Ostankino Palace
55°49′29″N 37°36′52″E / 55.82472°N 37.61444°E
Ostankino Palace | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Neoclassicism |
Town or city | Moscow |
Country | Russia |
Construction started | 1790 |
Completed | 1798 |
Client | Nikolai Sheremetev |
Technical details | |
Structural system | Wooden frame |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | see Attribution dispute section |
Ostankino Palace is a former summer residence and private opera theatre of the Sheremetev family, originally situated several kilometres to the north of central Moscow. It is a part of the North-Eastern Administrative Okrug of the city. Extant historical grounds include the main wooden palace, built in 1792–1798 around a theatre hall, with adjacent Egyptian and Italian pavilions, a 17th-century Trinity church, and fragments of the old Ostankino park with a replica of Milovzor folly.
History
16th century to 1787
The first documentary evidence of Ostankino—then known as Ostashkovo—dates to the middle of the 16th century, when Tsar
This manor was destroyed by plunder and fire in the Time of Troubles. The end of hostilities and ascension of the House of Romanov brought the new owners: the princes Tcherkassky. They replanted the parks and established a hunting reserve, expanding east to Alekseyevskoye village.[clarification needed]
In the first half of the 18th century Ostankino was gradually converted from a permanent country manor to a temporary retreat; empress Elizabeth of Russia paid a visit to Ostankino in 1742. The following year, through a marriage between princess Varvara, the sole heir of Tcherkassky fortunes, and Peter Sheremetev, son of field marshal Sheremetev, Ostankino passed to the Sheremetevs and remained their property until 1917.
Construction of the palace
In 1787
Sheremetev initially hired someone Casier (
Interior works took another six years. Major work on the palace was completed by the end of 1798, while lesser decoration and landscaping projects continued until the end of Sheremetev's life.
Park
In 1761 Sheremetevs hired a garden manager, Johann Manstadt, who supervised expansion of the park and its conversion to a commercial enterprise.[2]
Nikolai Sheremetev initially assigned landscaping to his serf architect, Mironov, but soon deemed Mironov's plan inappropriate. The job passed to Pyotr Argunov, with consultancy by
Two seasons of the theater
The theater opened in summer of 1795. Paul I, who ascended to the throne in November 1796, summoned Nikolai Sheremetev to Saint Petersburg. The theater operated publicly for just one season in spring 1797, with one show for emperor Paul and one for Stanisław Poniatowski, former king of partitioned Poland. In 1800 Sheremetev reduced the artistic company—barely sufficient for the private entertainment.
The 1802 death of Sheremetev's wife, former actress
19th to 21st centuries
Sheremetev's heirs barely maintained the palace; in the 1830s they demolished the old living quarters dating back to the 17th century, and demolished some of the free-standing service buildings.
Ostankino Park fell in neglect in the 1830s. In the second part of the 19th century parts of the park were sold to dacha developers and leased to farmers, while the greenhouses concentrated on commercial flower growing.[5]
In the Soviet period the nationalized palace operated as a museum of serf art. In 1935 the eastern part of former Ostankino park grounds were allotted to the emerging
Throughout the Soviet period the main theater hall was set up a single ballroom space. Partitions separating stage, orchestra pit and spectator areas were re-introduced during the controversial repairs of the 2000s, so the theater can once again be used in its original function.
Attribution dispute
Nikolai Sheremetev managed construction himself, hiring architects at will; in addition to original architectural work, he reused drafts of Saint Petersburg architects. Contemporary academic studies agree on the fact that, while certain parts and details of the palace can be attributed to specific architects (with different degree of probability), the palace as a whole—even its basic layout—has no single author apart from Sheremetev himself.[1]
Igor Grabar attributed design of the palace to Vasily Bazhenov; this viewpoint is discarded by modern studies as unsubstantiated.[4]
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View from across the pond
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The pediment still bears the Sheremetev arms
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A statue of Apollo in front of the palace
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The estate as seen from the Ostankino Tower
See also
- Kuskovo
- Arkhangelskoye Estate
- Tōdai-ji, largest wooden building in the world
- Old Government Buildings (Wellington)- second-largest wooden building in the world
References
- ^ ISBN 5-98051-011-7, p.229-230
- ^ ISBN 0-7112-2430-7, p. 165
- ^ Reproduced as true accounts, for example, at the official site of Ostankino theater
- ^ ISBN 5-98051-011-7, p.230
- ISBN 0-7112-2430-7, p. 166