Ancient churches and modern museums: the most fascinating places in Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative Districts

Moscow incorporated the new territories, Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative Districts, 10 years ago. In that time, new modern parks and social facilities, roads and metro stations were built in the area; multiple old landmarks have been restored and landscaped.

Mos.ru tells you which alleys Alexander Pushkin used to walk along, why Korney Chukovsky lit bonfires in his dacha backyard and where you could sit on a chair spiked with nails.

Writing books and planting vegetables

Peredelkino, a writers’ settlement, is probably the most well-known place attracting thousands of tourists every year. Boris Pasternak, Korney Chukovsky, Bulat Okudzhava, Irakly Andronikov, Konstantin Paustovsky, Bella Akhmadulina, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Fazil Iskander, Anatoly Rybakov, etc., all used to live and write there.

Boris Pasternak was among the fists dacha dwellers in Peredelkino. He lived there for 10 years, working on his novel Doctor Zhivago, which brought him a Nobel prize. He also had enough free time to tend his garden, care for his greenhouse and go gather firewood.

Now, Boris Pasternak House Museum has all the furnishing the famous writer used: his writing desk, lamp and bookshelf. The walls are covered in paintings by the novelist’s father, artist Leonid Pasternak. Guided tours, exhibitions and evening literary shows all take place there.

 

Another famous dacha-goer was Korney Chukovsky. The door of his house had always been wide open to the kids from the neighborhood. The writer built a separate small building on his plot to make it into a kids’ library; he used to light bonfires among the pines, celebrating start and end of summer. K. Chukovsky House Museum now holds the writer’s photographs, his line art and paintings, the Doctor of Literature mantle from Oxford, gifts children had given him, and his book collection. The museum staff run theme tours and keep lighting celebratory bonfires.

 

Singer and songwriter Bulat Okudzhava also used to live in Peredelkino; his former dacha is also now a museum. The poet’s belongings are displayed in a small study; his fans and other visitors gather under a colorful tent in the garden for celebrations, performances and public talks.

Another interesting property is owned by sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. It’s not a museum in the full sense of the world; there’s no entrance fee, and walking around the garden, you can meet the owner in person, look at crocodiles marching up the stairs to the top of the globe model, at Peter I posing against the playing lionesses in the background, and at the sculpted music band in front of the house.

Another place worth seeing in Peredelkino is the Guest House for Writers.  Famous writers, literary critics and translators used to come here to relax back in the day. The building has been restored recently; now you can go there to play pool, visit a library or an exhibition, or borrow a book and read it on the porch.

 

There’s a cemetery by the road from the writers’ settlement to the railway station. Boris Pasternak, Korney Chukovsky, Robert Rozhdestvensky and other famous dacha residents are buried there. There’s no entrance fee, so anyone can come in to pay respects.

Walking around old estates

Estates are a staple of the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative Districts. Lots of secrets and legends are connected to their old houses and picturesque parks. Tour guides delight in telling visitors all about them.

Ostafyevo, now the home of Russian Parnassus Museum Estate, is probably the most well-known of them. Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Griboyedov, Denis Davydov, Yevgeny Baratynsky, Wilhelm Küchelbecker all used to frequent the estate. Nikolai Karamzin lived there for a while.

Visitors are welcome to walk around the park, take a boat ride across Great Ostafyevo Pond, visit the gazebo called Apollo’s Temple, walk across an arched bridge and look at the former wool mill. The estate grounds have monuments to Nikolai Karamzin, Pyotr and Pavel Vyazemskys, Alexander Pushkin, Vasily Zhukovsky. The crown jewel is still the white master house. You can look closer at its interiors on your own, or join a guided tour.

 

The Alexandrovo-Shchapovo Estate History Museum is in the middle of Shchapovskoye settlement. The village itself and the estate located there were owned in different times by the Morozovs, Grushetskys, Arsenyevs, Nikolayevs. In 1889, the property was bought by Ilia Shchapov. He put the surroundings into a perfect order; much of his heritage survived to this day. The museum has five exposition and three exhibition rooms. The former agricultural school building now houses O.G. Yanchenko Pipe Organ Hall. Leading Russian organists come there to play.

 

Another interesting point on the TiNAO map is the Staro-Nikolskoye Estate in Pervomayskoe settlement. First mentions of that place are dated the 14th century. It was Ivan the Terrible’s favorite hunting grounds. Rtishchev, Musin-Pushkin and Krygin families are listed among the estate owners. In the Soviet times, it was used as a hostel and a store for a while, then stood abandoned. Right now, the restored building houses the Museum of the VI Congress of the CPC, with three exposition rooms. There’s no entrance fee, but visitors are required to show their passport or a driver’s license.

Standing under ancient vaults

Lovers of old architecture will no doubt appreciate magnificent churches of TiNAO. Belousovo village with its Church of Archangel Michael was first mentioned in the documents dated the 14th century as the property of one of Ivan the Terrible’s oprichniks (life guards).  The building was originally made of wood, and rebuilt in stone in 1846. The church survived the war and abandonment. Now, after a thorough reconstruction, everyone is welcome to admire a unique single-dome church in the eclectic style. The church is open for worship and runs a Sunday school.

 

The Church of Michael the Taxiarch and His Miracle in Khonekh is located in Bykhovo village. The building was first mentioned in 1627; in 1862, where a humble wooden church had once stood, they built a chapel with a big Russian Revival style stone church nearby. The church did not close down even in the Soviet times; a few years ago, they renovated its façades and interior murals, gave the churchware and the icon stand a new coat of gilt, landscaped the churchyard and built a clergy’s house.

Novofyodorovskoye settlement has one of the most interesting monasteries. It’s the Trinity and Hodegetria Stauropegic Monastery in Zosima Hermitage. There, in 1826, Maria Bakhmeteva gave shelter to Elder Zosima and 22 of his spiritual daughters. They founded a hermitage and then a monastery that was in operation till 1929. In the Soviet times, the monastery served as a farmers’ cooperative, a military hospital and a children’s summer camp. It resumed service in the late 1990s; a great reconstruction effort started at about the same time. Visitors are free to walk around the nicely landscaped grounds, take a look at Orthodox sacraments or partake in guided tours or public talks.

For art connoisseurs

Lovers of classic art are strongly advised to visit the Voronov Art Gallery. Its public name is the Small or Voronov Tretyakov Gallery. It occupies an old two-storey mansion, one of the buildings in the 18th century Voronov ensemble.

“The museum’s collection is about 6,000 works of art: paintings, sculptures and photographs. Of course, those are mostly the works of the Soviet realism artists from the Okna TASS association, but you can also find some paintings by Ivan Shishkin, Konstantin Korovin and other famous Pre-Revolutionary artists. On top of that, the gallery has a lot of sculptures created by Yevgeny Goncharov, one of its founders,” Larisa Skrypnik pointed out.

The museum also has numerous photographic pictures from the times of the Great Patriotic War. Also, there are sketches by Andrey Plotnov, Ilia Glazunov, Sergei Gerasimov, and a portrait of Alexander Pushkin by Nadezhda Shvede-Radlova. Curiously, not a single item in the museum collection is bought: all of them have been gifts or donations.

Fans of contemporary art would appreciate Sergey Molodenkov’s Art Gallery in Moskovsky settlement. Its collection boasts over a thousand paintings by famous artists of the 1940s-1960s, as well as modern beginner painters. You can look at the paintings or buy one of them if a fancy strikes you. Additionally, the museum staff will teach you how to tell an original painting from a copy, how to start your own art collection and what are the future prospects for that form of art.

Old crafts and modern physics

A folk craft called Babenki toys originated in the 20th century in Babenki village. Private artisans started making colorful stacking blocks, mushrooms, Matryoshka dolls, Easter eggs, lotto cards and other wooden toys. Their products were in hot demand both in Russia and abroad. The production ceased in the 1990s; now some items can be seen in the Miller’s House museum belonging to the Babenki Toys children arts school. After you finish surveying the exposition, you will have a chance to make and paint a wooden spinning top.

You can get a appointment to visit the museum by calling the arts school: +7 925 343-77-11.

Young Muscovites are well advised to visit the Physics Odditorium interactive museum in the Scientist House in Troitsk. In addition to just being told about the laws of physics, there you also can test them using research tools.

“The main feature of the Museum is that it explains complex physical phenomena in an easily accessible, clear form. There, you can walk over lightbulbs without crushing them, relax on a nail-spiked chair, try yourself as a galvanic cell, climb inside a camera obscura (the precursor of modern cameras), or see a droplet of water stop in midfall,” Larisa Skrypnik explained.

The museum tells children about balance, inertia, light reflection and deflection, pressure and so on. The guided tours are scheduled every two hours subject to prior appointment.