Znamenskoye-Sadki is one of the oldest country estates of Moscow.

It lies in the southern section of Bitsa Park

Bitsa Park

Bitsevski Park is one of the largest natural parks in Moscow, Russia. The park, traversed by the Bitsa River, sprawls for some 10 km from north to south and covers the area of 18 square kilometres.-Contents:...

 in the South-South-West of Moscow, outside today's MKAD

MKAD

MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...

. Since the middle of 18th century and almost until the October Revolution (1917) this estate belonged to the Trubetskoy family

Trubetskoy family

Trubetskoy , Трубецкой , Трубяцкі , Trubecki , Trubetsky , Трубецький , Troubetzkoy , Trubezkoi or Trubetzkoy , is a Ruthenian Gediminid gentry family of Black Ruthenian stock, like many other princely houses of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later prominent in Russian...

.

In the second half of the 18th century the main house, the church and the other buildings were built. At that time the system of ponds was constructed there.

Znamenskoye-Sadki was visited by many prominent men of letters and arts, the Grand Princes and Tsars. In 1787, Empress Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

 came there with her grandsons. One of them was the future Emperor Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

.

Pyotr Vyazemsky

Pyotr Vyazemsky

Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky or Petr Andreevich Viazemsky was a leading personality of the Golden Age of Russian poetry.- Biography :...

 and Fyodor Tyutchev

Fyodor Tyutchev

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev is generally considered the last of three great Romantic poets of Russia, following Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.- Life :...

 used to stay in the estate.

On the second day after their wedding, the future parents of Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...

 visited there. They were married in the church of Yasenevo on 9 July, 1822.

Historian Mikhail Pogodin

Mikhail Pogodin

Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin was a Russian historian and journalist who, jointly with Nikolay Ustryalov, dominated the national historiography between the death of Nikolay Karamzin in 1826 and the rise of Sergey Solovyov in the 1850s. He is best remembered as a staunch proponent of the Normanist...

stayed and worked there in the 1820's. He spent a lot of time in the large library of the estate.

In 1918 the main house of Znamenskoye-Sadki estate passed to a workers' cooperative.

In 1929 the church was dismantled. Currently the estate is a neglected park with remaining ponds, the central house and ruins of the stables. In the restored central house there is the Institute of Nature Preservation.

The constructions are closed for the general public as of 2010.

Sources

• Усадебное ожерелье юго-запада Москвы. М.:Мосгорархив, 1997
• Двинский Э. Кольца и радиусы Москвы. М:Московский рабочий, 1986.
• Романюк С. По землям московских сёл и слобод. М.:ЗАО «Сварог и К», 1998.