dairy farm. And we will go there along Poplar Alley. In ancient estates, alleys of trees of the same species are not uncommon. Most often it is linden, which was loved for its fragrance during flowering, for keeping the shape of the crown well when sheared. However, there were also birch alleys, as well as pine and cedar alleys. But poplar was used extremely rarely in the formation of alleys, and there are several reasons for this. Poplar grows quickly and spreading. Therefore, it requires constant care. It was also believed that poplar takes energy from a person. And our ancestors also suffered from poplar fluff, like us. However, in spite of everything, by some amazing whim, a huge Poplar Alley was planted. To the right at the beginning of the alley is a large two-story building with a triangular pediment in the center. Initially, these were two identical buildings, and the passage between them led to the Red Court. There were stables, cellar buildings and other houses of various kinds. Some of them have survived, some have been rebuilt. This fence and gate did not exist before. The alley had a natural continuation.
On the left side are three very similar two-story buildings. The first house closest to the church is the house of the clergy. On the second floor there were two apartments - a priest and a sexton, on the lower - an almshouse for the elderly and sick servants. During the restoration of the Blachernae Church, divine services were held in the large hall of the house. At present, like the church with the sacristy, the house of the Priest was transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate. And it has a Sunday school. The next building is the servants' wing, which was designed for 14 families of courtyards. It originally had balconies on the second floor on the east and west sides. A brick wall between the buildings encloses the utility yard. Since this fence overlooks Poplar Alley, along which members of the princely family and numerous guests walked, the wall is also made in a special style.
Slobodka arose in the 1770-1780s, when Zherebtsov worked in Kuzminki. Later, this complex of buildings was rebuilt twice by D.I. and A.O. Gilardi.
Domenico, or Dementy Ivanovich Gilardi, architect, prominent master of the Empire style, one of the creators of the new look of Moscow after the fire of 1812. Born in Switzerland on June 15, 1785 in the family of architect Giovanni Battista Gilardi, who in 1787 began working in Russia. Domenico, who first came to Russia with his mother in 1796, subsequently lived mainly in Moscow. He studied with his father, as well as with Scotty and other painters in St. Petersburg, attended the Milan Academy of Arts, then independently studied the art and architecture of Rome, Florence and Venice. Returning to Russia, he was assigned as an assistant to his father, who was the architect of an orphanage. Having briefly left for Kazan during the invasion of Napoleon, on his return he was engaged in the restoration of the ancient capital. He worked in the expedition of the Kremlin buildings, and in 1818 he took the place of his father, who retired due to old age. Gilardi built a lot in the city and its environs, but these were separate buildings, and only in Kuzminki did he create something more - an architectural ensemble. Many buildings of the estate Gilardi does not rebuild, but only restores. But they, and the newly created ones, and the park and park facilities are being created in the same way. In the estate, in addition to Domenico, his father, uncle and cousin also work. After the death of the old prince in 1859, no work has been carried out on the estate.
On the other side of Poplar Alley - Upper Garden. Upper, because it is located on the banks of the Upper Pond. This is a small but very interesting piece of the park. A wide variety of shrubs grew here: lilac, jasmine, honeysuckle, wild rose, acacia, barberry. Between them at a great distance from each other were planted large trees - tapeworms. Some of them have survived to this day. The main part of the plants that overgrown the Upper Garden grew by self-gardening when the park was no longer monitored.
This wooden one-story building with a mezzanine on the right side of the alley is a hospital. It has been preserved as it was built at the end of the 18th century. The hospital worked only in the summer months, when the prince and his servants lived in the estate and served not only the prince's court, but also the surrounding villages. The advice of a doctor, as they said then, and the dispensing of medicines were free for everyone. As Moskovskie Vedomosti wrote, the hospital was famous for its cleanliness, convenient location of the premises, and the availability of the necessary bottles, so that any zemstvo hospital could envy it.
The name of the famous artist V. G. Perov is associated with the Blachernae hospital. The fact is that he was ill with consumption, and when the disease reached such a stage that the doctors could not help him, Vasily Grigorievich asked to be transported to Kuzminki. In 1882, he lived a little over two weeks in the building of the hospital thanks to the friendship of his younger brother with the then local zemstvo doctor Konstantin Tolstoy. On May 12, the Perovs moved to Kuzminki, settling on the second floor of the hospital building in Tolstoy's apartment. However, in the Kuzminskaya hospital, the artist did not feel better, and on May 29 Vasily Grigorievich Perov died.
At the very end of Poplar Alley, on the banks of the Upper Pond, stands the Animal Farm, or Dairy Farm.. The one-story premises housed the dairy, calf departments, rooms for storing utensils and other necessary things. There was even a small department with specially trained cows, where the ladies, “if” they wanted to, could milk the cows themselves. All buildings of the Animal Farm were made by Alexander Gilardi and date back to the 1840s. Between the outbuildings stands a taller two-story building. This is a bar house. It was connected to the outbuildings by an elegant iron fence. On it, on both sides of the central pavilion, there were cast-iron sculptures of bulls cast according to Klodt's models at the Golitsyn Ural factories. In 1889, a public festivity, which had previously been held near the church, was moved to the Animal Farm. This circumstance caused a surge of inspiration in the journalist of the popular newspaper Moskovsky Listok, who visited Kuzminki on June 22 of the same year. Having examined the new place of festivities, he wrote the following quatrain:
“Why are we in such trouble?
Many times I thought about
Indeed, in a strict sense,
We must walk with the cattle.
Soon the Animal Farm was abolished. The then owner Kuzminok S.M. In 1889, Golitsyn handed over the vacated buildings to the Moscow district zemstvo for the expansion of the Blachernae hospital, which had long been cramped in the house along Poplar Alley. Next to the Dairy Farm is a huge pit with smooth banks of clearly artificial origin. This is the Karasik pond. The drainage system of the pond is broken, so now there is no water in it. The pond was purely utilitarian. Here, and not into the Upper Pond, dirty water was drained from the Dairy Farm. From the pond "Karasik" within easy reach to the Upper Pond. The upper pond is the largest, its length was more than a kilometer. This is the main pond in the estate; most of the manor buildings are located on its banks. Reflected in its still water, they only emphasized the wondrous beauty of this place. In order to get from the Dairy Farm to the opposite bank of the pond, one had to pass through the so-called floating bridge. From one bank to the other, boats were placed tightly, sides to each other. Flooring was laid on them. Such a “living” bridge was assembled every spring and dismantled in the fall.
There were a lot of waterfowl on all the ponds. Islands were often arranged on large ponds, their configuration, size, and location were carefully thought out. They gave great picturesqueness to the pond and the surrounding area. And now we stopped near such an island. In a long narrow strip, it stretches along the coast, following its turns and bends. Stone arched bridges with cast-iron railings led to the island. On the island itself in 1847, designed by the architect L.D. Bykovsky was put monument to Emperor Nicholas I. Sergey Mikhailovich loved this emperor very much, he grieved very much about his death, and therefore they erected a monument to him here. It was the last building of the old prince.
Further along the way we come to the Orangery greenhouse. In the past, various gathering and collecting was very widespread in old estates. They collected what they liked: paintings, antique clothes, smoking pipes, weapons, coins, all sorts of outlandish items. These collections were the pride of the owner, they were shown to the guests. Collecting outlandish plants was very popular. And since these plants, as a rule, were brought from the south, special premises were built for their maintenance - greenhouses. The word "greenhouse" itself comes from the French "orange" - orange. Indeed, citrus fruits were the pride of such collections: tangerines, oranges, lemons, oranges. The first greenhouse on this site was mentioned as early as 1760 as "old". In 1761 it was demolished and replaced with a new one. Her projects were carried out as I.P. Zherebtsov, and the princely gardener Johann Schneider. The new greenhouse, wooden on a stone foundation, in turn, was replaced in 1805 with a brick one. Ten years later, a new greenhouse was built on this site. Once again orange greenhouse was rebuilt in 1919 for the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine. As you can see, the building of the orange greenhouse consists of three parts, a central one and two side ones. At the top of the central building there is a balcony - an observation deck. Let's go up there. In the central part, the highest, grew the largest trees. This hall is painted with drawings on Egyptian themes, and therefore is called the Egyptian. By the way, this painting is practically the only one that has been preserved in Kuzminki to our time. As a rule, greenhouses were strictly oriented to the south. In order for the plants to receive as much solar heat and light as possible, there were either large windows on the south side, or in general the entire wall was made of glass. The same huge windows as in the center of the building were on the side wings. But at the end of the 19th century, the building was rebuilt as housing for the Institute of Noble Maidens, and the wings were made two-story. In those distant times, there were no trees surrounding us: they obscure the building and interfere with the penetration of sunlight. Here was a balcony, which was an observation deck. A person who came here for the first time had the impression that he was on a peninsula: the water of the pond was visible from three sides. From the balcony, from above, both the upper reaches of the pond, and the pond downstream, and the opposite bank were clearly visible.
If you go towards the dam from the Orangery greenhouse, then you get to the ruins of the "Lion" or "Round Pier". Why, on the shore of the pond, where there are many bridges, a pier? The fact is that during the holidays, and they were celebrated on a grand scale, ponds played an important role. Guests rode in rowing and sailing boats, songwriters and orchestra players rode, delighting guests with their art. As you can see, the banks of our pond are low. If we take into account that the water level was higher, then it is clear that the boat could land anywhere on the shore of the pond. In addition, for convenience, stairs descended to the water. Therefore, beautiful piers were often arranged on the ponds, and not just a wooden platform, so that the ladies would not get their skirts wet. The piers had not only a utilitarian purpose, but were also an adornment of the place where they were located, and, first of all, of the pond itself. The upper platform of the Lion's Quay was round, hence its first name - "Round Pier". It was surrounded by a beautiful cast-iron fence and was another observation platform. From it down to the water from two sides descended two stairs, decorated with two pairs of lying lions. Hence the second name of the pier - "Lion". There was also a pier on the opposite bank, less luxurious, but also with a round observation platform and a staircase descending to the water. And a ferry ran between these piers, transporting guests from one coast to the other.
In the gap between the trees, the walls turn yellow. This is a building that was built on the site of a burned-out palace. We approached him from the opposite side. Now these trees completely cover the house. And earlier it was clearly visible: a portico with columns, stucco bas-reliefs above the windows, vases and cast-iron floor lamps on the sides of the stairs. A huge flower garden descended from the house to the pier. It should be noted that when building palaces, their creators took into account not only how the building looks in a given place, but also what is visible from the windows. Let's go into the house. Therefore, whenever you are in ancient estates, go up to the windows, and another side of the work of the masters of the past will open before you. So, what do we see from the park windows of our palace. Huge flower garden. Lion's Wharf, a wharf on the opposite bank, behind which rises a wide clearing, bordered on both sides by a green forest wall. At the top of the hill stood a pillared arbor or Propylaea, decorated from the side of the pond with sculptures of centaurs.
Propylaea in Greek they mean “monumental entrance”, and through this gazebo it was really possible to get into the estate from the Zarechye side. And, finally, the Propylaea played an important role in the design of the surrounding landscape and had planning significance. If we draw the main axis of the estate from the Cast Iron Gate, then it will pass along the entrance Lime Alley through the bridge with griffins, the center of the Front Courtyard, the vestibule, the flower garden, the Lion's Quay and the pier on the other side and end with the Propylaea.
We have already said that the estate was intended for holidays, of which there were a great many here. What were these holidays like? A holiday in the estate is always an event. Hosts and guests have been preparing for it for a long time. Holidays were part of the life of the society of that time. Visiting them, especially to noble gentlemen, was prestigious. Here they supported and made new acquaintances, looked after grooms and brides for their children. They came not only with children, but also with the closest servants, maids, nurses and pugs. Holidays continued sometimes for several days and included a lot of entertainment. During the day, these were various games in the air, in the garden and in the house, walking in the park and the surrounding area, rides on horseback or in carriages, boating, etc. Evenings turned into balls and concerts. The holiday often ended with "fiery fun" - fireworks. And the holidays were absolutely luxurious when members of the imperial family came here. And they have been here many times. So, at the end of the 18th century, Catherine II visited Kuzminki. In 1837, the future emperor Alexander II was here, while still a crown prince. He traveled around Russia, accompanied by his mentor, the poet Zhukovsky, and stayed in Kuzminki for about a month. His grandmother repeatedly visited the estate - Empress Maria Feodorovna. She was very fond of Kuzminki and in 1826 ordered the St. Petersburg artist Rauh to make drawings with views of the estate. Soon two albums of engravings by Kuzminok, made according to the artist's drawings, were published in Paris. Later these books were republished in Russia. According to them, we can judge what Kuzminki were like at the time of their dawn.
If we walk a little more along the pond, and on the opposite side we will see a group of buildings. This is the horse yard. The place of the Horse Yard was determined even under the Stroganovs. Gilardi, restoring the estate, did not transfer it to another place, although in the end it turned out to be not entirely successful. These trees did not exist, they grew later, and in the windows of one of the manor houses a “wonderful” picture was visible: a stable, a column of dust, the cries of grooms, the neighing of horses, etc. were heard. And we just talked about what has always been taken into account, what views open from the windows. Moreover, under the Stroganovs, the horse yard was in terms of the letter "P", deployed towards the pond and the manor's house, i.e. the whole so-called "kitchen" was in sight. Gilardi, rebuilding the estate, separated all this “beauty” from prying eyes: he connected both side wings with a blank brick wall with an arched pattern (remember, exactly the same pattern of the fence on Slobodka?) and puts in the center of the fence Music pavilion. This is one of the best creations of Gilardi, one of the best buildings of the Russian Empire. During the holidays, the fortress orchestra was located here. The building of the music pavilion is wooden - to make the music sound better. There are very few decorations here - a sculpture of Apollo with the Muses above the colonnade in a niche and a small stucco with images of musical attributes in the upper corners. A wide staircase descended from the Musical Pavilion, on the sides of which at first there were plaster centaurs. Later they were replaced cast iron sculptures of horses with guides cast at the Ural Golitsyn factories according to Klodt's models. These are copies of the sculptures installed on the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. The location for the Musical Pavilion was well chosen. It stands on some elevation above the pond and opposite the manor's outbuilding, where music was heard through the open windows. As a rule, the orchestra played in the evening, when a light fog rose over the pond - a good conductor of sound. Therefore, the music that was played in the pavilion could be heard through the open windows of the manor house, and far into the depths of the park.
On the opposite bank, almost on the very edge of the slope, stands classical pavilion . And under it we see two grottoes. One of them is called Trekharochny, because. has three entrance arches. The other is Large, or Single Arch. The very concept and the word Grotto came to us from distant Italy and mean "underwater cave". There, on the rocky and indented shores of the Adriatic, there are indeed many underwater caves. We do not have them - where would they come from? And therefore grottoes are called artificial earthen caves dug in the steep slopes of rivers and ravines. Inside they were laid out with a "wild" stone or the earth was rammed. These are kind of park pavilions. Here the air temperature is always a few degrees lower than in the surrounding air - a good shelter from the summer heat and heat. How did the grottoes appear in Kuzminki? After all, there are no steep differences in surfaces - the terrain is flat. But when they built the front yard and leveled the platform for it, a slope formed on the bank of the pond. Grottoes were made in it. By the way, not only for beauty. The large grotto during the holidays was used for theatrical performances. There was no fortress theater here. But amateur theatrical performances were sometimes staged by the hosts and their guests. Then the Big Grotto turned into a theater. And another interesting detail. If an axis is drawn through the center of the Musical Pavilion, then it will fall into the Big Grotto. Thus, the Big Grotto is a kind of resonator, sound reflector.
If we go a little forward from the grottoes and look to the right, we will see the fence of the Front Courtyard, a bridge over the moat and floor lamps with griffins on it. We walked around the estate. Once the canal reached the mirror of the pond, was filled with water, and here was an arched stone bridge with cast-iron railings. And to our left is the dam of the Upper Pond. Once upon a time, there was also a dam here, on which stood a mill, which, according to legend, belonged to the miller Kuzma. And in the 19th century, the mill was already made of stone. In 1840 the architect M.D. Bykovsky remodels the upper part of the mill into a living space. This is the House on the Dam, which existed until the summer of 2000. Mikhail Dorimedontovich Bykovsky . He came from a craft-philistine family. He studied with Domenico Gilardi, then became his assistant. In 1817-1823, he took part in the construction of the estate of the Golitsyns in Kuzminki and Grebnev, the Orlovs in Otrada and others. Since 1830 he was an academician of architecture, a teacher at the Moscow Palace Architectural School. He became one of the most authoritative theoreticians and practitioners of a new direction - eclecticism.
bridge over the weir, on which we stand was once adorned with sculpture. Half-seated - half-lying human figures depicted the four seasons. Then they were replaced with cast-iron lanterns. Unfortunately, neither the sculptures nor the lanterns have survived to our time. Behind the dam of the Upper Pond, the Lower Pond begins, on both sides of which the English Garden is spread, entirely given over to rest and walks. From here, a very beautiful view of the island of the lower pond opens up from the bridge.
Once from the "mainland" was transferred to the island openwork air cast-iron bridge on metal tapes - "shaking". Not far from it stood the Bathhouse or soap room. A small building near the water had a purely utilitarian purpose. But it was located where people constantly walked. Therefore, outwardly, it was given the appearance of a park pavilion: keystones in the form of lion masks, large windows, the entrance is designed in the form of a loggia with two columns. Inside, the Bath House had several rooms, where, in addition to the actual bath, there was a small study, a living room, and a small library. The bathroom house partially burned down in 1994 and almost completely in May 1995.
On the opposite, left, bank of the lower pond, among weeds and bushes, you can see the ruins of a red brick building with white stone details. Under the Stroganovs, there was a poultry house here, where decorative birds were kept: peacocks, guinea fowls, swans, etc. Gilardi converted this building into a forge, since it is located not far from the horse yard. The poultry yard in Kuzminki has been documented since at least 1765. It contained Egyptian pigeons, peacocks and rare birds. Then the poultry yard was already in this place, but it was made of wood. It was completely replaced by the current "stone" building, built in 1805-1806. and designed by I.V. Egotova. During the War of 1812, all the exotic birds that were in the poultry yard died. After that, the Bird Yard ceased to exist.
In the Upper Pond, near the dam, a canal originates, which feeds the Pike Pond.. It is along and near this canal that the oldest trees in the park grow. The channel is filled with water, but the current in it is very weak. Therefore, the channel "blooms" in summer. But, nevertheless, huge old trees - oaks and larches - in combination with the quiet surface of the water give a peculiar beauty to this corner of the park. On the Pike Pond, almost at the very shore, there is a small round island. Once upon a time, stone arched bridges with low stone parapets also led to it from both banks of the canal. On the island stood Birch, or Chinese gazebo. Outside, it was covered with birch bark, which is why it was called birch. Its roof was a bit like a Chinese pagoda, which gave the second name to the gazebo. Cast-iron benches with openwork backs stood near the gazebo, and a sculpture stood at the entrance. Unfortunately, to date, almost none of the ancient buildings and sculptures have been preserved. You can only feel the charm of the old estate, the decline of which began at the end of the 19th century.
In the 1890s, all buildings, except for the main house, were rented out as summer cottages. Dachas are also being built in the park. Thus, the estate is gradually turning into a profitable and popular summer cottage. With the beginning of the 20th century, many years of suffering came for Kuzminki. During the First World War, the main house burned down, where the officers' hospital was then located. The final destruction of the estate began immediately after 1917, when monuments to Nicholas I and Maria Feodorovna. The art historian A.N. Grech wrote: “Unbridled visitors broke the bars on the bridges, twisted the stones of the pier - right, just for the sake of wanting to see how they fall into the water ... the log frame of the Horse Yard pavilion appeared from under the crumbling plaster. Flowers and plants in greenhouses died. And later, when both the pier and the horse yard were nevertheless repaired by the efforts of enthusiasts of the old art, the new owners of Kuzminki sold for scrap and alloy cast-iron benches, garden lighting fixtures, gratings, even pedestals dug into the ground with chains, distinguishing between the rows of trimmed lindens the avenue of the front entrance alley…” After the revolution, the Veterinary Laboratory was transferred here, transformed into the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine, which still occupies the main buildings of the estate.
So we met with the main part of the Kuzminki estate with its buildings. You can walk around the park on your own, without us. Walking, take your time, look around more often, because in Kuzminki there are very few straight alleys and paths, and each turn opens up new views and new landscapes. The former splendor of the Golitsyn estate near Moscow is impressive. But today it is very difficult to see it among the ruins after a dozen years of desolation and destruction. And yet, in recent years, thanks to the close attention of the authorities, the situation is beginning to change. The Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was reconstructed, the Pike Pond was cleaned, and bank protection work began. The restoration of the Horse Yard with the Musical Pavilion and the restoration of the original appearance of Slobodka are ongoing.

They had several names. The first of them was "Melnitsa", after a mill that once stood here on the Goledyanka River. As early as the beginning of the 18th century. here was an impenetrable pine forest, which a century later, in the middle of the XIX century. stretched to the village of Karacharova. The legend has long been preserved in the people's memory that the mill was once built by the miller Kuzma - hence Kuzminki. Indeed, the scribe book of 1624 recorded here, among the possessions of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky monastery, "a wasteland that was the Kuzminskaya mill." Another name for this area and which arose here in the first quarter of the 18th century. the village became Blachernae.

This name is associated with the family of "eminent people" Stroganovs, who played an outstanding role in Russian history. The origin of this surname is told in different ways. According to one of the legends, where the true story is closely intertwined with fiction, the ancestor of the Stroganovs was a close relative of the Tatar Khan, according to some statements, even his son, who in the second half of the XIV century. went to Moscow to the Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. Here the Tatar Murza was baptized into the Orthodox faith with the name of Spiridon, married a close relative of the Grand Duke and found his second home. According to legend, the khan, having learned about the baptism of Spiridon, demanded that Dmitry Donskoy extradite him, but was refused and sent a strong Tatar army to Russia. The prince sent his army against them, led by Spiridon himself. A battle took place, the Russians were defeated, and Spiridon was captured. The Tatars tried to return the prisoner to his former faith, but everything was to no avail, and then the khan ordered to tie him to a pole, and cut the body on it, and then cut it all into pieces, scatter it, which was done. Born shortly after the death of Spiridon, his son Kozma received the surname Stroganov, in memory of the martyrdom of his father.

Much more plausible is the legend about the origin of the Stroganovs from the ancient Novgorod family of the Dobrynins, who had vast holdings in the ancient Novgorod possessions - Ustyuzhna and Solvychegodsk. Subsequent research by historians finally refuted the legend about the origin of the Stroganovs from the Tatar Murza and confirmed that they were from Novgorod, and their ancestor was indeed a certain Spiridon, who lived during the time of Dmitry Donskoy.

During the XV-XVII centuries. The Stroganovs, multiplying from generation to generation, accumulated huge land wealth in the Urals - first in Solvychegodsk, and then in Perm. By the beginning of the XVIII century. in their hands were several million acres of land. For several centuries, the Stroganovs have shown themselves to be excellent and diligent hosts. Salt production was the main and most significant source of their colossal income. In fact, it was one of the first types of mining industry in Russia. Another source of replenishment of their wealth was barter with the Siberian peoples.

In need of working hands, the Stroganovs attracted people from the central regions of Russia with various kinds of benefits. Often there were many fugitive peasants among them, but the Stroganovs accepted almost any person, not particularly interested in his past, he would only be a good worker. The attitude of the Stroganovs towards their people stood out sharply against the background of that time with their attentiveness and concern for their needs, for which they paid them the same. A small fact testifies to the wide popularity of the Stroganovs even among inveterate people. A contemporary of Peter I and the first owner of Kuzminok, Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov, who will be discussed below, used to send his people every spring with the beginning of navigation to the salt works he owned with money for current expenses and payback to hired workers. In 1712, he sent there a huge sum of 50 thousand rubles for those times. At Solvychegodsk, the clerk of a Moscow merchant joined the Stroganov people with 10,000 rubles. Climbing up the river, the messengers met a gang of thieves of the famous local robber Konkov with 60 people. The forces were unequal, and after a small skirmish, Konkov captured the entire cargo, and took the escorts prisoner. Having learned, however, that the captured people and money belonged to Stroganov, Konkov immediately freed all the captives, returned the money and “all belongings to the smallest thing,” declaring: “Should we offend our father, Grigory Dmitrievich?” However, the robber did not turn out to be a loser, leaving the money of the Moscow merchant.

The Stroganovs' possessions were located on the far outskirts of what was then Russia. From the east, they were bordered by the lands of the Siberian Khan Kuchum. The restless neighborhood, the frequent attacks of the militant Tatars forced the Stroganovs to build numerous "towns" and "guards", i.e. small fortresses. In them, on their “kosht”, they kept “gunners, squeakers and collars” for “protection from the Nogai people and other hordes”. The constant threats from Khan Kuchum forced the Stroganovs to take a well-known historical step in 1578 - to call on "remote people" from the Volga Cossacks, led by Yermak, and then, having provided them with everything necessary, send them in 1581 campaign to Siberia. It was one of the most brilliant pages in the history of the Stroganov family.

In difficult times of Russian history, the Stroganovs always provided material assistance to the Moscow sovereigns. When in the middle of the XV century. Grand Duke Vasily the Dark, after an unsuccessful battle, was captured by the Tatars, the Stroganovs collected a huge amount for his ransom. During the Time of Troubles and foreign intervention at the beginning of the 17th century. they helped a lot with money and military force. For these merits, they were granted a special title of "eminent people" assigned only to them and the right to be called and spelled with a full patronymic - with "vich". In this rank, they enjoyed exclusive rights - lack of jurisdiction over ordinary authorities (they could only be judged by the tsar himself), the right to build cities and fortresses, maintain military men, pour cannons, fight with the rulers of Siberia, conduct duty-free trade with Asian peoples, judge their people themselves, benefits from many taxes and taxes. In the famous code of legislation of the XVII century. In the Council Code of 1649, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, these rights of the Stroganovs were fixed by a special article.

At the end of the XVII century. Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov became the sole owner of all the Stroganov's wealth. Only one fact speaks about the size of his possessions, that he owned 20 towns and several hundred villages and villages. These huge funds made it possible for him to provide significant assistance to Peter I, on whose side Grigory Dmitrievich stood even during his struggle with Princess Sophia. Together with the sovereign, Stroganov builds ships in Voronezh and Arkhangelsk, helps with money during the Northern War, supplies the army with the necessary supplies.

In 1703 Grigory Dmitrievich moved to Moscow. Obviously, at the same time, Peter I favors him with Kuzminki near Moscow. Here Stroganov builds his country estate, in which a special house was specially arranged for the arrival of the sovereign.

Grigory Dmitrievich died in the capital in November 1715, and the next 1716 is the first surviving documentary news about the estate. It is contained in the request of his widow Maria Yakovlevna (née Novosiltseva) to build a wooden church "on the Goleda River, at the Kuzminka mill." The construction of the temple was completed by 1720. According to the description of this time, in Kuzminki there was a landowner's estate, clergy courtyards and five courtyards of "business" people who served the estate. The church was dedicated to the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, and since that time another name for Kuzminok, Blachernae, has been found in official papers. The dedication of the church to the Blachernae Icon was not accidental. In 1653, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I, was sent from Jerusalem two copies of this icon, which was considered miraculous. One image was placed in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, and the second image was awarded for his merits by Dmitry Grigoryevich Stroganov, the father of the first owner of Kuzminok.

Until 1740, the estate was jointly owned by the children of Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov - Alexander (1698-1754), Nikolai (1700-1758) and Sergei (1707-1756). According to the family section of this year, Kuzminki went to the eldest of the brothers. The Stroganovs owned Blachernae until 1757, when the daughter of Alexander Grigoryevich Stroganov, Anna Alexandrovna, married Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1731-1804). As a dowry, she brought him Blachernae with 518 acres of land. From that time until 1917, the Kuzminki belonged to the Golitsyns.

From the middle of the XVIII century. for Kuzminki, the heyday begins. Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn, from the very first days, is completely devoted to the care of organizing his suburban area. In 1759-1762. instead of a burnt wooden church designed by architect I.P. Zherebtsov, a new stone temple is being built, which is richly decorated. Various outbuildings, greenhouses, and other buildings are being erected. At the same time, the peasant households were moved to a new place, about a mile away from the temple, where a new village appeared, named Annino, after the name of the prince's wife.

The main house, built at the end of the 18th century, becomes the center of the estate. architect I.V. Egotov. With its facade, it overlooked the main courtyard, surrounded on the eastern and southern sides by a regular garden with a direct driveway. At the same time, a cascade of 4 ponds with a total area of ​​30 hectares was arranged in the floodplain of the small river Ponomarka. The largest of them - Upper Kuzminsky occupies an area of ​​15 hectares, others are named: Nizhny Kuzminsky, Shibaevsky and Shchuchy. In 1794-1798. The manor temple was rebuilt by the architect P.P. Kazakov in the strict forms of classicism style, with Tuscan porticoes and a round light drum with a gazebo-belvedere.

MM. Golitsyn owned Kuzminki for almost half a century, until his death in 1804. After that, his widow Anna Alexandrovna owned the estate for another 12 years, who continued to expand her estate. Shortly before the war with Napoleon, she rounded up the possessions of Kuzminki, having bought 100 acres of land with a small forest in the area of ​​Veshki from the treasury for 20 thousand rubles.

Toward the end of her life, Anna Alexandrovna had to go through the bitter moments of the destruction of Kuzminki by French soldiers in 1812. The owners did not expect that Moscow would be surrendered to Napoleon, and therefore they did not manage to take much out of the estate. After the retreat of the enemy, it turned out that the church and the manor house were completely looted, all the furniture in the house was broken, and grain, hay, cattle and other supplies were seized and taken away from the peasants.

Despite this, Kuzminki are reborn again, and with great brilliance and splendor. In 1813-1815. next to the main house architect A.N. Voronikhin built the so-called "Egyptian House", which is a pavilion decorated in the Egyptian style.

After the death of Anna Alexandrovna in 1816, her sons Alexander (1772-1821) and Sergei (1774-1859) became the owners of the estate, and after the death of his brother in 1821, Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn became the sole owner of the estate. It was under him that the estate received a finished look and became one of the most famous estates near Moscow, standing on a par with Ostankino, Arkhangelsk and Kuskovo.

Soon he proceeds to the further arrangement of the estate, which was carried out with the participation of the prominent Moscow architect D. I. Gilardi. In 1819-1823. he is building the Horse Yard complex. In 1826, according to his project, a suspension bridge was built to the island. A whole flotilla of a yacht and several boats was arranged on the pond, which were served by specially hired sailors. New stone outbuildings are being erected. Particular attention is paid to greenhouses. According to the inventory of 1829, they had 152 lemon trees, 291 orange trees, 26 orange trees, 502 pear trees, 509 plum trees, 217 cherry trees, and 618 pineapple trees. The plants were taken care of by 30 gardeners. Interestingly, the greenhouses not only justified themselves, but also brought the owner an annual income of 3 thousand rubles. An English-style park was laid out near the greenhouses, followed by 40 workers. Soon it became a favorite place for country walks of Muscovites, who were attracted by cleanly swept paths sprinkled with red sand, along which there were cast-iron benches and sofas for vacationers.

In 1831, Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn again expanded the estate by purchasing 120 acres of land occupied by forest and partly arable land from Yegor Dmitrievich Faleev, from Kaluga merchants, who later became a personal noble, for 12 thousand rubles. The next year, at the entrance to the estate, he puts up the front gate, cast from iron in his own factories. They said that they took up to 18 thousand pounds of cast iron.

In 1844, according to the project of D.I. Gilardi on the pond were built granite piers of gray wild stone with lions, and on the shore of the pond were arranged "propylaea" - a decorative structure from a double row of colonies. On the site of an old wooden house, where, according to legend, at the beginning of the 18th century. Peter I stopped during his visits to Kuzminki, a cast-iron obelisk was arranged. The following year, two horse groups were installed at the horse farm, which was considered one of the best in Russia - copies of those that stand on the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. Work on the arrangement of the estate was carried out for a total of 30 years until 1856.

In the history of Moscow life in the first half of the XIX century. Kuzminki entered with their famous festivities, when on summer days the park was open twice a week for all the "decent" public. Muscovites came here with the whole family for the whole day, stocking up on provisions, even with their own samovar, in case the tables intended for tea drinking were all occupied. But the most famous was the annual festivities on the day of July 2, when the temple feast of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was celebrated. In its scope, it was not inferior to the well-known festivities of Muscovites on May 1 in Sokolniki. According to eyewitnesses, on this day, from early morning, thousands of carriages were heading to the Golitsyn estate, and all nine miles from the then Moscow to Kuzminki, the road was essentially a busy city street. After the solemn divine service, where all the Moscow nobility were present, the actual festivities began. Orchestras thundered in the garden, boats with sailors glided on the ponds, samovars were set up in one of the groves. A special place was allocated for the common people. In their scope, these holidays reminded the old people of the feasts of the nobles of the “golden 18th century” and they were often compared with those that Potemkin, Orlov and Sheremetev once gave to Catherine II. According to very rough estimates, up to 12 thousand crews came to Kuzminki that day, and in total more than 100 thousand Muscovites walked in the garden. The festivities ended already late at night, when the sky was lit up by magnificent fireworks with 40 thousand lights.

In the 40s of the XIX century. prince SM. Golitsyn invited one of his acquaintances, Pavel Sumarokov, to Kuzminki. Let's take a look at his diary. He described Kuzminki in this way: “The location is flat, very ordinary, but art and one and a half million rubles turned Kuzminki into the most beautiful suburb of Moscow. The prince invited me there for a temple feast on July 2. Carriages and carriages stretched in rows, beggar boys and girls ran at a trot, begging for alms. They turned off the main road and a cast-iron grate appeared, behind it was another courtyard, another grate with bronze decorations, with the prince's coat of arms on the gate. A bunch of waiters were standing on the porch, and there were many guests in the rooms, some were sitting on the balcony, others were playing cards. The house is oak, tidied up with taste and worthy of great attention. It has existed for 158 years, and Peter the Great often visited Stroganov in it. For lunch, 136 visitors fit; everything is lordly, rich, wines are rare, the fruits of the mountain, music thunders, curious people look in the windows - hats, feathers, beards between them. There were up to 5 thousand uninvited guests, and carriages, carts, droshky occupied all the alleys. Gardens with hillocks, rivers, pavilions are superbly interconnected and represented then fashionable, noisy societies. By evening, all the greenery was lit up with multi-colored lanterns, and the fireworks concluded the celebration, similar to the royal one.

Such magnificence continued almost until the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn did not live to see this two years. After his death, the estate passed in 1859 to his nephew Mikhail Alexandrovich Golitsyn, but he soon died, and Kuzminki went to his 17-year-old son Sergei (1843-1915). He rose to the rank of colonel, and through the court line received the title of Jägermeister. He entered the history of his era by shocking secular society, enrolling in the merchants of the first guild and doing business at the same time. The new owner could no longer maintain the estate on the same scale. For family reasons, since 1873, for his summer vacation, he chooses another of his suburbs - the village of Dubrovitsy near Podolsk, and the estate in Kuzminki is adapted for renting to summer residents. After the departure of S.M. Golitsyn from the estate of Kuzminki finally turn into a holiday village, connected in the summer by regular traffic with the nearest railway stations. In the late 1900s, S.M. Golitsyn proposed to sell the estate to the city for the construction of new irrigation fields in it, that is, to expand the city sewerage system. But Kuzminki was a majorate, their sale required the personal consent of the tsar, but Nicholas II refused this request, believing that the estate should have remained in the Golitsyn family.

Today's post is a continuation of the story about the natural and historical park "Kuzminki". Last time I talked about the magnificent ones around which the park is spread. Today I invite you to get acquainted with the old Moscow estate "Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki", which is part of a modern cultural complex.
In order to give some idea about this unique place, I will tell you briefly about the history of the estate.

Brief history of the estate

The land, called "Kuzminki", and the lonely mill that stood here, originally belonged to the Simonov Monastery. In 1702, Peter I took away the land from the monastery and presented it to Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov (1656-1714), who, in fact, did not change anything here during his tenure. Construction began after the death of Stroganov, when the land was transferred to his widow and children.
In 1716, a church was built in Kuzminki in honor of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. It was in honor of her that the estate was named Blachernae. This is where such an unusual name of the estate comes from.
Peter I loved these places for their beauty, visited here, stayed in a small wooden house built for him. By this time the manor complex had already been built.
The next official owner of the estate was one of the sons of Stroganov - Alexander Grigoryevich. It was he who created dams on the river and changed the shape of the ponds, after which they became like a river.
The next mistress of the estate was the daughter of A.G. Stroganova - Anna Alexandrovna (1739-1816).
In 1757 she married Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1731-1804). The estate went to Golitsyn as a dowry. The "golden age" (even a century and a half!) of the Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki estate began.

Golitsyn laid out French and English parks in the estate. The English (landscape) park Kuzminok was one of the first in Moscow. The French park was created in the likeness park in Pavlovsk on a 12-beam system. Golitsyn also rebuilt all the existing buildings - a palace, a church, a horse yard, piers, etc.
This is how impressive the estate of that time looked on the plan-scheme.

But Kuzminki reached its maximum prosperity in the 19th century under Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1774 - 1859).

Looking at old photographs and engravings of the estate, you are amazed at its beauty, you are surprised at the grandeur and scope with which our ancestors worked. You are no less amazed at the carelessness and indifference with which other ancestors destroyed and destroyed everything.

In order for you to understand a little what the Kuzminki estate is, I will name a few facts.

The estate was built by the greatest architects - Bazhenov, Kazakov, Gilardi, Rossi, Vitali, Voronikhin and others.
Thanks to them, the estate "Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki" was called both "Versailles near Moscow" and "Russian Versailles", because it really corresponded to the level of the most luxurious examples of architectural and landscape gardening art.
At the Golitsyn foundries, several masterpieces of the estate were cast from cast iron, for example, the figures of griffins and lions on the main gate, Klodt's sculptural compositions "Taming the Horses" (copies in St. Petersburg on the Anichkov Bridge) and many, many other unique items.

Kuzminki were loved at all times. They were visited by emperors, generals, poets, writers, artists. And even now the old estate attracts a huge number of people, and the park is one of the most dearly loved by Muscovites and guests of the city.
Even before the revolution, all the buildings of the estate, except for the main house, began to be rented out as summer cottages. Even then, Kuzminki was a popular holiday destination.
In 1912, a hospital was located in the main building. Four years later, the entire palace and one of the outbuildings burned down and were no longer restored. In the thirties of the 20th century, a new building was built here, which no longer represented the former value.

In 1918, the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine was located on the territory of Kuzminki, which existed for 83 years (until 2001). It is difficult to enumerate what these citizens-veterinarians did. They cut at the root, in the literal and figurative sense of the word, unique objects of the park ensemble, various buildings, park trees, etc.

Kuzminki today

The present day of the estate inspires hope. Even in its current state, the estate "Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki" remains the largest among the estates of Moscow and the Moscow region in terms of the number of objects located here - there are twenty of them. Unfortunately, they are mostly brand new.
The building of the Stable Yard with the Musical Pavilion has been restored - a unique example of architecture in the Empire style. The church, Lion's Quay, and the House on the Dam have also been restored. I read that the plans include the restoration of the main palace. How wonderful that would be!
There are three museums on the territory of Kuzminki: the Museum of Russian Manor Culture, the Museum of Vintage Cars and Carriages, and the Museum of Konstantin Paustovsky. In this regard, Kuzminki is an ideal place to relax - you can go to the museum, and just take a walk, relax.

Walk in "Kuzminki". Continuation

In search of something interesting, we energetically walked along the path of Kuzminsky Park, when suddenly something appeared behind the trees. It was a bridge, a humpbacked stone bridge. It became clear that the most "delicious" was just beginning. From that moment on, I could not tear myself away from the pretty old buildings (real and restored).

About 30 meters from the first humpbacked bridge is the second.

The next was an abandoned house in a thicket of trees. My first association is the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", which describes how for 100 years, while the princess and the entire royal court were sleeping, the palace was overgrown with trees and bushes so that it was impossible to get to it.

I don’t know how much the building of the Orange Greenhouse (and this is exactly it) was overgrown with trees, but the trees stand right next to the broken windows, and in height they are already higher than the house itself.

The further we went, the more interesting it became. This is a beautiful building of a round shape on the banks of the Bolshoy Kuzminsky Pond - Lion's Quay (sometimes it is called Round - in shape). The pier was lost and only recently rebuilt.

The lions that "guard" the pier are Egyptian. This is due to their exotic appearance.

At all times, Lion's Quay has been an excellent observation deck, from where it was convenient to contemplate the surrounding natural beauties.

These are the views from the Lion's Quay.

Until our time, the Propylaea have not survived. In old photos they looked like this:

Humpbacked bridge near the horse yard.

Opposite the horse yard there are grottoes - a place where in the heat the nobility hid from the heat. It is always much cooler in the grottoes than in the open air.

At one of the grottoes, a group of teenagers sat in a circle - they sang songs, discussed something. There is simply no better place for such friendly gatherings.

Rainy weather dispersed visitors. The outdoor cafes were mostly deserted.

Another nice bridge.

House on the dam.

And here is the dam itself, on which

An artistic duck showed an "attraction" - sits, sits,

then takes off. And so in a circle.

Kuzminki has a pleasant atmosphere for relaxation. Chamber. Romantic. An ideal place for walks and meetings.

The prices in the cafe seemed rather big to me. Barbecue - 300 rubles per 100 g. Pancakes are cheaper.

We did not go to the cafe, but went towards the Horse Yard and the Musical Pavilion.

Here they are - the famous horses of Klodt! How could I think that in order to admire them, I do not need to go to St. Petersburg ... The only thing that upsets us is that our Moscow horses are in a very deplorable state - all rusty, breathing their last. It seems that the wind blows, and the masterpieces will crumble.

Now the grottoes are on the other side of us.

People rest in Kuzminki with their whole families.

The outbuildings, standing on the sides of the building, were residential in the estate. The horse yard is located on the back side.

Pavilion decor.

From the Horse Yard and the Musical Pavilion, I go to the humpbacked bridge.