Polenovo Museum Estate

In 1890 the artist Vasily Polenov bought the 'Borok' estate on the high bank of the Oka in the Zaoksky district and two years later built, to his own design, the Big House — in a style he himself called 'Scandinavian': modernist traits, Italian windows, stained glass and the 'Lily' mosaic by the master's hand. Since 1931, still in the artist's lifetime, the estate has worked as a museum. Beyond the house: the 'Abbey' of 1904, a studio with a huge north window, a stage and a brick tower; the 'Admiralty' — a boat shed with Polenov's 'Diorama', a round-the-world voyage in pictures; a children's house and a half-timbered exhibition hall. The park ensemble with its Birch and Entrance alleys overlooks the Oka. The collection holds ancient Greek and Egyptian archaeology and works by Korovin and Levitan. Polenovo is a federal cultural heritage site and one of Russia's most intact artists' house museums. It is about 130 kilometres from Moscow and 70 from Tula; two kilometres away, in the village of Bekhovo, stands the Trinity church designed by Polenov, where the artist is buried.