Ostankino Palace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ostankino is a former summer residence of the Counts Sheremetev, originally situated several miles to the north from Moscow but now a part of the Moscow North-East District.
Ostankino is first mentioned in the 16th century as Ostashkovo, a manor of V.Y. Shchelkalov, a senior diak (officer) in the Posolsky Prikaz. Under him groves were planted, a pond was dug, and several wooden buildings were constructed. In the 17th century, this estate passed to the Tcherkassky princely family, the richest landowners in Russia. They had a splendidly decorated Trinity Church built in 1678–1692.
A Tcherkassky heiress married a younger son of Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev in 1743, thereby bringing Ostankino with the rest of Cherkassky estates to the Sheremetev family. The present wooden palace with pink plastered facades was constructed in 1791–1798 under Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev to a Neoclassical design by Francesco Camporesi and Pavel Argunov.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the Ostankino palace is the theatre hall, with all the machinery extant and working since the 18th century. Designed specially for Parasha Zhemchugova, a peasant opera singer turned Countess Sheremetev, it is still used as a concert hall through the summer season. Much of the palatial sumptuous interior has been preserved after the Revolution, when the palace was declared a national monument and museum. A English landscape park surrounding the palace also survives pretty intact since the 18th century.
