Lefortovo Park in Moscow

The Lefortovo Palace and Park Ensemble, which includes the territory of the former Golovinsky Garden, is part of the Moscow State United Museum-Reserve. It is a historical and natural monument, one of the few places in Moscow that has largely preserved its original layout.

The beginning of the birth and appearance of a unique architectural ensemble is associated with the name of Peter I, who throughout his life, from early youth, loved to visit the banks of Yauza, in the German settlement, densely populated by foreigners.

Here he had numerous friends among foreigners: Scotsman, General P. Gordon; Dane, breeder A. Butenant and his son; Englishman, translator of the Ambassador's order A. Kreft; Dutch merchant F. Timmerman; Moscow native of the ancient Scottish noble family J. Bruce. In the settlement, in his own house lived a friend of Peter I – “the best of foreigners” Franz Lefort. In this house, built in the early 1690s, on the right bank of the Yauza, Peter I spent almost all his free time, arranging balls and diplomatic receptions. Over time, this house, for large receptions, could not accept a huge number of royal guests, so there was a need to build a new building in the German settlement.

Another distinctive feature of the palace and park ensemble is an active attitude to nature. The natural landscape of the park is transformed, its creators change the flow of rivers and streams, level and clean the territory. Water in its artificial forms - fountains, cascades, ponds-mirrors, decorative pools of all forms - begin to play a prominent role. The entire regular garden was turned into a direct continuation of the palace itself, many elements of the garden receive the names of interior rooms, objects of artistic decoration of interiors, for example: “cabinets”, “embroidery”.

The gazebo of the classical sample in Lefortovo Park was built in 1805 according to the project of the architect M. Kazakov in memory of the place of "rest" of Peter I. Eight columns of the gazebo hold the dome, and inside there is a granite stele with a knocked out saying of the emperor: “The labors of my Minich made me healthy.” I hope one day to go with him by water from St. Petersburg to Moscow and go ashore in the Golovinsky Garden. The gazebo was destroyed during the famous Moscow hurricane in 1904 and in the same year was restored at the expense of Grand Duke K.K. Romanov and his sons.

During the XIX – XX centuries. the life of Lefortov was closely linked with military affairs, science, trade and industry.

Today, the Moscow district of Lefortovo is located between the Yauza River and the Kazan railway line on the territory of 885 hectares of land. Here are the plants "Sickle and Hammer", "Moskabel", "Crystal", "Radiopribor", the association "Altair", CIAM - the largest center of domestic aircraft engine building and other large industrial enterprises.

Today, the Moscow State United Museum-Reserve is carrying out a lot of work on the improvement of the territory of the Lefortovo Palace and Park Ensemble and the organization of educational work aimed at studying the facts and events related to the history of this unique area of imperial Moscow.