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On a wooded hill in far southeast Moscow, Tsaritsyno Palace is a
modern-day manifestation of the exotic summer home that Catherine the
Great began in 1775 but never finished. Architect Vasily Bazhenov worked
on the project for 10 years before he was sacked. She hired another
architect, Matvey Kazakov, but the project eventually ran out of money.
For hundreds of years, the palace was little more than a shell, until
the Russian government finally decided to finish it in 2007.
Nowadays,
the Great Palace is a fantastical building that combines old Russian,
Gothic, classical and Arabic styles. Inside, exhibits are dedicated to
the history of Tsaritsyno, as well as the life of Catherine the Great.
The nearby kitchen building, or
khlebny dom, also hosts rotating exhibits, sometimes culinary and sometimes covering topics such as icons and art. The
khlebny dom is a pleasant place to hear classical concerts in summer.
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The extensive grounds include some other lovely buildings, such as the
Small Palace, the working
Church of Our Lady Lifegiving Spring,
the cavalier buildings, greenhouses with tropical plants and some
interesting bridges. A pond is bedecked with a fantastic fountain set to
music. The English-style wooded park stretches all the way south to the
Upper Tsaritsynsky Pond, which has rowing boats available for hire in summer, and west to the Tsaritsyno Palace complex.
Tsaritsyno
park is best accessed from Orekhovo metro station – the entrance is
right by the station. From there, walk towards the ponds past an
open-air stage, where old folks gather to dance to 1960s tunes in
summer, then turn right towards the palace.
Show in Lonely Planet
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