Kuskovo Palace

The Kuskovo Estate, nicknamed the Moscow Versailles due to its formal French gardens, is a perfect example of an 18th century Muscovite country residence. The history of the estate dates back to 1715, when Tsar Peter the Great awarded the village of Kuskovo to Boris Sheremetev, a Russian general who excelled at the battle of Poltava and who decided to build a summer residence there. The Sheremetyevs were one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Russia and the estate was used by several generations of the family

The estate comprises the central palace and a number of smaller buildings and architectural follies dotted throughout an extensive landscape park, which includes formal French gardens, ponds, lakes and Russian and Italian sculptures. These buildings were designed and built by both French and Russian architects and took over 40 years to complete.

Kuskovo is an extensive estate, or manor, of the Counts Sheremetev, originally situated several miles to the east of Moscow 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 Russian Field Marshal and Count. The earliest surviving structure is the Saviour church, built in 1737-39 in a Petrine baroque style and formerly decorated with marble statues. The neoclassical bell-tower was added much later, in 1792.

The park and palace were visited by many prominent persons, such as king Stanislaus II of Poland and Empress Catherine the Great. The Sheremetevs marked each visit of the monarch by a marble obelisk or a column, still visible before the palace.