- Kuskovo
Kuskovo is an extensive estate, or manor, of the
Counts Sheremetev originally situated several miles to the east ofMoscow but now forming a part of the East District of that city. It is a favourite place of recreation for Muscovites, and one of the few 18th-century suburban residences preserved in the Russian capital.Kuskovo passed to the Sheremetev family in the 17th century, and was chosen as a summer residence by
Boris Petrovich Sheremetev , the premier RussianField Marshal andCount . The earliest surviving structure is the Saviour church, built in 1737-39 in aPetrine baroque style and formerly decorated with marble statues. The neoclassical bell-tower was added much later, in 1792.Two curious two-storied structures were erected in Kuskovo during the Elizabethan epoch - the Dutch and Italian houses. They combine elements of the fashionable
Rastrelli esque baroque with the ideas ofclassicism , which started to spread in Europe at that time.The Kuskovo
palace was constructed near one of the ponds in 1769-65 in a fine Neoclassical style. Commissioned by CountNikolai Petrovich Sheremetev , the structure was apparently designed by a group of his serfs, including FeodorArgunov , Aleksey Mironov, and Grigory Dikushin, although another tradition ascribes it toCharles de Wailly . The palace interiors, as completed in 1779, represent a transitional stage between baroque and neoclassicism. This palace houses the most precious collection of Westernporcelain in Eastern Europe, which had been collected by several generations of the Sheremetev family. In 1919 the palace was nationalized, and it was declared the State Museum of Ceramics twenty years later.The French regular
park around the palace, with its marblestatue s and lovely ponds, is probably the only remainder of the baroque gardening in Moscow. Eight park alleys converge in a single point, where the circular Hermitage pavilion (1764-77) still stands. Other structures in the park include the handsome SummerGrotto (1775), the SummerTheatre (1755), the Kitchen wing, a gardenparterre , and winter conservatories.The park and palace were visited by many prominent persons, such as king
Stanislaus II of Poland and EmpressCatherine the Great . The Sheremetevs marked each visit of the monarch by a marbleobelisk or acolumn , still visible before the palace.External links
* [http://www.kuskovo.ru Official site of the Kuskovo Museum]
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