Bogoroditsk Palace and Park Museum

The Bogoroditsk estate stands on lands granted by Catherine the Great in 1765 to her son Alexey Bobrinsky. The palace was built in 1773–1784 to a design by Ivan Starov, the future architect of the Tauride Palace — early Russian classicism; the complex includes the 1774 Kazan church and an entrance tower-bell chamber in the Naryshkin baroque. The park was created in 1776–1786 by the estate manager — the polymath Andrei Bolotov: the first landscape park of the Russian provinces, with the Echo valley, a cascade of ponds and the 'Dwelling of Echo' pavilion. Five streets fan out from the palace onto the town — a planning unique for the provinces. The palace was destroyed in December 1941 and restored by 1988; today its 14 halls hold 18th–19th-century painting and applied art, about 15,000 exhibits. Its status is a federal cultural heritage site.