The obelisk in Kuzminki is dedicated to what event. The estate of the princes Golitsyn "Vlakhernskoe - Kuzminki. Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God

In 1702, Peter I granted these lands to G.D. Stroganov for help in equipping the fleet and army. Then the name "Mill" was assigned to the estate. But they did not forget about the name Kuzminka. Legends claim that the first owner of the mill was a certain Kuzma. Also nearby could be the temple of Cosmas and Damian. But these are just versions. And after the construction in 1720 of a wooden church in honor of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, a new name for the village appeared - Blachernae.

In 1757 Anna Alexandrovna, eldest daughter A.G. Stroganov, married Prince Mikhail Golitsyn. As a dowry, she brought him Blachernae with 518 acres of land. Her husband arranged a grandiose construction in Kuzminki, which went on throughout the 19th century.

Then a cascade of four ponds appeared in the estate, the main house and the Horse Yard were rebuilt, and new cast-iron entrance gates were installed on Lipovaya Alley. They were cast specially for this estate at the Ural factories of the Golitsyns. It was a copy of the Petersburg Gates designed by Rossi - a double colonnade with an attic and the coat of arms of the Golitsyns. These gates later gave the name to the street Chugunnye Vorota. And the bridge, decorated with cast-iron half-lions-half-eagles, became a continuation of Linden Alley. In general, then a lot of cast-iron products appeared in Kuzminki.

Mikhail Golitsyn paid great attention to landscape design.

From the estate to the palace and park ensemble: an architectural and historical cheat sheet

Kuzminsky park was divided into two parts. To the left of the main alley there was a regular park: 12 rays departed from a round meadow, decorated with statues of Apollo, muses, Venus, Mercury, Flora (the so-called "clock"). The right side of the park had a free layout.

There was a school and a summer hospital with 30 beds in Kuzminki, where they received medicines free of charge. The Golitsyns kept the hospital until 1869, and then transferred it to the Zemstvo. Both of these institutions were located in Slobodka on Poplar Alley. In the same place, in the years 1835-1837, according to the project of Alexander Gilardi, the cousin of Domenico Gilardi, a parable house was built. The same architect in 1836-1838 built a barnyard located a little further. Now this building is abandoned, and the figures of bulls standing next to it were taken to the Mikoyan meat processing plant.

In 1912, the Golitsyns sold Kuzminki to the city. They wanted to build a sewage treatment plant here, but on February 19, 1916, the manor house burned down. The fire burned almost all day. In addition to the palace itself, the flames destroyed the precious antique mahogany furniture stored there, old paintings, a collection of several hundred engravings. The press suggested that the fire started because of a malfunction of the stove chimneys or because of the negligence of the officers of the hospital located there.

In 1917, Kuzminki was nationalized and transferred to the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine, which was removed from Petrograd. Over the following decades, the estate fell into disrepair.

Many buildings were rebuilt as laboratories, residential and administrative premises. Cast-iron benches, a unique set of park furniture, all metal monuments and cast-iron gates that adorned the entrance to Kuzminki were sold for scrap. And on the site of the burnt manor house, the work of R.R. Kazakov and I.V. Egotov built a building of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, stylized as classicism. The church was closed and rebuilt, the park was partially cut down, several buildings were destroyed.

A cast-iron fence with figures of lions near the main house and the Horse Yard on the left bank of the Upper Pond (the largest in Kuzminki) have miraculously survived. This building near the dam was built in 1805 according to the project of I.V. Egotova. And in 1823 Domenico Gilardi rebuilt it. In the premises of the Horse Yard there were stables, warehouses for storing fodder, sledges and carriages.

2 residential pavilions were built into the wall enclosing the courtyard and overlooking the Upper Pond. They served as hotels. And in the center was the Musical Pavilion. During the holidays, an orchestra played there. In 1846, Klodt's equestrian sculptures were installed near him - copies of those standing on the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. They were also cast at the Golitsyn factories.

In the late 1930s, the dacha development at the entrance to Kuzminki turned into the Novo-Kuzminsky settlement. The estate itself began to be called Old Kuzminki.

In 1997, the Kuzminki-Lyublino natural, historical and cultural complex was formed, and in 1999 the Museum of Russian Estate Culture "The Manor of Princes Golitsyn Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki" was opened in the building of the Servant's Wing on Topoleva Alley. Today, the exposition and exhibitions are also located at the Horse Yard.

The wooden (for better acoustics) Music Pavilion was badly damaged by fire in 1978. It was restored, and now concerts are held there. And the two-storey Orange Orangery with an octagonal tower, the Bathroom House and the Egyptian Pavilion connected to the main house are still waiting for restoration.

On July 8, 2008, on the day of Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom, a bench of Family, Love and Fidelity was placed in Kuzminki Park opposite the Vanny Dom. For its manufacture, an old French cannon was used. This gun took part in the War of 1812. It was presented to the park by a private collector who wished to remain anonymous. It is believed that if a quarreling couple sits on this bench, they will definitely reconcile.

They say that...... in the Bath House Peter I with S.M. Golitsyn drank beer after a bath. And then the emperor planted an oak next to the building. But in fact, Peter was in Kuzminki only once, returning in 1722 from Persian campaign- long before the birth of S.M. Golitsyn. This is reminiscent of a pedestal made of "wild" stone, on which there used to be a monument with the words "In this place was the dwelling of Emperor Peter the Great."
Although there is a version that this is not a monument at all, but a chapel on the site of an innocently killed traveler.
...a long time ago, one of the hunting princes got lost and went out to the Kuzminka mill. Seeing the miller's daughter Natasha, he was struck by her beauty. A passionate romance began between the young. But soon the prince got bored with the girl in love with him, and he married a rich bride. And the deceived Natasha, out of grief, drowned herself next to the mill and turned into a mermaid. Since then, she has been a random passer-by at night, luring insidious seducers into the pool.
... Prince Golitsyn fell in love with a peasant girl and wanted to marry her. But her father was against it. Then Golitsyn went with her to ride around the neighborhood, brought her to the Kosinsky swamps, and left her to die in the carriage.
... Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn was the chairman of the commission of inquiry that investigated the crime of Herzen, Ogarev and others. When one of the defendants asked to postpone his departure for exile due to his wife's pregnancy, Golitsyn replied: "It's not my fault!" .

Manor Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki

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.

Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov (January 25, 1656 - November 21, 1715) - a major Russian industrialist, landowner, financier and politician from the Stroganov family.

Baron (since 1722) Alexander Grigoryevich Stroganov (November 2 (12), 1698 - November 7 (18), 1754) - chamberlain, real state councilor (1730), lieutenant general from the Stroganov family. The largest salt producer and landowner Russian Empire.

Baron (1722) Stroganov Sergei Grigoryevich (1707-1756) - the largest mining plant from the Stroganov family, real chamberlain, lieutenant general. Construction customer and first owner of the Stroganov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt.

Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God

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 Grigorievich 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 of incredible value as genuine architectural monuments of the 18th - 19th centuries.

Rotary Pietro Antonio. Portrait of Princess Anna Alexandrovna Golitsyna, born Stroganova (1739-1816).

Golitsyn Mikhail Mikhailovich (1731 - 1806), prince, lieutenant general.

Johann Bardu

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 "Vlakhernskoe-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 Okrug and the Museum of Crews and Automobiles.

By the way, if you are a fan of antiquity in general and retro cars in particular, you should visit this museum. It's like you're taking a trip in a time machine to 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 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 of the Horse Yard, built in 1805 and rebuilt according to the project of the famous architect Domenico Gilardi in 1823, will grow first on your way, 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 the Musical Pavilion, which is located in the center of this whole composition.

Kuzminki - horse yard

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

View of the horse yard from the other side of the pond

On the other side of the dam, there is an elegant building, which is called “The House on the Dam”, or the Mill Wing.

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 rebuilt several times, and they had a hand in it in different time such eminent architects as A. Voronikhin, D. Gilardi, I. Egotov and I. Zherebtsov. 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 lodged visiting guests here, 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.

The House on the Dam, or the Mill Outbuilding

Before moving further across the bridge, to the main house of the estate, let's go back a little and look briefly into a corner that is inconspicuous at first glance - to the so-called Bird 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.

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 keeper of the poultry house probably lived, was connected to two symmetrical outbuildings by semicircular wings-gallery covered with a net, in which in the summer there were aviaries for birds, transferred to cold period years in the wings. 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.

Bird yard, Kuzminki estate, Moscow

Well, we follow further, past the Mill Wing, deep into the estate. Having crossed the bridge, which is very favored by the newlyweds (it is completely hung with wedding locks), we get to the elegant, magnificent Front Courtyard. 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

The Lost Palace of the Golitsyns

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.

The Kitchen building, which is now in a not so brilliant state, 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 - the Egyptian Pavilion).

Kitchen, or Egyptian Pavilion

Slightly sloping walls, tapering windows, a portico adorned with palm-shaped columns and a sphinx head enhance the sense of presence of mind. 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. Photo by Mikhail Grizzly / mgreport.narod.ru

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 by 1785 it was reconstructed on the initiative of M.M. Golitsyn in the classic traditions by the architect R. Kazakov.

Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God.

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 the Bath House, or Soap House, 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.

Bathroom house, Kuzminki estate, Moscow

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 Vanny Domik - a bench of Love and Fidelity.

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 look at the grottoes, which are the 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 hide 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, which was first mentioned 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 building 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 the Orangery greenhouse - a structure whose fate is still unclear. Like the Egyptian pavilion, the Orangery 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 design 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.

Orange greenhouse, Kuzminki estate, Moscow

Not far from the dilapidated 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, by order 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 the building of the Service Wing on Slobodka there is an interesting museum - "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 tours that revive the household traditions of everyday life of the 19th century.

One of the most famous buildings in this part of the estate is the Animal Farm, or Dairy 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.

Animal Farm, Kuzminki Estate, Moscow

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 picture of the Austrian artist I.N. Raukh. 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.

: Hospital on Slobodka, Kuzminki estate, Moscow

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 of them - the Literary Museum of K. G. Paustovsky - was opened in 1975, but moved to Kuzminki only in 1987, and since then it has occupied the Gardener's House (it is also called the "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, there is the Museum of Honey, also known as the Museum and Educational Center for 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, educational center the School of Practical Beekeeping and the Club of Honey Lovers also function.

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 there was a monument to the bee - one of the most useful domestic animals. 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 quite tired yet, then you can walk a little more and get into the kingdom 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 magic 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. Various 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.

Portrait of Golitsyna A.I. in the guise of a vestal

V.A. Tropinin. Portrait of Prince S.M. Golitsyn. After 1828.

E.V. Sheremetev. Unknown artist of the 19th century. Kuzminki Museum

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 house. 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 his state of the art The estate "Vlakhernskoye-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 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 was beautiful observation deck from where it was convenient to contemplate the surrounding natural beauty.

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. Better places for such friendly gatherings is simply not to be found.

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 - they are 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.

Manor Kuzminki(also Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki, later Starye Kuzminki) - the former estate of the Golitsyn princes on the lands of the Kuzminsky park in the modern Moscow districts of Kuzminki and Vykhino-Zhulebino. The buildings are located on both banks of the Churilikha (Ponomarka) River, on which the Kuzminsky Ponds system is arranged.

The estate "Kuzminki" is three hundred years old. A century and a half ago, contemporaries enthusiastically spoke of it as the "Russian Versailles", admiring the grandeur of architecture, the unity of nature and art in the arrangement of a grandiose park, the splendor of salons, parties, holidays and masquerades.

chronicle

1045-1218 The wasteland on the Churilikha River is inhabited by Slavic tribes.

1623 The area is first mentioned in the chronicle.

1702 Kuzminki become the patrimony of GD Stroganov.

1716 Construction of the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. The area is called the village of Vlakhernskoe.

1757-1917 Transfer of the estate to the ownership of the Golitsyn family.

I half of the 19th century The estate "Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki" is in its heyday.

1873 Kuzminki turn into suburban village.

1918 The estate is nationalized and transferred to the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine.

1960 Kuzminki receive the status of a monument of history and culture.

1976 Creation of the timber state farm "Kuzminki" and the Park of Culture and Leisure.

1998 The estates of Kuzminki and Lyublino are combined into a historical and recreational complex.

1999 The museum of Russian estate culture "The estate of the princes Golitsyns" Vlakhernoee-Kuzminki "is opened.

Story

Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki is usually called a manor, which is not entirely true. In addition to the estate itself, outside of it, as well as several centuries ago, there are economic complexes and a huge park that turns into a forest.

For the first time this area was mentioned in 1623 in the “Book of the Moscow district of the letter and measure of Semyon Vasilyevich Koltovsky and the clerk Onisim Ilyin”: “on the bank of the Churilikha river there is a wasteland with a mill”, which belonged to the Nikolo-Ugreshsky monastery near Moscow and destroyed in the Time of Troubles. It is also assumed that part of these lands belonged to the Moscow Simonov Monastery. Here were his hunting and fishing grounds.

These lands near Moscow were not distinguished by anything special: forests and meadows, swamps, streams and small villages in the district. From the water mill, built by the inhabitants of the surrounding village, one of the ancient names of the area came from - "Mill". There is a legend that a certain Kuzma worked on it, on whose behalf the name Kuzminki allegedly arose. Its existence is not documented. However, even if we assume that one of the Kuzma millers was really called Kuzma, this proves absolutely nothing: according to the norms of the Russian language, the name of the settlement, formed on behalf of Kuzma, would be Kuzmino, not Kuzminki. The local toponymy immortalized not the millers, but the place of their work, turning it into the own name of this wasteland. Another version of the origin of the toponym is known - by analogy with Kuzminki near Moscow.

There are several in the Moscow region settlements with that name. Once upon a time there were temples in the name of the unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, and the holidays in honor of these saints were popularly called Kuzminki. Most likely, the church in the name of Cosmas and Damian was located on the modern territory of Vlakhernsky-Kuzminki, although the exact location of the temple is now unknown.

Another name for the Churilikha River, Goledyanka, speaks of what was here earlier. According to the dictionary of the Russian language by V. I. Dahl, the word "blank" is a synonym for the word "beggars". Most likely, the local "riverside" residents did not differ in special prosperity. Like today, in those ancient times, Churilikha-Goledyanka flowed into a river with an even more specific speaking name - Beggar.

One of the first significant events in the history of Kuzminki dates back to 1702. It was then that Peter I, having taken this wasteland along with the mill from the Simonov Monastery, granted it to his favorite, "eminent person" Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov (1656-1714) "for faithful service and assistance in equipping the fleet and army." It was a sign of the highest royal disposition towards him, a kind of order, since there were no awards for patrons and donors under Peter I.

Under G. D. Stroganov, no significant changes occurred in Kuzminki. The mill operated, and the rest of the land remained undeveloped and uninhabited. The construction of the estate began already under the heirs of Stroganov.

In 1714, after the death of the owner, the estate passed to his widow Maria (Vassa) Yakovlevna, nee Novosiltseva, and sons - Alexander, Nikolai and Sergei Stroganov. The Stroganovs built a wooden church in Kuzminki in the name of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. According to her, their estate received a new name - the village of Vlakhernskoye (Lakhernskoye).

Not far from the church there was a manor, which originally consisted of a manor's house and outbuildings, also made of wood. In addition to them, in Kuzminki there were five courtyards of "business people" built by Peter I in the "baronial dignity of the Russian Empire" and transferred to the service of the owners of the estate.

It is known that the sovereign, returning to Russia after the victorious Persian campaign, in which the eldest son of Grigory Stroganov, Alexander, became a participant, stopped in Kuzminki. And then a wooden royal house was erected on the estate especially for the emperor. Subsequently, it fell into disrepair, and it was dismantled, and in 1844 a cast-iron obelisk was placed on the site of the building with the inscription: “In this place was the dwelling of Emperor Peter the Great.”

In 1757, the daughter of A. G. Stroganov, Anna Alexandrovna, married a brilliant young courtier, Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn. After the wedding, the Vlakhernskoye estate with 518 acres of land - the bride's dowry - became the property of the Golitsyn family, who owned it until 1917. In addition to the estate, as a dowry for his wife, Prince Golitsyn got a house in Moscow, iron foundries in the Urals, salt pans, ancient documents, icons and an art gallery.

From the middle of the XVIII century for Kuzminki began a period of prosperity. M. M. Golitsyn, from the very first days of owning a residence near Moscow, began its reconstruction. In 1759-1762, instead of a burned-out wooden church, a new stone church, richly decorated, was erected in the estate according to the project of architect I.P. Zherebtsov. At the same time, greenhouses and various outbuildings were built here. At the same time, the peasant households were moved to a new place, about a mile away from the temple. This is how the new village of Annino appeared, named after the wife of Prince Golitsyn.

The center of the estate was the Lord's House, built at the end of the 18th century by the famous Russian architect I. V. Egotov. With its facade, the house overlooked the main courtyard, surrounded on the eastern and southern sides by a regular garden with a direct driveway. At the same time, in the floodplain of a small Ponomarka river, the eminent owner arranged a cascade of four ponds: Upper Kuzminsky, Nizhny Kuzminsky, Shibaevsky and Shchuchy, with a total area of 30 hectares. The largest of them - Upper Kuzminsky - occupied an area of 15 hectares.

The heyday of the Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki estate fell on the first half of the 19th century. At that time, it belonged to the son of Prince M. M. Golitsyn - Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1774-1859). Under him, Kuzminki became on a par with such outstanding palace and park complexes as Gatchina, Peterhof and the Parisian Versailles.

At Golitsyn's own iron foundries, by order of the prince, masterpieces of iron casting were created for Kuzminki: metal benches of various shapes, an obelisk to Emperor Peter I, triumphal and openwork gates, pedestals with double chains, lanterns and girandoles of amazing shapes, fences, figures of lions and griffins on gate. According to contemporaries, the village of Vlaherna was a real open-air museum in those years.

Among other things, S. M. Golitsyn opened an almshouse and a hospital on his estate, serving the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, which was a social innovation.

After the death of Sergei Mikhailovich, the estate was inherited by his nephew, the Russian ambassador to Spain, Mikhail Alexandrovich Golitsyn (1804-1860). He spent most of his life abroad, where he converted to Catholicism and amazed his compatriots with his poor knowledge of the Russian language. In Kuzminki, he practically did not appear.

The next owner of the estate was his son - Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1843-1915). Under him, fateful times came here. In 1873, the prince broke up with his wife for the sake of the young beauty Elizaveta Vladimirovna Nikitina and settled in his other estate near Moscow - Dubrovitsy, Podolsk district. From Kuzminki, almost all the furnishings were transported there. "Russian Versailles" has turned into a holiday village. The huge staff of servants was sharply reduced. Due to the reduction in the number of students, the school "for ministerial children" was abolished. Even the almshouse with all its inhabitants moved to Dubrovitsy.

The vacated buildings of the estate were converted into dachas. In addition, new buildings have appeared specifically for vacationers. Some of the old buildings used as dachas have been renamed. The gardener's house, because of its color, began to be called the Gray Cottage, the Orange Greenhouse - the Orange Cottage, etc.

After the death of S. M. Golitsyn on June 9, 1915 in the Swiss city of Lausanne, Kuzminki passed to his eldest son, Prince Sergei Sergeevich Golitsyn (1871-1918). On February 23, 1916, the Lord's house and the western wing burned down. The fire arose due to the negligence of wounded officers who were treated in a hospital arranged here for them. After the fire, S. S. Golitsyn leased the estate to the Moscow City Council for 99 years, but she never had time to use it.

In the bloody year of 1918, Kuzminki were transferred to the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine, evacuated from Petrograd. Many manor buildings were reconstructed for his needs. The main building of the institute was built on the site of the burnt-out manor house according to the project of the architect S. A. Toropov.

In 1922, cult objects made of precious metals were seized from the church in Kuzminki. Shortly thereafter, the leadership of the institute tried to close the church in order to use it for their needs. But the Department for Museum Affairs and the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities of the Main Science of the People's Commissariat for Education, noting the exceptional artistic value of the church, suggested to the director of the institute not to start altering it without permission. The church was nevertheless closed, but already in 1929, and later it was rebuilt as an institute rest house (later a hostel).

Almost all the cast-iron benches and sofas, which were a one-of-a-kind set of "park furniture" of the first half of the 19th century, cabinets with chains and gratings, were sold for scrap. Cast iron gates and monuments were sent for melting down.

In the summer of 1941, the German command concentrated huge forces in the Moscow direction. Most of the residents of Kuzminki left their homes. The bombings began a month after the start of the war and were carried out regularly from 11 o'clock. Surprisingly, the shells did not cause devastating damage to the estate. Although some funnels and pits from bombs have survived to this day and are reminiscent of the defensive belt that took place in Kuzminsky Park. One of these pits is located near the humpbacked bridge, the other is near the village of Annino. A huge bomb landed in the Golitsyn pond and did not explode. It was discovered after the war when cleaning the reservoir.

In 1960, the former estate received the status of a monument of history and culture, and in November 1976, a decision was made to create the Kuzminki Lesosovkhoz and the Kuzminki Park of Culture and Recreation. Changes in the country could not help touching this corner of Moscow. The building of the Church of the Blachersk Icon of the Mother of God with side chapels of St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Alexander Nevsky was transferred to the Patriarchy in 1992.

In 1998, the former estates of Kuzminki and Lyublino were merged and a historical and recreational complex was formed. Its restoration has begun. In 1999, the Museum of Russian Estate Culture was opened in the Kuzminki estate.

The first exposition "Kuzminki from the Past to the Present" was prepared by the employees of the Museum of the History of Moscow. Since that time, the search for materials on the history of the estate began, as well as the museumification of the estate complex and the creation of cultural and educational programs. For the 300th anniversary of the estate, the Museum of Russian Estate Culture has prepared a unique exposition - “Meet the Golitsyns”. Today, various expositions and exhibitions are constantly held in the Service Wing and in the Stable Yard of the museum. Since 2001, flower garden festivals have been held in the park.

"Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki" is an architectural and park ensemble of unique beauty. This is an icon of the style of Russian manor architecture. The front mansion in the south-east of the capital is always ready to receive numerous guests.

The former residence of the Golitsyn princes is often compared with the brilliant Peterhof and is called the "Russian Versailles". For several centuries, it has been admired by all lovers of Russian history.

Kuzminki is the largest estate in the city of Moscow. Researchers note the scale of its territory and the exclusivity of cascading ponds, the subtle and organic combination of architecture, sculpture and nature, as well as the dominance of the landscape over park structures and a special original Moscow style.

Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki is also distinguished by the fact that its architectural and park ensemble has hardly changed over the years. Not only the buildings of the manor's court have survived and survived to this day, but also a whole complex of household and service buildings: horse and cattle yards, orange and fruit greenhouses, a poultry house, a settlement ...

Today's Kuzminki is a place of pilgrimage for tourists from different countries and a recreation area for thousands of Muscovites. The paths in the park between Kuzminskaya and Chugunnye Vorota streets are reminiscent of the French regular park that used to be here with twelve alleys-beams connecting in the center. Rest on the banks of the picturesque Upper Pond is especially popular.

master's house

The main building of the estate was erected under the Stroganovs. In the future, the Golitsyn princes radically rebuilt the house. Both under those and under other owners, the structure remained wooden. The master's house was connected by a gallery with side wings, sometimes they were also called "Classic Pavilions". In February 1916, when a military hospital was located in the house, a strong fire broke out in the room, which completely destroyed the building. Only in 1930, according to the project of the architect Toropov, a new building was built on the site of the burnt house, which has survived to this day.

Aviary - Forge

The building of the poultry house received a double name, because over time the premises were adapted for a smithy. There was a horse yard nearby, and the grooms were constantly in need of new horseshoes. The pavilion has a very interesting history.

In 1802, Mikhail Golitsyn commissioned the architect I. V. Egotov to build a small park building for peacocks, guinea fowls, turkeys and other outlandish foreign birds on the left bank of the Gole-yanka River, in place of the old poultry yard. For four years, the architect erected a compact trapezoidal building with wide symmetrical wing galleries next to the manor mill. In the central house, most likely, the caretaker lived, and in the "sleeves", tightened on both sides with a special net, there were aviaries for birds.

Fourteen years later, the poultry house fell into disrepair. And now Sergei Golitsyn ordered Egotov's successor - the no less famous architect Domenico Gilardi - to reshape it into a forge. Gilardi seriously distorted the appearance of the building. The enclosures disappeared, and the facades, together with window openings, were sealed with blank masonry. A blacksmith's forge with massive brick arches appeared inside the house.

The Poultry-Forge was also unlucky in the 20th century. Back in the 1950s, this pavilion, disfigured by ugly outbuildings, was occupied by families of employees of the All-Union Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine (VIEV). And in the 1990s, the building looked like ruins, lost in the bushes. Today the Ptichnik-Kuznitsa has been restored.

bath house

The first building of the house was laid by the architect I.P. Zherebtsov in 1765, and in 1801 the building was completely rebuilt. Fifteen years later, the architect D. I. Gilardi, with the participation of A. G. Grigoriev, built a new building on the site of the Bath House. Gilardi gave the Empire-style building the appearance of a park pavilion: keystones in the form of lion masks, large windows, a loggia entrance with two columns, rusticated walls, white-stone plinth and porches, a domed roof. Inside the Bath House, in addition to the actual soap room, there was a bedroom, a dressing room, a dining room, an entrance hall, a living room and an office. In the 1860s, in front of the eastern facade of the house, in the center of an artificial reservoir, architects built a fountain.

In the 20th century, the original layout of the building was not preserved; restructuring distorted its appearance. In the mid-1990s, the Bath House burned down several times, and the remains of the building were dismantled. Currently, the building is completely recreated.

horse yard

The horse yard is the most famous building of the Vlakhernskoe-Kuzminki estate. The building on the left bank of the Upper Pond, not far from the dam, appeared in 1805. And in 1819-1823, according to the project of D. I. Gilardi, the Horse Yard was rebuilt.

In the premises of the courtyard there were stables, warehouses for storing fodder and special utensils, there were sledges and carriages. In the wall enclosing the courtyard and overlooking the Upper Pond, according to the architect's plan, the buildings of two pavilions, which served as hotels, were built in the corners. And in the center, an unusual Musical Pavilion was opened, built in 1820 for the performances of the house fortress orchestra of horn music and which is a recognized masterpiece of Empire style architecture.

In the fodder sheds adjacent to the northern wing, wooden structures for storing fodder have been preserved. At different times, coachmen, grooms, painters, blacksmiths, lackeys, non-commissioned officers, sergeants and singers lived in the northern and southern wings. Since the end of the 19th century, the outbuildings have been used as rented dachas.

Lion's Wharf

A path along the right bank of the Upper Kuzminsky Pond leads to a place covered with large hewn stones. These are the remains of the famous Lion's, or Round Pier. From this pier, the owners of the estate and their guests went on boat trips on the pond. Now it is impossible to get to the pier from the estate by the path that they used. The path is blocked by a metal mesh, which is surrounded by the Institute of Veterinary Medicine from the side of the Upper Kuzminsky Pond.

The location of the pier is documented. It was built in 1762, obviously, according to the project of I.P. Zherebtsov, and at the end of the 18th century it was reconstructed by R.R. Kazakov and I.V. Egotov. In 1811, the pier was built almost anew. At that time, D. I. Gilardi had just begun to work in Kuzminki, and, perhaps, either he or his father, I. D. Gilardi, supervised this construction. Initially, the pier consisted of two platforms with rounded stairs. They were decorated with white-stone pedestals with a balustrade, which served as pedestals for vases and plaster sculptures of lying lions and dogs.

In 1830, D. I. Gilardi carried out a new reconstruction of the pier. Its upper platform was broken and rebuilt, the stone balustrade was replaced with a metal grate, and the plaster sculptures were replaced with cast-iron Egyptian lions, which gave the pier one of its names.

Repair work was carried out here periodically until the beginning of the 20th century, but this did not save the pier from destruction. In 1945, the heavily dilapidated building lost its main decorations - the lions were taken to the city of Lyubertsy located to the west of Kuzminok and installed in front of the building of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. After that, the pier finally turned into ruins, but, nevertheless, received the status of an architectural monument and retained it until 1997.

House on the dam (mill wing)

The structure separating the Upper and Lower Kuzminskiye Ponds was erected on the basement of a mill, the earliest building of the estate, which in the 17th century gave the name to the entire area. The mill wing was rebuilt several times. The architects I. Zherebtsov, I. Egotov, I. Gilardi and A. Voronikhin took part in the work.

Various varieties of wheat and rye flour were obtained at the mill: grits, kulichka, pecked, sieve, etc. In the middle of the 19th century, the House on the dam was reconstructed in last time. The famous architect M. Bykovsky and his sons became the author of the project.

Barnyard

At the end of the Poplar Alley of the Kuzminki estate, on the banks of the Blacherna pond, there is an Animal Farm, or Dairy Farm. The place for it was determined even under the Stroganovs. The buildings that have survived to this day date back to the end of the first half of the 18th century and were made by the architect Gilardi.

The dairy farm is a one-story U-shaped building with two-story side wings. The one-story premises housed stables, a cowshed and storerooms. The outbuildings of the Animal Farm were intended for the accommodation of service personnel - grooms and cattlemen.

In the middle of the Animal Farm there was a cruciform pavilion for the residence of one of the family members of the owner of the estate. This building was finished with luxury. Dutch stoves and walls were covered with Flemish linen, and large rooms were covered with parquet. Initially, the building had balconies, and on its sides there were sculptures of bulls, made according to the sketches of Baron P. Klodt.

Soon the Animal Farm in Kuzminki was abolished, and in 1889 it was transferred to the Moscow District Zemstvo to expand the Blachernae Hospital. This medical institution existed until 1978.

Opposite the Animal Farm across the Upper Pond in 1837-1838, according to the project of Gilardi, on boats floating in the water - pontoon boats - a pontoon bridge was erected. He combined this part of Kuzminki with the buildings of the estate located on the other side - the pier and the Propylaea pavilion. The pontoon bridge was seasonal and was used only in summer time. In the fall, it was dismantled so that in the spring nothing would interfere with the ice drift. In 1843, the bridge was reinforced on piles, and in this form it stood until the outbreak of the First World War.

Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God

According to documents, three churches were successively built and operated in Kuzminki. The first of them, according to a blessed letter, was erected in 1716 by the Stroganovs. A wooden church with a chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky was consecrated in honor of the family shrine of the owners of Kuzminki - the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God (Hodegetria). According to this church, the area got its name - the village of Blachernae.

When in 1732 the temple died "from a fiery fire", a new church was erected in its place almost immediately. She stood for 25 years, after which she suffered the same sad account. November 18, 1758 the temple burned down.

The current church is the third in a row. It was built in two stages. In 1759-1762, a church building was built, as well as a separate wooden bell tower. The author of the project was the architect Zherebtsov. However, by 1779 the building was in need of repair. Prince M. Golitsyn soon rebuilt the premises in the style of mature classicism, simultaneously building a new bell tower. The work was carried out according to the project of R. Kazakov in 1784-1785.

According to legend, the Blachernae image of the Mother of God was painted by the Apostle-Evangelist Luke during the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos. Later, the shrine ended up in Jerusalem. In the first half of the 5th century, Empress Eudokia, the wife of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II, traveling around the Holy Land, sent the icon as a gift to the emperor's sister Pulcheria in Constantinople. There the icon was placed in the Blachernae Church of the Most Holy Theotokos. Hence its name.

Byzantine emperors used to take the Blachernae icon with them on military campaigns. It was with this icon in 626 that Patriarch Sergius bypassed the besieged walls of Constantinople, after which the enemies fled away. In honor of this miracle, the feast of the Praise of the Virgin was established.

After the fall of Constantinople, in 1453 the Blachernae icon was transferred to Athos, and then donated to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In October 1654, Patriarch Nikon solemnly met her at the Execution Ground. The message from the protosingel of the Jerusalem Patriarch Gabriel said: “The holy icon that was brought to you, sovereign, is the patroness of Constantinople. She will now be the protector of Russia and the sacred person of Your Majesty, as she was once the cover of Constantinople and its pious kings.

The icon was placed in the Assumption Cathedral, and the Russian tsars also began to take it with them on military campaigns. And the list from the icon was granted to the "eminent people" Stroganov. The church chronicle contains many testimonies of the intercession of the Theotokos through prayers before the Icon of Blachernae. So, in 1830, when cholera raged in Moscow, no one fell ill in the Kuzminsky parish. Prince S. Golitsyn, in memory of this, cast a bell weighing 260 pounds.

In 1929, the Blachernae Church was closed and rebuilt as a hostel, the dome and bell tower were broken, and the icon of the Mother of God was transferred to the Assumption Church in Veshnyaki. When it was closed in 1941, the icon entered the Tretyakov Gallery, where it is kept in storerooms to this day.

The Church of Blachernae was returned to the Church in 1992. It took several years to restore it according to the original project. Since 1995, after the church was re-consecrated, worship resumed in it. The doors of the temple are open daily from 7 am to 7 pm. Among the revered temple shrines: particles of the relics of the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky and the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Today the church has a Sunday school for children and adults and an Orthodox library.