Izmaylovo Estate - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Izmaylovo Estate was a country residence of the House of Romanov built in the reign of Alexis I of Russia

Alexis I of Russia

Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov was the Tsar of Russia during some of the most eventful decades of the mid-17th century...

. Originally located 7 kilometres east of Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

's city limits, it became part of the expanding city in the 20th century. Its territory spanned 10 to 15 square kilometres of the Serebryanka river valley and corresponds, roughly, to present-day Izmaylovo Forest, Terletsky Forest (south-east) and the Cherkizovo market (north-west) territories between the inner ring of the Moscow Railroad and the MKAD

MKAD

MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...

beltway.

The estate briefly flourished under Tsar Alexis and his daughter Sophia Alekseyevna

Sophia Alekseyevna

Sophia Alekseyevna was a regent of Russian Tsardom who allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Galitzine, to install herself as a regent during the minority of her brothers, Peter the Great and Ivan V...

, being the center of a large estate park with model farms, workshops and hunting reserves. The heart of the estate, the Izmailovo Court of Tsar Alexis , was a wooden palace built on an artificial island - a hill surrounded by man-made ponds. The present-day Court retains two sets of palace gates, a cathedral and a barbican

Barbican

A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from...

tower built in 1670s-1680s. Other extant structures of the Court were built by Konstantin Thon

Konstantin Thon

Konstantin Andreyevich Thon, also spelled Ton was an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. His major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow....

and Mikhail Bykovsky in 1839–1859, when the island was converted into an almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

, and in 1970s. The present-day Court is a freely accessible open air museum

Open air museum

An open-air museum is a distinct type of museum exhibiting its collections out-of-doors. The first open-air museums were established in Scandinavia towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the concept soon spread throughout Europe and North America. Open-air museums are variously known as...

Background

Nikita Yuryev, younger brother of Anastasia Romanovna

Anastasia Romanovna

Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva was the first wife of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible and the first Russian tsarina...

, acquired Izmaylovo village in the middle of 16th century. Members of Romanov-Zakharyin-Yuryev clan owned lands in north-eastern Russian provinces, and conveniently placed their suburban residences in the eastern and north-eastern suburbs of Moscow (Rubtsovo, Preobrazhenskoye et al.). Izmaylovo village with wooden Romanov court was placed on a hill surrounded by Serebryanka river bend; it became a center of a hunting reserve, and most of its residents catered to the Romanov hunt. The dams and ponds that turned a hill into an island existed back in 16th century, but then the hill remained connected to the mainland with a narrow tract of solid ground.

Izmaylovo was destroyed during the Time of Troubles

Time of Troubles

The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...

but soon restored to its original function by the Romanov-Yuryev family. In 1655 this line of the Romanovs extinct and its properties inherited by the reigning Tsar Alexis. Alexis consolidated numerous Romanov lands into a continuous tract spanning from Yauza River

Yauza River

This article is about a river in Moscow, a tributary of the Moskva River. There are three other Yauza rivers in Central Russia: tributaries of the Lama, Gzhat and Sestra....

in the west to Kuskovo

Kuskovo

Kuskovo was the summer country house and estate of the Sheremetev family. Built in the mid-18th century, it was originally situated several miles to the east of Moscow but now is part of the East District of the city. It was one of the first great summer country estates of the Russian nobility,...

and Pekhorka River in the east. Alexis repopulated the lands with peasants (548 households) and tradesmen (216 households) relocated from the provinces.

Prosperity

In 1663 Alexis settled to convert his personal domain into a technologically advanced center of Russian economy; he believed that agricultural technologies and crafts could be perfected to a point where domestic produce can substitute imports of wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

, silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

, cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

and spices. Another, less ambitious, objective was to grow commercial quantities of traditional Russian produce - wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

and linen

Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....

. Most of this plan did, in fact, materialize. Izmaylovo vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

s, protected in winter by insulating mats, were sustained for decades; melon

Melon

thumb|200px|Various types of melonsThis list of melons includes members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae with edible, fleshy fruit e.g. gourds or cucurbits. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit...

s grew in soil brought from Astrakhan

Astrakhan

Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...

, figs

FIGS

FIGS is an acronym for French, Italian, German, Spanish. These are usually the first four languages chosen to localize products into when a company enters the European market....

and coconuts

COcOnuts

COcOnuts is the second album released by Jane, comprising Animal Collective member Panda Bear, and Scott Mou. It was originally self-released on CD-R's, but later became the first album released by Psych-o-path Records in 2005. The Psych-o-path version was remastered by Rusty Santos and Edik Kleyner....

in greenhouse

Greenhouse

A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...

s, although slowly. The stubborn silk worm appears to be the only absolute failure. Records of Izmaylovo inventory, including names of hundreds of Russian and foreign employees, were compiled soon after the death of Alexis and preserved in archives together with original architectural plans of 1660s, making Izmaylovo the best documented of 17th century estates in Russia.

Between 1664 and 1670 Serebryanka River and its lesser tributaries were crossed by dams, creating a system of more than 20 large and small ponds (the larger ponds are extant to date). This provided enough water for irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

and fisheries and power to the water mills. The hill of historical Izmaylovo was cut from the mainland with a wide moat

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

; Alexis claimed the island as his exclusive residence and relocated Izmaylovo village to a new site 2 kilometers north, marked by present-day Izmaylovo Cemetery and church of Nativity of Christ, erected in 1676-1677 (55°48′4"N 37°46′9"E).

Overall layout of Izmaylovo estate, dictated by the rivers, was irregular, but each individual farm or workshop was designed in a highly symmetrical fashion. The vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

(55°47′58"N 37°45′1"E), fig tree (55°46′28"N 37°47′10"E) and proso

Proso millet

Proso millet is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated...

(55°46′19"N 37°49′2"E) farms were set up as regular squares; the 15-acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

medicinal herb garden (55°47′4"N 37°46′11"E) and flax

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...

farm as perfect circles. The Wolf Farm that raised wild beasts for hunting was protected with a perfectly circular moat (55°46′19"N 37°46′3"E); another, extant, circular moat (55°47′34"N 37°50′8"E) served as a fire reservoir for the brick kiln

Kiln

A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...

s in the eastern end of the estate; five kilns were placed around the moat in a star pattern. The estate also featured a pure folly

Folly

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...

, the Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

- Muscovy's first labyrinth

Labyrinth

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...

, placed halfway between the Tsar's Court and the Wolf Farm. Wolf Farm, or Menagerie

Menagerie

A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...

housed beasts from sable

Sable

The sable is a species of marten which inhabits forest environments, primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaidō in Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia...

s to polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...

s and is thus credited to be Russia's first zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

.

In 1671 Alexis launched construction of the Cathedral of Intercession on the eastern side of the island; it was connected to the mainland with a stone bridge and protected by a massive barbican

Barbican

tower that doubled as the belltower for the cathedral. The 14-span bridge was 100 metres long and 14 metres wide; present-day pond in this place is no more than 20 metres wide. There were no military-grade fortifications; Izmaylovo was never intended to withstand a regular siege.

Cathedral of Intercession was built in 1671-1679 as a memorial to the expulsion of Poles in 1618 and modelled after the Alexandrov cathedral, but with five domes and without inhabitable basement. Construction is credited to architect Ivan Kuznechik, author of the church of Saint Gregory in Yakimanka District

Yakimanka District

Yakimanka District is a district of Central Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia. Population: It is named after the former church of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne...

of Moscow; Kuznechik employed teams of craftsmen from Kostroma

Kostroma

Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...

. Ceramic tiling was produced by craftsmen from Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

in 1673. Iconostasis, icons and internal finishes were made by Moscow natives and monks of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra

Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to...

. The cathedral stood out for its use of large (25×33 cm) coloured ceramic tiles with Eye of a peacock motive (extant) and unusually large window surfaces (lost during 1840s reconstruction). Initially the cathedral exterior was finished in unpainted red brick; in 1729 it was painted white and is currently back to original red brick.

Alexis also planned to rebuild old wooden Court into a grand palace; construction began in 1676, but Alexis died in the same year. The new Court and the cathedral were completed in 1680s by regent Sophia Alekseyevna

Sophia Alekseyevna

. The main palace, placed on the southern edge of the court, was traditionally built of wood; service building on the northern side were built in brick and stone. The palace also incorporated house church of Saint Joasaph (1680).

Decline

Sophia, engaged in political rivalry with the Naryshkin

Naryshkin

Naryshkin is a Russian surname and may refer to:* Members of the Naryshkin family* Sergey Naryshkin , a politician* Two men of the name Kirill Naryshkin...

clan, invested into palace security and rebuilt the church of Saint Joasaph but neglected the farms of Izmaylovo. In May 1688, when young Peter I of Russia

Peter I of Russia

Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...

discovered a legendary English boat in Nikita Romanov's warehouse at the Flax Farm, the farm itself was abandoned. Peter used remote ponds and islands of Izmaylovo to train his private mock army but did not care to restore Ismaylovo economy.

After the fall of Sophia Izmaylovo Court passed to Ivan V of Russia

Ivan V of Russia

Ivan V Alekseyevich Romanov was a joint Tsar of Russia who co-reigned between 1682 and 1696. He was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia and Maria Miloslavskaya. His reign was only formal, since he had serious physical and mental disabilities...

(Peter's half-brother) and after his death housed his widow

Praskovia Saltykova

Praskovia Fyodorovna Saltykova was the tsaritsa of Russia as the only wife of Ivan V of Russia. She was the mother of Empress Anna of Russia...

and daughters, including future empress Anna

Anna of Russia

Anna of Russia or Anna Ivanovna reigned as Duchess of Courland from 1711 to 1730 and as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740.-Accession to the throne:Anna was the daughter of Ivan V of Russia, as well as the niece of Peter the Great...

. Peter, as the legal guardian of his late brother's offspring, remained a welcomed guest of Izmaylovo Court. In 1700 the wooden palace was destroyed by fire, and soon replaced by another wooden structure. The new palace, inaugurated in January 1703, was set on a different site, closer to the water. Later, when Peter arranged marriages of Ivan's daughters to foreign princes, the palace became well known to Western guests. Cornelius de Bruin, attending the 1703 inauguration, described it as splendid, while the visitors of 1720s complained about decrepit conditions and poor interiors. The Menagerie acquired its first Indian elephant

Indian Elephant

The Indian Elephant is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to mainland Asia. Since 1986, Elephas maximus has been listed as endangered by IUCN as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three generations, estimated to be 60–75 years...

in 1714 from the Shah

Shah

Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...

of Persia but fell into disrepair too.

Anna of Russia

Anna of Russia

, who became an Empress in 1730, refitted the palace, restored the Menagerie and converted the territory to its original function of a hunting reserve. Izmaylovo Court was once again repopulated by horse grooms, dog and falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

trainers and their animals. In 1745 Elisabeth of Russia relocated the principal residence from the island to the south, near the Menagerie. She connected the new country palace with Aleksey Razumovsky estate in Perovo

Perovo

Perovo is a Moscow Metro station on Kalininskaya Line. It was opened on the 30 December 1979 along with the Perovo radius at a depth of nine metres. Named after the Moscow district Perovo, the architects Nina Aleshina and Volovich adopted a single-vault design with hinged aluminium lighting...

with a new road that it currently known as the Main Alley of Izmailovo Park. The old court on the island was abandoned; the circular pond around it was drained, the bridge and wooden palace demolished in 1760s.

New palace by the Menagerie was eventually abandoned as well; the Menagerie was destroyed during the war of 1812 and was formally closed in 1826. The Cathedral operated in 1760s-1800s only on special occasions and was closed in 1828.

Reconstruction

In 1837 Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

identified former Izmaylovo Court as the site of future almshouse for the veterans of Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

and assigned Konstantin Thon

Konstantin Thon

to manage the rehabilitation project. Thon initially planned to retain and repair the buildings of the old Court perimeter

Perimeter

A perimeter is a path that surrounds an area. The word comes from the Greek peri and meter . The term may be used either for the path or its length - it can be thought of as the length of the outline of a shape. The perimeter of a circular area is called circumference.- Practical uses :Calculating...

and add two-story residential wings to the cathedral. However, the plans changed and the perimeter buildings were demolished, with the exception of front and rear gates and church of Saint Joasaph. Instead, Thon rebuilt partes of perimeter with single-story "historical style" buildings; parts were simply replaced with a fence.

The main residential wings of Thon's almshouse were attached directly to the cathedral walls, blocking its windows and concealing the cathedral from view from north, south and east. The western facade remains clear of 19th century additions. At the same time, Thon is credited with literally salvaging the cathedral from an imminent collapse: shallow foundations, set on unstable soil, caused severe deformation and cracking of cathedral walls. Thon raised ground and floor levels to immobilize foundations, arranged proper water drainage and reinforced cathedral walls with iron braces.

The almshouse was designed to provide shelter to 432 veterans (some of them with spouses); fresh food was supplied by a new farm established on the site of former grape plantation. The village of Izmaylovo became a textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

town; the largest mill, owned by Englishman Robert Hill, employed over 1,500 workers. By 1917 Izmaylovo housed over 5,000 residents.

In 1860s the Society of Animal and Plant Acclimatization attempted to resume 17th century experiments and set up a model honey bee

Honey bee

Honey bees are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis...

and silk worm farms on the site of the historical proso

Proso millet

farm. Exhibition hall of the Society, built in 1880s by an unnamed English engineer, was the first reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

building in Moscow. Existing trees of the regular Izmaylovo Park were planted in the same period (1865–1890).

After the Russian revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

the almshouses were closed and converted to ordinary housing under the name of Nikolay Bauman settlement. When these residents were resettled to new homes after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the almshouses were occupied in part by the State Historical Museum

State Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...

, in part by the Electrotechhical Institute. The cathedral was closed in 1920, converted to an archive