HOME

  In the southern part of Moscow, twenty minutes away from downtown by car, lay the lands of the State Museum-Reserve Tsaritsyno. Its nucleus is the largest palatial ensemble in Russia – the residence of Catherine the Great constructed between 1775 and 1796 by the famous Russian architects Vasiliy Bazhenov and Matvey Kazakov in the romantic “gothic taste”. A beginning of the XIX century landscape park is located nearby. Its trees overlook the waters of the Upper Tsaritsyno pond, which together with the Shipilovsky and Borisovsky ponds form the largest cascade of ponds in Moscow. Tsaritsyno is the largest museum-reserve and historical and cultural monument of the federal level in Moscow, occupying over 700 hectares. A tremendously rich complex of architectural objects is gathered here – the historic village sites, plowed fields, barrows dated from the VI thousand years B.C. to the beginning of the XII century. These parts remember the Streshnev family boyars, Golitsin and Kantemirov princely families, Catherine the Great and her brilliant associates, and many of the distinguished Russian statesmen of the XIX and XX centuries. Following the death of Catherine the Great the architectural idea was not completed. Over the two hundred years the palatial ensemble had turned into majestic ruins.
  One of the favorite places for Muscovites to spend time outdoors, a fashionable countryside area, later a city-type settlement, and finally a district of Moscow, Tsaritsyno patiently awaited its rebirth. A decision had been reached in 1984 to completely restore Tsaritsyno architectural and park ensemble in order to place there the State Museum of Arts and Craft of the Peoples of the USSR there. (Currently it is named The State Historical, Architectural, Art, and Landscape Museum-Reserve Tsaritsyno.) The majority of the architectural monuments have already undergone restoration. The palatial grounds have been renovated. Exhibitions and expositions of the museum demonstrate various pages of Tsaritsyno history and rich collections of arts and crafts. Excursions, educational programs, concerts, festive events, the park and ponds, attractive for strollers, await their visitors. The restoration of the Grand Palace, the former great historical ruin, was completed in 2007. Large-scale restoration and landscaping of the park and the ponds was also carried out. Tsaritsyno, a jewel of Russian culture, has a grand future.