Uzkoe () is a historic estate in the southwestern part of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Before 1629, the area belonged to Prince Gagarin, then it passed to Maksim Streshnev, a cousin of

Tsarina Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; ; ; ) is the title of a female Autocracy, autocratic ruler (monarch) of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, or the title of a t ...

Eudoxia Streshneva Eudoxia Streshneva (; 1608 – 18 August 1645) was the Tsaritsa of Russia as the second spouse of Tsar Michael of Russia. Life Eudoxia Streshneva was a daughter of Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnev (d. 1630) from Meshchovsk and his wife, Anna Kons ...

. Upon the death of Maksim's grandson in 1692, the ownership passed sideways to a cousin, Tikhon Streshnev. It was he who commissioned a singular five-domed church to be built there in 1698-1704. Its four-petaled plan was of

Ukrainian Baroque Ukrainian Baroque (), also known as Cossack Baroque () or Mazepa Baroque, is an style (visual arts), artistic style that was widespread in Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the result of a combination of local traditions and Europea ...

inspiration; but all five towers are equal in height and crowned by typical Russian

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point. It is a typical ...

s. This five-towered church, dedicated to the Theotokos of Kazan, is quite extraordinary in

Russian architecture The architecture of Russia refers to the architecture of modern Russia as well as the architecture of both the original Kievan Rus', the Russian principalities, and Imperial Russia. Due to the geographical size of modern and Imperial Russia, i ...

. Its design is attributed to

Osip Startsev Osip Dmitrievich Startsev (Осип Дмитриевич Старцев) was a Russian architect who mastered both Naryshkin Baroque, Muscovite Baroque and Ukrainian Baroque idioms during the early part of Peter the Great's reign. His father Dmit ...

, who was responsible for some of the major Baroque cathedrals of

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

but also worked in Moscow. Tikhon's granddaughter Sophie was the last of her race; she married Prince

Galitzine Galitzine is an alternative romanization of Golitsyn, a surname chiefly associated with members of the House of Golitsyn of Lithuanian-Russian origin. Notable people with the surname include: House of Golitsyn * Alexandra Pavlovna Galitzine ...

, whose son Alexis built a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

residence flanked by two wings. Alexis also built a regular park on the grounds and laid out a series of ponds. His daughter Marie was wife of Count Pyotr Aleksandrovich Tolstoy, who received Uzkoe as a dowry and had a

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

alley planted there. In the mid-19th century the estate passed through marriage to the

Troubetzkoy The House of Trubetskoy, (; ; ; Ruthenian: ''Trubetsky''; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a Russian gentry family of Ruthenian stock and Lithuanian origin, like many other princely houses of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later prominent in Russian history, science, ...

s who had the old

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

swept away and replaced with a Neoclassical mansion, which borrowed many details from its predecessor. It was there that the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov died in 1900. After the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, the Troubetzkoys were expelled from Uzkoe and their estate was given over to the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

, which has used it as a rest home for its members. Ski treks of Uzkoe were popular with

Lev Landau Lev Davidovich Landau (; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. He was considered as one of the last scientists who were universally well-versed and ma ...

, while

Andrei Kolmogorov Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov ( rus, Андре́й Никола́евич Колмого́ров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ kəlmɐˈɡorəf, a=Ru-Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov.ogg, 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a Soviet ...

liked swimming in the local ponds. The church had been stripped of its 17th-century

icon screen In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis () is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church. The ico ...

(its whereabouts are still unknown) and until 1995 it housed libraries which were looted in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

.Sutter, Sem C. 1994. “The Fall of the Bibliographical Wall: Libraries and Archives in Unified Germany.”'' College and Research Libraries'' 55 (5): 403–11. In 1995 it reverted to the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

References

External links

Official website Uskoe

Website of the church in Uzkoe

{{coord, 55, 37.40, N, 37, 32.34, E, region:RU_type:landmark, display=title Geography of Moscow Buildings and structures in Moscow Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow