Kuskovo

Kuskovo 

an 18th-century architectural ensemble, which was formerly the country residence of the Sheremet’ev counts. Since 1960, Kuskovo has been within the city limits of Moscow (Perovo Raion). The distribution of the buildings and the layout of the park (about 30 hectares), with its system of ponds and canals, date mainly from the mid-1750’s. The several asymmetric features in the design of the park and in the arrangement of the buildings endow the basically symmetrical ensemble with a certain picturesqueness, which was not disturbed by the classicist buildings that were constructed in the second half of the 18th century (the wooden palace, the bell tower, the Hermitage building). The 18th-century buildings enhanced the splendor of the overall composition. The ensemble was designed by the serf architects F. S. Argunov, A. F. Mironov, and G. E. Dikushin (with the participation of the architect K. I. Blank). Many of the interior decorations and furnishings of the palace, the Italian and Dutch houses, and the Grotto have been preserved. The park contains more than 60 18th-century marble statues and busts.

Since 1918, Kuskovo has been a museum estate. In 1932, the Museum of Porcelain and Glass, originally established in 1918 in the former residence of A. V. Morozov in Moscow, was moved to Kuskovo. The nationalized private collections of Russian and foreign ceramics and glass have been enlarged by the addition of a large collection of the works of Soviet masters. In 1938 this museum and the museum estate were merged under the name of the Museum of Ceramics and the Eighteenth-century Kuskovo Estate.

REFERENCE

Glozman, I. M., and L. V. Tydman. Kuskovo, Moscow, 1966.

I. M. GLOZMAN