TSARITSINO

Tsaritsino is an amazing place to see, a huge, roofless pseudo-gothic structure, with bridges, follies, lots of woods to walk in, and ponds. It is a wonderful place to relax on a sunny day.

It's history goes back to the sixteenth century, when Tsarina Irina, the wife of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, had an estate here.

In the seventeenth century this area was the property of the boyar family Streshnev, and later of the Princes Golitsin. In 1712 Peter the great presented the estate which was then called Chornaya Gryaz (Black Mud), to the Moldavian Prince Kantemir, whose writer son sold it to Catherine the Great for 25,000 rubles in 1775. She changed it's name to Tsaritsino, and envisaged an estate to match her glorious summer palaces outside St. Petersburg.

Catherine entrusted the building task to Vasily Bazhenov, whom she had commissioned to rebuild the Kremlin, a plan which was never accomplished. His plans specified a park with pavillions in the pseudo-gothic style that was fashionable at that time, and adjoining palaces for the Empress and her son Paul. He worked diligently on the estate for years.

When Catherine returned to inspect the nearly completed buildings she ordered that the main palace be torn down. Some believe that this was because Catherine objected to the Masonic symbols used as ornamentation; others that she could no longer bear the idea of living with Paul, who had grown to loathe her. Construction work was resumed in 1786 by, Matvei Kazakov who was another prominent architect of that time. Kazakov devoted over a decade to the project until it's abrupt termination in 1797 after the Empress's death.

After that, Tsaritsino lay abandoned for years. A museum was established here in 1984, and several of it's buildings have been restored and are being used for various purposes.

Go To The Danilov Monastery

Go To St. Basil's Cathedral

Go To Kolomenskoe

Go To Architectural Monuments

Graphics by Bimsan

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