Pearls of Russia

Cultural heritage

Ostankino Palace

Originally a boyar yard and a wooden church were built on that place in XVI. Then in XVII princes Cherkasskys started to own the mansion. A stone five-headed cathedral featuring the Moscow baroque style was erected under the guidance of a serf builder Pavel Potekhin in 1687-88. Architectural difficulty of the cathedral and the beauty of its white stone decoration stroke greatly.
In 1877-78 architect N. Sultanov attached a bell-tower to the church. A wooden iconostasis, created at the end of the XVII century and decorated with beautiful icons, remains till the present day inside the cathedral.
In 1743 the mansion came into the possession of the earls Sheremetievs. In 1790 earl N. P. Sheremetiev decided to rebuild the manor-house in order to attach a theater hall to the palace apartments. Projects were made by architects F. Kamporezi, D. Kvarengi and others. But actually serf architects A. Mironov, G. Dikushin and especially A. Argunov were in charge of the reconstruction and building of the palace. The style the mansion was built in is Russian classicism. Architectural plan of the palace forms the Russian letter � with a big front yard.
There rises a dome with a columnar portico in the center of the palace. A loggia portico with ten columns decorates the garden facade of the building. Main halls, arranged as suites, make the interior decoration of the palace.
The Egyptian hall, the Italian hall, the crimson living-room, the picture gallery, the concert hall are especially distinguished among them. Gorgeous performances starring Sheremetiev s serf actors took place in the Theater hall.

District: North
Address: 5, 1-st Ostankinskaya St., Moscow
Underground: VDNKh