The Estate Line of the Old Vladimirka

Description

A one-day line along the estates east of the capital — along that ray along which the old Vladimirka led out of Moscow to the east. Four objects in Balashikha, Shchelkovsky district and Losino-Petrovsky fold into a story about how large estate ensembles live today: parks and ponds are open for strolls, temples are active, and the main house is more often closed or in conservation. About fifty kilometers of roads in total, without a single "postcard" — all four estates live a working life. Start is Gorenki near the Entuziastov highway: the Razumovsky estate, one of the large classicist complexes of the Moscow region at the turn of the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries. Under Count Alexei Razumovsky, one of the best Moscow region botanical gardens worked here with greenhouses, and on the Gorenka river a cascade of ponds with islands was arranged — not all are preserved. The estate changed Dolgorukovs, Razumovskys, Yusupovs and Tretyakovs, in Soviet times it held a sanatorium; today the main value is the park and ponds, access to the buildings depends on the regime. Three kilometers away — Pekhra-Yakovlevskoye on the left bank of the Pekhorka: the Golitsyn estate, connected with the family since the end of the sixteenth century, with a stone ensemble of the second half of the eighteenth century under federal protection. The main house burned and was restored in a changed form, nearby stands the Transfiguration temple — authorship is disputed, but the forecourt and church read well; the complex is assigned to an agricultural university, so inspection is often external. Further north, near Fryazino on the banks of the Lyuboseevka, spreads Grebnevo: a classicist ensemble of Bibikovs and Golitsyns with entrance gates in the spirit of a triumphal arch and a winter Nicholas temple. Its fate is the most dramatic — the main house, almost restored after its Soviet wanderings, burned down in 1991; since 2018 private owners have raised the wings and the arch, and the house remains in conservation. The finale is Glinki at the confluence of the Vori with the Klyazma: a palace-and-park ensemble in Petrine baroque style, which in 1727–1735 was arranged by Peter's associate Yakov Bruce — military man, diplomat and scientist, who died here in 1735. This is the only point of the route where the estate has become a museum again: exhibitions work, including a clock museum and carriage museum, but booking and hours should be checked before the trip.