Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, Moscow

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Tsaritsyno during Muscovite and Imperial Russia

From the 16th to 17th centuries, this territory to the south of Moscow belonged to Russian noble families, including the relatives of Boris Godunov and the first Romanov tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich. In the early 1700s, Peter the Great gifted the land and its villages to the Moldavian Cantemir princes, who built an ornate palace and planted landscape gardens and rich fruit orchards. When Catherine the Great visited the Cantemir estate in 1775, she was entranced by its beauty and purchased it that same week.

Catherine renamed the area from Chyornaya Gryaz (Black Dirt) to Tsaritsyno, which means ‘belonging to the Queen’. She summoned court architect Vasily Bazhenov to design a new imperial residence. Yet after a decade of work, Catherine was displeased with the results and ordered Bazhenov to be replaced with his student, Matvey Kazakov, who had recently constructed the Kremlin’s impressive Senate Palace. Kazakov began to rebuild the Tsaritsyno Grand Palace, yet construction was abruptly halted when Catherine unexpectedly died in 1796. Her successor, Pavel I, was uninterested in this half-complete suburban Moscow residence, and so Tsaritsyno lay neglected for the next two centuries.

Photo by Ф. С. Рокотов on Wikipedia

From the beginning of the 19th century, Tsaritsyno’s landscape park became a popular place for relaxation. Teahouses and hotels were established in the ownerless buildings, and the landscaping of the park and orchards was completed. Alexander II began letting plots of Tsaritsyno’s land from 1860 onward and the estate soon became a holiday village for high society, counting Bunin, Chekhov, and Tchaikovsky among its residents. Yet the Bazhenov buildings of Tsaritsyno – untouched since the 1780s – became increasingly dilapidated, and the Grand Palace even partially collapsed in 1880.

Tsaritsyno during Soviet Russia and beyond

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After the October Revolution, a local revolutionary body was set up on the estate and communal apartments were established in many of the buildings. Some efforts to restore the ruined palace ensemble and landscaping began in 1927, and at the same time the hugely popular Tsaritsyno Museum was opened, with an exposition documenting the history of the estate (which included Bazhenov’s original drawings).

Serious repairs to restore the unique monument of Tsaritsyno did not begin until the late 1980s, and continued for the next 3 decades. Disputes arose over the final design of the Grand Palace – total historical accuracy was impossible as the palace had never been completed! Finally, over 230 years after the extravagant palace complex was conceived, and after centuries of neglect by both the Romanovs and the Soviets, Tsaritsyno was finally completed. It was opened to the public on 2nd September 2007, the annual Day of Moscow. We highly recommend to add this sight to your tour of Moscow.

Landscape Park

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Unlike Tsaritsyno’s neglected architectural ensemble, the landscape park remained in use over the centuries and has been a popular place of relaxation since the 19th century. There are many kilometres of walking paths weaving through the woodland, wide tree-lined vistas offering views of the palace ensemble, and two large lakes. Dotted around the park are pavilions, ruins, ornamental bridges, and statues. There are also sports facilities, bicycle and boat rental stations, and playgrounds.

Tsaritsyno’s famous greenhouses continue to operate in the park: the Grape Greenhouse is home to figs, pomegranates, cacti, citrus trees and grapes; the First Greenhouse grows exotic trees and ornamental plants; and the second greenhouse houses exotic fruits, herbs, spices and vegetables.

Architecture and exhibitions

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Tsaritsyno boasts unique and rich architecture which, according to vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts Dmitry Shvidkovsky, is one of the largest architectural undertakings of the Enlightenment era. The ensemble of red brick buildings merges elements of Moscow Baroque, Russian-style, Gothic Revival, and Classical architecture, managing to be simultaneously extravagant and balanced. Architectural details are crafted in white stone in contrast to the red brick walls.

Tsaritsyno is remarkable for its integration of architectural elements into the surrounding landscape, which Bazhenov believed to be very important. He also considered that the buildings and pavilions should not just be independently beautiful, but complement each other when viewed as an ensemble.

Grand Palace and Bread House

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The Grand Palace and Bread House are the central feature of Tsaritsyno’s ensemble. The Grand Palace was rebuilt by Kazakov, who incorporated Gothic Revival features such as eight pointed towers, ornate spires, arches, and lancet windows. At the same time, the palace has the balanced proportions and three-section façade typical of Classical architecture. The Grand Palace houses exhibitions about Soviet decorative and applied art, the extraordinary life of Catherine the Great, and the history of Tsaritsyno. Visitors can also explore the palace’s sumptuous interiors.

Adjoining the Grand Palace is the Bread House, which is the largest surviving building of the original Bazhenov ensemble. It was used as the palace kitchen until Catherine’s death, and later housed a hospital and communal apartments. The two-storey building takes the form of a cube with rounded corners, and is richly decorated with layers of windows, cornices and friezes. The Bread House is home to other key expositions of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, and concerts and other events are held in its central atrium.

The Grand Palace and Bread House are connected by a gallery, whose walls are decorated with columns, arches and mouldings, and topped with pinnacles and white stone hearts. In the middle of the gallery is a distinctive spiked arch, supported by a two-level columned structures crowned with ornate pinnacles.

Small and Middle Palace

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To the west of the Grand Palace is the Small Palace, a semi-circular building intended personally for Catherine the Great. To its south is the Middle Palace, with a large, vaulted hall designed for official events.

It is also known as the Opera House, though no music was ever performed there until the end of the 20th century. The incredibly ornate façade of the Middle Palace is reminiscent of a jewellery box, and is crowned with a high parapet including double-headed eagles – the symbol of the Romanov family. Both palaces are home to exhibitions.

Cavalry Corps

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The three Cavalry Corps are all small but intricately designed buildings, with simple first floors and elaborate openwork parapets. The first Cavalry Corps housed the Soviet of Workers and Peasants' Deputies, and later an orphanage and music school. The second Cavalry Corps is an octahedral structure which is home to the main art collection of the Tsaritsyno Museum. The third Cavalry Corps was home to the popular Tsaritsyno Museum in the 1920s and then became a cinema. Today it houses an exhibition about the high society dachas of Tsaritsyno.

Gates and bridges

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On a walk around Tsaritsyno you can admire many ornamental gates and bridges. The Figurny Bridge is decorated with towers, parapets, columns and arches, and the Large Bridge is adorned with geometric patterns, arches and pinnacles. The ornate Figurny Gate is located just south of the Middle Palace – it is nicknamed the ‘Grape’ gate as a decorative element resembling a bunch of grapes hangs in the centre of the archway.